What Saru's Big Scene In The Star Trek: Discovery Premiere Means For The Final Season
This article contains spoilers for the season 5 premiere of "Star Trek: Discovery."
With an ensemble cast as large as the one in "Star Trek: Discovery," it can't be easy to find a way to give each and every major character their own moment to shine. Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is all but guaranteed to play a significant role in any given episode, naturally, as is David Ajala's Cleveland Booker. Recent seasons have even committed to shining a brighter spotlight on the supporting cast at large, devoting much more screen time and emotional heavy-lifting to characters like Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp), Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz), and Adira (Blu del Barrio). But Doug Jones' charismatic performance as the even-keeled Saru has always helped elevate "Discovery" to greater heights, serving much of the same narrative and thematic purpose as classic franchise characters like Spock or Data.
The last season and change have given Saru some of his most dynamic material yet, from becoming a father figure to the volatile Kelpian Su'Kal (Bill Irwin) to the struggle of choosing between his responsibilities to Starfleet and his home world. But last season introduced the most surprising development of them all: a blossoming romance between himself and the Vulcan President T'Rina (Tara Rosling). The presence of various galaxy-scaled threats hasn't exactly given them much time to devote to their relationship, but the "Discovery" season 5 premiere (which /Film's Jacob Hall reviewed here) featured one major moment between the two that could tee up a much more compelling arc to come.
At the SXSW premiere of "Discovery," however, Jones teased that there might still be storm clouds on the horizon.
Trouble in paradise?
Are those wedding bells we hear? Well, maybe not quite so fast. Despite the season 5 premiere of "Discovery" featuring T'Rina's marriage proposal to Saru in the only way that a Vulcan can do it — bluntly and with zero fanfare whatsoever — shippers might want to hold off on celebrating just yet. Nuptials can prove just as tricky in futuristic societies as they do today (and as they always have), apparently, as Saru might be on the cusp of finding out for himself. During a Q&A following the screening of the season 5 premiere at SXSW, Jones took the stage to address his character's biggest and most unexpected moment. Asked what viewers should expect from the betrothed pair in the following episodes, he played coy about how their storyline will unfold this season:
"There's also going to be some relationship issues, as any relationship will go through. Where do we draw the line of me stepping into her territory diplomatically, her defending her territory from me a little bit. Yeah. There's going to be some issues that might challenge our wedding happening. Maybe."
Given the shocking revelation that occurs at the end of the episode, it's likely that their domestic bliss might once again be interrupted by much bigger stakes this time around. But Jones at least hints at possible issues stemming from their responsibilities to Starfleet (for Saru) and to their own people (for T'Rina). This wouldn't be the first time in "Trek" that work and love have mixed together to unpredictable results — look no further than Burnham and Book, after all. But here's hoping this oddball pairing of Kelpian and Vulcan can figure things out.
"Star Trek: Discovery" season 5 premieres new episodes every Thursday on Paramount+.