Star Trek: Discovery returns from its winter break with an episode that sets out to do it all. Fun and a little silly, “All In” is as standalone as Discovery gets — while also moving the season’s overarching plot along and allowing Burnham, Book, Tarka, and Owosekun a chance to shine.

Scrambling to develop a plan and deploy a fleet in pursuit of Book (David Ajala) and Tarka (Shawn Doyle), a severely-frustrated President Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) takes a moment to politely but firmly grill Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) and Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) about what the hell has just happened.

Satisfied that neither of them had any idea what Book and Tarka were up to, Rillak divvies up assignments: Vance is to hunt down Book and Tarka — Burnham is too close to the situation — while Burnham and Discovery focus on finding Species 10C. Can’t make first contact with people you can’t find, right?

Discovery has an idea where to start looking: a region of space beyond the galactic barrier with has some unnatural properties. This area of space has never been charted by the Federation, but thankfully Zora (Annabelle Wallis) is able to pull a solution from her vast library of sphere data: the hitherto unknown Silft species charted the area, and those  scans are likely to be circulating on the open market.

Handily, this aligns with Burnham’s wink-and-nod officially-unofficial orders from Admiral Vance: continue to focus on finding the location of Species 10C, of course, but if that just happens to put Book in her path, well…

Turns out it does, because while Burnham needs to locate stellar surveys, Tarka still needs some aptly-named isolynium, a key component to his isolytic weapon for DMA destruction. What luck that the same broker, someone Book and Burnham worked with during their year running cargo together, can provide both. Enter Haz Mazaro (Daniel Kash) and his Karma Barge — a floating casino, fight club, lounge, and all-around cool place to hang out and commit some crime.

Haz is happy to see Book — or “Glow Worm”, as he calls him — and is happy to take his latinum in exchange for the isolynium he seeks… but is even happier to take Book himself to collect a bounty that happens to be on his head. Thinking quickly, Book offers to solve the problem Haz is having with card counters which, he argues, will save the bargemaster more money in the long run than the one-time bounty would bring in. Has agrees.

While Book and Tarka make their way around the casino floor, Tarka waving around a repurposed Devore scanner tricorder that’s presumably set on “detect card counting” mode, Burnham arrives at the planet with Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) at her side, in one of Discovery’s new 32nd century shuttles.

It’s nice to see a new shuttle, the same design briefly introduced in “All is Possible,” but unfortunately this one looks a lot like a styrofoam bike helmet from the 1980s. It’s a miss for me, but one that is quickly forgotten when the shuttle makes an incredibly cool approach to the casino barge. An enormous — and holographic — sea dragon surfaces from the ocean, swoops up through the air, and captures the shuttle in its gaping maw. Haz has a flair for the dramatic and I for one am not complaining.

Burnham easily gets the star charts she needs, a simple request Haz seems happy to supply, but her plan to buy up Haz’s supply of isolyniam hits a snag when she learns that she’s not the only one after the fuel. With increased interest comes increased prices, as Haz puts it, and Burnham can’t contact Discovery to get more latinum thanks to the Karma Barge’s communication-dead-zone location.

Owosekun sees a solution in the form of the casino’s open fight ring, and this is where “All In” goes, well, all in and really starts to have fun. We’ve seen Owosekun fight — her Mirror Universe counterpart could deliver an especially good ass-kicking — so when at first she has so much trouble with her opponent it’s a bit of a surprise. Sure, the guy is twice Owosekun’s size and can pick her up and throw her around, but have you seen her arms? And her confidence?

Owosekun is — to keep my thirst to a somewhat of a minimum — in fighting shape.

While her lieutenant is in the ring, it’s Burnham’s job to get the crowd excited for, wait for it, Joann “Oh Wow!” Owosekun. Yes this is goofy, but it’s also intentional. But poor “Oh Wow” can’t seem to win a fight (this is also intentional) and by the time her third and final bout comes around the odds are 45-to-1 against. Perfect time to end the hustle.

That no one seems to catch on that this is an obvious ruse is maybe probably not the most realistic, nor is it that Owosekun continues to be allowed to fight, loss after loss, but honestly I didn’t mind. ‘Casino heist’ is not a genre I turn to when I’m looking for realism, and given that “All In” is about as close as we’re likely to get to space James Bond — Julian Bashir, Secret Agent aside — I’m game for just about anything.

“All In” also showcases what I’ve come to think of as Burnham’s ‘strategic obnoxiousness’ — both here promoting the fight, and also later in the episode during the poker game — and articulates why it feels so right to me for the character. On a basic level, Sonequa Martin-Green is just plain fun to watch when she’s playing Burnham as all gummy smiles and dad jokes.

But more than that, the contrast adds breadth to the character. It’s not ditziness, and the strategy doesn’t rely on Burnham presenting herself as less intelligent or capable than she is — it’s just unrestrained enthusiasm and that’s why it’s disarming. And just because this silliness is another tool in her leadership kit alongside standard diplomacy or more traditional displays of command strength, this doesn’t make it false.

Deep down, I think Burnham is kind of a goober, and when you consider her Vulcan upbringing it has to be good for her psyche to let that part of herself see the light of day sometimes. Sure, all that pollyanna carnival barking for Owosekun was a deliberate part of the hustle but I also think she truly meant it, not just the sentiment but also the delivery. She was proud of Owosekun and believed in her.

The first few seasons of Discovery spent a lot of time on Burnham learning to be comfortable with not just feeling but also expressing deep fondness for her friends and crewmembers, and now we’re seeing her widen that repertoire to contain something between the extremes of Vulcan stoicism and intense heart-to-hearts.

This is subtle development of her character that feels appropriately long in coming, and I’m pleased for Burnham — and for us — that she’s finally gotten here.

