‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Recap – ‘Charades’

Written by Shae Rufe

Ethan Peck as Lieutenant Spock in Episode 205 of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ – ‘Charades’. (Photo Courtesy of Paramount+.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 205 of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
​
What happens when a half-Vulcan, half-Human grown man gets turned into just a Human? Well, interestingly enough, we got to see that this week on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Spock and Chapel are on their way in a shuttle to check out the Vulcan moon that once had an ancient civilization on it, and now doesn’t. All as a part of Christine’s continued efforts to get into a Vulcan science program. The tension between the two is pretty high considering they both refuse to resolve their feelings for one another. Things go a little wonky when their shuttle is hit by an anomaly. Suddenly they wake up back on the Enterprise, only Spock isn’t quite… himself.
 
Turns out they were rescued by inter dimensional beings that healed them, only in doing so they noticed Spock’s DNA didn’t match Christine’s completely, and that confused them. They did the next best thing and removed the Vulcan part, leaving Spock 100% human. This wouldn’t be a problem, except Spock was to go to Vulcan and visit his fiancé T’Pring and her family for a ritual that all engaged couples do to celebrate their engagement. T’Pring’s mother already hates Spock, and this event had been canceled multiple times, so it’s a dire situation. To cancel would make T’Pring’s family call the engagement off, which is bad. Because Spock still has feelings for her. And definitely not Chapel, no, he doesn’t love her at all.
 
To make matters worse, Spock’s mother shows up, unannounced, to help prepare Spock for the ritual. She of course finds out what happened, as Pike had told everyone Spock was in a shuttle accident and nothing else. She then enlists Pike’s help in teaching Spock to lie his way through the whole thing. Meanwhile, Chapel is doing her best to reverse what happened to Spock, with no luck whatsoever. Spock is struggling with the tea portion of the ritual, as the pot itself is scalding and his human form feels things now.

---

Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel in Episode 205 of ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ – ‘Charades’. (Photo Courtesy of Paramount+.)

T’Pring arrives and immediately goes off about her mother being annoying and wearing her out, leaving no room for Spock to explain what’s happened to him. Well, fake it till you make it, and he does just that. Everything is going fine, he managed the tea portion without fail, gaining T’Pring’s mother’s begrudged approval on that. He sat through the improvement ceremony with a stone face as he was picked apart by T’Pring’s mother, only excusing himself to take his frustrations out into a pillow. That’s when he’s saved from faking it any further.
 
See, Christine is smart. She went ahead and asked Uhura and Ortegas to go back to the moon with her and find the inter dimensional beings that ‘fixed’ Spock and begged for their help. Here, she finally admitted out loud her feelings for Spock, much to the other’s chagrin. It worked and with their help she’s able to fix Spock, which she does, just in time to finish the ritual. Spock almost gets away with the whole thing, until after the Mind Meld portion, where T’Pring’s mother unloads more passive aggressive criticisms.
 
And really, who doesn’t want to tell that passive aggressive, rude, family member off? Spock reveals that he had been human for the entire thing, and proves that he’s more than meets the eye, leaving everyone speechless. He also thanks his own mother for all she has done for him. In the end, however, T’Pring has an issue with never being told about his being turned human. She points out that everyone else on the Enterprise knew, but her. Spock clearly didn’t trust her enough to share what had really happened to him with her. It’s enough to make her take a break from their relationship, which gives Spock the opening he needs to tell Christine how he really feels about her.
 
The love triangle is messy, and this season is filled with forbidden love stories. It’ll be interesting to see who gets into one next!

---

Powered by JustWatch