Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 episode "Far From Home." Read at your own risk!
Star Trek: Discovery's Season 3 premiere had Michael Burnham wondering when the rest of the Discovery crew would arrive in the future, and by the second episode's end we had our answer. The Discovery ship arrived a full year after Burnham, though I began to question throughout their opening adventure in the 23rd century whether or not they were alone.
Is it possible Control is still around somewhere on the ship? The Season 2 villain, or at least some part of it, was believed to be destroyed prior to the time jump, but "Far From Home" made me less sure that was actually the case. Here are some of the red flags that alerted me to that, and why I think the Discovery crew may have to deal with their old foe again before too long.
Leland's Exploded Body
Section 31's former head Leland made a brief appearance in Season 3's second episode, or part of him at least. Star Trek: Discovery made a point to show a crew member cleaning up the remains of his exploded body, and dumping them in a bucket. Of course, it's worth mentioning that Leland was not actually Control, but was being possessed by Control via nanotechnology within his body.
This is to say that just because Leland died, does not mean that Control died with him. It's very possible pieces of the malicious artificial iIntelligence are floating around in that scattered brain mass in the tube, and that pieces of Control could find their way onto some tech before Season 3 is at an end. I'm not saying that's a sure thing, but I do have to wonder why Star Trek: Discovery went out of its way to show us Leland's body being cleaned up if we already knew he was dead.
Detmer's Brain Fog
Lieutenant Keyla Detmer took a nasty hit to the head when helping the Discovery make its landing, and while her wounds were healed, it seemed more than evident that something else was wrong with her. There's already been speculation that she's dealing with survivor's guilt, and perhaps feels upset she couldn't do more to prevent lives from being lost due to the severity of the ship's landing.
I think that's certainly plausible, possibly even likely, though can't ignore the piece of hardware strapped to her head. When Control was traveling along the ship it took control of the mechanics in Lieutenant Commander Airiam in an effort to gain control of the Sphere. Is it possible that in the downtime the crew were unconscious in the wormhole that Control managed to latch onto her mechanics and is now dormant in her system? I think so and feel like she'll certainly be someone to watch as Season 3 continues.
What This May Mean For Star Trek: Discovery Season 3
The Discovery crew jumped into the future to prevent the knowledge it obtained from the dying sphere from falling into the wrong hands, and Control was certainly something with the wrong hands. Should the crew be unable to thwart Control again (assuming it has returned of course) then it may need to jump into the future yet again to prevent the collapse of humanity.
This wouldn't be an ideal situation for the future though, as the Discovery crew may have the one thing in its possession that can re-correct the world of the future. Perhaps the sphere's data can give the future more insight on what caused The Great Burn, or even help them re-learn knowledge that has since been long forgotten. That can't happen if Control returns and forces the team to make another time jump, which they probably don't want to do. Fingers crossed I'm wrong, and this villain is officially gone for good.
Star Trek: Discovery (which was just recently renewed for Season 4) releases on CBS All Access Thursdays. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more on the franchise and for the latest news happening in television and movies.
