Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 Finale Review
Star Trek: Prodigy season two has ended. Read on for our thoughts on the two-part series finale, and some thoughts about season two as a whole.
Ouroboros, Part I Review:
The endgame begins as “Ouroboros, Part I” shows us how Asencia, with time not on her side, plans to destroy the Federation once and for all.
The uprising on Solum threatens Asencia’s (Jameela Jamil) hold on power, and she goes ballistic; she orders her new fleet of Rev-1-type ships to launch into wormholes generated by her temporal weapon – a weapon created, remember, with knowledge provided by Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaten). Not only is the Federation threatened by Asencia’s fleet, but opening that many temporal wormholes simultaneously threatens to destroy subspace which is a big deal in Star Trek. Only Voyager and Protostar, along with their respective crews, can stop the mad ruler.
Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) goes into badass mode again and uses Voyager’s formidable array of quantum torpedoes to stop as many enemy ships as possible before they cross into Federation space. Meanwhile, the Protostar, manned by Chakotay (Robert Beltran) and Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) sends an away team down to Solum to turn Asencia’s temporal wormhole-generating weapon off, and instead open a wormhole that would allow the Protostar to return to Tars Lamora.
One of our substantial critiques of this episode comes from the disconnect between Asencia’s plans and how she can accomplish them. Chakotay asserts that Asencia’s fleet is heading toward every major Federation starbase in three quadrants, but it seems like Asencia would need many more ships to conduct a sneak attack on all those starbases. We only see a handful of ships launch from Solum, and only seven wormholes. Considering Voyager can destroy a few Rev-1 ships with barrages of quantum torpedoes, that means there are fewer ships to launch the surprise attacks on Federation outposts, and even if they were spread thinly, the Federation could surely muster one or two ships just as or more powerful than Voyager to defeat singular Rev-1 ships no problem.
“With so many rifts, there’s innumerable spatial variables. The science is akin to finding a needle in a haystack lost in the outer galaxy with only a telescope.”
“Then we better start looking.”
– Zero and Dal as the crew embarks on finding a way to stabilize Asencia’s wormhole to travel back to Tars Lamora.
Opening such a wormhole is much easier said than done, as there is no small amount of time travel calculations and other scientific technobabble needed to get the Protostar exactly to where and when it’s supposed to be. The best minds are on the case, though, as Wesley, Zero (Angus Imrie), Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), and Maj’el (Michaela Dietz) use sensible reasoning, theorizing, teamwork, and communication to determine just how to find the proverbial needle in a haystack needed to open the correct wormhole. Some of the best Star Trek scenes are simply of a crew working together to solve a problem, and “Ouroboros, Part I” has this in spades.
Down on Solum, Dal (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), Jankom (Jason Mantzoukas), and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) scale the massive temporal weapon and attempt to gain control of it to open the wormhole they need. Of course, a boss battle awaits the crew, as Asencia and Drednok (Jimmi Simpson) appear to stop the heroes. What follows is a battle on multiple fronts: Asencia and Gwyn go hand-to-hand for a while – remember, it’s a battle for which Vau N’Akat gains control of Solum – while Murf wrestles with Drednok before the robot can stop Dal and Jankom from manipulating the wormhole generator. After a quick but feeble fake-out to make the audience think Murf perished while fighting Drednok (as if this show had the cohones), the Mellanoid slime worm saves Dal from a lethal fall after the youngster risks his life to gain control of the generator.
Yes, Dal plays the hero and goes to reconnect a loose power coupling so that the wormhole can be created. He knows it’s a risky endeavor, and indeed is momentarily injured and on his way to a quick death before Murf saves him. Everything works out for the young captain. But in our opinion, this episode would have been stronger if Dal suffered some consequences for his heroism. If he were, say, permanently injured or scarred in any way from the electricity coursing through the wormhole generator, that would be a great capstone on Dal’s character development this season, and a consistent reminder of his leadership journey over the last 19 episodes.
While it’s all well and good that Asencia’s wormholes start to collapse, the antagonist seems like she has bested Gwyn in their fight until Ilthuran (John Noble) arrives at the battle scene; we last saw him holding off some Drednok after the away team beamed to the planet. The older man bolsters Gwyn’s abilities with the telepathic link Vau N’Akat shares, and other members of that race who arrive on the scene lend their aid, too. The combined assistance to Gwyn is enough to effectively level her up and quickly subdue Asencia, thus ending her threat to the Federation and the fractured Solum.
