The primary takeaway of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 5 is that when events injure or change an individual, they are not the only ones affected.
The initial encounter with the Kerkhovians (yet another new species for the canon gatekeepers to salivate over) leaves Spock significantly altered, and although M’Benga points out there’s nothing actually wrong with him health-wise, a 100% human Spock is decidedly not Spock.
Chapel’s survivors’ guilt, Amanda’s desperation to salvage the engagement dinner, and T’Pring’s ultimate sense of betrayal are all knock-on effects of Spock’s condition.
And then there are the parents.
T’Pring’s never come across as a carefree or frivolous sort of gal, but she is positively bohemian in light of her mother’s general state of discontent and vitriol.
And I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a Vulcan husband like Sevet. Can Vulcans be henpecked? Because Sevet’s choice to change his mind with the wind of his wife’s opinion must be rooted in Logic, and yethow it could be is bewildering.
No one could be a more dramatic contrast to Amanda Grayson than T’Pril.
One thing I’ve learned about being a human on Vulcan is how to suppress my own pain.
Amanda
Where Amanda is nurturing, T’Pril is demanding. Where Amanda is adaptable, T’Pril is intractable.
Are their tigers on Vulcan? Because T’Pril is the worst sort of stereotypical tiger mother.
The fact that spending time with her mother drives T’Pring, a bastion of protocol, to abandon all formalities when she sees Spock indicates the high level of mother-daughter tension in their relationship.
One can’t help but feel bad for T’Pring. Which is probably surprising considering what we know of her choices in the future.
But, in all fairness, she didn’t ask to be a part of a Spock-Chapel triangle. She’s played by the rules, sacrificed much to ensure that Spock and she can marry, and has genuinely tried to accommodate and accept all the un-Vulcan parts of Spock’s personality and behavior.
Spock: I know how much you have sacrificed being with her.
T’Pring: She has been particularly difficult lately. We debated for three hours over this outfit.
Spock: That is…fascinating?
T’Pring: I suppose it is. In the way that it is fascinating that some species eat their young.
We’re getting a lot more insight into the intricacies of the Vulcan culture as this series progresses. Part of me wonders if standing on so much ceremony and ritual is really logical, but rules provide structure which, in turn, provides stability.
Stability in marriage is logical.
Pike: Are we really talking the end of their engagement just because Spock is temporarily not Vulcan?
Amanda: Vulcan engagements are complex. If the agreement’s broken, the union won’t be recognized under Vulcan law. T’Pring’s family would reject her if she chose to remain with Spock. It’s considered a great shame and no choice at all for a true Vulcan.
It’s a little too convenient that T’Pring is the one to suggest she and Spock take a break. Since it’s her decision, it absolves Spock of any guilt he might feel in pursuing a romantic relationship with Chapel.
So no harm, no foul, right? After all, we all know how well taking a break worked out for Ross.
Honestly, I expected a lighter offering overall. There are so many comedic elements included that it’s shocking how serious it is.
Pike: How do you … feel, Mr. Spock?
Spock: I feel… angry. And powerless. And annoyed. And… weirdly hungry? Is this a normal human feeling?
M’Benga: Hunger can affect your mood.
I mean, Spock forgetting how to Vulcan? Experiencing adolescent angst? Mood swings? Food cravings?
La’an: Adolescence is a delightful cocktail of anger, fear, sexual attraction, and… hunger. You’re constantly snacking, like so many snacks.
Spock: I am hungry. But I’m also sad and frustrated.
Ethan Peck is remarkable in how he’s able to flip the switch on his Vulcanness but still retain the diction and analytic approach the son of Sarek would possess no matter how much DNA he inherited.
After the comical riot that was Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 5 — hm, it’s curious that Episode 5 in both seasons has been a Spock-T’Pring-centric narrative — one might have hoped their relationship would demonstrate more unity.
Of course, Spock is now a human teenager with all the illogical impulses an immature frontal lobe can string together.
Chapel: It’s just been a tough day. I’m fine. I’ll be fine.
Spock: Is it about the fellowship?
Chapel: I don’t really want to talk about it.
