Season 1, Episode 11, ‘The Wolf Inside”

The theme of this week’s “Discovery” episode — “The Wolf Inside”: secrets. Burnham doesn’t want to tell Saru that Kelpiens in the mirror universe are slaves. Saru doesn’t want to tell Burnham about Culber’s death. Both do so to protect the other from uncomfortable truths, which brings us to the most uncomfortable truth: Ash Tyler, her first love, is actually a surgically altered Klingon spy — and our old friend, the villainous Voq. By the end of this episode, he’s finally remembered.

Of course, “Discovery” had telegraphed this for weeks. It was so obvious that I suggested in last week’s recap that it was too obvious. Even in this episode, in the pre-credit scenes (14 minutes!), while Burnham lies in Tyler’s arms, she says, “We’re all human here,” before adding, “Maybe none of us, no matter what world we’re from really know what darkness is waiting inside.” Sonequa Martin-Green might as well have said, “I am going to foreshadow right here.”

This leads me to wonder exactly why the “Discovery” writing staff even went through the motions of trying to turn this into some sort of plot twist. And if anything, now, there are more questions than answers. If Tyler was truly a Klingon spy this whole time, it once again calls into question Lorca’s decision making. He said he screened Tyler personally. How? And what was the point of Voq having his memories wiped so he wouldn’t remember he was a Klingon until later? Because the memory wipe is what eventually blew Voq’s cover — as they come rushing back, it spurs Tyler-Voq to attack Mirror Voq.

Like with so much of the “Discovery” maiden voyage, the ambition and ideas are interesting, but the execution often leaves much to be desired. The pacing is closer to the lesser seasons of “24.” Right when an interesting character or relationship is about to be developed, the story line abruptly ends or shifts, often without a payoff that is worth it. This episode is a concrete example of this: The Voq revelation was just not that interesting, mainly because we didn’t get to know Voq well enough.