It’s right at the same moment that Burnham and Owosekun collect their winnings from comically unenthusiastic casino employee that Book and Tarka identify and capture the card counter: a Changeling complete with ‘Odo face’ but sadly lacking the goo-factor of the transformations seen on Deep Space Nine. Haz’s plan has resulted in a draw, but fear not because this is a casino and that means there’s always room for a poker showdown!

Haz brings in two additional players to compete for the isolynium, people Book and Burnham immediately recognize as Emerald Chain holdouts — precisely the type you don’t want getting their hands on one of the most dangerous substances in the galaxy (never mind that Book himself is planning to build a bomb with it…). Burnham convinces Book to work with her to get the two new players out of the game, and off they go.

While the poker game plays out, Owosekun and Tarka talk. This moment between the two of them emphasizes something I’ve appreciated about the direction Discovery has gone with Tarka especially, but also Book. The two men are without question adversaries for our heroes, but they’re not presented as villains. And, most importantly, this isn’t because the show is trying to ‘both sides’ the issue.

Instead, it’s because they’ve created complex characters who are driven by complex motives. Both of them are motivated entirely by grief and loss, not power or greed or ego, and while both of them feel that their actions are alienating them from the people in their lives. There’s no anger at the people who have parted from them, just sadness at the parting.

It’s truly deft writing and has me more hopeful that Book and Tarka will stop themselves than that they’ll be stopped by Burnham. For their own sakes, it’s more important to me that these characters choose to be good than it is that they’re stopped from doing bad.

In the end though, Book and Tarka remain on their chosen path. In the single hand played between just Book and Burnham, both go all in and though they both have great hands it’s Book who walks away victorious.

(On a side note, I would love to see a poker showdown storyline that ends on a super dramatic final round in which one of the players has an absolute garbage hand and it’s not even close. Funny how these things always come down to everyone having an amazing hand…)

Back aboard Discovery, Stamets (Anthony Rapp) begins examining the star charts and makes an astounding discovery. Species 10C is in the area of space he’d suspected, but they still don’t know what the star system looks like because — as the charts show — it’s been completely shielded by an immense doing field of some sort.

Only one thing could possibly generate enough energy to power such a thing — an ultra-rare element called boranite which Voyager fans may remember as a potential catalyst for the Omega molecule — and suddenly the DMA’s true purpose comes into view. The DMA is harvesting boranite. It’s not a weapon, it’s mining equipment.

The revelations about Species 10C — not just about the DMA but also that 10C appears to be unimaginably advanced — yet again raises the issue of intent. Does 10C simply not care that their energy source causes death and destruction on a galactic scale? Or are they so advanced that the lesser beings whose existence they disrupt aren’t even recognized as consequential? Are they greedy opportunists, or are they farmers simply turning over an anthill while tilling a field?

Either way, a peaceful first contact is even more critical now that the DMA’s purpose as a civilization-sustaining tool is clear, and finding Book and Tarka before they can deploy their weapon is going to be critical. Thankfully, Burnham slipped a tracking device on the isolynium before it left Haz’s possession, so Starfleet has a trail to follow.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• After its debut last season, the Eisenberg-class starship design gets an in-dialogue mention from Admiral Vance — finally canonizing the tribute to the late Deep Space Nine actor Aron Eisenberg.
   
• Burnham’s nickname from her cargo running days is “Right Hook” because it turns out she’s got a mean one.
   
• Burnham has a grey away-mission bag with a nice big Starfleet label on it, and hello merchandising department, I would like one for my own personal everyday use please and thank you!
   
• We get a brief-check in with Culber (Wilson Cruz), stress-cleaning his quarters over his perceived ‘failure’ to successfully counsel Book. It’s a nice moment, allowing Stamets to talk him down and bring a little peace to the good doctor — though I don’t know if I was supposed to find him snapping at the misbehaving DOT as funny as I did! The way he snatched the item out of its hand and yelled “NO!” will be with me for a while.

• Tarka’s repurposed Devore scanner is a nice callback to one of Voyager’s more successful episodes (“Counterpoint”), and the device itself has the same pointy nodes seen on the larger hand-held scanner seen in the original episode.
   
• I understand that the order and format of credits listings involves labyrinthine negotiations between all parties so I’m sure there’s an explanation for it, but that doesn’t prevent me from being surprised and even disappointed to see Oyin Oladejo get such low billing.
   
  Owosekun is a central character in this episode but not only is Oladejo not listed in the opening credits, she’s not even one of the five post-episode players to get their own solo card. Instead she’s listed on the co-star page with people who didn’t even have lines.

• The face cards in those cool, just-alien-enough playing cards used on the Karma Barge include a Cardassian king, an Arcadian queen (shout-out to Jörg Hillebrand for ID’ing that one!), and second queen designed like Natalia from Star Trek Beyond.
   
• Haz refers to aliens seen in other past Star Trek shows, warning his card players to not “act like an Armus” at his table, and “scurr[ing] like a spider cow” when Burnham arrived at his front door.
   
• One of the dusty items on Haz’s relic shelves is a bank drive-up canister commonly used in North America.
   
• While there were quite likely COVID-related mitigation factors involved in keeping the population of the Karma Barge low, the Owosekun fight sequence was full of cheering crowds and audience applause — all from off camera — which in a probably-not-intended way called to mind the goofy audio edit of Voyager’s “Alliances” which made its way onto various streaming services several years ago.

Were the events of “All In” particularly realistic? I’ve never run a casino or played high-stakes poker or jumped into the ring, but I’m going to say no, probably not. But it was fun, and that’s something I cherish on this show because quite frankly, it doesn’t happen very often.

Let’s hope the energy in “All In” follows the crew of Discovery as they pursue their quarry.

Star Trek: Discovery returns for its next episode Thursday, February 17 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select international locations.