[RavenSplat]

Episodes Discussion

"Labyrinths"

Airdate: 16/05/2024 (Paramount+)

This thread is for the pre and post discussion of the Season 5 episode "Labyrinths" - this will be a spoiler filled discussion so if you've found your way past the warnings in the activity stream and the spoiler tag on the thread, this is your last chance to turn back, or at least it will be at the end of this first post. You have been warned!

Labyrinths
When Captain Burnham is trapped within a "mindscape" designed to test her worthiness to retrieve the Progenitor's powerful technology, Book, Rayner, and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery must hold off the Breen long enough for her to escape.


"Labyrinths" is the eighth episode, 8 of 10.

[JCarrill0]

The episode was good, but I do feel like a human leading the green imperium is a bit much for my taste.

I like the idea is the resurrect the scion, but the idea of perhaps bringing back Brooke’s planet/people from the root was even more interesting.

[darthnovawave]

Yeah, the coup felt pretty telegraphed all episode, so the writing felt a bit lazy on the Breen side of the story this week. It is also curious that we haven't seen Saru, Owo, or Detmer for several episodes now. I know the writers didn't know this would be the last season when they were writing it, but seeing the "also ran" cast members at the helm in this first Disco vs. Breen Dreadnought fight stood out for me. Detmer and Owo haven't had nearly the same screentime as Saru, but to just not see them and not have an explanation why is just weird. Saru's story arc unfortunately gave a pretty concrete reason why he isn't being seen, but at this point it is feeling like he was just written out. A few more dialog nods, a quick comm call chat, or something like that would have been a nice touch. Maybe we'll at least see him leading the calvary charge in these last few episodes to come to Discovery's aid to cement the "Action Saru" moniker they've given him.

I kind of feel like there might be a bit of a red herring here with the progenitor tech, like they'll discover the tech would allow the creation of life, but not necessarily the resurrection of a specific person just like they were before. Something akin to the relatively mindless regenerated Spock in the Search for Spock, but without a katra to upload to the regenerated body at the end of the show to make it really feel like that person is back from the dead. Thus, it might work to recreate a Kwejian for Book and other survivors to repopulate and bring some closure to Book's atonement journey this season, but it won't bring back the scion or Book's family or anything like that (also answering why the Progenitors didn't just use the tech on themselves to avoid extinction). Maybe it will even somehow be the missing piece to make the Spore drive more widely viable, leaving a more lasting technological legacy for Stamets and Discovery (though this has always been overpowered and caused some challenges with writing, so that might not bode well for the upcoming Academy series).

All this said, I feel like they likely are going out on a high note for the series at least based on what we've seen this season so far. Unless they reveal that the tech broke down centuries ago or something at the end, I feel like we'll get a classic "good guy underdogs vs. overpowered bad guys" showdown without the main season plot being an underwhelming afterthought by comparison (e.g., 10-C didn't know they were causing mass genocide and just stopped on their own once they understood, the Burn was a child's temper tantrum not a madman anarchist's plot, etc.).