History Recap / StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS1E09AllThoseWhoWander

* TransformationAtTheSpeedOfPlot: Gorn eggs hatch at different rates depending on the host. For Hemmer, this means he's infected and close to bursting inside an hour, whereas days pass for most humanoids.

-->'''Gavin:''' Captain's log, stardate...I'm not even sure. A week since we've crashed? ''Peregrine'' was mapping non-Federation space when we found three castaways on an M-class planet: a human girl, a humanoid of unknown origin, and an Orion named Pasko. We rescued them. Brought them aboard. But we didn't know what we didn't know. Pasko was infected with Gorn eggs. Biofilters didn't detect them. But the Orion knew. He set off a plasma grenad in Engineering, tried to end it. The system sent an automatic distress call in response to the explosion. If I could reach Starfleet now, I would say, "Stay away. Don't come to Valeo Beta Five." But if you're watching this, chances are we didn't survive.

* KilledOffForReal: Hemmer is infected by the Gorn and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifices himself]] to save the crew.

* ClosedCircle: Due to conflicting missions, a two-shuttle away team went down to the surface of the planet while the Enterprise ran nearby for a cargo drop. Shortly after arriving there is a heavy storm that forces the crew to huddle up inside the Peregrine. This forces the crew to either deal with the Gorn hatchlings or wait out the storm, neither of which are optimal.

* DisabilityImmunity: Gorn venom blinds the target, but Hemmer is already blind.

* EnfantTerrible: The Gorn the crew fight are newborns. Even literally seconds after they are born, their first instinct is to go for the jugular of any living thing nearby.

* FaceFullOfAlienWingWong: Played with, while the Gorn do breed their young in hosts to [[ChestBurster violently hatch out]] the initial assumption is that there needs to be some sort of direct physical interaction. A few hours after Hemmer is hit by some projectile venom he starts feeling ill and immediately realizes how their breeding cycle works.

* OutOfCharacterAlert: In order to properly lure two of the hatchlings into the same corridor Spock has to psych himself up to get angry because faking it wouldn't work. He finds it really difficult to regain his Vulcan composure afterward, which infuriates him even more and he needs a CoolDownHug from Chapel after they get back to the Enterprise and hold a memorial.

* ProperlyParanoid: La'an grills Oriana about being infected with Gorn eggs, ignoring M'Benga's protests that they came up clean in scans. She's entirely right to be suspicious, as Buckley turns out to have four inside him which hatch soon after.

** The Gorn spew venom that [[Franchise/JurassicPark blind it's victims.]]

* InUniverseCatharsis: After emerging from the cargo pod after freezing the last Gorn hatchling to death, she smashes the frozen corpse into icy pieces.

* KillItWithIce: Gorn (like most other reptiloids) hate the cold, so Hemmer and La'an kill the last one by freezing it.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The universal translator can't parse Buckley the alien's language, and when La'an tells Uhura to do something, Uhura has to reminds her that that's not how linguistics works. The crew never does work out how to communicate with Buckley (beyond a general sense of "we're trying to help") before his death by Gorn ChestBurster.

** References to the Alien franchise include:

*** Finding corpses littering the ship (''Alien: Isolation').

*** La'an taking searching for Oriana and taking her under her wing is a mirror to Ripley doing the same with Newt (''Aliens'').
*** The emerging Gorn are pure white and quickly moult and grow (''Alien''). There are more than one per host (''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem''). One also emerges from Buckley's back (''Alien: Covenant'').

** The way the Gorn see and make clicking noises is clearly a homage to the Film/{{Predator}}.
** La'an working through her trauma by breaking apart the frozen Gorn hatchling is evocative of [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy smashing the Mater's bones]].

*** The crew following a distress call to find a crashed ship (''Alien'', ''Alien: Isolation'').

* ForegoneConclusion: Because Pike, Spock, Uhura, Chapel, and Sam Kirk all make it to the beginning of TOS, the audience knows they are not going to be killed by the Gorn.

* ForegoneConclusion: Because Pike, Spock, Uhura, and Sam Kirk all make it to the beginning of TOS, the audience knows they are not going to be killed by the Gorn.

La'an finds a Starfleet corpse in the snow, and more besides; the ''Peregrine'' is abandoned, having crash-landed, and most of her systems fried. Hemmer and Uhura descend to Engineering to get the ship running again, while Pike gets into the CaptainsLog: Captain Gavin reports that her crew picked up three alien refugees; a human girl, an Orion named Pasko and an alien of indeterminate race. Pasko, it turns out, was hosting Gorn ChestBurster eggs, and tried to stave off the inevitable by setting off a plasma grenade in Engineering. Pasko was unsuccessful... but the other two are still around; the girl calls herself Oriana and her companion Buckley. In Sickbay, neither M'Benga, Chapel nor Cadet Chia can find any evidence of Gorn infestation... which is proven wrong when Buckley turns out to ''also'' be carrying ChestBurster eggs. The hatchlings eat Chia and scamper off to do the same to Duke. Meanwhile, "Team Hemhura" have gotten the ship in working order, and Pike uses the comms to order the team to regroup... but one Gorn hatchling, quite a lot larger (and played by CGI this time instead of a dude in a funky rubber suit), arrives to spit venom at Hemmer, only leaving when La'an and her phaser swing in to save the day.

