This week’s Star Trek: Discovery follows Burnham, Book, and Culber as they chase down another piece of the Romulan puzzle on Trill; Rayner as he tries to spend as little time with the Discovery crew as possible; and Saru back at Federation headquarters navigating a diplomatic minefield in both his personal and professional life. There’s a lot going on in “Jinaal” — and it’s all great!
 
The puzzle piece found on V’Leen contained an additional clue, one that narrows the search a bit from all 500 million square kilometers of Trill to a specific person: the spot pattern of one Jinaal Bix, a contemporary of Dr. Vellek. Lucky for us, Bix, the symbiont, is still alive 800 years later.
 
Once Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) answers a quick riddle meant to act as one more layer of protection for Bix and their clue, she, Adira (Blu del Barrio), Culber (Wilson Cruz), and Book (David Ajala) make their way to the symbiont caves. Gray (Ian Alexander) and guardian Xi (Andreas Apergis) greet them, along with Bix’s current host Kalzara (Clare Coulter).
 
This poor gal has been hanging on specifically for this dang puzzle, and I kind of wonder what she and Bix would have done if it had continued to go unsolved — but it turns out it’s not Bix who knows the next clue at all, at least not in a way that their current host can access. Time for another zhian’tara ritual, which means we get to spend the rest of the episode watching Wilson Cruz have what appears to be the time of his life.
 

It’s not that Cruz doesn’t seem happy as Culber, not at all, but there is a distinct looseness in his portrayal of Jinaal that is miles away from how he plays the calm, contemplative Culber. Jinaal’s no Curzon, but he certainly enjoys having a body again (“This guy really works out!”) and is very enthusiastic about the long hike to the next clue he gets to lead Burnham and Book on.

A consistent criticism I’ve had of Discovery is that the dialogue often feels unreal to me, like something someone wrote and not something someone would really say in the moment. Dialogue in Star Trek has always been highly stylized – even disregarding the technobabble there’s something specific and staid about the way most people in the future speak (and which makes the occasional Jett Renos of the world so immediately refreshing).

But I have to say, the dialogue in “Jinaal” is uniformly great, and Culber’s Jinaal is just the start. It’s full of different textures for different characters, it’s funny, it’s thoughtful without seeming overthought, it’s quick without being quippy. And more than anything, it feels real. One of this episode’s writers — Lauren Wilkinson — joined Discovery this season, with this episode being her first writing credit on the show. Kyle Jarrow, her co-writer, wrote two episodes last season, including one where I spent a decent chunk of my review criticizing its stiff writing, especially for secondary characters.

Discovery has a chronic problem with flattening its secondary characters to silent nods on the bridge and factoids blurted out to superior officers only when the plot demands it. “Jinaal” does this too (a lot!), but it’s with a deliberate self-awareness that turns one of my biggest complaints into one of the episode’s best gags.

Back aboard Discovery, demoted Commander Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) is far too impatient and brusque to actually do the ship tour and crew meet-and-greets Burnham has tasked him with; instead, he orders each crewmember to come to his office and tell him something about themselves in 20 words or less.

Thanks to some nimble editing and an understanding that the gag only gets funnier the longer it goes, we get a fast flip through character after character — several of whom we’ve never met before this episode, and several of whom have been around since Day One but who I now, finally actually feel like I know.

Dr. Pollard (Raven Dauda), for example, who’s been on the show since the first season, finally has a personality thanks to the deadpan no-bullshit way she delivered her 20 words. Not only is Linus (David Benjamin Tomlinson) a father three times over (or, three clutches over), it’s clearly something he’s very proud of. Who knew?

And when the crewmembers we don’t know get the “standard Discovery factoid treatment”, it doesn’t feel clunky so much as illuminating. That Bajoran gal who is unbeatable at tongo — Lt. Commander Asha (Christina Dixon) — I believe it and I really want to see it. The new helmsman who had to “save her drag racing story for next time” — Lt. Gallo (Natalie Linconti) — I hope we get to hear it, and I hope it’s not told immediately before a drag race just happens to become a major plot element to save the day.

Tilly (Mary Wiseman) is present throughout all of this, and her writing gets a huge boost this episode as well. Tilly is a character I often find myself wanting to like more than I actually do, and who I think has so much potential that’s undermined by writing that doesn’t go any deeper than portraying her as quirky and flustered.

Here though, we get a confident, assertive Tilly, one who still feels true to character, but is a more adult version of that character. Her core motivations are there — her focus on a supportive crew, her concern for treating people with respect — she just has more grown-up way of expressing them. She is, after all, an instructor at the Academy now and can’t be fumbling through every interaction, especially when confronting something that she feels is, in a sense, bullying.

It’s clear from the way the two characters leave their working relationship at the end of the episode that Tilly has gained Rayner’s respect, and that he takes her criticisms of his attitude to heart. He’s still Rayner, he’s still a grouch, but he’s not unreasonable — and he’s not an actual bully. He just finds it easier to pretend to be one.

Back on Trill, the hike gives Jinaal a chance to unload some exposition about why this puzzle exists in the first place. Long story short, the group of scientists which included Jinaal and Vellek found the Progenitors’ technology and immediately recognized its incredible power. But with the Dominion War raging they worried about its use and decided to scrub their research and identities from history, and hide the location of the technology away until the galaxy was a more peaceful place.

