As we near the end of Star Trek: Prodigy’s story, “Brink” and “Touch of Grey” lay the groundwork for the finale. “Brink” feels a little like a placeholder — albeit an entertaining one — meant to get the pieces where they need to go. “Touch of Grey,” however, is among my favorites of the season: we are still moving pieces, but the rescue is thrilling and the interactions between the characters adds so much depth and vibrancy, elevating the whole endeavor.
 
“Brink” opens with a flashback of Asencia (Jameela Jamil) working to harness the power of the wormhole. Her lab is full of really interesting looking equipment and panel displays that her scientific henchmen are using to try to figure out how to stabilize the experiment. Enter Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), who issues her a warning about the dangers of time manipulation before he gets easily captured.
 
I was relieved to find out later he did it on purpose, because catching a Traveler shouldn’t be that easy. And that is the missing piece she needs: Asencia’s breakthrough is Wesley Crusher’s thoughts. What a fiendishly cruel and clever plan!
 

Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her senior staff have a classic conference room strategy session, and it’s so soothingly Star Trek. Even more so when Gwyn (Ella Purnell) chimes in with her ideas. When Doctor Noum (Jason Alexander) quips, “Who invited the kid to the adult table?” it’s incredibly satisfying when Gwyn shuts him down with a quick: “The Admiral.” Gwyn’s poise and confidence in this scene is a well-earned delight.

Her reasoning is sound. She offers her team to go in and get the intel Janeway needs on Asencia’s time-space manipulation weaponry — off the Starfleet books. It’s a nice way to go around Admiral Jellico’s orders without technically breaking them (or the Primer Directive)l, and a perfect excuse to give our crew what would otherwise be a decidedly adult-level away mission. I love that Prodigy gives us the ability to indulge a little in what these kids would truly be allowed to do in a somewhat credible manor.

Solum is once again stunningly gorgeous, helped rather than hindered by the addition of Asencia’s temporal accelerant vaults, the fury of motion inside which move in a smooth ballet of technology. However, now Drednoks and Watchers patrol the streets, adding a sense of oppression to Asencia’s takeover.

Our gang moves under the Star Trek version of an invisibility cloak, which delighted my kids. My kids’ obvious reference for this is Harry Potter, but I did remind them that Star Trek has had cloaking technology since before Harry was born. The contrast was interesting to them — my son mentioned that it was cool that in Harry Potter, the cloak was magic and here, the cloak is science. I love that… and magic or science, it’s really fun! The visuals here are hilarious and really cute, as such a motley crew of aliens shuffle close together to try to stay under the invisibility bubble.

They arrive at Ilthuran’s place, searching for clues to his whereabouts, and are surprised when someone discovers them. Jankom’s (Jason Mantzoukas) scream of “Starfleet disavows us!” really made me laugh. Surprise: it’s Asencia — not the Vindicator, but rather young Asencia from this time period. What a thought provoking addition to the story! Seeing the absolute worst version of yourself has got to make you pretty introspective, so it makes perfect sense that she would be a leader in the resistance. She lets the crew know that older Asencia has Wesley Crusher prisoner and is draining his mind of secrets.

Choose your own adventure time for our away team leader, Gwyn: Do they rescue Ilthuran or Wesley Crusher? There isn’t time to save both, who is more important? Gwyn chooses to ignore this particular version of the trolley problem all together. No one will get left behind. They will split up to save both.

Dal (Brett Grey) disagrees, stating that they should stick together and that they only have one site-to-site transporter. But Dal shows exactly show far he’s come when he respects the fact that Gwyn is in charge and supportively follows her orders. This was a really fun thought experiment for my kids as they decided what they would do if they were Gwyn. For the record, there was one vote to rescue both and two votes to rescue just Wesley — sorry, Ilthuran!

More fun invisibility cloak hijinks as the group of Gwyn, Rok, Zero, and Murf go off to rescue Wesley. The gravimetric distortions have the cloak on the fritz as the guards, who keep getting glimpses of the crew, walk right up to the edge of the cloak. Rok (Rylee Alazraqui) bonking the guard on the head with the cloaking device is satisfying both visually and with the fantastic “clonk” sound that it makes. My kids all cracked up.

Meanwhile, the other group, Dal, Jankom, and Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) — along with young Asencia — find Ilthuran (John Noble) on a relocation train. They rescue him and the council members. The irony of our crew breaking The Diviner out of prison is not lost on me!

After some more close calls and hijinks, the first group makes it to Wesley — who was expecting them. He reveals that getting captured was his plan to get Asencia to develop the wormhole tech they need to send the Protostar back to Tars Lamora. Bold move, but I guess the fate of the entire timeline is at stake here. When Wesley finds out they split up, he freaks out, as his plan was contingent on them sticking together. Zero (Angus Imrie) speaks for all of us when they say: “We thought you meant team spirit!” Apparently, what Wesley meant was never separate. Oops!

