Star Trek: Discovery Review: Forget Me Not (Season 3 Episode 4)
As a franchise, Star Trek has long been about exploration and understanding. While Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery introduces viewers to new people and places in a new time, it also focuses that search inward.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 4, “Forget Me Not,” explores questions of identity with parallel storylines, one focusing on the Bridge crew and the other on Adira and Burnham who travel to the Trill home planet.
Previous episodes this season reference the crew’s trauma from being displaced in time, but “Forget Me Not” is the most explicit in stating the damage.
Culber, whose ability to identify trauma comes from both his medical background and personal experience, kicks off this exploration. From the top of the episode, his log frames what this particular story is about and gives the episode a natural transition into the topic.
It’s a nice spotlight for actor Wilson Cruz as we get to dig into how Culber responds to this future. Having gone through significant upheaval during Season 2 after his resurrection, Culber sees the crew’s struggles more acutely and Cruz knows how to convey that.
Eerily, it’s hard not to see how the crew clings to the mantra of “when we find the Federation” for hope as reflecting the current state of the world. Although the episode has been written and filmed before the Coronavirus pandemic, it echoes how many people are holding on to whatever hopes of future relief they can right now in a time of great uncertainty.
Culber also sees through Burham’s veneer, who admits to feeling lost. Pairing her with newcomer Adira makes sense since she can’t be the person the existing crew expects her to be. Burnham can guide Adira on this new journey since she already navigated her own.
Their adventure starts on a lighter note, but their initial fears about the Trill not accepting a human symbiont host prove true. The Burn looms in the back of every episode, and the Trill’s decimation from the event contributes to their hostility over a human host.
Unlike previous episodes, this one takes a break from big action, including only a short fight sequence where Burnham defends Adira. Instead, it leans into a more spiritual vibe as Adira’s trial becomes one of the heart and mind, not the body, to communicate with their symbiont.
Similar events unravel back on Discovery, as Saru takes Culber’s diagnosis of the crew’s trauma and tries his best to bring them together. While his Thanksgiving style family meal backfires, it moves the story forward by finally bringing things to light.
For example, the repressed Detmer lashes out, revealing the stress and pressure of being the ship’s pilot. It’s an extremely uncomfortable scene with a great performance from Emily Coutts, watching her crack as she shares a macabre haiku about Stamets’ near-death experience.
But the discomfort is important in getting the crew to face reality instead of putting on a brave face. As Culber points out, you can’t get help until you admit you’re not fine.
By the end of the episode, the crew resolves some issues as we see one-on-one conversations filled with apologies and admissions. Hopefully, Star Trek: Discovery commits to continuing to address these issues, which shouldn’t just go away after one episode just as they wouldn’t in real life.
Adira gets a similar come-to-the-light moment when they open up to their painful memories and remember they become a symbiont host after their host boyfriend Gray (Ian Alexander) died. Unlocking that memory unlocks the rest of the hosts’ memories, and they finally become one with the symbiont.
In addition to the emotional weight of the Trill scenes, the special effects impress here. The symbiont home transforms in response to Adira, forming something close to a neural network.
If you’re not already crying from seeing Gray and Adira’s love story play out in their memories, you will be when watching the former hosts accept Adira into their circle in a warm, comforting scene. In a season already filled with touching moments, this one calls for an extra box of tissues.
After a tense day, Discovery is on the path to healing. They are also on the path to the Federation after Senna Tal shares the coordinates they need with Adira.
Despite doing significant work to come to terms with their new identities on this episode, a lot of hope still hangs on the Federation. Whether the Federation lives up to those hopes remains to be seen.
Additional Thoughts:
- It may be a more high-tech version, but Burnham’s evidence board still gives off big conspiracy theory vibes.
- I absolutely love Senna Tal’s lullaby they play throughout the episode. Fingers crossed a full version gets released on the Season 3 soundtrack.
- Star Trek: Discovery touting a trans character before the season only to kill him off on his first episode is not great. Presumably, they have bigger plans for Gray despite him currently only existing in Adira’s mind. (Also hopefully he’s revealed to the rest of Discovery soon so it doesn’t veer into copying the Tilly and May storyline from Season 2.)
- Movie nights in the shuttle bay seem so fun. But more importantly, will the Sphere become more of its own character this season as it interfaces with the ship and guides Saru? And what movie will it recommend next?
What did you think of this episode of Star Trek: Discovery? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Star Trek: Discovery airs Thursdays on CBS All Access.
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Breeze Riley
Breeze Riley is a pop culture enthusiast who decided to turn her love of watching too much TV into a hobby writing about it. Although she's a convention-going sci-fi and fantasy nerd, she's just as likely to be watching an off-beat comedy or period drama. She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic.
One thought on “Star Trek: Discovery Review: Forget Me Not (Season 3 Episode 4)”
Bones of the story: good
Execution of said story: meh
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