If there was any doubt whatsoever that the fifth season of Discovery is a role-playing-game-style quest narrative, “Jinaal” beats those doubts to a pulp. We’ve definitely got ourselves a goal that will be found by our heroes being clever, by getting through traps, by figuring out riddles, and so on.
And it’s fun. Trek hasn’t really done this sort of straight-up game-style narrative before, certainly not on this scale, and while you can practically hear the dice rolling with each scene, it’s fun, dangit.
It helps that the episode does something that the Secret Hideout shows have been much better about than the previous wave of Trek TV shows, and that’s embracing the history on the microcosmic level as well as the macrocosmic. I love that they do things like last week’s use of the Promellians. The first wave of Trek spinoffs would have just made up an alien species rather than re-use one, but there’s no reason not to use one that’s already established. Especially since “Booby Trap” made it sound like the Promellians were a well-known extinct species, yet were only mentioned in that one TNG episode.
While this tendency can sometimes go overboard into the fan-wanky territory (cf. the third season of Picard), Discovery has generally made it work. This episode in particular makes very good use of Trek’s history, particularly the Trill both as developed on DS9 and also as seen on this show, particularly in “Forget Me Not.” And we also get some background on why the Progenitors’ technology was classified.
The clue on Trill is held by a joined Trill named Jinaal, whose current host is still alive on the world. It’s been eight centuries, and both host and symbiont are near the end of their lives—indeed, they’re clinging to life in part because nobody has approached them for their clue yet.
Discovery’s arrival is met with a riddle to prove that they figured out the clue on the Promellian necropolis last time—in particular that it initially appeared to lead to Betazed. Once Burnham provides that right answer, Jinaal’s current host is willing to talk to them, but the host who actually was there eight hundred years ago wants to talk directly to the Discovery crew. So they perform a zhiantara, first seen in DS9’s “Facets,” where prior hosts’ personalities can be temporarily downloaded into another person. The Guardians (including Gray, still apprenticing as a Guardian) perform the ceremony on Jinaal, transferring the older host into Culber.
As with “Facets”—and indeed every other science fiction story that involves characters getting a temporary new personality, a well Trek has dug into any number of times, from the original series’ “Return to Tomorrow” and “Turnabout Intruder” to TNG’s “The Schizoid Man” and “Masks” to DS9’s “Dramatis Personae” and “Our Man Bashir” to Voyager’s “Infinite Regress” and “Body and Soul” to Enterprise’s “The Crossing” and “Observer Effect”—this is at least partly an acting exercise for Wilson Cruz. And, to his credit, Cruz nails it, creating a fully realized character in Jinaal, who is crotchety, enigmatic, and more than a little manipulative.
He was a scientist who worked with the Romulan whose scout ship was found last week, along with a bunch of other scientists, after the Romulan found the Progenitors’ technology. This all happened at the height of the Dominion War, which—as we know from DS9—was a time of significant paranoia in the Alpha Quadrant. Because of that, and because of how dangerous the technology had the potential to be, the scientists all agreed to hide it and only have it be findable by someone who can figure out the clues and who could be counted on to use it for good.
Having this all happen during the Dominion War was very clever, as that was a time when worry about things like Changeling infiltration was at its height. And it’s remained a big secret since then simply because nobody knows where it is without the Romulan journal.
Besides his initial riddle and his general questioning of Burnham and Book about the state of the galaxy in the thirty-second century, there’s one final test. Jinaal claims to have hidden the next physical puzzle piece in a canyon occupied by a nasty predator animal that can cloak itself. Eventually, Burnham and Book realize that it isn’t just a big nasty creature attacking them, it’s a mother protecting its eggs. Once they realize that, they back off, which is what Jinaal was waiting for.
Having passed the compassion test, he gives them the final doodad. Culber then gets his body back and Jinaal can rest.
There are also three character-based subplots, two of which work nicely. Back at Federation HQ, Saru and T’Rina are about to announce their engagement, but Saru’s new career as an ambassador complicates matters for T’Rina’s chief aide, who advises Saru to convince his boss that they should postpone the engagement announcement. Saru goes along with this, thinking he’s protecting his fiancée, but T’Rina wastes no time in whupping him upside the head on that score. The Ni’Var President understands her staff’s need to be politically acute, but she refuses to let political concerns interfere with her personal life—a very logical decision, though logic and politics so rarely mix. It’s a nice little subplot, elevated, as usual, by brilliant performances by Doug Jones and Tara Rosling and their picture-perfect chemistry, as well as the script by Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Wilkinson, which illustrates the conflict potential when Saru’s compassion clashes with T’Rina’s logic.
