TV Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 3, Episode 7 Ups The Threat Level

After an episode that primarily focused on a more classic Star Trek formula, Star Trek: Discovery gets right back to the overarching plot of the season. Trek has a lot of recurring themes. Encounters with different cultures and civilizations is certainly one of them and lie at the heart of Starfleet’s mission. In this case, that means interacting with an extremely hostile race. And in typical Star Trek fashion, the dynamic between the two factions is made even more complicated by political fighting and advanced technology. There’s a lot to unpack in this week’s episode, but it positioned the season to enter its endgame.

After Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis) escaped from Starfleet, they ran into trouble and needed help. Discovery picked them up and they became their prisoners, but L’ak’s race, the Breen, also discovered them and arrived to extradite them. Of course, Starfleet wasn’t going to hand them over, especially since they don’t want their adversaries to know about the technology they are after. Unfortunately, L’ak accidentally killed himself while trying to create a diversion for Moll to escape. This complicated matters immensely as he was royalty. In the episode’s closing moments, Moll sees a way out of the situation and goes with the Breen.

Although interesting, Moll and L’ak never rose to a credible threat for this final season. Now that L’ak is dead, his people, the Breen, will fill that void — especially now that Moll is aligned with them. The politics are increasingly tight as the race is very authoritarian, but the threat of the technology Starfleet is after is too great to sit back. There is going to be a lot of tension and action in the episodes to come as the chase heats up. All in all, this episode was more about politics than any sort of real danger, but it moved the chess pieces around the board enough to create what will hopefully be a grand finale.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.