What a long road it’s been for Star Trek: Discovery, getting from there to here. Along that road it’s certainly had its , but for all its faults, it’s been hard to deny in this last season that the series is assured in what its ultimate message was always going to be. So even knowing that, it’s perhaps fitting that its farewell is delivered in a manner as much as the whole show has been these past seven years: a little muddled, a lot of emotional earnesty, and an unsubtle, steadfast faith in one single idea.
“Life, Itself” has a lot on its shoulders, not just as a finale to Star Trek: Discovery and the duty it needs to do to these characters, but as a finale to the series that relaunched Star Trek at large in a time no one was certain we’d be getting any more of it after Enterprise had come to an end. We have had endings since Discovery kicked off this era, of course—and more will come. But there is still something about the weight of the show that started it all entering its final hour (well, hour and a half, but who’s counting?).
What does Star Trek: Discovery have left to say? What is it about? What is the point that this all led up to? The answer is, perhaps, perfectly Discovery, in that it takes an occasionally awkward and tortured roundabout way to get to an idea it has long held clear in its heart: “Life, Itself” is a bizarrely paced episode of television, one that struggles to balance three plot threads set up by last week’s excellent Breen hei.