On Discovery, Burnham charges her new first officer with getting to know the crew. Rayner resists this—he’s read their service records—but Burnham thinks there’s no substitute for talking to people. Rayner’s solution to this is to give each crewmember twenty words to tell him something about themselves that isn’t in their service record. It takes Tilly whupping him upside the head to remind him that his command style on the Antares isn’t going to work on Discovery. Mary Wiseman is particularly good here, showing us how far Tilly has come. (She’d better damn well be one of the stars of the upcoming Starfleet Academy series…)
The third character bit doesn’t quite work, mostly because it feels like some scenes are missing. Adira and Gray are reunited, and they apparently haven’t hardly talked since Gray went to Trill. Given the ease of holographic communication over absurd distances in the thirty-second century, this is surprising, but there it is. Gray and Adira are still obviously in love with each other and still are thrilled to see each other—but then they have a conversation that ends with them deciding to break up because the distance thing isn’t working. They’re both incredibly happy where they are. And yet, in the very last scene, they’re still hanging out on Trill, the mission itself long over. So are they broken up or not? It feels like there’s a scene or two missing there…
In that last scene, we find out that Mol, contrary to Discovery’s report that she and L’ak are on another world, is on Trill, having infiltrated the Guardians. That doesn’t bode well…
I agree that Wilson Cruz was awesome in this episode. I love the cocky, arrogant sort of character he played in Jinaal; it was like he was channelling the Old Spice guy. Also, I now kind of wish that they would do a spin-off about Saru and T’Rina in the Federation’s diplomatic corps.
The Adira/Gray thing didn’t really work for me either, in particular because I assumed that they’d already broken off their relationship when Gray moved to Trill. Also, while I like the two of them because they remind me of a lot of trans and nonbinary people that I personally know, and it’s nice to see that represented on television, I feel like Adira has been sort of a nowhere character for most of the time since they came out. I had hoped that their symbiont might have had more of a personal stake in this episode’s proceedings.
I am excited to hear that their next destination is in Tzenkethi space. Hopefully, we’ll finally get to see a member of that species (I know that the most recent comics have depicted them as giant social-darwinist dinosaur guys, but I think I preferred their depiction in the old novelverse).
Yeah, I’m really happy with how DS9 was tied into the puzzle; it’s a completely plausible explanation for why the follow-up to Picard’s discovery never went anywhere in-universe.
Whoa, a moment recalling The Horta from TOS’ “The Devil In The Dark.”
Unless it turns out that Grudge The Cat is somehow the last puzzle piece for this adventure, I guess we won’t be seeing much of Book’s furball…
Yes, Wilson Cruz did a fantastic job altering his whole personality, voice, and body language to play Jinaal. That was great, and getting an explanation for why they set up this elaborate treasure hunt instead of just destroying the knowledge was good (because they still had hope that civilization could achieve greater peace and enlightenment in the future). Getting the timing pinned down to the Dominion War is helpful too. I’d been expecting something closer to the Picard era.
I do find it hard to buy that the Trill homeworld has giant invisible killer bugs with built-in artillery, and nobody ever mentioned it. Hard to believe a humanoid species could survive on a planet that has that kind of predators. Unless the bugs are only adapted for that specific climate, I guess.
I agree it’s hard to believe that Gray and Adira can’t touch using holographic telepresence. And Gray did acknowledge in passing that relationships don’t necessarily have to be monogamous. Breaking them up seems like the kind of choice necessitated by actor unavailability rather than the organic growth of the characters.
I think Linus’s throwaway line about Saurians’ asexual reproduction has probably blown a lot of my Saurian worldbuilding in the novels out of the water. I’m not sure I addressed their reproduction or parenting in any specifics, but I definitely portrayed them as having males and females.
Re: Saurians, I feel like you could come up with a functional retcon there, Christopher! Just because they reproduce asexually doesn’t preclude some manner of dimorphism analogous to “male” and “female.” This could be related to specialized roles as part of the communal rearing of their young. Or perhaps mature Saurians undergo biological changes relative to their procreation cycle, presenting as female during estrous phases and male during anestrous phases.
