STAR TREK: PRODIGY Series Premiere Recap: (S01E02) Lost & Found, Part 2

DISCLAIMER: This recap of Star Trek: Prodigy holds a whole quadrant full of spoilers. You’ve been warned. Use the Janeway maneuver at your own peril.

Welcome Trekkies! The hour-long two-part episode of Star Trek: Prodigy kicked off the franchise’s newest series about lawless teens in a mining colony outside of Federation space.

Ready to dive into the second part of the first episode of Star Trek: Prodigy? Engage!

Picking up where we left off last time, the Protostar’s new crew wonders how the ship got buried in the asteroid in the first place and how they can get it out. But first, the three prisoners must introduce themselves to each other as Fugitive Zero (Angus Imrie) steps onboard the ship’s command deck.

Zero appears in armor they designed for themselves (using no hands), which mimics the opaque carrier pods that Medusans typically use when interacting with other species. Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazragui) asks them, “He’s a robot?”

Zero responds, “Not a robot, nor a he or she. I am Medusan, an energy-based life-form. I built this containment suit because if any corporeal being were to lay eyes on my true self, they would go mad.”

Is There In Truth No Beauty? Photo: StarTrek.com

But why is Zero following Dal R’El (Brett Gray)? Because the Medusan wants to regain the hope they lost spending all of those years being used! Zero says that The Diviner (John Noble) used him as a weapon against his enemies, but curiously the Medusan couldn’t see inside The Diviner’s mind… They could only sense a dark purpose.

This is a big deal. Most species cannot block out the Medusans’ telepathic abilities. In Star Trek, at least thus far, only Vulcans are capable of viewing Medusans without going mad, but only with the use of a specially filtered visor. The Vulcan ability to interact with the Medusans for a short time comes from their telepathic powers, an ability the Vau N’Akat people also possess.

Is There in Truth No Beauty? Photo: StarTrek.com

From this exposition-based dialogue, we learn that The Diviner is searching for something, probably the Protostar, a ship which Rok-Tahk exclaims, “Could save everyone!”

But Dal isn’t so positive. “Don’t start packing your stones yet,” he says, a funny line that’s also emblematic of the themes of the show. This line shows us that the mind tricks of the capitalistic villains have worked on the wayward prisoners and have even caused our heroes to reduce each other to their basic cog-like selves.

But nonetheless, they see hope that they can work together toward a better future. The three of them discuss how many crew members they would need to get the ship off the ground, which Zero estimates is between 20 and 37 crew members, depending on the number of limbs.

And eventually, they agree on the fact that the crew at least needs an engineer!

We cut back to Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), who is scatting. When he sees Rok-Tahk and Dal, the young Tellarite says, “Oh great, Mr.-Pain-in-My-Butt is back, and he’s found the only thing denser than him,” referring to Rok-Tahk of course.

Suddenly, Jankom realizes that he can actually understand the other two prisoners! Although the three of them all marvel over the “magic” translator together, at first, that’s not enough to win over the young Tellarite (a species known for its argumentative style and a species that is one of the founding members of the Federation).

Dal, already aware that Tellrites are known for their argumentative communication style, starts arguing, something the young Rok-Tahk picks up on quickly, saying, “He probably can’t even fix it.”

As the arguments begin to work on Jankom like a charm, Dal adds, “And who wants an engineer that will argue with you about everything?”

This is the final blow, and Jankom surrenders to the arguments, “Someone who values a counter opinion that may very well may save your life. Go ahead! Surround yourself with yes-trolls and see how far that gets you!”

Jankom has officially joined the crew.

Next, we cut to the cave with the Protostar, where Dal is trying to convince his new engineer to get the ship up and running by the end of the day, a supposedly impossible task. When the rest of the crew wonders why Dal is in such a hurry, Zero outs his deal with Gywn.

Jankom says, “Tail-Butt is definitely turning us in.”

With the reference of Gwyn, we cut back to The Diviner’s palace where Gwyn (Ella Purnell) is sitting with the first Caitain we’ve seen in the Delta Quadrant, telling the youngling about the importance of language as a window into a culture.

In 2286, member species of the Federation Council included Vulcans, Andorians, and Caitians, as seen in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.” Photo: Paramount+

Suddenly, we cut back to the Protostar. Rok-Tahk excitedly comes in saying she has found another member of the crew, Murf (Dee Bradley Baker), who we saw earlier in the episode devouring technology and other mining equipment as food.

“What is that bag of spit?” asks Jankom.

Surprisingly, the universal translator doesn’t work on Murf’s language, something which Rok-Tahk surmises is due to the fact he is too smart for it. And I pray to Gary Mitchell, this is true.

Photo: Paramount+

But then Gwyn, Drednok (Jimmi Simpson), and the Watchers appear to surround the ship. Gwyn says, “From the looks of it, you found enough chimerium to buy your way onto that Kazon ship.” Here we learn Dal is a better liar.

In Star Trek, chimerium is a rare mineral with natural sensor blocking and phaser reflecting properties. It is also impossible to maintain a transporter lock on the mineral without introducing quantum errors into organic matter caught in the beam.

