Cleveland Booker brings the U.S.S. Discovery back to his home planet Kwejian to save his people from Osyraa, a leader in the Emerald Chain.

Spoilers Below

Star Trek: Discovery Season Three Episode Eight ” The Sanctuary” directed by Jonathan Frakes, explores the mysteries of Kwejian and Mirror Verse Georgiou’s health. Detmer and Georgiou deal with their physical and mental trauma. Book re-connects with his home plant Kwejian. He has been disconnected from his adopted brother Kahim because he would not go along with the Emerald Chain. Through returning home to Kwejian, Book finds a purpose with Starfleet.

Mirror Verse Georgiou’s trauma appears to be both physical and mental. Georgiou’s flashbacks have gotten bad enough that Michael talked her into seeing Dr. Culber. He scans every part of her body to figure out what is wrong. Georgiou continuously threatens Culber’s life, but it is clear that she is scared. The doctor talks about how she is suffering from some mental deterioration that is similar to dementia. In the past, Georgiou froze in place, but there has been no memory loss. Perhaps Culber suspects that she is suffering from brain disease because of her non-Terran behavior. When Culber and his colleague sedate the Terran Empresses so they can do a more detailed scan, Georgiou turns non-corporeal and starts to “glitch.” She kind of looks like one of the holograms that she turned off by blinking. Georgiou codes before they finish the scan. Perhaps Kovich did something to her or is suffering from a Terran disease since Culber doesn’t know how to stop the “glitching.” When the U.S.S. Discovery goes on red alert; the doctor prevents Georgiou from flying down to Kwejian to save Michael. Culber asks if they can go somewhere private to talk. Based on next week’s promo, there will be answers soon.

Keyla Demter conquers her anxiety about piloting during intense battles. Ever since bringing the U.S.S. Discovery went through the wormhole into the future, Demter suffers from PTSD. She has been receiving counseling from Culber but is still healing. Owo notices that Demter’s console looks slightly different than all the others. Demter tells her that she had engineering build in some fail-safes. She doesn’t trust her own abilities. The pilot doesn’t want her panic to hurt the crew. Owo tries to be supportive, but Demter can’t hear her yet. During their battle with the Emerald Chain’s starship, the pilot and ex-gangster Ryn (an Andorian) use Book’s ship to take out their weapons system. At first, Demter’s flying style is reticent, but when Ryn starts freaking out, she calms down. She turns on manual mode, allowing her to fly with two control sticks. Demter learned out to fly using a similar system. The second the two control sticks are in her hand, Demter turns back into the badass pilot. Using her fancy flying technique, the pilot saves the day. She takes out all their weapon systems. After the mission, Demter recounts her mission to the bridge crew. She smiles and laughs during her story showing that going back to her roots is helping her heal.

Adira comes out as a non-gender binary in such a beautiful way. While giving an update to Saru and Tilly, Stamets use she/her pronouns to refer to Adira. After the two commanding officers leave, Adira explains that they use they/them pronouns because they have never felt like a woman. There has been some worry that the Star Trek: Discovery writers would link the character’s non-gender binary status with hosting a Trill symbiont, but thankfully it’s made clear they felt this way before being joined. Adira coming out to Stamets shows how close the two have come. They confinde Stamets that the only person they ever told was their boyfriend, Grey. The sweetest scene was at the end of the episode when Stamets and Culber speak about Adira using proper pronouns. The stromycologist is a parental figure to them. There is hope that one day Stamets and Culber will become fathers since there good at it.

Book finds a purpose with U.S.S. Discovery. Throughout the last few episodes, the courtier has wanted to leave Discovery. Book only stayed around for Michael, but now he has a personal reason to be part of the crew. Kahim and Book’s family allowed the Emerald Chain to buy their trance worms is because of a crop blight. Its unexplained why the sea locusts come to land eat the crops. Without the repellant that Osyraa provides the Kwejian people, there will be a famine. U.S.S. Discovery stops the famine in its tracks by using the same amplification technology that triggered vahar’ai. The crew helps Book and his brother Kahim magnify their empathetic powers allowing them to ask all the sea locusts to return to the ocean. The sea locusts go home, solving the planet’s main problem. Book realizes that the Federation helps planets like Kwejian. Starfleet vessels like U.S.S. Discovery stands up to bullies like the Emerald Chain, no matter the cost to themselves. At the end of ” The Sanctuary,” Book tells Michael that he wants to join the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery. She sends him off to speak to Captain Saru. Perhaps next week, we will have a brand-new ensign or lieutenant. Or maybe Book will join the crew in an advisory capacity like Kes or Neelix in Star Trek: Voyager.

U.S.S. Discovery has pinpointed where the Burn started. Michael Burnham and the rest of the crew are one step closer to solving the mystery.