⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t watched Season 4, Episode 2 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds yet, turn back now! This review breaks down the entire episode, plot twists, psychological hallucinations, and major spoilers from start to finish.
Reports billed this one as the series’ big “horror episode,” and the title itself—reminiscent of TOS’s “The Enterprise Incident”—set high expectations.
We open with a recap touching on the ongoing web between La’An, Kirk, and Spock. Fresh off punching a dinosaur last week, La’An is currently working through the reality that her genetic augmentations are beginning to manifest. While returning from a “Future Federation Leaders” meeting, Kirk, Spock, and La’An cross paths with the USS Griffin, an abandoned Federation ship drifting with no signs of life, damage, or struggle. The crew just seemingly got up and left one day.
Deciding to board, the trio quickly realizes this isn’t a standard salvage operation. The ship is essentially “asleep” and only has an hour of auxiliary power left—conveniently matching the runtime of our episode. Spock notes it might be a job for Division 12, Starfleet’s equivalent of The X-Files. From there, the psychological unraveling begins.
The Breakdown: Reality vs. Nightmare
Because this is a classic psychological horror episode, the line between what is actually happening and what the ship’s psychic contamination is projecting becomes completely blurred:
The Ghostly Encounters: The landing party splits up—a classic horror movie mistake. La’An spots a ghostly female officer (identified as the ship’s security chief, Harper) emitting negative tachyon ions.
The Hallucinations: As the ship’s computers glitch and stutter, the characters are isolated and forced to confront their deepest fears and personal dark sides. Kirk hears a baby crying and encounters ghosts of his brother Sam, Pike, and visions of Carol and David Marcus.
Spock and T’Pring: Spock is trapped in sickbay with what appears to be his Vulcan fiancée, T’Pring. She attempts to “fix” his human side, going so far as to slice his ear and push him toward a psychological breaking point before he manages to break the illusion with a traditional Vulcan poem.
The Mutilation & Madness: Number One and Pike also manifest in sickbay, with Number One nearly cutting into her own stomach due to perceived inadequacies regarding her Illyrian heritage. Meanwhile, a possessed La’An turns on the crew, inadvertently trapping Ortega in the transporter buffer and stabbing Kirk.
When it’s all over, M.Benga reveals a shocking truth: the landing party never actually physically beamed aboard the Griffin. They were incapacitated from the start, experiencing a shared psychic projection while floating safely on the Enterprise. Physically, they will recover—but mentally, La’An, Kirk, and Spock are deeply rattled. Chapel patches up Spock’s ears, and Pike quietly advises La’An to sweep the worst of it under the rug, reminding her that space is filled with terror as well as beauty, and Starfleet just needs to know they survived.
My take
Well, that was intense! Even watching with pauses, this is a massive amount of story to pack into an hour.
I thought we might get some resolution on the lingering love triangle dynamics between La’An, Kirk, and Spock, but instead, the writers used the pressure cooker to explore deeper psychological trauma. It’s clear they are actively trying to retroactively build backstory for TOS—especially with Jim attempting to contact Carol and David Marcus at the end, planting the seeds for the estrangement we see later in The Wrath of Khan.
With only a limited number of Strange New Worlds episodes remaining, I have to wonder what the ultimate fate of the “new” characters (Number One, Ortegas, and La’An) will be. Given the dark and tragic undertones, it feels like someone won’t make it out unscathed.
Star Trek has tried stepping into the horror realm with mixed results in the past, but this one leaned successfully into the “limitless terror” of deep space exploration—giving off strong Alien vibes.
My Final Grade: Recommended. This is an episode that forces you to pay attention and think. I just genuinely hope there are lasting consequences and ramifications for this storyline going forward rather than a quick reset.
Looking for More: For a different kind of look at timelines, choices, and how the timing of the past shapes where we stand today, check out my companion personal essay on Fate, Free Will, and timing
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