While this is an effective dramatic scene that brings an end to Asencia’s rule, we must ask: is having Ilthuran and other people of Solum transfer their will to Gwyn more effective than just quickly swarming Asencia and disarming her before she drives her heirloom through Gwyn’s chest? And beyond that, why did civilians show up on the wormhole generator platform anyway? Did Ilthuran bring them there after presumably defeating the two Drednoks attacking him? It seems like there’s room to expand Ilthuran’s role in this episode to help his climatic assist make more sense.
With the season’s main antagonist defeated, it’s time to finally send the Protostar home – but one last problem presents itself: the Loom have found our heroes sooner than Wesley anticipated (that seems to happen a lot, yeah?), and might very well block our heroes’ final mission.
Stray Thoughts:
- How great is the visual design for Solum and its people, weapons, and ships? We can’t help but admire how well Prodigy’s artists brought this new world to life, including Solum’s architecture, its peoples’ clothing, the Rev-1 design, and the culturally important heirlooms. Hopefully we see more of Solum and its people in other media.
- Does Janeway decide phasers aren’t effective against the Rev-1 ships, or was Voyager only using torpedoes just a way to save animation time and money?
- Doesn’t it seem a bit out of character for Hologram Janeway to be passive-aggressive to Chakotay, even in the middle of a firefight, all because she is understandably worried about being erased when the Protostar is sent back to Tars Lamora? One would think Janeway would express her concern about that prospect directly.
- Asencia asserts the multiverse holds a bitter truth – that Solum “will always be destroyed.” We are meant to assume this means no matter which timeline, Solum suffers a terrible destiny. But why? What about this planet and its people makes it destined for suffering?
Ouroboros, Part II Review:
The Loom is the last threat standing between our heroes and their mission to send the Protostar back to Tars Lamora where it belongs, which would in turn heal the Prime Universe… but that’s far from the only plot point this wonderful season finale offers fans.
Reconfiguring their shields and blazing their phasers are how the two Federation ships travel upstream and onto a path toward Tars Lamora. Navigation gets a bit difficult, however, and while computer-assisted piloting can’t chart a way through the Loom, another navigator on Voyager can: Gillian in Cetacean Ops. Yes, we finally get to see navigational whales in action, and it’s such a neat moment. It’s remarkable, really, how this department, which many Starfleet ships have, was once a mystery to fans. Cetacean Ops was only mentioned in passing in live-action Star Trek until both Lower Decks and Prodigy shed light on this splendid idea through the remarkable flexibility of animation.
“I hear them all. And I sense an insatiable hunger.”
“And we’re traveling right down their throat.”
– Zero and Chakotay, as they enter the Loom-infested wormhole.
Passing through the Loom, it’s clear sailing for the Voyager and Protostar, so it’s almost time to say goodbye to the smaller ship. But before that, there’s an intriguing exchange between Wesley and Dal that holds the key to this crew’s future: the young captain assumes the wormhole crossing was the reason why Wesley asserted the youngsters needed to stay together. But in typical cryptic fashion, Wesley asserts that no, the reason the universe needs that crew to stay together is yet to come, and this reason is something “wondrous” and “terrible.” Of course, he leaves it at that.
One more special event happens before the crew says goodbye to their ship. After finding their way through the Loom, the Protostar crew is treated to a wondrous sight: temporal echoes of themselves traversing the wormhole. These echoes manifest as ghostly Protostars skimming along the surface of the wormhole. It’s quite a sight and visually represents the timeline restoring itself to its proper condition. This scene is serene and an effective transition from the wormhole action to saying goodbye to the Protostar.
Remember, Protostar must be in the exact condition it was in when Dal and Rok found it in the series premiere, which means Hologram Janeway must be reset. Having the young protagonists say goodbye to their holographic advisor was a remarkably touching moment in the season one finale, but instead of retreading ground here in “Ouroboros, Part II,” Hologram Janeway gets a lifeline. Much to Holo-Janeway’s relief, The Doctor (Robert Picardo) backs her up onto an EMH module, which means the experiences and memories she formed in the last 10 years or so will stay intact.