The Saurians in my (and others’) Trek novels have permanent genders, but the cycle you describe reminds me of the Chirrn in my Arachne duology (soon to be a trilogy), who cycle back and forth between male and female throughout their lives.
Wilson Cruz was great here, but as you inferred, he was basically just playing an NPC. The “character” of Jinaal was the typical sort of questgiver with established motivations, but not much going on beyond that. I suppose I could partially excuse that because he wasn’t a real person, but a reembodied former host, so a more limited range may be expected. Still, the quest structure is so contrived and RPG-ish here that I have a hard time taking it seriously.
My big issue, as with you, was with the Adira/Gray breakup, but for different reasons. I think a lot of the problem is the central theme of this episode is the right thing to do is to be open/honest – to reach out and communicate, and then things will be fine. Michael does it with the giant space moths, and it works. Saru does that with T’Rina, and it works. Rayner doesn’t do it, and he ends the episode having failed. So Gray and Adira put on their big person pants, act like “adults” and break up amicably.
I think being open, honest, and emotionally available is a good way to live, and it’s certainly what Michelle Paradise likes to write on Discovery. It’s shitty drama though. We want to see characters who are flawed, who fail, who make mistakes, who are sometimes selfish. Gray and Adira here act more as role models for proper young person behavior than anything resembling relatable human beings. The breakup being drama free means the scenes fail as drama.
Also, can we get a second to note that the series has done bug-fuck all with Adira being joined for a long time now? I was looking forward to going to Trill because I hoped this segment of their personality would be finally examined again. But nope – they’re still presented as a generic teenager with no backstory to speak of. Why don’t the centuries of experience they have from the symbiont mean…anything. Why does it never come up? Why doesn’t it alter her perspective on things? It’s just such a lazy choice, because they’d be so much more interesting otherwise.
It’s Their perspective, not hers, btw
Right, I’ve been rewatching Northern Exposure on Prime lately (still a great show by the way), and I’ve noticed while looking on fan boards that there’s a trend in criticizing the flaws in characters without, apparently, realizing those flaws are needed to make those characters interesting. Or just to tell a story.
I mean, I don’t know what these fans want. Good, friendly people acting appropriately at all times? Well, that’s a first-class ticket to Snoozeville.
One of my gripes on a lot of the movie/tv boards is watchers who seem to want all characters to be perfectly likeable people without the slightest conflict or disagreeable characteristic.
Personally, I would find people who are all “likeable” a bit boring.
Speaking as a professional fiction writer of 30 years’ standing (though I mostly do it sitting down), flaws are not “needed” to make a character interesting, nor are good friendly people acting appropriately all the time a bad way to create characters. Probably the best evidence for the latter is the TNG crew, who are, y’know, kinda popular and enduring….
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Though to be fair, the breakout characters on TNG were Data, Worf, and Picard. Data had a flaw built into his character (albeit an endearing one) that he consistently tried to overcome. Worf was an incredibly flawed person by TNG standards (horrible father for one thing). And Picard, though he’s presented as this paragon by some, had clear flaws from the get go. He was socially awkward in informal situations, particularly with kids, for example.
It’s much harder to point to “flaws” with the other characters (other than Geordi who’s a creepster with women) but fewer people find them as compelling as characters, and to a large extent they were defined by their roles on the ship/in the show rather than anything intrinsic to their personalities.
But back to Northern Exposure, it’s chock full of characters with all sorts of foibles and weirdness, and I’m loving it. Why else watch television if not for something unusual, flawed, and human? I mean, if we can’t explore, to quote Chris Stevens, “that little bit of Darth Vader inside us,” then what’s the point in storytelling? Is it merely to have some easy comfort in an environment where nothing can harm us, insult us, or challenge us? And I mean really challenge us; not some plotty plot stuff about finding a relic that plugs in a flashy thing from TOS and fans slobber all over themselves with delight at something they recognize. I’m talking about something real. Whenever Star Trek does that, it’s back on trek, er, track.
Sorry, I don’t agree with that at all. TNG succeeded despite the bland, wall-to-wall carpeted environment those poor characters were dropped into from the start. It was mainly due to Patrick Stewart’s charisma and Brent Spiner’s quirkiness that it carried on. But then they weren’t all quite perfect, either. Once in a while a flaw was able to slip through and they briefly became interesting. Worf murders his rival in revenge; Barclay is addicted to the holodeck; Geordi… well, don’t get me started with that guy — but my God, these people are human after all!
