For episode 29 of The Star Trek Discovery Podcast, Ruthie is out sick, but I was able to get emergency guest co-host Wes Huntington from the Minnesota Star Trek Nerd Podcast to fill in, as we discuss Season 2 Episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery, which is titled, An Obol for Charon. The teleplay was written by producer Alan McElroy (I got his name wrong during the recording - it's Alan, not Adam) & co-executive producer Andrew Colville, the story was written by co-executive producer Jordon Nardino & showrunners Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts (who were still showrunners at the time). It was directed by Lee Rose. She also directed S1E5 Choose Your Pain.

We have been blessed yet again with pics chosen by Fred from The Netherlands, including the cover image. We will show them throughout this blog post.

It was a tough episode for Commander Saru. It looked like we would be losing the first and only Kelpien in Starfleet during this episode, and they sold that death. I had myself questioning it. Could they kill him off? Would this be the right time to do that? I knew we see his sister Siranna in the last trailer, but I thought that maybe it could end up being a flashback or a hallucination before death. When it looked like he was going to die, though, he didn't die. He evolved. One of his most problematic traits, his threat ganglia, are gone for good, and he feels like he's never felt before.

I loved the Burnham/Saru scenes, showing that the bickering we had seen early on was the behavior of brother and sister. It took a tragedy for them both to admit it to each other, and to themselves. So, what will become of Saru, and the Kelpiens, who were being culled, seemingly as a part of a big lie. Time will tell.

This was also a tough episode for Tilly, and looks like the next one will be, too. The blob formerly seen as May has attached itself to Tilly, and isn't going to easily let go. Tilly gets a drill to the head to facilitate communications, which had to hurt. At the end of the episode, we see Tilly's been consumed by the blob. For what purpose, we cannot know.

Speaking of Tilly, this episode marks the return of Jett Reno, Tig Notaro's character from the season premiere. I had predicted that Stamets and Reno would make a good combination, and I was right! There were some great insults, barbs and comic lines exchanged. I look forward to seeing her again, but WHO IS THE CHIEF ENGINEER, anyway??? With the spores in the air, mushrooms abound and make Stamets and Reno high. Very trippy!

Rebecca Romijn makes an appearance as the legendary Number One, from the TOS pilot, "The Cage" and the two-parter, "The Menagerie". It was a short appearance and one that did not yield what many of us thought it would, including me: Her name. That said, it was a good performance by Romijn. We're pretty sure we'll be seeing her again, and if you believe me (Brian), we'll see a lot more of her soon. By the way, you may recall that Number One was one of the people I thought might have taken command of the Discovery at the end of Season 1. The right ship, the wrong officer! :-) I speculate in this episode what Kurtzman and CBS m