Thus far, the mineral has only been found on the Nalori planet Sarindar. In a non-canon Star Trek story focusing on Sonya Gomez, we learn that the Federation maintains a strict and exclusive contract with the Nalori Republic to export the mineral. Apparently, chimerium is even more strictly enforced than the purity of latinum, which explains why The Diviner doesn’t want the Federation to find out about his operation.

Invincible, Part One. Photo: Goodreads

To punish Dal for his insolence, he takes him to the outer rim, which is a death sentence. To lure Dal to the Protostar, Gwyn contacts him to say goodbye and to imagine a better future among the stars in the “Window of Dreams,” a Lokirrim name for a Delta Quadrant pulsar cluster that creates beautiful harmonic sounds when a ship flies through it, and which Dal describes as the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.

As part of the plan, Dal breaks free of his ankle shackles as the mining operation falls apart due to a surge on the surface. When the security device on Dal’s ankle opens, he immediately escapes back to the Protostar, just as his pursuers hoped.

Back on the Protostar, Dal returns triumphantly to a crew who expected him to die. But to be fair to his crew, at least the ship is ready, except for the shields. As they figure out what to do next, Zero interrupts, “Has anyone seen my hand?”

Dal tells Jankom to look for the hand while he fixes the shields. As Dal stands atop the Protostar, the pursuers’ plans are coming to fruition, and Gwyn appears, saying, “I knew you were in cat-boots.”

Watching from the sidelines, Zero tries to read Gwyn’s mind to see what she’s thinking but cannot.

Dal tries to convince Gywn to come with them and live her dream of being in the stars. But it’s too late, according to Gwyn, as an army of Dredbots marches in behind her. “Well done, Progeny. He led us right to the Protostar,” says Drednok.

As Gwyn is sent to search the vessel and make sure there aren’t any “Unwanted” on board, we see Murf squeal and hide somewhere on board the ship. Thus, the team is forced to come together for the first time to defend themselves against the Watchers. Gwyn, who is trapped on board the captain’s deck, begins to freak out. As her tendrils start glowing, the gold band around her arms liquifies into a weapon, and she battles the team of lawless teens unsuccessfully.

The Diviner whispers, “Do not damage my prize.”

Photo: Paramount+

As the young crew attempts to escape in the Starfleet vessel, despite never having piloted a ship before, we hear the starship creak, and it begins to backslide into the mines. Gwyn is thrown aside, and as Rok-Tahk catches her, she whispers, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Clearly, Rok-Tahk doesn’t like violence or having to be the muscle.

As the Protostar finally takes flight, the Prodigy theme song plays, and Murf chirps excitedly. And excitingly, as the ship flies out of the mines, the rest of the prisoners cheer. Hope has been restored!

The Diviner watches from some sort of alien portal, and Drednok watches from the edge of the cliff, devising a new plan to get back the prize.

Mirror, Mirror. Photo: StarTrek.com

We cut back to Dal, who is still on top of the ship trying to restore the shields, and who seems proud of the hope he has restored in his fellow prisoners. But before he can save anyone, he must save himself. Drednok has attached himself onto the ship.

Back inside the ship, Gwyn, who is now tied to the captain’s chair, makes threats, and Jankom says that he is fully aware that he is making a series of bad decisions, but he does not care. Besides its too late for Gwyn anyway, Zero exclaims, “This will either be spectacular or a terrible end to our adventure.”

Despite having to overcome a learning curve to fly the ship, Zero gets the team safely inside a drainage corridor to the surface and exclaims, “Spectacular!”

But Dal is still working on restoring the shields; something made much harder by Drednok’s desire to kill him. Luckily, at the last possible minute (which is very Starfleet), and as Drednok scurries toward him, he succeeds.

For the first time in my memory, we see what it’s like in the space between the hull and the shield as Drednok tries to pierce through the shields to get to Dal.

In a last attempt, Drednok blocks them in by causing a rock avalanche in the mines. But Dal already knows that if the crew can just fire the “pew-pew-pew” button, they will be able to break through the roadblock. But Murf saves the day, proving that he has some tricks up his slime!

Triumphant music plays, all thanks to Murf, as the team launches into the stars. Dal turns to Gwyn and asks, “Hey, you always wanted to see the stars. Am I right?

A few notes of the original Star Trek theme play as Dal points to the stars for the first time in the series and tries to decide where the runaways should go next. As Rok-Tahk explains that Dal has “help” this time around, it activates Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), the training adviser for exploring the galaxy. But none of the escaped prisoners have seen a hologram before.

We cut back to The Diviner, who is out of his pod, something we know is unusual from the Watcher’s fearful reaction to it. He screams, “Get me my ship!”

New episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy are available to stream Thursdays on Paramount Plus.

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Rebecca Kaplan

Rebecca Kaplan (she/he) has a JD and an MS in Criminology but believes that telling a good story does more good than the law. She's the Features Editor at Prism Comics and regularly contributes to the Eisner-winning PanelxPanel. You can find more of his writing at MovieWeb, StarTrek.com, Comics Bookcase, and MarvelBlog, and in Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority, which she co-authored with her wife, Avery Kaplan.

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STAR TREK: PRODIGY Series Premiere Recap: (S01E02) Lost & Found, Part 2

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