Thankfully, Ira Steven Behr was taking notes on how to make a Trek with characters who were more flawed and, yes, interesting.
OTOH, Maybe it wasn’t meant to be drama, though?
just because something is not dramatic doesn’t mean it’s interesting. See Celine schema’s films to some extent.
Keith, the showrunners have said specifically that this season is supposed to feel like an Indiana Jones type of adventure. So you may hear dice rolling, but they’re harkening back to an older tradition: the adventure serials of long ago.
I actually liked this episode better than the first two. It felt more like a story and less like a bunch of action setpieces strung together.
I REALLY liked it that the true test wasn’t “Can you hike this canyon” but rather “Can you empathize with the creatures who live in it?” Very Star Trekky!
I loved the Saru/T’Rina stuff, both her standing her ground when Saru tried to be protective, since she’s the PRESIDENT of a freaking PLANET, for heaven’s sake. And also her saying that conflict was inevitable and not to be feared.
Wilson Cruz! So good! More of him, please.
I thought Rayner’s twenty-words thing was a little over the top; it made him seem like a parody of a crusty old guy, rather than a real person. I don’t mind being emotionally manipulated by Star Trek, but the wires shouldn’t be quite THAT visible. :-)
So, how could Moll possibly have gotten to Trill long enough before the Discovery to go undercover as one of those red-robed people? She and La’k didn’t dig up the thingy that gave them the fifth line of the poem until long after Burnham and Saru did, so how did they even know to go to Trill, much less get there so fast? Doesn’t Discovery’s spore drive get them places MUCH faster than any other ship?
The one thing I really didn’t like was that the lighting in the canyon was so dark that I couldn’t SEE anything during that whole scene. I’m glad the dialogue told me enough about what was happening that I didn’t have to actually see it to know what was going on. But seeing it, too, would have been nice!
“Why Not Both?” – An Indiana Jones RPG Game.
Last review, I commented how, when two characters talked together, the storyline stopped. Not here. Those pieces of conversation moved the plot along, moved development along, and maybe even wrapped up storylines. They were essential.
There were four distinct storylines going on here. When was the last time Trek did that for one episode? Impressive!
I had to go back to see how much the Vulcan Purists would impact T’Rina. They’re part of her coalition, so good for not dropping that.
I’m sure there are real-world occasions for business interviews such as the “Twenty-Word Limit”, but I loved it. It reminded me of Doctor Who’s “The Crimson Horror”, where Madame Vastra would only allow one-word answers from Clara to her questions, so, you do need to think concisely.
Odd — the canyon scenes didn’t seem that dark to me. Maybe you have an issue with your video settings.
I didn’t mind the twenty-words thing, since it seems like the sort of thing an orderly, mission-driven commander might do. And it gave us the fun gag of Tilly counting her words and stopping just before the profane one.
Moll didn’t show up until the final scene — maybe Adira stuck around on Trill for a few days?
Thanks for letting me know that the canyon scenes didn’t look terribly dark to others! I’ll look into adjusting my setup.
Given how big of a hurry they’re in to find the Progenitor tech before the scavengers do, I think it would be odd for them to just hang out at Trill. It’s a race, after all.
The dialogue established that they were awaiting diplomatic clearance to enter Tzenkethi space.
I was thinking maybe Adira stayed behind on Trill while the ship moved on. But Burnham did say “I’ll see you back on the ship” or words to that effect, which suggests she expected Adira back aboard before they left. So I dunno.
The modern shows do have a tendency to assume interstellar journeys are a matter of hours, though. I mean, Discovery‘s ability to reach Trill instantaneously didn’t prevent Moll and L’ak from backtracking from Betazed (presumably) to the burial-ground world while the Trill mission was underway.
Though it does make sense that 32nd-century tech would be much faster than we’re familiar with (DSC has already cited transwarp conduits [used by couriers] and quantum slipstream [if you can find the benemite]), especially given the relatively small slice of the galaxy this season is taking place in (all places that would have been accessible from Federation space in the 24th century).
(If anything, that’s my complaint; the 32nd-century setting has the whole galaxy to play with; why not revisit the Delta or Gamma Quadrants?)
Good point, but I guess that since this is the final season, they want to tie into the franchise’s legacy or something.
And maybe one of the quest destinations will be in Klingon space and we’ll finally find out what they’re like in the 32nd. If so, I hope they won’t just be the same old Klingons they were a millennium before, which would be a failure of imagination and historical plausibility. Cultures can change profoundly in that span of time.
