Memories Worth a Thousand Cuts

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2 delivers its fourth episode with an action-adventure story featuring high stakes and a fascinating concept that scrapes the surface of the potential emotional depths within. “Among the Lotus Eaters” sees Captain Pike (Anson Mount), La’an (Christina Chong), and Doctor M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) stranded on a pre-warp planet and struck with the loss of their memories. With a mystery rooted in lore from the original series and a ticking timer engulfing everyone on the planet and in its orbit, Pike must face some demons buried in his past in order to live in the present.

Written by Kirsten Beyer and Davy Perez, and directed by Eduardo Sanchez, “Among The Lotus Eaters” picks up a thread from the unaired Original Series pilot, “The Cage.” In that episode, Pike mentions a mission that went horribly wrong on Rigel VII, in which he lost a yeoman, and multiple people died after he found himself trapped and forced to fight one of the planet’s warriors. The impossibly high standard that Pike holds himself to is very telling, and this episode both allows the Captain some emotional introspection and pushes him to let himself get close to people.

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Pike and Batel Board an Emotional Rollercoaster

“Among the Lotus Eaters” opens with Captain Pike preparing a delicious-looking pasta dish with his mother’s sauce recipe in anticipation of a cozy night in with his on-and-off romantic partner Captain Batel (Melanie Scrofano). Their two ships are working together to map a binary star system and while it’s quiet they try to sneak in some personal time with each other. Almost immediately, their date night is interrupted by various inquiries from both of their crews, but it’s nothing urgent so they settle in. She’s brought him a gift from an archaeological dig, a token to “bring lost sailors home,” and he’s ready to show her his appreciation when they’re interrupted again by a call from the Admiral for Batel.

What seems like quite some time later, she ends the call and attempts to rush through their date after getting bad news — because she didn’t go hard enough against Pike and Una (Rebecca Romijn) during the trial, she lost out on promotion to Commodore. Pike worries that their relationship isn’t worth the trouble because he feels like he’s hurting her career and suggests that they pull back a bit, effectively doubling down on Batel’s absolutely terrible evening. While the terms of their seemingly open relationship haven’t exactly been defined on screen, not being on the same page about it easily throws a wrench in their evening. She leaves without finishing dinner and Pike gets a call from the bridge regarding sensitive information about Rigel VII.

In Pike’s ready room, Una briefs the captain as well as La’an, M’Benga, and Ortegas (Melissa Navia) on the mission ahead. Five years prior, Pike, Una, and Spock (Ethan Peck) came here to survey an M-class planet, but things went south quickly with three crew members dying resulting in Pike and Spock needing an emergency evacuation. Recently, Starfleet received images from the planet of the delta shape of the logo used on comm badges and other gear cut into the shrubbery of a palace garden, making it clear that Pike and Spock did not escape the pre-warp planet without impacting it, essentially violating the Prime Directive by accident. They need to land on the planet and correct the cultural contamination they caused with that first visit. Pike implies in very few words that the team he’s assembled for this mission was chosen for their combat skills.

After the briefing ends, Una lingers behind to talk to Pike — he seems distant, fiddling with the token that Batel gave him before their date went sideways. She presses him slightly about why Batel’s ship left in such a hurry, and he reveals that they decided to take a break. Una sees straight through him and points out that he always panics when someone gets too close, essentially self-sabotaging all of his romantic relationships before he can get hurt. While they agree that it doesn’t make sense for him to wreck his relationship with Batel, they’ve got bigger fish to fry with the mission to Rigel VII. Pike admits that he still thinks about what went wrong the first time, wondering what he could’ve done differently to keep his crew alive. She offers to tell Starfleet that they need to recuse themselves from this mission, but Pike is determined to clean up the mess he blames himself for.

Pike Must Face a Ghost From His Past on ‘Strange New Worlds’ Season 2

Ortegas is overjoyed to be going on her first (on-screen) away mission aboard the Enterprise, making a Pilot’s Log about how excited she is to not only be flying the shuttlecraft down but to be on the away party. Dressed in planet-appropriate clothing to help them blend in she meets up with La’an and M’Benga on their way to the shuttle bay when they’re stopped by Spock. He explains to the captain that the debris field around the planet is shifting, meaning that they’ll need their best pilot aboard the Enterprise and Ortegas must stay behind. Pike decides to fly the shuttle down himself, and while Ortegas knows it’s the right call she can’t help but be a little bit resentful of Spock for delivering the information.

