Some Blundering About Star Trek: Discovery 5×03: Jinaal

Okay so you know how I’ve been saying that Discovery is the show that’s about connection? I think that is a testament to how consistent they have been about their themes and it’s one of the reasons I like this show so much. I think Discovery finally “got” a big element of early TNG that is widely misunderstood. It’s uncontested fan-lore that Gene didn’t believe humans of the future would have interpersonal conflict, and that is why the first season of TNG is so weird and stilted before he got too old to intervene and they could start writing stories about characters being dicks to each other again. I think this is a misunderstanding; it’s not that Gene opposed interpersonal conflict so much as that he opposed the idea that people in the future – at least the ones qualified for serving on a starship – would be as emotionally immature as the cheap dramatics that modern TV thrives on, because it’s easy and fun to drive a plot for an hour over a misunderstanding that could be resolved in ten seconds if people would just talk about their feelings rather than be dicks to each other. The classic example is that Gene famously objected to a second season episode because he didn’t think a 24th century child would be sad that his mother died. Yeah. I think it would be more accurate to say that Gene objected to the idea of a story whose driving through-line is that no one on the ship including the therapist has any idea how to help a child deal with his mother having died except by dithering about how confused they are that he can’t just buck up and get over it.

Anyway, “Jinaal” reflects the possibility that the Discovery writers lacked my confidence in the clarity with which they have conveyed their themes. Because Jesus Christ does this episode want to hit you over the head with it.

This episode really feels like two B-plots stitched together. Either one would have strengthened a stronger A-plot, but together, it’s a step down from the first two weeks. I like plot B a lot, and I’m sure it could have been slotted in at some other point in the season. It’s just not a good yang to this particular A-plot’s yin. Saru and T’rina have a fight, and they act like mature adults and settle things and reconnect and are stronger for it. It is noteworthy first and foremost for how fucking rare that is in television. T’rina’s secretary is basically a jerk with Strong Stonn Energy, and he takes Saru aside and advises him that the Romulans are fine with it, but marrying a filthy off-worlder might torpedo T’rina’s political career with the Vulcan Fox News crowd, so he gets nervous and tries to protect her by suggesting they keep their engagement low-key rather than the formal announcement she’s planning. And instead of T’rina becoming insecure and thinking that he’s got cold feet, she instantly realizes what this is (StonnTNG, to his credit, floated this with her first. To his discredit, when she told him to fuck off, he went behind her back to her boyfriend), and only takes offense that he would jump to the conclusion that she needed his protection. And instead of getting defensive and feeling threatened by this… Saru realizes his mistake, apologizes, and explains how his own anxieties were triggered by the thought of their relationship hurting T’rina’s career. And they are both fine after this exchange and have learned to understand and support each other better. Also, T’rina points out, as both Stonn2 and Saru missed, that a secret engagement coming out would play way the fuck worse with the MVGA crowd.

I have very little to say about it, but I love it to pieces. Connection!

Meanwhile, back on Discovery, Reno! Reno appears briefly in this episode for the purpose of calling Stamets “Space Dad”. The rest of us have been calling him that for a couple of years now, but of course it would be Reno who makes it canonical. She calls Stamets out for being exactly as obtuse as he always is about seeing that Adira is about to dump their boyfriend. We’re at Trill to find the next piece of the puzzle box, and Adira gets some good scenes with Grey, where they confess that this LDR thing isn’t really working, and…. They break up but will remain friends. Given their youth, you’d obviously forgive a big blow-out, but Grey and Adira handle it with maturity. They still clearly love each other, but the trans android ghost alien and the teen enby with the 800-year-old grub in their belly have decided that their relationship is no longer romantic in nature. They honestly seem to be having an easier time of it than Michael and Book, who are doing okay, but are clearly uncomfortable around each other.

Two points here I want to nerd on a bit:

1. It is a jaw-dropping missed opportunity that Hugh interacts with Grey so little. I’m not sure they’ve ever had a scene together since Grey came back to life. You’d think “One time I died but then someone grew me a new body and used space magic to stuff my soul into it” is the sort of thing two dudes might bond over.
2. Adira says that 800 years is unusually old for a Trill – not outside the realm of possibility, but unlikely. And I think the implication at the end of the episode is that Bix is going off to die now that Jinaal’s duty has been fulfilled. One of Tal’s former hosts wears a Picard-era uniform, meaning that Adira’s own symbiote is at least 800 years old itself. They may well be contemporaries. And it might be a contrivance for Tal to know Bix, but apparently only about 50 new symbiotes come up for implantation in a year, so it actually seems really likely that if 800 is near the top end of the symbiote lifespan, Tal and Bix probably went to school together, which makes this feel like a missed opportunity to do something with Adira’s Trill heritage for once.

Jinaal himself is a fun character. A bit whimsical in the “Deranged old wizard” sort of way. It’s easy to, like Michael, be upset that he’s playing games with the fate of the galaxy, but it’s an archetypal character for this kind of quest, what with the handing out of life lessons and the subtle tests of worthiness.

I have a little bit of a hard time with the reveal that Trill is home to a race of large invisible predators who spit exploding harpoons.

Oh, and there’s a C-plot about Rayner failing to connect with the crew? It doesn’t add much right now because there’s no comeuppance. He gets told off by Tilly, but he hasn’t had any hint of a come-to-Sisko moment where he learns the value of friendship. I assume that’s coming, but it’s an anticlimax this week, adding so little to the plot I nearly forgot to mention it. It just reinforces the sense that this episode is insecure about the audience “getting it”. So we have a whole subplot where Rayner fails to recognize the importance of connecting with his crew, enough that you kinda want Tilly to summon up an educational music video of Rebecca Romijn singing Gilbert and Sullivan. I was kind of hoping he would at least have a little moment of connection with Stamets, the only person who’s as annoyed as Rayner is about being pulled away from work.

I am glad we did not have to watch Chiana and D’argo murder their way through the Trill security forces, because I find Guardian Z’s claim that they are up to the challenge of defending against two plucky outlaws sus given that Guardian Z apparently did not question being asked to force a Federation ship on a Red Directive to answer a riddle about a poem. Or that Chiana just sneaks into a religious ceremony at the end of the episode to casually stick a tracking device on Adira.

I should be upset about the ease with which two random space-criminals are totally owning Starfleet at every single turn, but if this were any other space franchise, they’d probably be the heroes. I don’t know. I’m conflicted about this. It’s weird. We have this long tradition on the one hand. Discovery bested the Klingon Empire, the Terran Empire, Control, the Emerald Chain, and shamed godlike extragalactic aliens into playing nice. Now they are getting their asses kicked at every turn by a couple of Space-Punks. It’s just weird seeing the “A couple of plucky space punks can outmaneuver the galactic government” trope from the viewpoint where the galactic government are the heroes. I hope this doesn’t end with those two shooting a proton torpedo into the exhaust port of Federation HQ.