Spoiler Alert! (If you haven't seen episode #3 of Star Trek: Discovery, “Context Is for Kings”)
Last Time on Discovery...
Michael Burnham, six months after the events of "Battle at the Binary Stars," found herself aboard the U.S.S. Discovery, still in her prison garb, and still devastated that 8,186 people died because the Federation wasn't ready to take on a united Klingon Empire.
There, she encountered survivors of her actions aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou, including Detmer and the First Officer of the Discovery, Saru.
Fans got to know Cadet Sylvia Tilly. She's high-energy, smart, inexperienced, nervous, drools (breath scan!) and she's ambitious, making it clear that she aspires to the captain's chair one day. "The thing is," she admitted, "I have a lot to learn before then."
Lt. Stamets is deeply upset about the gruesome death of his friend, science officer Straal, and he seems to have little patience for anyone around him, particularly Burnham. But he'd better get used to her, since she's on the Discovery to stay. Did you catch the verbal Easter egg in the conversation between Stamets and Straal? The latter suggested they might win a Zee-Magnees Prize. Dr. Richard Daystrom won one on The Original Series (in "The Ultimate Computer"), and the TNG episode "The Schizoid Man" referenced that Dr. Ira Graves had won one as well.
Captain Lorca is a mysterious figure who seems to have his own agenda, operates a top-secret menagerie, is scheming to create an organic-propulsion system and evinces a determination to win the war against the Klingons at nearly any cost. He wants Burnham to be a part of his team, much to the horror of Saru and the annoyance of Stamets. And what's up with him and Landry?
“You helped start a war,” Lorca told Burnham. “Don’t you want to help me end it?” It’s a second chance for Burnham, but not one she feels she deserves or even necessarily wants. FYI: In a Trek rarity, a character -- in this case Lorca -- uttered the actual title of the episode.
And then there’s the fearsome creature that Burnham, Stamets and Tilly contended with on the U.S.S. Glenn, which Lorca had beamed aboard the Discovery. "Here, kitty, kitty." What is it? What are Lorca's plans for it? We're pretty sure we'll see that creature again. Will it be in episode four?
Next on Discovery...
In “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry”… with tensions and stakes high as Starfleet continues in their efforts to end the war with Klingons, Burnham begins to settle in to her new position aboard the U.S.S. Discovery.
Saru makes nice with Burnham, though he addresses his disapointment in her, as he thinks she's soon to be off the ship and out of his life for good. He then finds out that Burnham was not on the departing prison shuttle and is staying aboard the Discovery. His threat ganglia don't react well.
Burnham researches the tardigrade that ransacked the U.S.S. Glenn before Lorca added it to his menagerie.
Viewers, for the first time, will make the acquaintance of Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz). He’s a medical officer aboard the U.S.S. Discovery and also the partner of Lt. Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp).
And the Klingon battle deck commander, L'Rell, returns.
Worth Noting…
"The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry” marks the first Discovery episode directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. His previous credits include the features The Cavern and The Fourth Kind, as well as episodes of Extant, Falling Skies, Gotham, Bates Motel and The Son.
