A gritty episode after a few lighter ones, but really enjoyed getting more into M'Benga and Chapel's past. The ending was DARK, and be curious to see where they go further with this.

M'Benga has certainly shot up this season from a rather dull character to a fascinating one. I need to go back and rewatch some of S1 again, but did they mention at all about him being a Klingon war veteran then? I feel like they rejigged his character quite a lot once they got rid of the rather depressing 'stuck sick daughter' subplot.

Nice callback to the situation with M'Benga's daughter last season with the use of the transporter buffer to keep someone alive.

Oh, and nice to see:

After the recent frivolity this was a gut punch. I wasn't a huge fan of M'Benga before, but now I love him.

This was one of the darker episodes of TV (not just a dark Star Trek episode) I have seen in many a year. The Klingon war irrevocably changed M'Benga, and he has quite the dark past that he is still hiding when the episode ends. Also, some surprisingly graphic shots of his stabbing a klingon in the head with a war knife, really gritty stuff. I need to rewatch, but we did end the episode with M'Benga ultimately being fine with everyone still thinking the Klingon was The Butcher of J'Gal, when it was actually M'Benga who slaughtered a bunch of Klingons not the Klingon General killing his own troops, correct?

Like I said, dark...and with a musical episode next week we get an interlude from the darkness, but it will be interesting to see how this impacts the show as we get to the end in just a couple of short weeks.

That was Deep Space Nine-level dark shit. Haven't seen anything this fucked up from Trek since "In the Pale Moonlight."

Nice examination of PTSD and the toll war takes on good people. Trek usually shows an optimistic, utopian vision of the future, but war is never not an ugly business and it's good that they show that when the Federation has to go to war, it's not pretty.

On a "canon" note, it looks they forgot (or ignored) the idea introduced in Discovery that Klingons shaved their heads when they went to war. Don't blame them, though.

Also, it's kind of weird to have an episode this dark sandwiched between the humorous Lower Decks crossover and the lavish musical next week. I'd want a couple of standard anodyne Star Trek episodes to bookend something as dark and heavy like this, but when Paramount only gives them ten episodes a season, it's difficult to create those sort of rhythms in the narrative flow.

The finale looks to be dark too.

Rumor is they're setting up for next season's conflict with the Gorn.

Based on the finale title... no rumor.

Am I off, I feel like this jumped into my Top 10 Trek episodes. The sense of tension and fear through the flashbacks were so palpable. The conversations between Una and Ike, and Ike and MBenga were what inherently makes Trek Trek.

Im not entirely sure what happened at the end, but perhaps that was the point. Either way I think Christine was covering for him in some way.

Also, it’s good they explained the super soldier serum as many here felt that was off. Plus, sounds like it has repercussions and isn’t take it like candy.

Fantastic episode. I also felt Joseph was a little bland, but welcome to the top tier now.

This show is so good. We should be getting more than 10 episode seasons.

I'll take fewer episodes per season if we continue to get this kind of quality. PAY THE FUCKING WRITERS!!!!!!!