With Book and Tarka closing in on their goal, Burnham must make the difficult decision of confronting her estranged lover to stop them from destroying the DMA.
Tropes Used in this Episode:
- Achilles' Heel: Book's ship would normally be difficult to disable, but thanks to the prototype spore drive, it now has a vulnerability that will destroy the entire ship with one well-placed torpedo.
- All for Nothing: To Tarka's horror, his superweapon destroyed the DMA, but the power source that he was looking for wasn't there at all. It's surmised that the power source and the controller are on the other side of the wormhole. And to make matters worse, the 10-C respond by simply dropping another DMA in the exact same location.
- The Bus Came Back: Commander Nhan returns for the first time since the season three episode "Die Trying", having joined Federation Security. She also has new, smaller breathers. Lieutenant Commander Bryce, having been away all season on a mission with the USS Curie, is also back, on an assignment for Admiral Vance to work out how to contact the 10-C through the Galactic Barrier.
- Chekhov's Gun: Book could beam the superweapon directly into the core, but that would leave him and Tarka vulnerable to being beamed away by Discovery. After Burnham successfully talks Book down, Tarka uses the distraction to beam the weapon in before anyone realizes what is happening.
- Dramatic Irony: Burnham thinks that Book and Tarka's motivation in deploying the weapon is to protect the Milky Way. Unfortunately, as the audience knows, this is only the case for Book. Tarka's plan actually fails if the DMA is peacefully withdrawn along with the energy source that he needs to escape the Prime Universe. When Burnham talks down Book, both fail to consider that Tarka's interests don't align with theirs, and he betrays everyone to serve his own agenda.
- Go Through Me: Burnham places Discovery between Book and the controller, so Book won't be able to fire without wasting Tarka's superweapon.
- Grey Goo: Tarka secretly installed a defense system on Book's ship that attacks potential borders with a swarm of nanotechnology that rips the intruding ship apart. The away team is very nearly killed and only survives because Book helps neutralize the swarm, giving Discovery a chance to beam them back before the shuttle snaps in half.
- Hair-Trigger Explosive: Book and Tarka handle the isolynium like it's nitroglycerin.Tarka: The Federation banned it for a good reason. A little goes a long way.
- If You Won't, I Will: Nhan is authorized to assume command and destroy Book's ship if Burnham is too emotionally compromised to do so.
- Invisibility Cloak: It's already been established that Discovery was upgraded with a cloaking device, but now it's shown that her shuttles are also equipped with them.
- Invisibility Flicker: The DMA creates interference which makes cloaking unstable, causing both Discovery and Book's ship to be rendered visible at inopportune moments.
- It's Personal: Burnham, who is of course Book's Love Interest, focuses her entire energy on persuading him to stand down. Deconstructed in that, in her focus to talk down Book, she completely misses that Tarka is the actual Big Bad, and Book merely The Dragon.
- Just in Time: It looks like Burnham will have to destroy Book when they end up at a stalemate that neither side is backing down from, but Stamets calls in to explain that the DMA will likely stick around for another week, giving her another avenue to talk Book down.
- No-Sell: Played with. Tarka's superweapon successfully destroys the DMA, but its power source is safe on the other side of the rift where Tarka can't get to it. The 10-C then drop a new DMA in the exact same location, demonstrating that there's no choice but to convince them to willingly recall it.
- Shipper on Deck: Culber encourages Saru to pursue his potential relationship with T'Rina.
- Space Clouds: Clouds of dark matter within the DMA serve this purpose, Burnham using them to hide from Book after disabling his sensors. Unfortunately, Book predicts her action and follows her, leading to the confrontation at the core.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The partnership between Book and Tarka is becoming increasingly strained, especially when Tarka fires a Macross Missile Massacre at Discovery.
- Teleport Interdiction: Book's ship has a disruption field to prevent beaming in either direction.
- Teleport Spam: Discovery and Book's ship both make multiple spore-jumps inside the DMA, Book to get into attack position and Discovery to stop him.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Saru explains to Nhan exactly how his team plans to infiltrate Book's ship and safety capture Book and Tarka. It fails before they can even board the ship because of a defense system that Tarka installed.
- Wham Shot: The appearance of a second DMA where the first one was, driving home how unstoppable 10-C is.
- Wild Card: Ruon Tarka plays this role (Culber identifying him as such) both motivating Book on his "I Did What I Had to Do" Anti-Hero arc and eventually going behind Book's back.
- With Due Respect: After Saru confides to Culber that he's reticent to pursue a relationship with T'Rina, Culber provides a rather candid opinion.Culber: With respect, sir, in my professional opinion... you're being an idiot.
