I’m hoping that this week’s episode of Strange New Worlds doesn’t just descend into the typical season four “genre of the week” episode. It definitely sounds like this could be a spiritual sequel to “the Elysian kingdom“ from season one. Obviously from the title, it sounds like it’s going to be a La’An-heavy story.
Have a look at the official trailer for this episode, as seen on Star Trek official Instagram account below: 
SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t watched Season 4, Episode 9 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds yet, turn back now! This review breaks down the entire episode -the fairytale tropes , the character revelations – major spoilers from start to finish. You have been warned.
Returning from the Wedding
The senior staff returns from a wedding, and it sounds like La’An was an absolute trainwreck. At this point, the entire senior staff (all the regulars) are well aware that La’An has some stuff she’s dealing with.
The Enterprise discovers a planet “that should not exist.” They beam down and it looks like a literal fairytale come to life. They see M’Benga (or a fairytale-ish character who looks like him) and he seems like he wants to protect La’An.
The Elysian Kingdom Connection
Back on the Enterprise, M’Benga informs Pike about the events from the episode “The Elysian Kingdom.” Apparently, the same technology that created the story for M’Benga’s daughter is back. This time, M’Benga conjectures, it has created a story for La’An to work out her own emotional turmoil—in the same way that it created a story for M’Benga previously.
The plan is for La’An to pose as her fairytale counterpart to find some answers. La’An is as standoffish as you would expect. Pelia is trying to coach La’An through the process, while naturally having a blast.
Story Meets Reality
In the story, Uhura’s doppelgänger is the Queen, and she proclaims that whoever controls the “Iron Dragon” will control the realm. Of course, the Iron Dragon is the Enterprise. Apparently, the story and the real world are bleeding into each other. Does this mean the Enterprise and her crew are actually part of the story as well?
La’An is approached by two guards, and we find out that her character, the princess (Thalia), escaped from the dungeon. Prince Dashing—who is the Jim Kirk doppelgänger—comes to her rescue.
Queen Neve arrives. Pike, Spock, and Pelia, dressed as their storybook counterparts, are captured and taken to the dungeon, where they meet the princess and the La’An doppelgänger.
Doppelgänger Tomfoolery on the Enterprise
Meanwhile, the coward (Pike) and the wizard (Spock) find Pike’s gear and are accidentally transported onto the Enterprise.
Pieces are slowly put together that the Iron Dragon is the Enterprise, and that their doppelgänger counterparts are the crew. The wizard’s magic is “real” as he freezes a redshirt and the transporter chief.
Pike, Spock, and Pelia are brought before the Queen. Pike gives full disclosure, except he calls Pelia “Benny Russell.” The Queen tells Pelia—whom she believes is Benny Russell, the writer of the storybook—to write the part about how she takes over the Iron Dragon/Enterprise.
La’An, as Thalia, and Prince Dashing are hounded by Adya (the Ortegas doppelgänger), and for the second time, La’An is unable to cry. They are looking for Runa, who I believe is the dog encountered earlier by Pike, Spock, and Pelia.
The wizard’s magic is winning, so he and the coward decide to go to Pike’s quarters to learn as much as they can about Pike and Spock. La’An is making up a story about an angel necklace that she is looking for in order to get Prince Dashing and Adya to help her.
Pelia compliments the ship’s chef, calling him a miracle worker. I’m pretty sure we’re going to find out it’s Scotty. It’s funny and quite meta to see Anson Mount and Ethan Peck playing the coward and the wizard, respectively, who are trying to pose as Pike and Spock.
The Masquerade and the Dragon
La’An confides to Dashing about the darkness she has been sensing in herself. La’An and Dashing have to dance at a masquerade ball. Good thing we know La’An has a penchant for dancing!
Queen Neve arrives, and as she does, Dashing turns into a werewolf. Queen Neve traps the werewolf/Dashing in a painting. Then, the real princess arrives. Thalia steps up, having accepted Dashing for what he was—both the darkness and the light.
Queen Neve performs some kind of magic, steals a piece of the soul of both the princess and La’An, puts it into a potion, and turns into a giant dragon. The princess and La’An both come to and begin fighting each other.
The Queen, now in the form of a dragon, is attacking the Enterprise. La’An and Thalia decide to stop fighting. They realize that they are halves of one another and decide to work together. They both drink from the same cauldron that the Queen drank from before she changed into a dragon.
Setting Things Right
Meanwhile, through a comedy of errors, the wizard and the coward are posing as Pike and Spock, trying to hold off the dragon on the Enterprise. The wizard conjures some kind of spell that eliminates the dragon, turning her back into Queen Neve. Dashing is freed from the painting. It appears that the fairytale is now working itself out as life returns to normal on the Enterprise.
Thalia and Dashing are reunited. Thalia seems whole again and is going to become the new queen. Pelia agrees to help them pilot the ship to keep it safely hidden. The Elysian Kingdom will live on.
Runa the dog is on board the Enterprise now, with a note attached from the princess asking La’An to take care of him. La’An seems different now—changed, and more whole. She invites Kirk for a drink, and they discuss her father’s necklace. They seem like they both want to start over.
My take
Well, there’s a lot to unpack here with this week’s episode. It appears that the darkness La’An has been struggling with all season finally seems to be behind her. I know some fans were speculating that she was basically going to turn evil for season five, but I get the impression that speculation has finally been put to rest this week.
La’An now has a dog as well. Not only that, she and James T. Kirk appear to be dating now.
The question remains: Pelia is off the ship, but is this permanent? Will she return in next week’s season finale, or even in season five itself?
As for the planet’s mechanics, the backstory from The Elysian Kingdom and the fact that Spock literally quotes Arthur C. Clarke in the episode gives just enough background to establish: well, since we can’t fully prove what it is scientifically, we’re just going to call it magic. I suppose that serves as a bit of a sci-fi cop-out for the franchise, but it works in service of the emotional narrative.
And that emotional narrative is where the episode really hits home. Watching La’An’s journey this season, I couldn’t help but see echoes of my own path. No, I didn’t have to confront the kind of literal darkness she carries, but I did have to reconcile some stuff in my own life in order to decide this is how I’m going to move forward. And I feel like that’s what La’An had to do. She had to reconcile that darkness and her family history with the light of her own life, bringing both things together to make herself the best of both worlds, so to speak.
Seeing the character go through that process—and putting to rest any worries that they were going to turn her evil in the season finale or season five—makes for a satisfying conclusion. Some of the doppelgänger tomfoolery, and just seeing the actors play their existing characters playing fairytale doppelgängers of themselves, was a bit of a fourth-wall-shattering mind job. It made the episode really difficult to keep up with in real time if you try to scrutinize it too closely. But if you sit down, watch it, and appreciate that La’An is finally getting a resolution to a story that has dragged out for much of the fourth season, it’s not a bad episode. Certainly not my favorite, but not nearly as bad as some people are making it sound either.
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