What isn’t a peaceful place is the canyon Jinaal has lead Book and Burnham to as the supposed location of Trill’s clue. Why? Because gigantic semi-invisible bee moths who shoot red bolts of electricity live in this canyon! I didn’t know it until I watched this episode, but it turns out I’m a very big fan of gigantic semi-invisible bee moths who shoot red bolts of electricity, just FYI. I enjoyed these guys a lot and I’m glad they and their clutch of eggs made it out unscathed. It’s not that I was rooting against Burnham and Book, but more that I was just firmly on Team Bee Moth.

The bee moths themselves were also a test: a way for Jinaal to observe how Burnham and Book behaved when faced with an innocent aggressor (they were wild animals simply protecting their young, after all) before deciding to give them the clue. In choosing to prioritize the bee moths, they pass and Jinaal hands them another map piece… which was never where he said it was in the first place.

Mission over, Jinaal is returned to Bix and — if I understood the episode’s closing montage correctly — Bix is pretty immediately returned to the milk pools. I’m sure the moment was supposed to be one of happiness and contentment, watching a symbiont finally get to take a nap after fulfilling a lifelong mission, but all I could think about was Bix’s current host.

That old lady may have been tired but she certainly didn’t look to be on death’s door so, uh, is she okay? I’m thinking she might not be okay.

Meanwhile throughout all of this, Saru (Doug Jones) and T’Rina (Tara Rosling) have their first fight… one that’s very polished and diplomatic, but no less serious than if it had involved bigger displays of emotion. It’s time for an engagement announcement to be sent out, and what first seems like a minor quibble over some language thanks to Saru’s modesty — does T’Rina have to refer to him as “the handsome and erudite Captain Saru”? – quickly becomes a matter with much larger consequences.

T’Rina’s assistant Duvin (Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon) who carries on the long and proud tradition of snooty Vulcans you kind of want to punch, is concerned with the optics of her union with an “outsider” — particularly with respect to what the Vulcan Purist movement is going to think about it. Saru decides to cancel the announcement “for” T’Rina, T’Rina feels that Saru has overstepped, and it’s icy for about five minutes until they make up and Saru admits that he doesn’t have a whole lot of experience being in this type of love.

It’s refreshing to see mature adult characters talking about their lack of experience with relationships, as it’s really not something you see often. Usually storylines about learning how to navigate love are contained to younger characters, and understandably so, but not everyone figures these things out at the same pace.

Another well-handled relationship moment occurs between Adira and Gray, both of whom are genuinely happy to see each other, but who also recognize that things have changed between them. As with Book and Burnham, I don’t know that Adira and Gray will remain broken up through the rest of the series, but for now anyway they’ve decided to move on from being a couple.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• We have another mention of the Breen. Between these references, L’ak’s (Elias Toufexis) mysterious identity and quips about helmets, I’m officially joining in on the speculation that he’s Breen.
• I’m a big fan of Rayner’s personality quirk of using slightly old-fashioned human expressions with a deadpan scowl on his face. Never has “I can walk and chew gum at the same time” sounded so irritable. Keep it up.
• “To rush a sehlat is to risk a goring.” Between this and “It is difficult to ride two valebeasts with only one set of buttocks” from “Choose to Live,” Saru is a veritable font of folksy aphorisms.
• Was that a Selay, the cobra-headed aliens first seen in TNG’s “Lonely Among Us”, at the negotiating table? Why I do believe it was.

• According to Tilly’s data regarding Trill, the planet has a 26.5-hour day and a 483-day year.
• Like human fingerprints, Trill spots are unique to each individual — and it seems the Trill government keeps records of all spot patterns, even after 800 years.
• While Gray permanently inhabits his clone body through the Trill zhian’tara ritual, Culber’s zhian’tara experience parallels the Deep Space 9 crew; they took on the personalities and knowledge of Dax’s previous hosts in “Facets.”
• Saru’s office at Starfleet Headquarters is filled with many alien plants, like his quarters aboard Discovery.
• Jinaal notes that the discovery of Progenitor tech occurred during the Dominion War, meaning that his group of scientists hid the bounty no later than 2375 (when the war concluded). “The Chase” took place in 2369, just six years earlier.
• Lt. Commander Nillson has transferred to the Voyager-J, meaning it’s unlikely we’ll see actor Sara Mitich this season.

• The bartender in Red’s serves Tilly a glass of green Ferengi Slug-O Cola, introduced on Deep Space Nine and last seen in Picard Season 3.
• Reno’s complaint about chips refers to her Starfleet interrogation in Season 3’s “Die Trying.”
• The “day for night” filter used during the Trill canyon night scenes isn’t very effective when the actors have visible shadows.
• The latest Progentitor clue leads to coordinates located in Tzenkethi space, a dangerous species mentioned twice in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
• As foreshadowed at the beginning of the episode, we see Burnham kneeling in a Vulcan meditative pose, exactly like Spock in Star Trek II. (Someone please get her some of those little knee pillows Sarek had in “Light and Shadows,” the floor of her quarters has to be pretty hard to kneel on!)

Adira says their goodbyes to the guardians before beaming up to the ship, and as they do so… oh no, one of the guardians is Mol (Eve Harlow) — and she’s slipped a tracking chip onto Adira before slinking away into the shadows!

Was Mol there the whole time, and if so, was she worried that any of the Trill present were going to realize she had no idea how to do any of the ceremonial stuff that she was presumably fumbling her way through? Probably not, as a seasoned galactic mercenary she’s way too cool for that. But I would have been.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 returns with “Face the Strange” on Thursday, April 18.