Wasting no time at all, we open on Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) resolving himself to help Moll (Eve Harlow) in his log. He joins the crew of the USS Discovery on the bridge as Lt. Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Cmdr. Stamets (Anthony Rapp) brief Capt. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) the crew on their findings. They explain that the outlawed couple’s warp trail leads them to a hidden wormhole to a section of interdimensional space. The aperture to the wormhole is opening and closing too quickly to get Discovery in, so Burnham and Book take a shuttle to follow the trail. Cmdr. Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) objects, but Burnham holds fast, gently re-enforcing her previous orders for him to connect with the crew.
L-R Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Burnham and David Ajala as Cleveland Booker
On the shuttle, Book reveals his intent to reach Moll. To relieve the tension, he then teases Burnham about last week’s time bug fiasco, asking if she’d seen anything worth noting. She keeps her secrets, however, and they embark on a bumpy ride into the wormhole, losing their communications uplink with Discovery as they go. Inside, they not only find a huge piece of the outlawed pair’s ship, but they also find the ISS Enterprise.
As the shuttle enters the wormhole, Rayner and the crew of the Discovery scramble to reroute power from all over the ship to comms. Tilly heads to Sickbay to access a panel and realizes Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) is not his usual self. She’s bogged with work but ensures him that she’s always available if he ever needs a listening ear. In engineering, Stamets and Ensign Tal (Blu del Barrio) also work to solve the comms issue, but Stamets realizes that Adira is distracted. He attempts to reassure the ensign that the time bug was not their fault. Adding to the tension, Rayner joins and barks that the pair hurry to find a solution. But Stamets sees the executive officer struggle and offers some familiar and supportive advice.
Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner
Burnham and Booker board the ISS Enterprise, and learn that the original crew wiped computer logs and abandoned ship after fleeing the Mirror Universe. They discover that Moll and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) are hiding in sickbay with the next clue. After a firefight, Booker tries to talk Moll down, but she lets slip that L’ak is under an erigah, and Breen blood bounty. This makes L’ak the first Breen we’ve ever seen without a helmet on Star Trek.
Through a series of flashbacks, we see the development of Moll and L’ak’s scandalous relationship. We learn that not only is he Breen, but that L’ak is actually a discarded nephew of a Breen royal family. Moll and L’ak try to shoot their way out of Sickbay and trigger a containment field instead, locking Burnham and L’ak in and Booker and Moll out. Booker convinces Moll to head to the bridge with him to override security commands. As they work, they compare stories about the late Cleveland Booker and she asserts that, after all the heartache and strife from her father, L’ak is now the only person she cares about. Meanwhile, Burnham and L’ak have a stare-down in sickbay, and L’ak admits that he and Moll don’t in fact care about the Progenitors’ tech as they intend to trade it to the Breen for his freedom. Burnham tries to reason with him, reminding him of what the Breen would do with such power at their disposal. He insists that an erigah requires drastic measures and that Moll is the only important person in his life.
Throughout their exchanges with Moll and L’al, Burnham and Booker began to find common ground through their respective devotion to their partners. Moll’s patience eventually runs out and she triggers a power surge to shut down the field in Sickbay. This damages the ship even further, launching the shuttle into the void and setting the Enterprise on a collision course with the aperture of the wormhole. In the commotion, L’ak attempts to rush Burnham with a knife, but lands on it when she flips him. After asserting that they need to get L’ak to Discovery to tend his wound, Burnham and Booker head to the bridge, hoping to avoid a collision by sending a tractor beam with coded pulses. On Discovery, Rayner realizes that the code refers to an ancient Kellerun epic, and rallies the troops to hold open the aperture to bring the Enterprise through. Once the dust clears, Moll and L’ak escape in a medical pod.
L-R: Mary Wiseman as Tilly, Blu del Barrio as Adira and Anthony Rapp as Stamets
On Discovery, Dr. Culber catches up with Tilly in the lounge and tells her that, after everything he’s been through, he’s essentially experiencing a spiritual awakening. Burnham and Booker consider their mission to find the Progenitors’ tech. Booker reflects on the lessons that seem to accompany the clues, and Burnham mentions that the scientist who planted the clue on the Enterprise was one of Terran crewmembers. Together, they surmise that the scientist planted the clue on the Enterprise to illustrate that they all have the power to shape their own futures, regardless of their circumstances. Excited to see what’s next, Capt. Burnham and Booker take the clue’s vial of fluid to engineering to be examined.