Star Trek: Discovery Unveils More Details About Lorca's Creature

[Warning: This post contains spoilers from Episode 4 of Star Trek: Discovery, "The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry." Read at your own risk.]

Despite demolishing a dozen armed Klingons aboard the USS Glenn, Captain Lorca's (Jason Isaacs) newest creature might not be the ruthless killing machine everyone thinks it is. Sunday night's Star Trek: Discovery revealed that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to this mysterious being.

In the episode, the USS Discovery is called upon to aid a mining colony being attacked by Klingon. Lorca gives the order to activate the spore drive and it fails to make the long distance, ending up in the gravitational pull of a sun which they eventually escape.

With the long-distance jump attempt deemed a failure and Lorca on the warpath for answers, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) turns her attentions to the creature. We quickly find out that the creature is sensitive to light, shares biological similarities to microbiological beings found on Earth, came aboard the USS Glenn in search of mushrooms (which are spores, mind you) and can somehow communicate with the spores.

Unfortunately, Commander Landry (Rekha Sharma) had no intention of understanding the creature's motivations; she's only concerned with how to weaponize it, and that mistake cost the chief of security her life. However, her death wasn't in vain. Burnham quickly realizes that rather than being used as a weapon like Lorca intended, the creature can actually be the living, breathing navigation system for the spore drive.

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Fortunately for the Discovery crew, Burnham's theory actually works. With the creature acting as a guide, Discovery makes it to the colony via spores and saves the day. And while Burnham may have uncovered some key facts, we still have plenty more to learn about Lorca's fascinating creature.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Sundays at 8:30/7:30c exclusively on CBS All Access.

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