Yeah, and although I love many things about modern Trek, I hate it that they act as if the galaxy takes 12 hours to traverse. Space is freaking HUGE, and I wish there were more recognition of that.
Oh, well. They need to sell the show to subscribers, so the story has to move at a brisk pace for most people. Not everyone will do as I do and read all thousand pages of The Hands of the Emperor and find it riveting even though almost everything that happens is happening INSIDE the characters. :-)
One of Roddenberry’s guidelines to Trek writers was to avoid treating deep space as a local neighborhood. He wanted to convey a sense that interstellar journeys were an actual trek, a long, challenging journey, rather than a casual commute. That’s why the show’s called that.
I think the issue is that it’s harder for modern writers than 1960s writers to grasp the idea of travel taking a long time. We’re used to being able to jet anywhere on the planet in a day or less, to being in instant communication with people on the other side of the planet. There’s little sense of inaccessibility anymore. Writers in TOS’s era had less ubiquitous air travel and slower international communications, and most of them had been alive before jet travel became common and before the first communications satellites were launched. Plus their TV landscape was carpeted with Westerns and historical dramas. So the idea of a frontier narrative, of stories taking place in distant, remote places that took considerable time and effort to reach and were isolated from civilization, came more easily to writers and audiences back then.
I just finished so I’m still processing. This was a bit weird for Disco just because there were 4 plots going on that really didn’t have anything in common but also didn’t get in the way of each other.
My least favorite was our new XO who spent the entire episode in the science lab trying to figure out who number two works for (that’s one works in a few different ways) while Tilly has the job of calling him on his bullshit. While I can appreciate the 31st century isn’t the 23rd or 24th I can’t imagine he got to be a command officer with that little people skills. I think there was a better way of getting the point across that he’s a bit emotionally burnt out- maybe have Stammets be super excited and him trying but just not quite connecting? Not sure but that part didn’t work for me.
Adria and Grey wasn’t bad it just wasn’t good. We got a Jet Reno appearance (and a nice nod to Wil Wheaton who refers to Gates McFadden as space mom now being used on Stammets as”space dad”) but the subplot just seemed unfinished and unnecessary. Slightly better was our newly engaged couple who had a mini fight. It didn’t do much for me but I appreciate anything with those two acting together. I think if we somehow could’ve made the random debate going on be about something? I mean we’re talking about some random topic from planets we don’t know who they are or why they need star bases and patrols because we’ve never seen random breen attacks. This was tell not show.
Lastly though was our A plot which featured fantastic character work by Wilson Cruz and a traditional (but appreciated) trek ending where we make friends out of enemies. It had a nice mix of drama and comedy (do we go on three or say three and then go?) and seemed like a challenge without being over the top. My only nitpick is do the guardians not know who each other are? Our bad guy put on a robe and just stood there. No other guardians were there going “who’s the new guy?” I think if someone I’ve never seen before shows up at my job (in the most spiritually significant place on the planet!) I’d probably ask WTF. But somehow our bad guy snuck past the starship, past planetary defenses, past whatever security is at the cave and into the random voice over by Gray so she could bug Adira who there was zero possible way she could know existed let alone be there. It reminds me of TNG descent part one where a series of out of character events have to happen in exactly the right sequence for the plot to work.
I know we don’t score these things anymore. I’d give this a 7 or so if we did- it’s a nice adventure story with some great character work but too many unnecessary things and one big WTF plot contrivance.
Also, I found the claim that each Trill has a unique pattern of spots to be amusing, given that Michael Westmore claimed that he gave Jadzia a different pattern every time.
I think it was more that he did it by hand each time, so there were subtle variations that there wouldn’t have been if he’d used a stencil.
I want to know who those other four scientists were!!!
My prediction: 3 people you’ve never heard of and then 1 legacy character.
Anyways, given the breakdown of the races in “The Chase,” I’m going to guess that two of them will be, respectively, a Cardassian and a Klingon.
I’m imagining Ethan Peck appearing in a flashback in old-age makeup…
I think the most natural choice would be Dr. Crusher, because she was on hand for the initial discovery, she specializes in bio-science, and she could have fit it into the timeline in between First Contact and Insurrection (or between Insurrection and Nemesis, perhaps). Alternatively, it could be a very old Doctor McCoy or (I suppose) Spock. Or Data.
