History Heartwarming / StarTrekDiscovery

* When Tilly is in danger, Burnham doesn't really hesitate to break the Prime Directive, in part for the sake of the mission but mostly clearly out of concern for Tilly's life.
* Having broken the Prime Directive and revealed to the local head priest the truth, Burnham comforts him that the knowledge of technology and alien life doesn't invalidate his religion but adds to and that he should let his people know the truth and let their beliefs grow and evolve to cope with it.

* The biggest triumph of the episode is the resurrection of the original ''Enterprise'' herself. Yes, it's the Mirror Universe version, and the Prime iteration has long been blown to smithereens, but after decades is a version of the old girl back to where she belongs. Detmer and Owosekun are given the honor of bringing her back to HQ, where Starfleet no doubt plans to restore her, and add her to the lineup at the Fleet Museum. Now, the original 1701 will ''finally'' be granted posterity alongside the ''Defiant'', the ''NX-01'', the ''Voyager'', the ''Enterprise''-A, the ''Excelsior'', and the similarly resurrected ''Enterprise''-D as the legends of the pre-Kurtzman ''Trek'' era will now all get to be under one roof. As Kirk would have said, "My friends, we've come home."

* The ''Discovery'' crew discovers that one of the crews lies on a Terran Ship. To their surprise, it's the ''I.S.S. Enterprise'', revealing her fate after nearly 60 years since she was last seen. It turns out, when Spock's reforms failed, denizens who knew of the Prime Reality hijacked the old girl and fled from the hellish Mirror Universe to seek out a better life, and most of them succeeded in doing so. The person who led them? Saru! And though Burnham and Book don't learn about Spock's reform efforts, the former does take a solemn moment to reminisce about her brother when Book explores his old science station.

* Despite not agreeing or getting along with Captain Rayner, Michael is extremely reluctant to speak badly of him to Tribunal out of respect to him as a fellow officer.

** The fact that the two species that live on Kaminar are living harmoniously side by side is also a nice touch. And Saru has clearly accepted this, moving beyond the fear of the Ba'ul that the Kelpiens used to have.

** On the meta level, this is Star Trek's first on screen use of the f-word. And what is it in reference to? Excitement regarding science. It's not a pointed instance to tell the audience that things are really drastic, it's these characters being excited that they are going to do science, and spare the pain and suffering of an innocent creature.

* Stamets bonding with Adira over loving people who are / were dead but still present. It's a sweet moment between two not-very-social geniuses, which Adira follows up by offering to get rid of his arm implants. There's meta heartwarming too: one older openly LGBTQ actor bonding with the younger generation, and promising to unconditionally believe and support them.

* A Meta moment for the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fans: ''Voyager'' is ordered to take point on the fight against the ''Veridian'', and continues to press the pursuit all the way until Burnham orders the Federation/Ni'Var fleet to back off.

* A meta example: The crew, in preparing for the mission and finding solutions to their problems, make references to similar situations that the TOS, TNG, and Voyager crews found themselves in.

** That scene is the key to the whole episode! Burnham is at an impasse because, for the first time in her life, she wants to initiate a romantic relationship but has no idea how—-because absolutely nothing in her upbringing, education, or life experience has prepared her for it. Stamets’ fond, exasperated “would you let me lead, please?!" gives her one absolutely crucial clue: she needs to be able to trust and let go rather than forcing things to happen. Stamets’ story of honesty and trusting in love even if it isn’t logical gets her the rest of the way there.

* After Felix dies at the colony, Burnham returns the lalogi orb that he stole to the daughter of its (deceased) rightful owner. She's grateful to have it back and be able to add herself to the family tree contained therein.

* Although laden with AdultFear, Ephraim's SternChase with the ''Enterprise'' shows her devotion to her unhatched children, considering that she keeps at it for ''years''.

** The truly heartwarming detail is that the ''Mitchell'' is named for Kenneth Mitchell, who has played a number of different ''Discovery'' cast and is suffering the effects of ALS. We also hear reports from the USS ''[[Creator/AntonYelchin Yelchin]]'' and the USS ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Nog]]'', referencing two previous ''Trek'' cast members who passed away in recent years.

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* T'Rina has some Kaminar-style tea brought to Saru, leading to Burnham to note the Vulcan president seems to fancy him after their previous meeting.
* Tilly reassuring Adira that [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre They Are Better Than They Think They Are]]

** They need to disable life support to leave enough power for the ship to escape the rift. The solution is to stow the crew in the transporter buffer for the few minutes it will take to reach safety, a risky technique only used occasionally in Starfleet history. Burnham orders that everyone gather in groups to beam up, so nobody is forced to do it on their own. She then dons an EVA suit so she can stay with Zora.

* Mind-melding with T'Rina and reliving the destruction of Kwejian allows Book to gain some small measure of closure by seeing Leto's face one more time and seeing the love in his face.

* The commencement address to the newest class of Starfleet Academy graduates confirms that the Federation is indeed rebuilding after the defeat of the Emerald Chain, up from 38 member planets last season to 59. Nowhere near its peak of 350, or even the 150 during Picard's time, but it's a start.