I have no idea what the words "an obol for charon" mean, and I'm not looking it up either, because these titles continue to annoy me and I refuse to participate. But anyway the episode itself is merely Adequate. The whole time I'm thinking that there is just no possible way that Saru is going to die, and then sure enough, right at the moment when Burnham is getting ready to put him out of his misery, my mind finally entertains the idea that they are actually going to kill him off. But then, no. Well done, Discovery, you sucked me right in.
They reason he is dying is that a .... space sphere thing... is dying and has triggered the Kelpian death response. At some point in a Kelpian's life, they become ill. Their threat ganglia enflame, and they know that it's time to be culled by the Baul. If they don't agree to be sacrificed, they will slowly go mad and die anyway. This is "The Great Balance." But when Burnham goes to cut off Saru's ganglia to euthanize him, they fall off instead. He's fine. Actually, he's better than fine, because now he is no longer a slave to fear. The Great Balance is a lie, and his people do not have to submit to being prey to the Baul. Saru is already entertaining the idea of breaking his promise and returning to the planet to balance things out himself.
As for the sphere, once they figure out that it's just trying to communicate with them, the ship's systems go back to normal and they have the added bonus of a huge information dump with 100,000 years of history. Saru is instrumental in solving this mystery, and we learn along the way that he speaks 94 languages. That guy is amazing. There is no talk in the episode of the red angel, but the religious symbolism still remains as the crew is separated from each other and their controls in a Tower of Babel situation. The actual words "Tower of Babel" are put on the screen, just in case you're too dense to pick up on the parallel.
I'm thrilled to see Tig Nataro return as Jett Reno, the crafty fix-it person with all the sarcasm and witty retorts. She spars back and forth with Stamets as they try to once again separate the now escaped blob from Tilly. I'm not sure why they don't just use the same method that worked the first time, but whatever. She's enveloped in a cocoon, she gets out of the cocoon, she's in the cocoon again. You get the idea. It is interesting that Stamets is bragging about how the spore drive is all green energy and doesn't require the world-ravaging dilithium mining to run, and then discovers that his drive is actually destroying the mycelial network. Take that, tree hugger!
Overall "An Obol for Charon" is an Adequate episode. It still feels like filler between larger plot revelations to me. They are still chasing Spock, who presumably we will get to see sometime by the end of the season. Tilly going on a hike to another realm only slightly furthers the May storyline. I have had an inkling all along that May was not a bad guy and just needed help. I suspect next week we will discover exactly what her deal is. However, the sphere communication concept is classic Trek, and the character development between Saru and Michael is heartwarming.Published February 24, 2019
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