rating: ****
the story: Burnham duels with Book on the cusp of Tarka's weapon being deployed.
review: Most fans will consider Wrath of Khan to be the ultimate test of wills in the franchise, and yet for me it has long been "For the Uniform," the Deep Space Nine episode in which Sisko matches wits with Eddington, the security officer who joined the Maquis right under his nose and got away with it. The whole episode is Sisko trying and failing to get his revenge; Eddington refers to their new relationship as Javert and Valjean from Les Miserables, rather than the Moby-Dick references of Khan and First Contact.
And anyway, watching the maneuvering between Burnham and Book in "Rubicon" feels gloriously to par with that. The feeling of betrayal has been a major part of the season since Book split off with Tarka, and Burnham couldn't fathom how this had happened, and ever since the season has been referencing a period from just after the start of the previous season that viewers never actually got to witness, the time where they shared adventures together before the rest of the Discovery crew showed up in the 32nd century.
(Other viewers have been keeping track of what exactly Species 10C, who set up the DMA, has been mining, which is Voyager's omega particle; Tarka's weapon runs on the same isolytic weaponry featured in Insurrection. I don't often feature enough details in these reviews. But I like franchise links, and it's definitely worth referencing that. The mining nature of the DMA evokes not only the classic "Devil in the Dark," but Nero in Star Trek, although of course there are still plenty of episodes left in the season to wait and see what Species 10C is actually like; the naming scheme for them also evokes Species 8472, also from Voyager.)
I'm dubbing the results a classic for that reason. I don't think the episode is overall as crisp as other Discovery entries I've granted that status, but I think the thrill of the encounter is good enough, something the season has been chasing, and also badly needed, to nail the arc, and to give weight to Book, his arc, and even Burnham, who to this point had been defined by relationships with characters like Georgiou, Spock, and Tyler, all of whom ended up going in their own directions.
criteria analysis:
- franchise - Fans should see welcome echoes in the showdown at the heart of the episode.
- series - One way or another "Rubicon" advances the season arc in a definitive way.
- character - Probably a defining moment for both Burnham and Book.
- essential - Wait, what am I saying, probably? Absolutely! It absolutely is!
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