DISCO S1E8 "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum" Review by AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

Already I am getting annoyed with these titles that are riddles. I'm not even going to bother to look up what the crap that title means. Ok, I did. As I'm sure you already know, it means "if you want peace, prepare for war." Actually that's a poignant title for this one. But still, it's exhausting. Anyway, we open with a sequence to remind us that there is a war going on and lives are being lost. But not on Discovery, because they've got Stamets and the spore drive. But he's lost his mojo, and has gone back to being his usual asshole self. He refuses to talk to the ship's doctor about it, because he happens to be sleeping with him and he knows it would blow their relationship up.



Tyler, Burnham, and Saru are on a planet that the fleet predicts they may be able to exploit to locate Klingon ships that are under cloak, called Pahvo. The planet is a giant transmitter, even equipped with a giant tower to broadcast from. I'm not quite sure how this allows them to spot cloaked ships, but whatever, I'll play along. While on the planet, it is discovered that the planet itself, its vegetation, and all the blue dust floating around everywhere is all one harmonious life form. At first the noise put off by the planet drives Saru nuts, but then he turns a corner and finds harmony with the planet. Actually, he acts like he's joined a cult or something. He no longer wants to contact the ship, or fight the Klingons, he just wants to chill on the planet. He lies to Tyler and Burnham and tells them that he has contacted the ship and it's all totally cool if the three of them just live there from now one and never speak to anyone on the outside world again. Throughout this exchange we learn that Saru has some pretty crazy skills. He can crush communicators with his bare hands like a beer can. He can run 80 km per hour. He can smash rugged electronics with a solid punch. But none of this is enough, because the planet sides with Burnham and allows the transmission to Discovery to go through.

Later, Burnham tries to dismiss Saru's behavior and says he wasn't himself. But he confesses that he absolutely was himself. On the planet, he felt 100% safe for the very first time in his existence, and he didn't want to give up the peace that came over him. I think the fact that Saru just basically abandoned Star Fleet and double crossed everyone surely makes him more sympathetic to the mutiny that Burnham orchestrated. Saru didn't even do it for any altruistic reason, he did it for a strictly selfish reason. But the two are connected because they both took a rash action that was true to their character. At any rate, Saru no longer has anything over Burnham, at least in this viewer's opinion.

Meanwhile on the sarcophagus ship, L'Rell has decided that she wants to defect with Cornwell, because there is no longer a cause that she can get behind. But in trying to pull off the getaway, they get caught and L'Rell "kills" Cornwell. She then has no choice but to swear allegiance to Kol, but he suspects her double cross and his henchmen carry her away.

In a plot twist at the end, the Pahvans didn't follow through on their end of the bargain. Rather than allowing their massive antenna to spot cloaked Klingons, they used it as a beacon to bring the Klingons and Star Fleet together in a naive attempt to facilitate peace, and we end on that cliffhanger.

This episode is merely Meh. The visuals on the planet are wonderful, however it's too close to the world on Avatar to feel original. We might have gotten maybe one half step closer to understanding L'Rell, but I still can't really put my finger on what motivates her. Also, I'm not buying that Cornwell is dead. Overall, there's just nothing all that important that takes place in this episode, it feels more like a long lead-up to the next one where hopefully there are some payoffs.

Published February 4, 2018