OMG! OMG! OMG! The Baul are metal as fuck! These guys are ripped right off the cover of an Iron Maiden album. They aren't just humans with some extra bumps on their nose or some slightly pronounced freckles across their necks. These are some long-haired tar-covered red-eyed lanky creepy scary bass-toned evil satanic motherfuckers right here. These are the aliens we deserve! But I'm way ahead of myself on this Fantastic episode.
Another red flash of light takes Discovery to Kalimar, which is Saru's home world. In order to try to figure out what the flashes are, Pike decides that making first contact with the Kelpiens is necessary. This must be especially frustrating for Saru, who was told that General Order One would prevent him from ever returning to his planet or seeing anyone he loves ever again. Now I guess it's no big deal. Oh also, Pike's not even going to send Saru down there. This pisses Saru right off and he openly challenges Pike until he is allowed to be part of the process.
Saru and Burnham visit Saru's sister in his old village. The meeting is...complicated. She resents Saru for abandoning them, sees him as not brave enough to face the culling, and blames him for their father going in his place. Furthermore she's angry that he hasn't come to get her, but rather to serve some other interest that really has nothing to do with her. And now the Baul know of his arrival and are pissed.
Back on the bridge, Saru now challenges the Baul directly. They are demanding he be returned to them, or they will wreak havoc on the planet. Pike sends him off the bridge, and there is a moment of defeat, but then we as viewers remember that Saru is a badass that will deal with this. He knows what he must do, and beams off the ship. He is taken by the Baul, as is his sister, and they get to discuss the issue face to face. Oh by the way, Saru can now shoot darts out of his face. And he has super strength. Basically, he's a superhero, and even briefly strikes a three point superhero pose. Then he fashions a communicator from some broken drone pieces and dials up Discovery. See, I told you he's a badass.Meanwhile on Discovery, they are using the information that they gained from the sphere to figure out what exactly has been happening on Kalimar for the last few thousand years. Actually putting this information to use is so refreshing, as we have seen instances where aliens have dumped information to Star Fleet and we never heard a word about it again. Anyway the deal is that at one time the Kelpiens were mostly post-vaharia and had nearly wiped out the Baul altogether. But the Baul somehow made a comeback and this is why they cull all Kelpiens that are about to lose their threat ganglia. Upon learning this information, Pike goes from "we are not here to start a war between the Kelpiens and the Baul" directly to "we are absolutely here to start a war between the Kelpiens and the Baul." They all firmly believe that this is why the red angel brought them here. So they devise a plan to make all the Kelpiens go through the vaharai instantly, just to balance things out. This time the Kelpiens will not become the predators, but rather come up with a way to live peacefully with the Baul. But rather than risk it, the Baul decide to just destroy all Kelpiens. But then the red angel itself shows up to stop them. Which leads again to the question of why something as powerful as the red angel needs to recruit Discovery for help. Saru gets a good look at the angelic being, and realizes that it's a humanoid in an Iron Man suit. I hope to God it's not Spock.
"The Sound of Thunder" is a Fantastic episode. Saru is by far the most interesting character on the show, and watching him evolve and fight back against a world wide injustice that his people have suffered over many thousands of years is just so satisfying. It starts by him not immediately ceding the captain's chair when Pike enters the bridge, and ends with him destroying death bots with his bare hands and freeing his entire people from oppression. I'm not so sure that it was Star Fleet's place to cause a revolution, but no one can deny that it was the just thing to do. He repairs his relationship with his sister, and again urges Burnham to do the same with her sibling, Spock. If only we could ever find him....Published Mar 3, 2019
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