Some time after Season 4, the Discovery crew are helping knit the Federation back together when they are sent out on a Red Directive: Doctor Kovich tasks Discovery with the recovery of an ancient Romulan artifact, a diary from 800 years ago, which is currently in the hands of two former couriers, Moll and L'ak. It contains references to a technology of extraordinary power, and Burnham must get it back.
Tropes:
- Ascended Extra: Vellek, who was a previously unnamed, background member of the Romulan delegation from "The Chase", is revealed to have since been researching the Progenitors in the hopes of actually finding their technology, and evidently succeeded.
- Berserk Button: L'ak loses it when Fred grazes Moll and repeatedly shoots him.
- Bittersweet Ending: On the bitter side, Moll and L'ak get away, Fred is dead, Captain Rayner's committed a big mistake in his career, and Burnham and Book have to acknowledge that their romance is more-or-less over. However, both Discovery and Antares are able to save the trading outpost, Burnham is brought into the loop about the Progenitors and the history behind Picard's discovery, and Saru not only accepts the ambassadorial position, but President T'Rina proposes to him, which he happily accepts.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Stamets brought plenty of extra 23rd-century tech with him to the 32nd century, which comes in handy for accessing the memories of a centuries-old android.
- The Bus Came Back: Tilly comes back into the plot despite having been Put on a Bus for much of the fourth season. She helps Burnham discover the classified info behind the Red Directive.
- Call-Back:
- The episode ties into the mystery that Picard worked to solve in "The Chase".
- Captain Rayner tells Burnham that the Antares doesn't have a pathway drive, which was mentioned last season as being prepped for testing aboard Voyager.
- Fred is a synth, and more specifically a Soong-type android, given his gold skin and eyes.
- Classified Information: Kovich is incredibly tight-lipped about the target of the Red Directive, refusing to give so much as a hint about its purpose beyond the fact that he's willing to use lethal force to secure it if necessary. Burnham has to essentially blackmail him into spilling the beans when he tries to shift the mission to a specialized team.
- Continuity Nod: Dr. Vellek's corpse is wearing a TNG-era Romulan uniform (minus the shoulder pads).
- Explosive Overclocking: Moll and L'ak deliberately overtax their warp engines in an attempt to get Captain Rayner to release his tractor beam before both ships are destroyed. When he does, they launch a series of warp decoys before escaping.
- Game of Chicken: Moll and L'ak's gambit with Antares and the warp field, though they aren't attempting to ram his vessel, merely threatening to blow themselves up and him along with them rather than be captured.
- Hair-Trigger Avalanche: Double Subverted. Moll and L'ak have set up an explosive charge to cover their escape into the tunnels, which has a 30% chance of causing a rockslide. Captain Rayner, liking those odds, has Antares detonate the charge to seal the tunnels before they can use them, and his luck pans out when the mountain remains stable. Unfortunately, Moll and L'ak then deliberately trigger the avalanche by firing a torpedo at the mountain, thus allowing them to escape while Discovery and Antares are tied up stopping it before it can destroy a trading outpost.
- How We Got Here: The episode opens with Burnham clinging to the outside of a ship at warp, then flashes back four hours to show the crew getting the assignment that leads there.
- Internal Reveal: Burnham and by extension the rest of the crew learn of the Progenitors from "The Chase", having skipped over that period of history.
- It's Personal: Rayner is personally invested in catching Moll and L'ak, having dealt with them before. When Burnham calls him out on it, he tells her that getting personally invested in the mission is how he does his job.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Burnham and Rayner, both captains who tend to be self-assured and quick to action, naturally don't gel well as a unit when forced to work together. Admiral Vance doesn't help matters by refusing to dictate a clear chain of command, seemingly because he wants the two to sort it out on their own.
- Lost Technology: Vellek's discovery and a logical follow-up to the events of "The Chase": if there was a group of powerful Progenitors running around the Milky Way Galaxy billions of years ago, what happened to their technology that seeded life across the galaxy? Could it still be out there and functioning even after all this time, and what could such technology do in the wrong hands?
- Ludicrous Precision: Fred says he had not encountered a Romulan puzzle box for 622.7 years.
