Last week’s “Through the Valley of Shadows” gave us a cliffhanger with the Star Trek: Discovery crew preparing to rendezvous with the Enterprise and then destroying Discovery. But that plan didn’t work, and we have yet another cliffhanger to end “Such Sweet Sorrow” promising what appears to be a once-and-for-all, surefire solution to finally get rid of Discovery and the sphere data Control desperately needs.

How many more of these failed plans does the crew have to endure… and how many more do we have to endure as viewers?

Let’s not forgot the plan from just a few weeks ago where Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) had to “die” in order to bait her Red Angel mother into capture. That plan was only partly successful as the crew was unable to propel the needed sphere data into the future via the Red Angel suit.

It’s a good thing we’ve made it to the last chapter of the season, because I’m not quite sure how many more of these ideas for destroying Control we can sit through. Let’s hope that next week’s season finale delivers on its epic promise, and actually gets Burnham and the ship into the future — whenever that may be — and give her and the crew a win for a change.

Of course, much of this first part of “Such Sweet Sorrow” is spent on long, heartfelt goodbyes and service appreciations as the crew prepares for Burnham to take a one-way trip to a future-somewhere. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) and Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) get a quiet moment together to try and resolve their differences — and say more accepting goodbyes — while Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) seem finally ready to give themselves fist-pumps for all the good they’ve accomplished.

I admit to being a bit of a sucker for these slower character moments because when Star Trek does the emotions well, it really does them well, especially when they’re well-placed and the performances are spot-on. And many of the bonding moments in this episode nicely expand on the camaraderie effectively, albeit briefly, displayed in last week’s episode.

But a lot of it falls flat here because, again, the show to this point hasn’t really allowed us to get to know the more secondary characters, some of whom get their own farewell-letter scenes. And as well-performed and touching as it was, the scene with Sarek (James Frain) and Amanda (Mia Kirshner) felt needless and overwrought — especially as the pair seemed to appear out of nowhere, travelling from Vulcan to the Discovery in the blink of an eye.

The real star in this episode, again, is Pike. As usual, he may not have had much to do, but Anson Mount continues to sell his performance. Speaking of little to do, Spock (Ethan Peck) was almost MIA in this one, which was perplexing. It seemed like everyone, except him, had something critical to offer to the time-jump proposal, and that includes Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), who finds herself playing a pivotal role at the end of the episode.

It’s fun to see Po (Yadira Guevara-Prip) back, newly confident as queen of Xahea, and working with Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman). Her return, however, was not completely unexpected. After all, this is someone who was introduced in her Short Treks episode as having the expertise to recrystallize dilithium. Do you honestly think she wasn’t going to play some pivotal role in the series, and for that matter Star Trek, with that expertise?

Let’s talk about what the episode did right, and I want to stress that this episode was certainly not a dud. The bridge of the Enterprise, in its updated form, is stunning, and director Olatunde Osunsanmi effectively heightens the tension during critical scenes there. Composer Jeff Russo also needs to be recognized for his work in this episode as well, especially in goodbye scenes.

There are still have two red signals left to be revealed and the question of when Burnham and Discovery will end up, assuming the plan works in its execution, to be answered. Is it possible she could end up only a week ahead in time with the ship, or a few hours, especially if the time crystal fails to perform as well as hoped.

Since her mother was able to jump to the past as well as the future, is it possible that Burnham finds herself going back in time instead of forward. The implications for the time jump, whenever that is, are intriguing. Let’s just hope the build-up to the finale was worth our patience.

Next week wraps up the season for Star Trek: Discovery, with “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2” taking the series into an uncertain future, as the long wait for Season 3 is about to begin.