Now they are in uncharted territory, and Wil Wheaton’s delivery of the line “I am lost” is chilling. That is not something you want to hear from your typically ace-in-the-hole extra-temporal being. And it gets even more dire as he gets the last line of the episode: “We’re all in danger and I don’t know what happens next.” Not good! “Brink” ends with Wesley and Ilthuran using the site-to-site transporter back to Voyager, while the Protostar crew is back together… as Asencia’s prisoners.

“Touch of Grey” starts off slightly before the end of “Brink”, where Janeway is anxiously awaiting news from the Protostar crew. We get treated to a lovely conversation between Janeway and Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Maintaining his character trait of gifting Janeway meaningful, symbolic gifts, he gives her an original Voyager-style combadge. It’s the 14^th anniversary of her first command, of the start of their journey together.

Although sadly, for Chakotay, it’s been 24 years, as we are reminded of his ten years marooned on Ysida. The dialogue flows so easily between the two here, it’s really one of the best versions of their new dynamic. I’m not saying they are turning me into a Janeway/Chakotay shipper, but I really enjoy the ease and comfort between these two characters who deeply love each other at this stage of their lives.

We get a replay of the final scene from “Brink,” and it’s very effective to get both sides of this coming back together. Wesley gets sent to sickbay and it looks like Asencia’s torturous mind extraction has left him temporarily powerless. A great way to remove an OP character’s advantage. Asencia herself is in peak form, as she publicly goads Janeway into coming to Solum, less something happen to our beloved Protostar crew.

Her demagoguery against offworlders in general — and the Federation in particular — is bone-chilling in its manipulative phrasing and delivery. Please, someone give Jameela Jamil all the awards for elevating this villain way beyond a typical cartoon bad guy.

Tysess (Daveed Diggs) advises her not to go, but it looks like we are getting the band back together, as Chakotay and the EMH (Robert Picardo) both agree that they are down for a rescue. Wesley Crusher is coming too, and the very idea of an away team featuring these four legends seems almost too good to be true.

Apt that this particular away team uses the Protostar’s vehicle replicator to build a ship to sneak into Solum, as they lost so many shuttles on the original Voyager. While it builds, we get to see what Hologram Janeway has been up to — which is apparently reading EMH holonovels. You can almost hear the smile on Kate Mulgrew’s face as she delivers Holo-Janeway’s fangirl lines complimenting our dear doctor. Such a cute little scene!

We get some more fantastic Solum scenery, as Asencia has trapped our crew in what appears to be old ruins of ancient Solum. Her plan for the crew becomes clear as a platform opens up to reveal a Loom. Seeing this one in such close quarters really shows off the amazing creature design of these time devourers. The danger is palpable as the crew back away and run around avoiding the monster. The arena feels like a video game stage as they dodge the beast, once again reminding my kids of Breath of the Wild and bringing back their nickname for the Loom: “Time-Blight Ganon.”

The arena itself looks just as impressive from the outside, as the away team looks on and strategizes a rescue plan. It’s just such a gift to hear Admiral Janeway’s pep talk to Wesley and her orders to all as they prepare to engage. Wesley and Chakotay’s little heart-to-heart also increases the emotional impact of having these characters back.

Janeway boldly goes to confront Asencia, and offers a trade of her for the crew. Asencia finally does something that most fictional villains never do: stops dawdling and starts shooting. She phasers the Admiral! Now, I knew that this was not how they would kill off Admiral Janeway, but it was still shocking to watch her go down. Luckily we didn’t have to wait long to learn that it was really the EMH impersonating Janeway. My kids thought that was so clever, and they laughed at his dramatic overacting during his big death scene.

Chaos ensues as Janeway uses her combadge to scramble signals, releasing the Loom. Asencia looks frightened for the first time since we’ve met her after she discovers the EMH’s trick and the Loom bares down on her henchmen. She is incredibility frustrated as our rescue team and Prodigy crew escape in their shuttle. And more bad news for her as Ilthuran makes a broadcast opposing her as she receives reports of people rising up. It sure is a different way to go into a finale, with the villain not having everything falling into place.

The episode ends and leads into the finale with a gem of a scene on the way back to the Voyager-A. The configuration inside the shuttle really gives the feeling of loading the kids into the minivan, with Mom Janeway and Pop Chakotay in the front. The trip is full of heartwarming interactions between our new heroes and seasoned legends, and it’s fun to watch Rok fanning over Wesley’s tech use.

Maj’el responds to the EMH’s loquacious holonovel title in a way that could have come straight out of the mouth of Tuvok. Our core four of Janeway, Gwyn, Chakotay, and Dal have a wonderful discussion about what’s next, and everyone is on the same page. What needs to be done in the finale is clear: let’s save Solem AND the timeline. Stopping a civil war AND saving an entire universe from blinking out of existence? Not too shabby for a “kid show”!

“Brink” and “Touch of Grey” line up everything perfectly for what is sure to be an epic finale. Satisfying rescues and action and lots of wonderful character interactions. After 18 episodes, the season feels exceptionally “lived in”. This is one incredibly dense season of television, yet not overwhelming at all, even for my kids. They are all in. They know the players and they know the stakes and are ready to see how it ends.