Anyways, I’m going to assume that it was a pre-Lower Decks Dr. T’Ana until I’m inevitably proved otherwise.
I’m thinking Spock because he’s Burnham’s adoptive brother, and it would be a way to bring some full-circle closure to the series. Those other characters have significance to Trek in general but not to Discovery or its characters.
I agree in principle, but they also didn’t know that this would be their final season, so I’d be surprised if they went out of their way to bring it full circle.
Even if they didn’t plan it as the finale, it still makes sense that they’d choose a character with a connection to the Discovery cast. I mean, this show is all about personal connections and relationships. Look how they established a connection between Book and Moll.
Episode 3. The Trill homeworld episode. I love this structure. Discovery has come a long way from the mess that was season 2’s plotting. Even though the show is serialized by design, this is almost a perfect blend of serialized and episodic storytelling. There’s a clear beginning, middle and end in all the plots, especially the Saru/T’Rina one. A classic story of new loving couple having their first ‘fight’, so to speak. Delightful, and it flows beautifully from Saru’s worries about T’Rina’s political future.
I loved the Jellico-esque take on Rayner’s approach to meeting the crew. Although, much like TNG, I think the show is siding a little too much with Tilly. I had zero problems with Rayner’s ‘tell me something I don’t know in 20 words or less’ approach. The show is obviously trying to make him a problem that needs to be solved, given his persistent focus on finding Mol and L’ak, but I find his approach to duty and personnel refreshing. Not a buddy-buddy like Riker, Pike or Tilly, but not a reclusive Mirror Universe creep like Lorca either.
And of course, Discovery gets to do the possessed character trope. A superb performance from Cruz. One thing that surprised me on this A Story is the notion that the symbionts eventually die themselves. I thought for sure they could live on forever, hence people like Dax having almost a dozen lifetimes. Loved the test – and the twist that the beast was just a mother protecting her offspring really caught me off-guard. Nicely plotted, thanks in no small part to the very well written character of Jinall. A self-centered with a moon-size ego, but who never lost sight of the mission.
I could see the Grey/Adira breakup coming from a mile away. I’ve always felt there was a sense of unease between as a couple. For what it’s worth, I thought it was a well-written mature parting (assuming that’s what happened – as pointed out, the editing felt a little wonky).
The symbiont life expectancy was shorter than I’d expected, but it settles a question I had. If 800 years is near the maximum symbiont lifespan, that means that Dax, which was 300 years old in the 24th century, was probably already long gone by the time the Burn happened. Which is disappointing — I’d hoped we might get to see their current host.
It’s a very minor thing in this episode, but it warms my heart that buncha rocks still beats eight more centuries of technological progress.
Which suggests that the personal transporters aren’t really built-in transporter devices in themselves, but simply remote controls for the transporter back on the ship. If they had all the necessary equipment built in, then they could just aim their signal onto a path clear of the rocks and teleport away that way.
Which is the interpretation I prefer, since it makes no sense that a transporter a) could function while it was itself in a dematerialized state and b) could contain the particles of an object larger than itself within its transport buffer.
Cruz does such a great job as Jinaal — and, not particular to this episode, I’ve just been so happy to see him play Culber over the past few years so long after his role on the brilliant My So-Called Life.
Not dragging out a rift between Saru and T’Rina based on the conflict introduced here is very, very welcome.
Moll’s name is given the double-l spelling on-screen, just FYI to Keith and/or Reactor editors as well as other commenters — although I’d be delighted to see Gretchen Mol turn up on Trek sometime.
I haven’t seen this discussed yet. Did I really see Mol transfer something into Adira?
If so, I really can’t lead to something good.
my guess is that it will make it super easy, barely an inconvenience to follow Discovery to her next destination….yeah, i’m a bit behind with the series. :D
I’d forgotten about that but you’re right.
I really liked the episode and that they finally make the original Chase episode the proper time with the RPG adventure (though while that was too short to squeeze into one episode, this might get too stretched as Discovery often tends to be.
As for Adira and Gray, while I like Adira, Gray hasn’t been super convincing before and this break-up was terribly unconvincing. OK, 6 months is not a short time and they are young, but at least they could have some reasons to break up, but none was really given. Has their feelings changed? Have they both found someone else? Did they just get bored with each other over the phone?
(and of course it really felt from the beginning that they just really wanted to squeeze in some trans & non-binary characters to the series but in a very American way if i can say so. :D)