Burnham and Saru have to salvage talks between the Federation and Ni'var, while Tilly and Adira join a group of cadets for a team-building exercise.
Tropes:
- Bizarre Alien Senses: The Tuscadian pyrosomes can detect electromagnetic radiation and use it to hunt prey, which conveniently lie on the same frequency as Federation technology. This necessitates going low-tech until the group can reach higher ground and signal for help.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The arguing over an exit clause comes with good points on both sides. T'Rina is right to be concerned that, posed with another existential threat, the Federation might become heavy-handed trying to safeguard everyone without concern for the individual members. Likewise, Rillak is right that allowing an unconditional exit clause would not only leave the Federation at a huge disadvantage in the future, but would encourage other worlds to ask for the same and tear the Federation apart.
- Call-Back: Tilly recalls how scared she was when she and Burnham first became roomies.
- Coming in Hot: The cadets' shuttle crashes on the ice moon after being disabled. The Disposable Pilot bites the dust.
- Continuity Nod:
- Tilly has a snowglobe with the NX-01 Enterprise set within.
- Harral's father was responsible for drafting the anti-slavery provision of the armistice offered by Osyraa last season.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Gorev and Harral both suffered at the hands of the Emerald Chain. Gorev lost his family to the Chain, while Harral's father was the Chain's Token Good Teammate who tried to abolish slavery and was executed for it.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The arguments surrounding Ni'Var's proposed exit clause resemble those surrounding Brexit.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The cadets have no personal connection, and Taahz Gorev (the Tellarite) is personally hostile towards Harral (the Orion) because of the Emerald Chain's abuses against his family, but crossing a deadly ice moon while being chased by monsters helps bring them together, with some help from Tilly.
- Immune to Bullets: The pyrosomes shrug off dozens of phaser shots.
- Internal Homage: Tilly being chased by the pyrosome looks a lot like a young James Kirk being chased by monsters on Delta Vega.
- Mandatory Line: Stamets appears in one shot, squinting over DMA material. This is his only appearance in the episode.
- Put on a Bus: Tilly decides to take up a teaching position at Starfleet Academy.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Kovich describes the entirety of the current class of Starfleet Academy this way: they're from all over the place and, due to the Burn reducing the Milky Way galaxy to a Points of Light Setting, many of them have basically zero experience with cross-cultural cooperation. This is certainly played out in Tilly's crew: we have a human teenager hosting a Trill symbiote with extensive Starfleet experience, meaning that they're an ensign with the experiences of an admiral; a human from Titan who's never seen non-humans before; and Gorev and Harral, whose conflict has already been outlined. And, of course, there's Tilly herself, who was born a thousand years ago.
- Realpolitik: Rillak and T'Rina are both held hostage to the political desires of their coalitions, so neither can budge on the conditions of Ni'var joining the Federation. Rillak arranges for Burnham and Saru to join as "observers" because she suspects that they can cut through it and find an alternative.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Though T'Rina insists on the exit clause in public, in private she leaked the details to Rillak ahead of the final summit so Rillak wouldn't be blindsided and could perhaps figure out a way to salvage talks.
- Save Our Students: The cadets are certainly motivated, but they aren't used to working with aliens and don't trust each other. Tilly, being a Fish out of Temporal Water Wide-Eyed Idealist of the old Starfleet fashion, is volunteered as an ideal instructor.
- Ship Tease: As Burnham playfully notes, T'Rina seems to have a thing for Saru.
- Shout-Out: There's a call for a "Captain Imahara" of the U.S.S. Armstrong.
Word of God revealed that this is a nod to the late Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame, who was also a major Star Trek fan and played Sulu in Star Trek Continues. - Three Lines, Some Waiting: In addition to the above, there's a minor subplot where Book takes some psychotherapy sessions with Culber, and the two begin to bond.
- Title Drop: Tilly's snowglobe has "All Is Possible" written on the base.
- Veteran Instructor: Tilly is tasked to lead a group of cadets on a training mission, because she has far more experience working with a diverse crew than any of the cadets do.
- We Need a Distraction: Someone has to draw the pyrosomes off while the others signal for help. Adira offers to do the job, but Tilly is in charge and won't let anyone else do it.
- You're Nothing Without Your Phlebotinum: Zigzagged Trope. The crew's phasers, tricorders, and combadges need to be de-activated because they happen to use the same electromagnetic frequencies that the Monster of the Week does to track its prey. In a franchise that basically invented "Technobabble," Tilly must lead the crew to safety without the use of technology. That said, the tech becomes useful later in distracting the monsters.