To reach the settlement undetected, Pike has to land the shuttle 20 kilometers away — and to make matters more complicated, they can’t bring phasers or comm badges and risk further contamination of the planet’s burgeoning society. Luckily, they have sub-dermal universal translators, but otherwise, they’re on their own. As they exit the shuttlecraft, La’an suffers from a serious bout of tinnitus, a violent ringing in her ears that makes her feel confused and disoriented, not realizing that they’ve already traveled six hours away from where they landed. It’s more dangerous to turn back now than to keep moving forward so La’an brushes it off and M’Benga hopes that it’s not a sign of anything more serious.

Outside the palace, La’an surveys the area and notes that the Starfleet delta is also forged into the gates. They decide that the best course of action is to talk to people who live outside the castle because they’re more likely to talk without their guard up, but if that fails they’ll have to slip inside the palace. La’an is hit with another wave of tinnitus and Pike suggests that they lie low and head back to the shuttle first thing in the morning. However, that’s not a viable option as they realize that the guards surrounding the palace are armed with phaser rifles. Pike explains that when they ordered their emergency evacuation, Spock had been bleeding out, and he hadn’t been keeping an eye on where the rest of their gear was in the haste to save his life and not lose a fourth crew member. M’Benga joins them with six guards in tow, and while La’an is ready to fight, Pike makes an attempt at diplomacy first. However, the guard reveals that he already knows they’re from Starfleet.

M’Benga suffers from his own wave of tinnitus as the guards take them into the castle and they’re greeted by the yeoman that Pike believed died during their first mission here. Pike is overjoyed to find Zach still alive, but there’s a menacing tone in Zach’s words, making it clear that he’s not exactly happy to have been abandoned on this harsh stone-age planet. He goes by High Lord Zacharias on this planet and though Pike wants to fix his mistakes, Zach tells him it’s too little too late. Pike assumes that Zach put the delta symbol in the garden as a message, but the former yeoman says the people here just adopted it as his symbol, and he has every intention to tear it down at the earliest opportunity.

The captain attempts to empathize with Zach over how difficult it must have been for him to be here over the last five years, but it’s far worse than he realizes. The source of the ringing in La’an and M’Benga’s ears is the radiation from a meteor that struck the planet’s surface years ago; it makes it difficult to think and ultimately makes you forget who you are. Pike tries one more time to bargain with Zach, but he’s convinced there’s no going back for him after what he’s done on this planet, arming the guards with Starfleet weapons and installing himself as their king. While Pike insists that the Enterprise will come for them, Zach takes no small joy in subjecting Pike to the same suffering he went through in his abandonment, explaining that within a day no one will remember they’re even there. Outside in a cage, Pike and M’Benga try to piece together a solution, struggling through serious brain fog. La’an attacks Pike when he approaches her because she doesn’t remember who he is — in fact, none of them can even remember why they’re on the planet.

Ortegas Gets to Flex Her Pilot Instincts at the Helm of the Enterprise

The same tinnitus that the officers on the planet are suffering from extends up to the ship, first causing Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) to become disoriented, having no memory of the past two hours on the bridge. Commander Una insists that she go to Sickbay and see what’s going on, and sends Ortegas with the young comms officer, taking over flying through the debris field herself. Uhura explains her symptoms to Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) and the scans of Uhura’s brain reveal that something much more concerning than a headache is plaguing her. Chapel and Ortegas attempt to deduce what the source of the problem might be, saying that it shouldn’t be a problem as long as it’s just happening to Uhura. Like clockwork, Spock calls over comms, saying he’s sending in six more crew members suffering from acute memory loss.

Back on the ship, Chapel explains what’s happening to everyone to Una when the commander is hit with a wave of tinnitus. She delivers the same information that Luke told Pike, they can remember their emotions and instincts, but everything beyond that is being blocked by the radiation. Pike comes in and insists that they each keep a copy of their information to remind themselves of who they are. They realize that they need to leave orbit in order to get their memories back, but they can’t leave the away team behind. Spock returns to the bridge and insists that Ortegas fly them into the debris field to block out some of the radiation.

Spock and Ortegas’ attempt to lessen the radiation backfires drastically as they’re both hit with a wave of tinnitus and extreme confusion over everything from who they are to how to read their data pads. Ortegas can recall that they were trying to make things better and that she’s angry at Spock, but that’s where her memories stop. The rest of the crew is wandering around confused, as Ortegas gets the computer to lead her to her quarters. When the debris field starts to impact the ship, Ortegas begs for someone to make it stop before realizing she is, in fact, the one person who can make it stop. Navia does a wonderful job with Ortegas’ determination, leaning into the comedy of the moment with ease while inspiring hope and becoming the hero that the Enterprise needs.

