Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 4 Ending Explained

WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange".

Summary Captain Burnham and Commander Rayner navigate through time to stop the time bug, showcasing their growth and teamwork.

A Voyager connection reveals the menacing Krenim "time bug" and its catastrophic effects on the USS Discovery's crew and timeline.

Burnham reflects on her journey as she faces challenges from her past while navigating through alternate futures in "Face the Strange."

Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) find themselves hurtling through the USS Discovery's past, present, and future in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4, "Face the Strange". Written by Sean Cochran and directed by Lee Rose, "Face the Strange" demonstrates how far Burnham and Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) have come since Discovery season 1. It's also a chance for Burnham and her new Number One, Rayner, to finally work as a team, as they literally race against time to get Discovery's hunt for the Progenitors' treasure back on track.

"Face the Strange" reveals that Moll (Eve Harlow) planted a Krenim "time bug" on Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) at the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 3. Having worked its way into the USS Discovery's systems, the time bug traps the crew in their own history, randomly cycling the ship through the past, present, and future, freeing Moll and L'ak to retrieve the next clue. Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets are unaffected and work together to get the USS Discovery back to the 32nd century in time to stop Moll and L'ak from completing the next step in Discovery's treasure hunt.

Related Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide As Burnham seeks the universe's greatest treasure in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, she'll need help from a host of new and returning characters.

How Burnham, Rayner & Stamets Beat Star Trek: Discovery's Time Bug Explained

The time bug in Star Trek: Discovery is a particularly nasty piece of temporal technology, which proves hard for Burnham, Rayner, and Stamets to beat. Their first attempt to nullify the device fails, because time inside the surrounding field is moving at a rapid pace. Anything that enters the field to remove the time bug will cease to exist within seconds, forcing Stamets to come up with a far riskier strategy.

the warp bubble is what protects the crews of Star Trek's starships from the effects of relativity...

The trick to beating the time bug is to reduce the flow of time in the surrounding field, but to do that, the USS Discovery has to break the warp bubble and throw relativity out of sync. As they travel faster than the speed of light, the warp bubble is what protects the crews of Star Trek's starships from the effects of relativity. Abruptly breaking the warp bubble means that the time bug has less time to readjust to relative time outside the USS Discovery. This would weaken the surrounding field for long enough for Rayner to remove the time bug.

The main issue with Commander Paul Stamets' plan was that the time-traveling trio were in the worst possible time period when it comes to Burnham's standing aboard the USS Discovery. The time bug's final cycle took Burnham, Rayner and Stamets to an early point in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, when Michael was still seen as a dangerous mutineer. For Stamets' plan to succeed, Burnham had to make her way to the bridge, fight and incapacitate her younger self, then successfully convinced the bridge crew to follow the orders of their future captain.

A line of dialog places these scenes at some point between episodes 3 and 4 of Star Trek: Discovery season 1, as Commander Landry is said to still be alive.

Star Trek: Discovery's Time Bug Is A Voyager Connection

Commander Rayner reveals that the time bug is a "Krenim chronophage" left over from Star Trek's Temporal Wars. The Krenim are a technologically advanced species first introduced in Star Trek: Voyager's season 4 two-parter, "Year of Hell." The USS Voyager's first encounter with the Krenim went so badly wrong that it created an alternate timeline that descimated the majority of the ship's crew.

This forced Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) to make the ultimate sacrifice to restore history. Hailing from the Delta Quadrant, the Krenim had devastating temporal weapons that were capable of removing entire species from existence. While Star Trek: Discovery's time bug is much smaller, it can still have a devastating impact on its victims, as shown by what will happen if Moll and L'ak get their hands on the Progenitors' technology.

1:49 Related Voyager Is Why Star Trek Is Replacing Discovery’s Spore Drive Starfleet is abandoning the spore drive in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, having found a better form of warp travel thanks to the USS Voyager.

Burnham And Stamets’ Time Travel Shows How Much They've Changed On Star Trek: Discovery

Burnham and Stamets are forced to relive some painful moments from their pasts, but these incidents remind viewers just how far the Star Trek: Discovery characters have come. Stamets hilariously draws on his angrier, snarkier past self from Discovery season 1, which helps him swiftly empty engineering. It's a fun callback to the person that Stamets used to be, before his tardigrade DNA made him more mellow, making him a better husband to Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) and a father figure to Adira. However, Stamets' tartigrade DNA has one drawback; he still experiences the pain of being impaled during the Battle of Control.

Every Key Moment Revisted In "Face The Strange" Placement In The Discovery Timeline Construction of the USS Discovery on Earth Before season 1 Burnham's first day aboard the USS Discovery Season 1, episode 3 The Battle of Control Season 2 finale Discovery following the Red Angel into the 32nd century Season 3 premiere Osyraa attacking the USS Discovery Season 3 finale The USS Discovery's 32nd century refit Between season 3 and season 4

Burnham also gets a welcome reminder of how far she's come, courtesy of the Krenim time bug and some words of encouragement from Rayner. Rayner reminds her that she never gave up on her path from prisoner to starship captain, and so she shouldn't give up when faced with their bleak alternate future. Captain Burnham stirring the crew of the USS Discovery on the same day that her younger self came aboard as a prisoner is a strong affirmation of her journey between Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1 and 5.