With Pike, M'Benga and Oriana quarterbacking from the bridge, both La'an and Spock channel their inner ScreamingWarrior[[note]]yes, Vulcans have them; they're TheStoic precisely ''because'' they used to be a violent, warlike race, and decided that gaining control of their emotions was smarter than bombing themselves back to the Stone Age ''again''[[/note]] to draw the two remaining Gorn together so that they'll fight, and the last one to the shuttlebay where Hemmer freezes it with coolant. (La'an then [[LiterallyShatteredLives vents a lifetime of fear and rage]] on it.) The mission is complete... with only one loose end to tie up: the venom spray Hemmer got hit with was not just uncomfortable, it's how the Gorn implant new eggs in people. Citing TheNeedsOfTheMany, he walks out of the shuttlebay and falls into the chasm the ''Peregrine'' is balanced on ("Just like Andoria..."), ending the Gorn threat. Before he goes, he advises Uhura, who still has not decided whether to stay in Starfleet, that an IneffectualLoner afraid of pain and loss can also never find love and happiness. During the shipboard funeral, Uhura echoes these sentiments, and is shown, in the episode's final shot, standing on the bridge amidst the familiar beeps and whirs -- happy to be home. Meanwhile, La'an takes indefinite leave from Starfleet to help Oriana reunite with her family.

* DownerEnding: Probably the roughest ending of the season. Three crew members -- including Hemmer -- are dead, La'an has gone on indefinite leave, Uhura is ending her cadet tour on a low note, and Spock is horrified at the fact that he let his emotions run rampant.

* DwindlingParty: The show introduces a cadet and newly promoted lieutenant as part of the crew, but lacking NominalImportance compared to the main cast they are they are rather quickly killed off. Hemmer, surprisingly, sacrifices himself after realizing he is infected with Gorn eggs and there is little time to consider an alternative before starting the whole mess again.

* NotQuiteTheRightThing: The crew of the ''Peregrine'' tried to lure the Gorn outside of the ship to freeze. Unfortunately, it can be surmised from the bodies that while they may have succeeded in killing the Gorn, most of them were killed and survivors froze to death.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The universal translator can't parse Buckley the alien's language, and when La'an tells Uhura to do something, Uhura has to reminds her that that's not how linguistics works. The crew never does work out how to communicate with Buckley before his death by Gorn ChestBurster.

* TeleportInterdiction: The atmosphere of the planet is filled with particles that render comms and beaming useless from orbit, so the away team has to take shuttles to get down and any messages sent planet-side never make it out.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: A subversion is made with La'an, who was late to an event in the Captain's lounge because of a scheduled session with a counselor over her established backstory with the Gorn. It's actually one of the few times the franchise has suggested regular therapy to crew members who experience such things.

The ''Enterprise'', already on a Priority One mission to deliver power cells to Deep Space K-7, is tasked a ''second'' Priority One mission: the USS ''Peregrine'', a ''Sombra''-class escort that looks outwardly like a ''Constitution''-class, issued a distress call four days ago. This news interrupts a banquet thrown by Pike, celebrating Cadets Chia and Uhura for their successful training rotations and the promotion of Ensign Duke to Lieutenant. Since neither the ''Peregrine'' nor [=DSK7=] can wait, Pike decides on a case of "LetsSplitUpGang": Number One and Ortegas will make the delivery while Pike, Che, Uhura, Duke, Lt. Sam Kirk and [[TheMainCharactersDoEverything the other characters in the credits]] descend to Valeo Beta V via shuttles. It's a frigid L-class planet, which Hemmer notes is just like Andoria.

The Starfleet contingent regroup in Sickbay. Spock finds records that the Gorn have somehow evolved to avoid Starfleet electromagnetic sensors, which is how all these eggs got through. Hemmer reports that navigation is the only system remaining to be restored, meaning that Pike can soon declare mission accomplished and pull a ScrewThisImOuttaHere. However, there are still Gorn around. La'an reports that the hatchlings will squabble amongst themselves until only one, the strongest, smartest and fastest, remain; they will have to trap the Gorn, and the only bait they have are themselves. ThePlan comes together.

* DownerEnding: Probably the roughest ending of the season. Three crew members -- including Hemmer -- are dead, La’an has gone on indefinite leave, Uhura is ending her cadet tour on a low note and Spock is horrified at the fact that he let his emotions run rampant.

* DwindlingParty: The show introduces a cadet and newly promoted lieutenant as part of the crew, but lacking NominalImportance compared to the main cast they are they are rather quickly killed off. Hemmler, surprisingly, sacrifices himself after realizing he is infected with Gorn eggs and there is little time to consider an alternative before starting the whole mess again.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: La’an ends up requesting an indefinite leave of absence from Starfleet at the end of the episode, as she's rattled by everything that happened on the ''Peregrine'' and wants to help Oriana find her family.
* ShoutOut:

*** The crew following a distress call to find a crashed ship (Alien, Alien: Isolation).
*** Finding corpses littering the ship (Alien: Isolation).
*** Hemmer's sacrifice is a near recreation of Ripley's (Alien 3).
*** La'an taking searching for Oriana and taking her under her wing is a mirror to Ripley doing the same with Newt (Aliens).
*** The emerging Gorn are pure white and quickly moult and grow (Alien). There are more than one per host (Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem). One also emerges from Buckley's back (Alien: Covenant)

*** the vein-like pattern on Buckley's skin is similar to how humans infected by the black goo look (Prometheus)

* BuryYourDisabled: Hemmer, a blind character, played by the franchise's first blind actor, dies after fewer episodes than any series main character has ever had. Even Tasha Yar had more episodes.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Hemmer, a blind character, played by the franchise's first blind actor, dies after fewer episodes than any series main character has ever had. Even Tasha Yar had more episodes.

* EnfanteTerrible: The Gorn the crew fight are newborns. Even literally seconds after they are born, their first instinct is to go for the jugular of any living thing nearby.