'Star Trek: Discovery' Recap - ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

​If there is one solid point that Star Trek: Discovery has managed to hammer home, it’s that…war is hell. We’ve seen the darkest parts of it as Captain Lorca makes questionable decisions to defeat the Klingons and we’ve seen the crew suffer from its impact as well. But believe or not, this series continues to find new ways to explore the brutality of conflict, because last night’s episode, ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’, found a way to examine the lasting effects of a prolonged conflict because this crew…is wearing down as the war rolls on.
 
This is something that was evident from the beginning of this particular tale, since the crew of the Discovery was unable to assist and save a sister ship from a surprise Klingon attack and well, watching another vessel detonate in front of them left everyone, the Captain included, with slumped shoulders and a sense of defeat and it just seems that as this war rolls on, they’re all starting to struggle with the losses and the relentless nature of the Klingons.
 
For that matter, even the day to day combat operations aboard the Discovery are taking their toll upon the crew, Lieutenant Stamets in particular. Because spending so much time attached to the universe when the ship uses the Spore Drive to jump is starting to impact his life since he’s coming out of the jumps confused about his surroundings and he’s consistently irritated over the fact that he’s having incredible difficulty with focusing his mind in general and it seems the symptoms of this disorientation are getting worse as time goes on.  
 
Heck, even the Klingons are having their own issues with the war, since this story also followed up with L’Rell and the fact that she has become disillusioned with the war since Kor is only focused on a mad power grab instead of following the teachings of T’Kuvma, and she is so done with his interstellar ego that she comes aboard his ship to get her hands on Admiral Cornwall in the hopes of defecting to the Federation. It’s a plan that quickly goes south and leaves us with more questions than answers, specifically…whether or not the Admiral is alive after their escape attempt.

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​But truly, the centerpiece of the night was the mission to the planet Pahvo, a place that the Federation desperately hoped would give them the upper hand in the war effort. For in this place, a strange EM harmony exists, one complete with a massive transmitter that could help Starfleet detect cloaked Klingon ships and while at first it seemed as though this planet was uninhabited by anything sentient, a surprise encounter with beings that believe in peace and harmony over all things and that are also seemingly made up entirely of energy changed everything for the mission at hand.
 
After all, First Contact and the Prime Directive came into play, which meant that Commander Saru had to figure out how to communicate with this species to get what Starfleet needs and that’s when things became interesting. Because in order to properly converse, these beings in essence merged with Saru, giving him inner peace for the first time in his life, allowing for him to make the decision that the Away Team should never leave this place in order to live out their lives in peace and harmony and well…things don’t quite go as planned for Saru or the crew for that matter, since the good citizens of Pahvo activate their powerful transmitter and invite the Klingons to the planet in the hopes of creating peace and harmony between the United Federation of Planet and the Klingon Empire.
 
Now what truly surprised me about this episode, aside from the fact that they jammed in so much storytelling wise, is the sheer fact that this is an engaging transitional episode. One that seemingly revisited a ton of plot threads explored throughout the season since we returned to the lasting effects of the Spore Drive on Lieutenant Staments, L’Rell’s loyalty and Burnham’s journey all in the course of a single hour and of the many plot points presented here, the one that sticks with me most is of course Burnham’s, since her story of redemption has been the focus of this series since day one.  
 
Because Burnham demonstrated in this episode, by way of her discipline and strong diplomatic efforts, that a strong leader is still present within her and that she is still fully capable of living the ideals of the Federation and she’ll need them now more than ever, since the very vessel that kicked off her shattered story arc is on its way to Pavho and really, I love the fact that the last two episodes haven’t exactly been incredibly cerebral simply because they don’t need to be. It’s about storytelling at this point, and by injecting these past plot threads into this tale, the audience is being rewarded for their patience when it comes to this beautiful tale and it should be interesting to see how everything goes when Burnham is forced to face her past once again in next week’s midseason finale. Until next time.    

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