Following possibly the most absurd (and awesome!) crossover adventure is an exceptional challenge. With Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 8, we dive deep into the murkiest moral morays of wartime trauma and truths.
Dr. M’Benga’s backstory is full of tragedy and painful choices. His very identity is a compilation of contradictory facts of being. A doctor who cannot heal his daughter. A healer known for his deadly skills. A man who becomes monstrous to fight monsters.
The purposeful ambiguity of the conclusion leaves us with questions, doubts, and complex considerations.
The trope of the good man with a dark past gets a double treatment here between Dak’Rah, a Klingon general and war criminal turned Federation ambassador who publicly tours his brand of truth and reconciliation, and M’Benga, our resident Chief Medical Officer who hides the violence of his past.
The irony that Dak’Rah has built his current life as peacenik and politicker upon M’Benga’s act of violence is a sharp commentary on society’s allowance for any past misdeed as long as the individual has something to offer in exchange for absolution.
For those who experienced the war, it’s not something that can be moved past or “healed” so that the scar does not show or make itself felt.
Ortegas is a great example of someone who isn’t completely blinded by her experiences in combat but who cannot sweep past atrocities under the rug for the sake of preserving the peace now.
Ortegas: Trust me I know Klingons. This guy with the peace treaties, that’s not Klingon.
Uhura: So, you don’t trust Ambassador Rah because he believes in peace?
While M’Benga is able to convince her to join the captain’s dinner with the effective combined lure of “Let’s Show Him” bravado and the promise of Pike’s jambalaya, he struggles to make it through the evening himself.
Ortegas: He’s pretending. I sense it. And I don’t want to play along.
M’Benga: Sometimes, you pretend something long enough, becomes the truth. So let’s pretend the war doesn’t bother us. At least, for tonight.
Ortegas: Put on the Starfleet face?
M’Benga: It’s a good face.
When Ortegas pushes the question of whether Dak’Rah did the things he is believed to have done — specifically, slaughtering his own commanders so he could escape and defect — the mood of the evening is irrevocably broken.
Her exit signals the end of niceties. Chapel uses Ortegas as a reason to absent herself from the table. M’Benga holds out longer, but Pike can see the stress he’s under and gives him an out as well.
The specific parallels between M’Benga and Dak’Rah are subtle but deliberate.
When the raktajino cup burns him, Dak’Rah resists an instinct to retaliate, to cry out. We see that same restraint and tension in M’Benga when Dak’Rah grabs him suddenly to request they practice Mok’bara together.
Una: On a recent mission, Spock was able to parley with a Klingon captain…
Spock: I must admit it has ignited a curiosity in me, a desire to experience more of your culture.
Dak’Rah: There’s nothing to experience. They are a war-mongering race, limited by ideology.
One wonders if Dak’Rah has tired of the charade he’s living and is looking for death by Federation with the way he repeatedly pushes in on M’Benga.
He allows Ortegas to find her own path and doesn’t seem to seek Chapel out to “heal,” but despite M’Benga explicitly asking to be left alone, he persists in hounding the doctor.
Federation or not, everyone is on their own journey.
Una
It’s the ultimate test of self-discipline. M’Benga holds back a finishing blow in their Mok’bara session, just as he holds back the truth of his role on J’Gal.
It’s honestly surprising how differently people view the Klingon War in terms of effect and proximity.
For M’Benga, Chapel, and Ortegas, it’s still a fresh wound, a trauma that hasn’t had time to dull, only to be repressed if possible.
Pike: How can we represent a Federation that believes in peace if we say some people aren’t allowed to make up for their past?
Una: I agree with you, in the abstract. But the people he hurt – some of them right here on this crew – might not find forgiveness so easily. It isn’t fair for us to ask them to just let it go.
Because Pike and Una were held back from the war — deployed away from the front with the Enterprise and then with Discovery during the final days of the conflict — they have a distanced perspective, sympathetic but without the internalized understanding of the quantifiable loss.
War, it doesn’t leave you. It can bury itself, but it’s always there.
Chapel
Chapel does an admirable job trying — and falling frustratingly short — of explaining it to Spock.
It’s not something that is easily or willingly shared with others, especially people you care about.
War, it makes sense if you’ve been there, but it will never make sense.
Chapel
That divide is difficult for any relationship, and to communicate the purely emotional response to a half-Vulcan who is only just beginning to explore how feelings work would strain any bond.
It’s tertiary, but I do feel for Spock. He’s clearly trying his best, but there is nothing logical about war trauma.
Speaking of which, how great was Commander Martinez with his malaphor-ridden phrases?
Whatever you need, we probably don’t have it but ask anyway. I’ll run it up the flagpole and see if it quacks.
Martinez
In the bleakness of Tent City, having some unlikely comedic relief is a strange but welcome distraction. I sincerely hope Martinez survived J’Gal.
So, the ultimate question is: Do we believe M’Benga killed Dak’Rah in self-defense or with intention?
My take here is entirely my own, and, recognizing this is a potentially heated topic, I welcome discussion and disagreement.
I believe it was self-defense.
I looked for you. Now, here you are, using the blood on my hands to make yourself a saint.
M’Benga
That’s not to say that M’Benga didn’t want to kill him. He admits as much, but he also tells Dak’Rah repeatedly — even pleading with him — to leave the sickbay and to stop talking to him. The Klingon had multiple opportunities to get out of the way.
One might consider this justification for M’Benga to kill him.
But the keen observer will note that M’Benga turns away from the Klingon daqtagh in the kit and even with the glass wall obfuscating the details of their struggle, his silhouette never turns back to the kit. He is always opposing Dak’Rah.
I surmise from this that Dak’Rah reached for the blade, reaching past M’Benga under the pretense of “helping him heal” and attempted to kill M’Benga to keep him from revealing the truth of J’Gal.
Peace is not a destination. It’s a journey. It’s a state of mind.
Dak’Rah
Chapel lies in her testimony to protect the truth of M’Benga’s actions on J’Gal, but ultimately tells the truth about the self-defense.
Pike: I’m just shocked that Rah would attack him like that.
Chapel: I guess, it just goes to show, no one ever really knows what goes on in anyone’s heart.
When TV Fanatic had the opportunity to speak with actors Jess Bush and Babs Olusanmokun, they both commented on how they were challenged and invigorated by the character development in this narrative. As viewers, it enriches our understanding of Chapel and M’Benga, as well as their partnership.
The trust they show in each other on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 1 makes so much more sense now, as does the super serum. Seeing the crucible of war experiences they undergo together, the losses they suffer, and the brutality they witness, their camaraderie takes on even more nuance and depth.
And as much as J’Gal binds them, it divides the doctor and the captain just as it separates Spock from Chapel, distances Uhura from Ortegas.
We’ve known each other for a very long time. See eye-to-eye on most things. But you haven’t lived my life. You have the privilege of believing in what’s best in people. Me? I happen to know there’s some things in this world that don’t deserve forgiveness.
M’Benga
In another brilliant bit of writing, M’Benga now lives with Pike’s suspicion as Dak’Rah lived with an unearned reputation. The narrative echoes are deafening.
Whichever side you come down on with regard to Dak’Rah’s demise, we can all consider the remains of war with somber assessment.
There are the survivors, the observers, and the dead.
Some things break in a way that can never be repaired. Only managed.
M’Benga
So, Fanatics, who are the lucky ones?
What does it all mean for M’Benga’s future aboard the Enterprise? Will Chapel and Spock manage to bridge this new divide?
Where does it leave Federation-Klingon relations? Will L’Rell make an appearance to address Dak’Rah’s death?
Hit our comments with your takeaways!
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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