With that goodbye averted, there’s one thing left to do. Dal takes a Starfleet insignia and places it in the same spot he found it back on Tars Lamora. This scene, and the accompanying clip show that chronicles the kids’ journey from that prison colony to their trip through the wormhole, will pull at your heartstrings. We’re reminded of how this disparate group of kids found each other through extraordinary circumstances – and remember, they couldn’t even understand each other yet – and went on to do extraordinary things. They grew together, suffered together, and celebrated accomplishments far beyond their years. This kind of sequence is usually found in a series finale; although there’s no official news of a possible third season for this exceptional show, this memories sequence will likely leave you content if Prodigy ends with this season finale. We can’t ask for much more than that.
That’s it – the mission our heroes set out on at the beginning of the season is complete. The Protostar exits the temporal wormhole and lands exactly where it’s supposed to be on Tars Lamora, in time for Dal and Rok to enter its empty, ghostly corridors. It’s quite the full-circle moment. Now down to one ship, our heroes return to Solum and usher in an era of cooperation with the Vau N’Akat.
To our pleasant surprise, this season finale contains an epilogue of sorts. Gwyn, Dal, and the rest of the crew return to Starfleet Academy to continue their studies. As was hinted, Janeway chooses to take an early retirement and hang out on a quiet farm, leaving Chakotay to captain the Voyager-A. Wesley, as was also hinted previously, takes some precious time to visit his mother, Beverly (Gates McFadden). Wesley gets a surprise of his own when his mother introduces him to an off-screen baby Jack Crusher, the man who plays a strong role in season three of Star Trek: Picard. So yes, things are going swimmingly for a while – the youngsters have even become a bit popular on campus thanks to their exploits – until an infamous day arrives: First Contact Day in 2385, the day androids attack the Mars shipyards. Star Trek: Picard fans are eating well today!
Janeway’s retirement lasts about 15 minutes before she is pulled back into service to deal with the aftermath of the Mars attack and the accompanying cancelation of the Romulan evacuation. Despite the admiral’s impassioned speech to Admiral Jellico (Ronnie Cox) about Starfleet losing a key element of its existence should they pull back their exploration mission to focus on defense, there’s not much she can do – except one thing.
While Janeway herself can’t take to the stars in her own vessel, she does have the capability to hand our young protagonists a new ship of their own. With this Protostar-class ship – the aptly named USS Prodigy – Dal, Gwyn, Rok, Jankom, Zero, Murf, and Maj’el can continue their studies and development while they help people in lieu of Starfleet’s presence on the galactic scene.
It’s in this scene the last hanging thread Prodigy has is resolved, as Dal, a newly commissioned ensign like the rest of his crew, forgoes captaincy of the Prodigy in favor of Gwyn, and retains the first officer position, thus fulfilling the future he saw for himself back in “The Devourer of All Things, Part II.” Off to the stars, our heroes go, with Hologram Janeway at their side, ready to fulfill the prophecy Wesley set out for them.
Stray Thoughts:
- Maj’el asserts there’s no autopilot system advanced enough to steer a ship through the Loom swarm, but is that true? Computers maneuver vessels around things like stellar debris and asteroid fields all the time. Sounds like Prodigy just needed a reason to keep a crew aboard the Protostar during the wormhole trip.
- Why is The Doctor on the bridge of Voyager during the wormhole journey? Shouldn’t he be down in sickbay?
- Like we noted, seeing Cetacean Ops in action is really cool, but we wish we knew more about how that department worked. Clearly, the whales required a manual request from the bridge to chart a course through the wormhole, but are there scenarios where they can take over automatically should the primary navigation system fail? And what data feeds the whales to allow them to navigate when a computer cannot? Are the whales then responsible for adjusting the ship’s course themselves, or do they feed that information to the bridge? Our nerd brains need this information!
- Here’s a great deep cut: In Janeway’s final log, she quotes an “old friend” who said, “We do not feel the passage of time, but the presence of time within us.” It was Jean-Luc who said this in a deleted scene from Star Trek: Nemesis.
- Another great deep cut: on Beverly Crusher’s desk is a plaque honoring her and her away team’s honorary citizenship to Cor Caroli V, as seen in TNG’s “Allegiance.”
- In the epilogue, the Doctor has finalized his next novel, The Mentor. The Doctor clearly enjoyed being a mentor to the kids in this season, and, wouldn’t you know it, a mentor is what he’ll be in the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy show. If you pause and read the text on the Doctor’s pad, you’ll read The Mentor is about the titular character, a “charming,” “gentle,” and “remarkable” fellow, who runs across a student.
