Star Trek Discovery: This means the end of episode 4 “The Time Spider” for episode 5 (season 5)

• The fourth episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 5 has all sorts of time travel fun.
• What seems almost detached from the rest of the plot already offers a glimpse into the future of the series!
• We explain to you the end of “The Time Spider” and what it means for the coming episodes.

Star Trek Discovery: Watch Now❯

The fourth episode of “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 5 has been released on Paramount+. It’s a small time travel episode in which Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) and Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) have to jump through different eras of time and finally try to get back to their own time.

The reason for the time chaos is that Moll (Eve Harlow) hid a time spider with Adira (Blu del Barrio) in the last episode, which sneaked into the Discovery’s engine room and caused the numerous time jumps.

The time spider causes temporary chaos

Right at the beginning of the episode, Discovery wants to follow the clue to the next piece of the treasure map that they received from Jinaal in the third episode. On the bridge, however, Michael runs into Rayner, who expresses himself quite bluntly and ignores the feelings of the crew members.

Michael beams him into the ready room to explain to him that personal interaction and respect for each other’s feelings on their spaceship are important to her. Rayner resists her and stands up for his path. When they want to beam back to the bridge, they find themselves in a different time.

It is the USS Discovery when it traveled from the 23rd century to the 32nd century, a few years in the past of the fifth season of “Star Trek: Discovery”. The two are irritated, but before they can discuss any further, they jump back in time and find themselves in the 23rd century. Rayner recognizes the pattern: there is a time spider on board the USS Discovery that causes the spaceship to jump in time.

Because Michael and Rayner were in the middle of the beam process when the time travel was triggered, they escape the effects of the time spider and feel the time jumps, while the rest of the crew is unaware of them and simply accepts all the events. Only one other person can also perceive the time jumps: Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp).

Why can Stamets sense the time jumps?

As Michael Burnham notes, Paul Stamets has Tardigrade DNA in his own. This was injected into him in earlier seasons when the spore drive was still in development. Tardigrades are bear animals that can communicate with the spores used in the drive.

Because the spores extend throughout the galaxy like a network, tardigrades can thus navigate throughout the entire galaxy, regardless of the universe or galaxy. This also allows them to perceive time differently, as the mycelium network extends not only through space, but also through time.

The fact that Stamets carries tardigrade DNA is because tardigrades were actually used as navigators for the spore drive. However, connecting them to the drive caused them pain, so Stamets decided to inject himself with the DNA to connect himself to the drive and stop animal cruelty. We’ll tell you how the spore drive works!

What eras do Burnham and Rayner jump through?

Michael and Rayner decide to find Stamets so that they can work together to disable the time spider and return to the correct timeline. However, this turns out to be difficult as the time jumps that keep happening never give them enough time to make a plan together and carry it out.

Due to the time jumps, they end up in different decades that fans already know from other “Star Trek: Discovery” seasons, but also in parallel timelines that we don’t know yet. At these points during the episode, Rayner and Michael jump in the following order:

• The journey from the 23rd to the 32nd century (“Star Trek: Discovery” end of season 2/beginning of season 3)
• The construction of the USS Discovery (ca. 2256 – shortly before “Star Trek: Discovery” season 1)
• The fight with the villainous AI Control (“Star Trek: Discovery” Season 2)
• The confrontation with the Orion Emerald Necklace under villain Osyraa (“Star Trek: Discovery” Season 3)
• The alternate future in which the Breen destroyed Starfleet (Year 3218; 30 years after “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 5)
• Back in the Past (sometime during Season 2)
• 32nd Century (you can tell from the uniforms that it takes place around season 3 or 4)
• Lorca on an away mission when Michael was still a mutineer (during the first season)

During the final time jump, Rayner finally manages to disable the time spider. What is important, however, is that at exactly that moment Discovery falls out of a warp bubble by slowing down from super-Light speed. To accomplish this, Michael must gain the trust of the crew to bring the spaceship to warp.

However, since she is in a time where she is still known as a mutineer, this proves tricky. The crew doesn’t trust her. However, she uses the knowledge of her crew that she has acquired over the years and is able to reach her crew from another time on a personal level and get them to trust her. Rayner learns that Michael’s path of trust and mutual appreciation can be very important for a crew.

The Breen return: This is what continues in season 5!

One of the most important moments in the episode is undoubtedly the dystopian future in which the Breen have destroyed the Federation. This suggests that there will be a confrontation with the aliens that “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” fans know in “Star Trek: Discovery” season 5.

Before that happens, however, we will most likely return to the mirror universe in episode 5. The episode is called “Mirrors”. Guest appearances by well-known stars can even be expected, as Michelle Paradise hinted in advance of the episode: “Surprising encounters and surprising new information about our heroes.”

The mirror universe played an important role especially in the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” and also in the third season. There, Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) returned to the mirror universe before she was sent back in time. Georgiou herself comes from the mirror universe and could be a possible candidate for a guest appearance.

The wreckage of the starship Enterprise can also be seen in a trailer for the fifth episode of the fifth season of “Star Trek: Discovery”. Do we see Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the Enterprise from “Strange New Worlds” as mirror variants?

The next episode will appear on Paramount+’s news program on April 25, 2024. This is the mid-season finale, as the fifth season of “Star Trek: Discovery” consists of 10 episodes in total. We list all new “Star Trek” releases for you!