Recap / Star Trek Discovery Short Treks E04 "The Escape Artist"

Now what kind of trouble has Harry Mudd got himself into this time?

Harry Mudd has been apprehended by Tevrin Krit, a Tellarite with a grudge, and will attempt every trick in the book to escape before Krit can hand him over to Starfleet for the reward on his head.

Tropes

• Actually a Doombot: The Harry Mudd that we've been following all through the episode is actually an android, programmed with Harry's memories to stall until the bounty hunter is too far away to ask for a refund. And the real Harry has been pulling this scam dozens of times.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Mudd certainly isn't.
  Harry Mudd: Do you want me to beg? Because I'm not above begging...
• Ancestral Weapon: The sacred cudgel that has been passed down the Krit family for over a hundred years. Harry stole it after sleeping with Tevrin's sister and is still attempting to sell it by the end of the episode.
• An Arm and a Leg: When Krit learns the truth about Mudd, he angrily rips off his right arm, revealing circuits and lubricant. We also see that one of the other Mudd-droids is likewise missing a right arm, implying a similar reaction from another bounty hunter.
• Badass Cape: Mudd promises one of these to an Orion guard.
• Blatant Lies: Everything that Mudd tries to talk his way out of his captivity is such transparent bullshit that Krit actually wonders out loud if any of it has ever worked.
• Big "NO!": Krit lets out an epic one when he finds out that the Mudd that he caught is just a decoy.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: The Krits' sacred cudgel is covered with massive gemstones.
• Boldly Coming: Mudd previously slept with Krit's sister, and attempted to seduce two of his previous captors, to say nothing of the incident with the space whale (which isn't actually an example, but Krit probably assumes that it is). Ironically, when he attempted it on an Orion woman, she simply tazes him.
• Brick Joke: Krit's grievance against Mudd is that Mudd stole his family's sacred cudgel, which Mudd claims to have sold. At the end, he turns out to still have it and hasn't managed to pawn it yet.
• Broken Record: "If I had any money, I'd be sipping jippers on a beach somewhere!" It's an escalated punchline by the several Mudd-droids saying it at the same time.
• Call-Back: One of the crimes that Harry is wanted for completely baffles Krit, but makes perfect sense to the audience...
  Tevrin Krit: Harcourt Fenton Mudd, wanted by the Federation on 30 counts of smuggling, 20 counts of attempted homicide, one count of attempted regicide...
  Harry Mudd: Pft! "Regicide". He was a duke. Hardly counts as regicide. What are we attempting to murder now? Accuracy?
  Tevrin Krit: Transportation of stolen goods, and one count of... penetrating a space whale?!
  Harry Mudd: You kinda had to be there.
• Call-Forward: This episode establishes that Harry Mudd is no stranger to using androids who look just like people as servants. This will come to bite him in the ass eventually.
  • Krit asks that Harry Mudd's bounty be paid in latinum.
• Creative Closing Credits: The closing credits are set to a... very chill rendition of the theme song, presumably evoking the beach somewhere that Mudd plans to be sipping drinks on once he's rich.
• Credits Gag: The typical Short Treks intro goes out in a burst of video distortion before showing the episode title, with the music replaced by a disco remix.
• Curse Cut Short: Mudd says something vulgar to Krit that gets lost during transport to the De Milo.
  Mudd: Goddammit, you—(garbled)—pig-faced sister!
• Disguised in Drag: As part of his con, the real Mudd dresses as a female bounty hunter in heavy armor looking to sell the robotic Mudds at half the bounty price to unsuspecting bounty hunters.
• Gilligan Cut: Every time that Mudd tries a line or story on Krit, it immediately cuts to a flashback contradicting what he is saying.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: The gorgeous Orion woman in one of Mudd's flashbacks. Mudd even attempts to woo her by complimenting her on the shade of green. She just tases him.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: The male Orion guard in one of the flashbacks, who in addition to being the only individual stupid enough to fall for Mudd's bullshit promises, forgets one important detail...
  Female Orion Guard: Hey, imbecile. You know we have a camera in here, right?
• Here We Go Again!:
  • The Starfleet Lieutenant's reaction when Tevrin beams aboard the USS De Milo with "Harry Mudd".
    Lieutenant: Welcome to the De Milo, how can we be of— (sees Mudd) ...oh.
  • And the episode ends with the real Harry calling up yet another bounty hunter from his ship, so he can run the scam all over again.
• I Know You Know I Know: Krit calls Mudd out at the end, saying that the whole point of Mudd's incessant babble was to distract Krit while Mudd went for the knife in his boot. Mudd gingerly pulls out the knife and tosses it aside.
• La Résistance: At one point, Harry claims that he's part of a Resistance movement fighting "Federation oppression".
• Last-Second Word Swap: Mudd when he realizes that he's about to dis his captor's ship.
  Mudd: If I had any money, I'd be sipping jippers on a beach somewhere, instead of being chained up in this piece of... lovely cruiser.
• Me's a Crowd: The De Milo has a cargo bay full of chattering Mudd-droids. Meanwhile, the real Harry is flying around in a ship crewed entirely by his own duplicates.
• Mundane Utility: Android technology is preciously rare in Star Trek; most of the TOS-era droids are left over from extinct civilizations, and in TNG, Soong's creations are the only known sentient androids in the known galaxy. (Even the Gamma and Delta quadrants, once encountered, don't have them.) So what does Harry Mudd do with his ability to create perfect replicas who have the intellectual capacity to lie and con? Sell them off one-by-one and use the spares as servants.
• Mythology Gag: One of the Mudd androids is wearing a tunic with epaulets very similar to his "Lord Mudd" outfit from "I, Mudd".
• The Napoleon: The tiny female bounty hunter in the second flashback, who doesn't take Harry's comments about her height at all well.
• Noodle Incident: We don't get any details about the time that Harry attempted to murder a duke.
• Not in the Face!: One of Mudd's flashbacks shows him pissing off a Klingon enough to earn a facial stomp.
  Mudd: No, no, wait, not my face!
• Robotic Reveal: After the officer on the De Milo tells Krit that "Harry Mudd" is one of many android duplicates, Krit confirms it by pulling off "Mudd's" arm to reveal robotic circuitry.
• Seen It All: The USS De Milo officer is completely nonplussed when a bounty hunter shows up with "Mudd", saying that they've picked up a dozen of these duplicates from bounty hunters in the last week.
• Trailers Always Lie: The trailer at the end of "The Brightest Star" implied that this would be a dark, action-packed story. It's not.
• Troll:
  • Krit gets a kick out of pretending to fall for Mudd's bullshit story about being a member of a Resistance against the Federation.
  • The Federation has placed a sizable bounty on Mudd's head. So Mudd hatches a plot that involves them getting spammed with annoying Mudd-droids brought in by bounty hunters who think that they've scored the big one.

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