- Rok mentions how she knows Janeway initially wanted to be a science officer. Indeed, Janeway’s first posting in Starfleet was as a science officer on the Al-Batani under Captain Owen Paris, father to Janeway’s future helmsman, Tom Paris.
- How on Earth did Maj’el surmise approximately five seconds after seeing the news about Mars that all 20,000 ships stationed there were destroyed? The only words the news banners said is, “Numerous synth ships are targeting rescue armada.”
- Here’s a strange bit of dialogue: Jellico explains to officers, including Janeway, that “we’re down engineers, ships, resources. We don’t even have enough combadges to upgrade half the fleet.” Why would the Mars attack mean Starfleet’s supply of combadges, of all things, has dwindled? The synths were attacking Starfleet’s new fleet of ships and its production facilities. Jellico doesn’t say this line sarcastically, either, as if he was trying to add color to his assessment of Starfleet’s decreased strength.
Heading for the Stars: Final Thoughts on Star Trek: Prodigy Season Two
“Ouroboros, Part I and II” offer a thrilling and emotional conclusion to what has been a remarkable season of Star Trek: Prodigy. The two-part finale effectively ties up many of the season’s major storylines while leaving the door open for future adventures – even though there’s no guarantee those adventures are coming, sadly. The creative team behind Prodigy brought their storytelling prowess to bear with this finale, as beautifully animated locales like Solum and the wormhole blend with important character growth and reflection to offer an experience greater than the sum of its parts. This finale, like the show as a whole, captures an enduring charm and spirit that we suspect resonates strongly with fans, whether you have seen other Star Trek or not.
Like any good show, Prodigy offers lessons digestible to even the youngest fans, and these lessons were enshrined by actions or experiences taken by some of our young crew. For example, Zero wrestled with the balance between mortality and human connection, and ultimately those around them supported the notion that Zero became something different than who they once were. That’s a powerful message in 2024. Helping Zero on this journey was a new character, Maj’el, who, while being a Vulcan, nevertheless was intrigued by Zero’s interpersonal journey, and supported it.
Rok, meanwhile, experienced the joys of discovery and intelligence, most notably in “A Tribble Called Quest,” but also had to face the consequences of making mistakes and how sometimes those consequences can lead to worthwhile experiences. Indeed, the experience of making a mistake in that episode is a remarkable instance of character growth, as every good scientist – which Rok so inspires to be – needs to learn how to deal with mistakes.
Dal, the de facto commander of his crew, matured so much in season two. Could you imagine the Dal of season one ceding starship command to anyone, as he does in the season two finale? Spending time with the previous Protostar commander, and seeing how Gwyn’s leadership abilities blossomed throughout the season, helped Dal see the captain’s chair doesn’t just fit him. Indeed, he found where he was needed most – in the first officer’s chair, ready to keep Gwyn straight and protect his crew.
Gwyn experienced the most hardship of any of her crewmates. The fate of the world was on her shoulders, and her actions in this season were taken with far more than just her own interests in mind. How could a young person bear that kind of weight? (Well, having a loyal crew at her side helps, surely.) The threat of permanent erasure was a constant reminder that she needed to stay focused on the goal facing her crew, that selfishness and single-mindedness weren’t on the table – the universe couldn’t afford it to be. Seeing Gwyn’s leadership abilities mold themselves through her challenges was a remarkable progression from the soft-spoken, somewhat submissive Gwyn of episodes past.
Tying together all these characters’ experiences was an overarching plot that could easily belong in any adult-oriented Star Trek show. The concept of a multiverse is not a new one in today’s sci-fi space, but instead of using the concept to introduce gratuitous cameos and self-promotion (the IP we are thinking of rhymes with Barvel), Prodigy didn’t go overboard with self-aggrandizement. Instead, Prodigy used the Star Trek universe to craft a different take on multiverse theory, one focused on coexistence and integration – goals promoted in Star Trek generally. Look at other “kids” shows that may play in your house: do they offer the kind of satisfaction and intrigue Prodigy’s writers produced with this high-concept, quality science-fiction storytelling?
The crew’s adventures aboard the newly christened U.S.S. Prodigy need to be explored. There’s so much left for this crew to do, and the Star Trek universe of the 2380s is ripe for exploration. Fans young and old have so much to benefit from the continued adventures of our nascent heroes. Season two proves that handily.
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