Burnham's awkwardness around Book seems more rooted in her suppressing her attraction than trying not to change the future

Burnham also gets a chance to reflect on her relationship with Booker (David Ajala), when she meets his past self, fresh out of the shower. Burnham's awkwardness around Book seems more rooted in her suppressing her attraction than trying not to change the future. It's another hint that Burnham and Book's Star Trek: Discovery love story isn't over yet.

Star Trek: Discovery Finally Solves Its Biggest Short Trek Mystery

Close

In the fan-favorite Short Trek, a soldier, Craft (Aldis Hodge) was picked up by the USS Discovery after his escape pod had drifted through space for a month. Craft formed a bond with Zora (Annabelle Wallis) who had been left behind by the USS Discovery a thousand years earlier. For years, fans speculated over where "Calypso" fitted into the Star Trek: Discovery timeline, something that the showrunners promised would come further down the line. Now, Discovery season 5, episode 5 "Face the Strange" provides the answer. "Calypso" takes place in an alternate version of the 42nd century, a thousand years after the Progenitors' technology had fallen into the wrong hands.

Related Star Trek Needs To Bring Back Short Treks Short Treks was a great way to experiment with the tone and format of Star Trek, and its return could plant the seeds for future Star Trek projects.

Burnham and Rayner's jump into the future reveals that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Breen got hold of the Progenitors' technology and used it to destroy Starfleet and the Federation. As the USS Discovery hangs in space, Burnham and Rayner look out at a devastated Federation Headquarters, as Zora pleads with them to change the future. The use of a calypso version of Doris Day's "Que Sera Sera" is Star Trek: Discovery's subtle confirmation that it's this catastrophe that left Zora abandoned for a thousand years before Star Trek: Short Treks.

Did Star Trek: Discovery Retcon Airiam’s Season 2 Sacrifice?

While convincing the crew of the USS Discovery to help with her plan to return to the 32nd century, Captain Burnham reveals that Lt. Commander Airiam (Hannah Cheeseman) will sacrifice her life to save her crew mates. Airiam accepts Burnham's future knowledge, because she knows that she would sacrifice her life in those circumstances. Airiam's knowledge of her own future is what eventually convinces her to follow Burnham's orders by breaking the warp bubble. In normal circumstances, knowledge given to her by a time-traveling Burnham would mean that Airiam will sacrifice her life in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 because she knows she has to.

However, due to the nature of the Krenim time bug, and Stamets' solution, Burnham telling Airiam about her tragic future doesn't retcon Star Trek: Discovery season 2. By removing the time bug before the next loop, Burnham, Rayner and Stamets negate everything that they did, meaning that, for example, young Burnham won't remember her fight with her future self. This means that Airiam will still make the decision to sacrifice her life in Discovery season 2, independently, not because she was inspired to do so by Captain Burnham.

Rayner Is Finally “Connecting” With USS Discovery's Crew

Callum Keith Rennie's Commander Rayner continues to go from strength to strength in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. Following Burnham's orders to "connect" with the Discovery crew in the previous episode, Rayner demonstrates how much he was paying attention during his brisk one-on-one meetings. Not only does Rayner give Burnham the encouragement she needs not to give up, he and Stamets appear to bond over being "old dogs" who specialize in "gruff candor".

Related Why I'm On Rayner's Side In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Commander Rayner is ordered to "connect" with the crew in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, but Tilly and Burnham are wrong to force him to fit in.

Rayner's most notable connection is with Gen Rhys, whose theory about Moll and L'ak he brusquely dismisses at the start of the episode. Thrown back into time when Rhys was just a lieutenant, Rayner gets through to the young officer by bonding with him over a love of Constitution-class starships. Rayner's connection with Rhys is enough to convince the officer to lower his phaser and let him and Stamets proceed with their plan. Back in the 32nd century, Rayner finally acknowledges the value of Rhys' tactical assessment that Moll and L'ak would just follow Discovery to the next clue.

Rayner also tells Rhys that he's lost his family, teasing more about the new Star Trek: Discovery character's backstory.

Where Have Moll And L’ak Gone In Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 5?

The Krenim time bug caused the USS Discovery crew to lose six hours to Moll and L'ak in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 4. Returned to Tzenkethi space in the 32nd century, Lt. Commander Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) picks up Moll and L'ak's trail, but it quickly stops dead, meaning that they've seemingly disappeared. A starship trail that drops dead just before an episode called "Mirrors" would certainly play into Star Trek: Discovery season 5's Mirror Universe theory. Perhaps the reason that Moll and L'ak's trail stops dead is because they've phased into another reality altogether.

It's possible that Moll and L'ak picked up more than a Romulan puzzle box...

Alternatively, given Star Trek: Discovery season 5's Romulan connection, their ship could have used an interphasic cloak, first seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Next Phase". Interphasic cloaking technology effectively turned Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Ensign Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) into ghosts, unable to be seen by their crewmates. It's possible, therefore, that Moll and L'ak picked up more than a Romulan puzzle box in Star Trek: Discovery's season 5 premiere, meaning that they could have a considerable tactical advantage over Burnham and the crew in the next stage of the treasure hunt.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on Paramount+.