Star Trek: Discovery ‘Lethe’ review

Star Trek: Discovery’s sixth episode ‘Lethe’ starts off with a bang as we dive back into the politics of the Vulcan culture.

The Vulcans were the first alien species the humans ever met. It was with the help of the Vulcans that the humans first made their way into space. In Star Trek: Enterprise the tensions between the Vulcans and the humans were a major part of the story. The Vulcans continually judged the humans and thought them inferior. Enterprise also explored some Vulcans being so against the idea of their planet having relations with the humans and Andorians that they would turn to violence. That storyline appears to have been picked up in Star Trek: Discovery now as well.

We see Michael Burnham’s mentor, and the father of Spock, Sarek.  Sarek and a young Vulcan board a Vulcan shuttle and head off to an unknown location. As they arrive at their destination the young Vulcan informs Sarek that the Vulcans contact with the humans is hurting their culture, he then blows himself up in an effort to kill Sarek and stop his mission.

This is when Michael Burnham collapses in the mess hall while eating breakfast with Tilly and the Discovery’s new security officer Ash Tyler. Tyler helped Captain Lorca escape from the Klingon prison ship and in exchange Lorca has asked him to be his new chief of security.

Michael’s collapse was due to her connection with Sarek. Sarek used his Katra to save Burnham and so they are connected. This is how they spoke to each other during the Battle of the Binary Stars. Now that same connection is being used by Burnham to help track down the injured Sarek. Vulcans being Vulcans though the one emotion that they display is pride and so Sarek doesn’t want to let Burnham in. This leads to some really great backstory on Burnham’s life on Vulcan and some Vulcan martial arts scenes.

Sarek is focusing on Burnham in his mind as he dies. Burnham of course thinks this means she is his greatest failure, but of course it might mean that he loves Burnham as well. If you’ve seen Star Trek: The Next Generation you know that Sarek has emotions, no matter how hard he fights to control them.

Of course eventually Burnham does get Sarek to relent and in doing so we discover that Sarek was given a choice of letting either Spock or Burnham enter the Vulcan exploratory service. Sarek chose Spock, and of course we also know that Spock then went against Sarek’s wishes and entered Starfleet. This is the secret that Sarek was trying not to share with Burnham.

This gives us a wonderful look into not only Sarek, but Burnham. Burnham has an almost reverent attitude towards Sarek up to this point, but now she realizes that Sarek is just like all fathers, doing the best he can. We seen Burnham call Sarek “father” as she walks out of sickbay and it’s a moment of change. Burnham has grown a lot in a few episodes, but she’s really finding her stride now.

This was probably my favorite episode of Star Trek: Discovery so far. It was wonderful to see the Vulcans in the mix again and the journey of Michael Burnham just keeps getting better and better. Will will have to see where Michael’s journey of redemption heads next Sunday when Star Trek: Discovery airs its seventh episode.