- Mission Briefing: Due to the urgency of the Red Directive, Burnham gives her crew a quick briefing on The Bridge of Discovery right before they spore-jump.Burnham: Thank you, everyone, for gathering so quickly. We will be taking Dr. Kovich on a classified mission. And be advised, this is a Red Directive. We will be jumping to an uninhabited planet. Its gravitational well has turned it a graveyard of sorts for debris of all kinds. Our target is a Romulan science vessel, last seen 800 years ago. A Starfleet probe just found it. There's an item on board that we cannot allow to fall into the wrong hands. Scavengers in the area monitor comms and probe signals. They will most certainly be drawn to this. Most are armed and some are very dangerous. Admiral Vance already has a ship en route. We will arrive first. Black alert.
- Moment Killer: Burnham and Book are having a quiet moment on Q'mau when Rayner beams down in front of them. His tone of voice implies that it was deliberate.Rayner: I love the feeling of interrupting something. You two need a moment?
Burnham: Not at all. We're good.
Rayner: You sure? 'Cause we got a job to do.
Book: I said we're good.
Rayner: Can't keep your eyes on the job, then...
Burnham: We're good.
Rayner: (laughs) Okay. - No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Stamets is upset that the Spore Drive program is getting shuttered due to the destruction of Book's ship, suggesting the prototype Tarka stole last season was the only one they had. Culbert tries to reassure him that it was more that they still hadn’t solved the navigator problem, though Stamets insists he would have done so eventually and is upset that his life's work is limited to a single ship.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Book wryly comments on the ways Burnham and Rayner are similar. Burnham, understandably annoyed by the comparison, reminds him she's currently holding a phaser.
- Only One Name:Book: Q'mau. Dealer there loves the old stuff. Goes by the name of Fred.
Saru: Fred...?
Book: Just Fred. - Outside-Context Problem: From the perspective of Moll and L'ak — they're monitoring the approach of two Starfleet ships, including the Antares, when they're surprised at another ship arriving much faster than they expected. That ship is, of course, Discovery, and they clearly don't know about the spore drive.
- Outside Ride: Burnham manages to cling to the hull of Moll and L'ak's ship before they jump to warp, attempting to disable their engines from the outside with a phaser.
- The Paralyzer: Moll and L'ak's weapons trap those they hit in a bubble which renders them unable to move.
- Ragnarök Proofing: The Romulan ship still has power and functioning life support 800 years later.
- Sadistic Choice: Moll and La'k deliberately trigger an avalanche so the two Starfleet vessels will have to choose between pursuing them and saving the settlement. This being Starfleet, the settlement comes first.
- Sequel Episode: This premiere sets up the final season as one to TNG's "The Chase", finally following up on the establishment of the Progenitors and the ramifications of Galen, Picard and company's discovery. More specifically, it follows up on what the Romulan delegation did with that discovery following the ending of that episode.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Vellek, a previously unnamed background extra in the Romulan delegation from "The Chase". He's been dead for 800 years, but his own follow-up to Picard's discovery during that episode is what kicks off the final season's narrative.
- Spotting the Thread: Moll and L'ak quickly realize that Fred is attempting to scam them when he pauses on a particular page of the diary, hesitates, then offers to buy the whole lot without further commentary. They can tell he's trying to get rid of them and thus realize the diary is probably worth a lot more than the three measly bars of latinum he's offering.
- Stock Footage: A variation. Kovich calls up holographic records (or technically stills from archival footage) from "The Chase" while briefing Burnham on the Progenitor discovery. These include shots of the Romulan delegation and Jean-Luc Picard.
- Super-Speed Reading: As to be expected of a Soong-type android, Fred flips through the Romulan diary in under a minute.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Culber reveals that they're shuttering the spore drive program and going with the pathway drive. While surprising given the spore drive usage shown in the show, it's still realistic due to the various controversial headaches caused by Ruon Tarka during the Dark Matter Anomaly crisis and the stolen prototype being destroyed along with Booker's ship. Besides, even if they were to build more units, they can't find anyone besides Book and Stamets who can operate them, making them a waste of resources.
- Tempting Fate: Vance says to Burnham and Rayner on their mission to Q'mau, "Get in, get out, no noise." The ensuing rockslide is very noisy.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Burnham finds herself blown out into space when Moll and L'ak beam away, leaving behind an explosive. Fortunately, her combat gear automatically switches to a spacesuit.
- Title Drop: The Discovery crew gets pulled from a party by a "Red Directive", which is a high-priority objective so secret that even Admiral Vance doesn't have clearance for it.
- White Void Room: Kovich brings Vance and Burnham to the Infinity Vault, a featureless white void used for private conversations of the utmost sectecy.
- Working with the Ex: Book is brought back for his expertise on courier thought patterns. True to form, he quickly sees through a ruse of false warp-trail decoys and correctly identifies where Moll and L'ak are heading.
