“An Obol for Charon” is the 4th episode of the 2nd season of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “Point of Light“.

Note. This article contains spoilers about “An Obol for Charon”.

Number One (Rebecca Romijn) arrives on the USS Discovery to bring Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) an update on the ongoing repair work aboard the USS Enterprise but also to bring him the information she found about Spock, in particular a trace to follow. The USS Discovery is on course to follow Spock’s route but is stopped by an unknown entity, very powerful and ancient, which attacks the internal systems while Saru (Doug Jones) also starts suffering serious health problems.

In the tradition of the ancient Greeks, later adopted by the Romans, a coin was placed on the mouth of the dead or inside it as an obol for Charon. That’s an appropriate reference in an episode where death is a crucial theme.

“An Obol for Charon” continues the choice to mix a number of subplots but sometimes it ends up doing so with some confusion, jumping from one subplot to another in a way that seemed to me not very balanced in terms of pace with effects on the dramatic element, which has other problems too.

Spock continues to be a presence in the season without ever appearing but Number One, the first officer of the USS Enterprise, used methods Captain Christopher Pike better not know to find a trace that could lead to him. The initial part of the episode gave me a been-there-done-that feeling, with an alien entity in part organic and in part inorganic that stops the Discovery and starts creating serious problems to its on board systems, starting with the universal translator. In the end I think it’s interesting for the ramifications it has in the other subplots.

The story of Ensign Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and her connection to the mycelial creature continues and in this episode includes not only Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) but also Jett Reno (Tig Notaro). It’s another chapter of a subplot that will have further developments: in this case, among other things it offered some ideas to talk about pollution, the problem is that it ends up being a theme that’s just mentioned in an episode with so many elements. The positive thing is that Tilly earns points for her musical tastes.

In the end, the subplot connected to Saru is in my opinion the most important one. Saru seems to me the best character in the show so I’m always happy when he has some space. In “An Obol for Charon” his condition leads to a dramatic climax but from the beginning I feared that there was a trick and the way in which the situation ended is of the type that makes me feel cheated. I can at least partially forgive this choice if there will be further interesting developments for Saru.

“An Obol for Charon” continues a certain tendency to focus on plot twists and dramatic moments to cover some flaws and a bit of chaos in the intertwining of the subplots developed in the episodes. Overall I see its merits more than the flaws only thanks to Saru and I hope that Alex Kurtzman’s hand as showrunner will bring more harmony in the next episodes.