‘Strange New Worlds’ Season 2 Sends Mixed Messages About Memories and Living in the Moment

The next morning on the planet, the away party is granted some grace by a man named Luke who lives outside the palace. He explains their roles are defined by the colors that they wear, and promises to explain later why he’s able to understand the basic functions of this society. While they go to work in the stone quarry, the man explains that each night they go through “the forgetting” — he says that they don’t lose the “deeply known” things like walking and talking, but memories and the things that make them who they are disappear. He offers to help them with their next “forgetting” so that they don’t wake up lost and afraid. It’s not like this for everyone, though; the people in the palace are able to retain their memories each night. Despite his attempts at comfort, Pike and La’an are certain that they aren’t supposed to be here and neither is M’Benga. Pike has a vague memory of the pendant that Batel gave him, and Luke encourages him to trust his emotions more than his fleeting memories. Despite Luke’s insistence that they just go with the flow, La’an and Pike start a fight with the two guards keeping watch over their work area. They incapacitate the guards but not without La’an getting stabbed in the process. M’Benga instinctively knows how to treat her wound, but they have to flee back to Luke’s place to do more than wrap her in a temporary bandage.

M’Benga believes he can save La’an, but he needs his memories back to properly treat her. Luke has already written her off and tells them to just let her go with peace, but La’an is not exactly jazzed about the prospect of dying. While M’Benga tries to keep taking care of her, Luke says that at least when she’s dead they won’t have to carry the pain of the loss because they’ll just forget her. A totem in the center of his room explains enough to keep Luke and the other workers in line, but it doesn’t tell Pike enough to satisfy him. His determination to save La’an stirs a change of heart in Luke, and he agrees to go with them back to the castle to get their memories back.

A significant portion of the emotional weight of this episode rests on Luke’s shoulders as he says that he’ll watch after La’an, but he doesn’t want Pike and M’Benga to retrieve his memories. He explains that he still carries the weight of his grief, having deduced that he likely lost the people he loves, and he’s certain that remembering the specifics won’t make the burden any lighter. It conflicts slightly with what he’d previously said about Pike and M’Benga being able to forget the pain of losing La’an. He insists that part of Pike’s motivation to get his memories back is linked to the pendant he wears because it reminds him of someone he loves, but Pike still can’t recall who gave it to him. M’Benga gets shot as he and Pike attempt to storm the palace — he can’t keep going, so he decides to defend the entrance while Pike retrieves their memories.

Inside Pike faces off against Zach, and he lets himself be guided by his baser emotions, the leading of which is certainly anger, allowing himself to attack the young self-appointed king. Admitting defeat in his cowardice, Zach points Pike towards what he has left of the Starfleet equipment in a box where he pretends to keep everyone’s memories. He explains that the whole castle and the helmets of the guards are made out of an ore that protects them from the radiation and everything else is a myth to keep the working class submissive. When Pike doesn’t believe him, Zach laughs in his face and says it’s just like Pike to start a revolution. In his frustration, he nearly kills the former yeoman, but his memories return just in time. Pike knows that who he is at his core hasn’t changed — he values the lives of his crew, including Zach’s, above everything.

M’Benga is able to heal La’an with a dermal regenerator from the box of Starfleet equipment. Having been through a lot together, the two warriors agree that it can be nice to not have to carry the burden of the past for a little while, but ultimately “some memories are worth the pain of others.” Meanwhile, Luke decided to stay inside long enough to remember his family, and he takes back what he said to Pike before, admitting that the little things about your life matter. Pike is finally able to remember Batel, realizing that he needs to apologize to her after he’s learned the importance of living in the moment. The messaging gets a little muddy here, as that instinct to live in the now and forget the past was part of the myth designed to create a class divide. However, for Pike maybe he needs to stop worrying about the future so he can enjoy the present.

When everyone returns to the Enterprise, Ortegas wraps up her Pilot’s Log, explaining how they were able to get their memories back and how she and Spock resolved their temporary beef. With the Prime Directive already thoroughly smashed to bits with regard to their actions on this planet, Pike decides that they’re within their bounds to yank the meteor off the planet’s surface and throw it back into the atmosphere so that the people no longer have to lose their memories.

Later, Pike makes sure that Batel’s ship is part of the prison transfer for Zach so that he can apologize to her. He explains that he was wrong to end their still-undefined relationship and asks for her forgiveness. Though hesitant at first, she kisses him and says they can keep playing it by ear the way they have been. Nothing really changes about the nature of their relationship, and they’ve essentially ended up right back where they started with an open, “I’ll see you when I see you,” kind of thing going on, but they’re back on good terms after their rocky start at the beginning of the episode.