Spock: Vulcans can be such jerks.
There are a lot of firsts piled into this script. Spock gets a joke for the first time, offers a hug for the first time, and experiences a bacon foodgasm for the first time. (Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Vulcans vegetarians? I swear I heard that somewhere before.)
All of this is cute and somewhat endearing.
Having his crewmates teach him how to speak like a Vulcan?
So. Funny.
(What a great crew, right? They go from helping Chapel study for her entrance interview to modeling Vulcan cadence and flat affect for Spock. And that eyebrow!)
Uhura: How to speak like a Vulcan. Like this. Flat. No emotion.
Spock: I am Vulcan.
La’an: Flatter. More robotic.
Una: I am Vulcan. I love logic.
Ortegas: Notice how I move my eyebrow, but no other muscles in my face.
Spock: Do I really sound like that?
All: Yes.
La’an: Absolutely.
But all the humor is overshadowed by the anxiety of the engagement ritual and Chapel’s desperation to return Spock’s Vulcanness to him.
En route to getting appropriate remediation from the Kerkhovians, she’s pushed into admitting out loud how much Spock means to her.
His well-being is so important that her singular purpose is to make him whole again, even though the Kerkhovian “fix” truly made him “match” her.
Her guilt over his condition is all-consuming even before she learns he shifted the shields to protect her in the crash.
Despite recognizing how his condition could mean the end of his relationship with T’Pring and the potential for one with her, she risks her life (and the lives of Ortegas and Uhura) to file the necessary complaint with the Kerkhovians to change him back.
Survivors’ guilt is easy to spot from the outside, but it’s not fun from the inside.
Chapel
The entire secondary plot point of her application for the fellowship in anthropological medicine exists to illustrate a disenchantment with gatekeepers and Vulcan intellectualism, as well as a newfound belief in her own abilities and experience.
It also provides a reason for her to be in the shuttle in the first place. Yeah, I get that.
Ultimately, it’s Spock’s understanding of the abuse and isolation his mother suffered as a human among Vulcans that is the gut punch of the outing.
Her quiet strength, in contrast to T’Pril’s shrill confidence, inspires him.
You refer to my human side as a handicap. Yet my mother is the most resilient, compassionate, tolerant person I have known. One who has been judged by Vulcans her entire life. And yet she stands by, for love, for family. For me. That is no handicap. That is true strength. [To Amanda] And I am sorry that it has taken until now for me to speak these words to you.
Spock
His experience as a human brings him closer to his mother and opens a door to his own humanness.
It makes one wonder if his engagement to T’Pring is not only an arrangement made because of their compatibility but one to satisfy the cultural “correctness” of marrying a Vulcan woman.
I have to take a moment to admire the ingenuity demonstrated by the writers in dreaming up the bureaucratic rigidity of the Kerkhovians.
Reminiscent of Species Ten-C on Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 Episode 13, the Kerkhovians seem to have evolved beyond understanding the perspective of lesser species.
That they evolve into a system of protocols, remediation, and complaint filing is oddly on the nose considering the parallel Vulcan rituals being observed on the Enterprise.
Chapel: I don’t know how those aliens did this.
M’Benga: They’re inscrutable interdimensional beings who don’t experience space and time the way we do. That might be part of it.
Heh, maybe Chapel decides she doesn’t need the Vulcan Academy because she’s already met what they might one day become. And she probably prefers the Kerkhovians.
Once again, not a Pike-centric story, but he definitely had more to do this time out.
Beyond the cooking lessons, hosting duties, and charades shenanigans, my favorite Captain Dad moment is when the door of the transporter room inexplicably won’t open to allow him and Spock to escape Amanda’s scrutiny. Seriously, go back and watch his reaction. It’s priceless.
So, how are we feeling about Spock and Chapel giving into their human emotions?
Keeping canon in mind, Spock and T’Pring will still tie the knot at some future date. Does Chapel just need to shake his tree a little before he returns to his matrimonial path?
Hit our comments with your best thoughts and theories, Fanatics!
Diana Keng is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond ’til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on Twitter.
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