Image Credit: CBS Interactive, Inc.

So, we’re five episodes in, and still no Spock. Alex Kurtzman sure does love to tease the shite out of us, doesn’t he? I mean, the way he’s building up Spock’s first appearance, it better be nothing short of Superman II-level awesomeness, when Christopher Reeve’s Kal-El flies right up to the window of the Daily Planet, and says, “General, would you care to step outside?” Just saying.

But, you know, I shall abide; as long as he maintains my appeasement level with many more standout appearances from “Mirror, Mirror” Philippa Georgiou. Man, Michelle Yeoh is soooo good at being bad! If this is but a taste of what we’ll get in her solo, spin-off series, I am one-thousand percent on board.

This episode did what Star Trek is masterful at doing, and that is resolving a conundrum with an ultra-techie solution. I would presume that the curators of Discovery received a ton of backlash when they killed-off one half of the first openly gay couple to ever grace the universe of the franchise. So, of course they had to find a way to bring Hugh back, and I think this episode was the ultimate solution to that problem. I wonder if we’ll ever know if this was really part of the original plan all along, or if, over the break that we had between seasons one and two, Kurtzman and crew congregated in the writers’ room, huddling in a corner, cowering in perpetual fear of the zombie-like hordes of fans waiting to eat them alive, and had an emergency brainstorming session to figure out how they could bring Hugh back…..I wonder. Perhaps it’ll be revealed in some future Blu-ray special feature? Who knows. But the thought of this writers’ room scenario surely does a fabulous job of cracking me the hell up. God, I’m horrible.

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding Dr. Culber’s return, I, for one, am really, really beside myself that he’s back. The scene in the mycelial network, when Stamets is talking to him about their date to the Metropolitan Museum of Art – this scene right here, brought my sappy butt to tears. And when Stamets, Tilly, and Burnham are nervously waiting for Hugh to appear out of that gross-looking cocoon thingamajig…..well, I was on the edge of my couch mouthing the words, “Come on, please come on, Hugh.”

What can I say? I’m a sucker for a good love story.

I’m never really all that quick to pick up on every Easter egg that Discovery throws at us, so I typically have to search the Interwebs for those whose eyes are more “Elvish” than mine. However, I did catch one cool tidbit from this week’s episode (or, at least, I think it’s what I thought it was). At the end, when Discovery is escaping from the mycelial network, and being assisted by Section 31’s ship (which is friggin’ beautiful, by the way), the chorus playing during this whole sequence sounded an awful lot like a hybrid of Michael Giacchino’s score from Star Trek 2009, when the Enterprise crew destroys Nero’s ship, and narrowly escapes the black hole created by the red matter they ignited. It was a great choice for the scene, and a nice symphonic finale for the story line. That is, if it, indeed, was one and the same.

I also loved the little nod to TNG’s “24^th century” communicators, when Tyler uses his Section 31 badge to call for assistance from Leland, who, by the way, has a ship that can cloak itself as an asteroid? Why are these guys hoarding all of the 23^rd century’s best tech? Freakin’ shifty bastages.

Despite going yet another episode without seeing Spock, and apparently adding a sixth to that list since it appears we won’t be seeing him this week, either (at least, based on previews of it, anyway), I thought “Saints of Imperfection” was great. It hit all of the emotional beats, just like last week’s story did, and gave us back Dr. Culber, whose been a favorite of mine from the very start of this series. But dammit, Jim! Can we get some Spock up in this ship soon? I know I should have patience, and that according to Spock himself, “After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.”

But what does that pointy-eared bastard know, anyway?