Review: Star Trek: Discovery, "Life, Itself" | Season 5, Episode 10

In which Discovery says goodbye again and again and again and

Photograph by: Michael Gibson/Paramount+

Every few years, someone on the Internet thinks they’ve discovered the fatal flaw in Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indiana Jones doesn’t accomplish anything. Oh sure, he kills a fair number of Nazis and discovers the location of the Lost Ark of the Covenant, but once the Ark is discovered, he’s irrelevant to the plot, existing only to save himself and Marian while God takes care of the bad guys. This is not a flaw in the story of Raiders. It is, in fact, a very clever twist, one that allows our hero to get up to all manner of crazy adventures while still having a nice character arc, as well as underlining the arrogant stupidity of the Nazis and letting us watch a bunch of faces get melted. It’s not even really a new trick; as a rule, when characters go seeking something like ultimate power in a mainstream genre work, they’re going to end up with a handful of life lessons and some good memories and not much else. 

If someone finds this disappointing in Raiders, I would accept their disappointment as an honest reaction, but I would advise them (in the snootiest tone imaginable, as I deliver all my critical proclamations) that they should consider revisiting the movie with different expectations and see how well it works for them. This is easy advice to give since Raiders is only two hours long, and also happens to be one of the best action movies ever made. I’m not sure the same advice would apply to a ten episode long season of television that spends most of its running time promising to blow our minds, only to land on “what if the real treasure was the friends we made along the way?” Finales are hard, no doubt about it, and it’s not like I expected Discovery to astonish me in its conclusion. But the fact that every single decision opts for the most obvious choice imaginable… well, I guess I could give them points for consistency. 

“Life, Itself” has Michael walking a similar path to Indy’s. Hell, strip away the ostensible “We left a trail of clues to teach you valuable lessons!” nonsense and it’s pretty much the same: a desperate race against evil to discover godlike Power, only to reach the end and find said Power can pretty much protect itself, thank you very much. We can quibble, if you like: the Progenitors’ tech doesn’t have face-melting security, and if Michael hadn’t shown up, maybe the Breen would’ve brute-forced some kind of solution. But I doubt it. Everything in “Life” has been done before, because when it comes to storytelling, that’s Discovery’s sweet-spot: just repeating cliches with a heart emoji and hoping for the best.

This isn’t the worst finale I’ve seen, and I’m not going to sit here and tell you it’s a crime against art or anything, although doing a double length episode where the last fifteen minutes are just “hey remember how great we are? Hugs! Gosh we’re great” has to be at least a misdemeanor somewhere. If I had any serious emotional reaction to any of this, it was a kind of dull surprise that the show managed to catch me off guard by doing the most obvious things imaginable. I can’t even really blame them; it’s not like we haven’t spent the entire season building to this point. Somehow I expected more, even when I thought I had no expectations left. I’m not even sure I’m disappointed. I just don’t really understand the point of any of this.

I suppose there is something to be said for just how consistently uninspired all of this is. Do we get a trippy montage inside the Progenitor base to give us the illusion of depth ala 2001, even if that illusion is consistently undermined by its blanket emptiness? Yup. Does the “power” we’ve been waiting all season to discover ultimately accomplish nothing? You betcha. Is said power still completely mysterious and basically magical, even though this is supposed to be a sci-fi show that’s nominally interested in ideas? Uh-huh. Does Michael decide, in the end, that no one should have power like this, thus ensuring that this entire ten episode run accomplished exactly nothing apart from a.) L’ak dying and b.) Michael and Book hooking up? Oh you better believe it. 

Speaking of L’ak dying, there’s some kind of narrative malpractice in introducing this idea into the season and then resolving it in the laziest way possible. I’m struggling to explain why this is “bad,” because in terms of dramatic structure, the arc is fundamentally sound: characters trying to defeat death often do stupid, crazy things, and nearly always end up learning in the end that “sometimes dead is better.” Why does it feel so flat and pointless here? Maybe because no one involved thought to put any kind of interesting or specific spin on the concept. Moll believed in something for no good reason other than “well if this works one way, surely it will work another,” and then Michael finds out that no, it doesn’t work that way. And scene. There’s no complexity, no real cost, and no surprise whatsoever. We don’t even get a zombified L’ak stumbling around with a scalpel. 

I dunno if I’m jaded or what, but this whole episode just feels like a photocopy of a photocopy, a bunch of snazzy effects in service of the easiest imaginable answers. Culber’s whole “something strange is going on” journey? Well, he helps Book out of a tech problem in a moment of crisis, and that’s it. Saru uses his Kelpian boldness to bluff his way out of a tense situation. Discovery discoveries. And then the endless epilogue where everyone gets a completely happy ending and everything is wonderful and boy, we sure made some memories together, right?

Here’s the thing about memories: you need the bad as well as the good. There is no melancholy in this conclusion, no loss, no hard choices for anyone. All the heroes got exactly what they wanted without having to really pay for any of it, and while that may work for fan fiction, it makes for damn shoddy storytelling. All these endless hugs and repetitive reunions have the signifiers of emotional connection, but really just serve as a padding, an attempt to remind us of other, better shows to distract us from what’s actually on screen. I have absolutely nothing against sentiment, and I love a good reunion. But a reunion needs a separation to have any meaning at all. It needs the threat of loss, because the reason those moments are powerful is because we know they’re fleeting. We know that nothing is forever; we know that every hello means that sooner or later, you’ll have to say goodbye.

At some point, Discovery tried to at least engage with that idea, but then they stopped. So we get this: an entire season of television that could be summed up with “and they (if they weren’t the bad guys) all lived happily ever after.” It’s… fine? I guess? I certainly don’t begrudge anyone for enjoying it, and despite my irritation, I feel guilty for complaining about a show doing exactly what it said it was going to do. As Trek finales go, this was arguably better than Voyager’s, but then, Voyager still had a little credibility left to lose.

Stray observations

• This is also better than the original series’ “Turnabout Intruder,” but I don’t think that really counts as a finale, even if it literally is.

• I know Tilly having the longest tenure at Starfleet Academy of anyone in history isn’t supposed to be depressing, but it still sounds a little depressing to me.

• Right, so the Agent Daniels “reveal:” Daniels is a time traveler from Enterprise. I haven’t finished watching that show yet, but as of season 3, he’s supposed to be dead. Although he’s a time traveler, and they have weird rules. Regardless, it’s a deep cut reveal that accomplishes nothing, which is pretty much the Discovery way.