WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, Episode 12, "That Hope Is You, Part 2," now streaming on CBS All Access.
The Season 3 finale of Star Trek: Discovery was packed with action, surprise revelations and plenty of excitement. By the episode's end, Osyraa and the Emerald Chain were defeated, the cause of The Burn was finally clear, the crew of the Discovery had new uniforms and Michael Burnham was named as the Discovery's new captain. But throughout all of these big developments, it might have been easy to overlook an important revelation the episode made about Cleveland "Book" Booker: His name actually comes from a mentor.
Booker was introduced in the first episode of Discovery Season 3. Originally from a planet called Kwejian, Booker came from a family of hunters, killer and poachers, though he had no interest in following in their footsteps. Instead, thanks to his special empath abilities, Booker used his position as a space courier to save as many endangered animal species as he could. The character quickly formed a bond with Burnham, and he even became an unofficial member of the Discovery crew throughout the season.
During a visit to his home planet in the episode "The Sanctuary," Booker was reunited with his brother. However, Discovery soon revealed Book's real name was Tareckx, and that there was a whole story around his assumed identity. The Discovery Season 3 finale, "That Hope Is You, Part 2," picks up on that plot thread, revealing a small but crucial detail about Booker's name. In the episode, Booker tells Michael that Cleveland "Book" Booker was the name of his mentor. Booker took on the name of his mentor in his honor and as a constant reminder to live up to what he had learned from him.
While we already knew that "Cleveland Booker" wasn't Tareckx's real name, the finale makes clear he didn't choose his new identity randomly. Instead, the original Cleveland Book was someone important to him, potentially being the person who showed him that he could save alien animals instead of hunting them like the rest of his family. Whatever the story is, this reveal shows that there is still much we don't know about Booker.
In the Discovery Season 3 finale, Booker promises to reveal to Michael the full story as soon as he can, which means it's likely that this tale will be told in Season 4 . And it shouldn't take too long because now, although Booker might still be a civilian, he has an important new responsibility on the U.S.S. Discovery as one of the ship's spore drive operators. This means there should be plenty of time aboard the Discovery for Booker to reveal the story of his name.
Streaming on CBS All Access, Star Trek: Discovery stars Sonequa Martin-Green as Commander Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as Commander Saru, Anthony Rapp as Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, Mary Wiseman as Ensign Sylvia Tilly, Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber, David Ajala as Cleveland "Book" Booker, Blu del Barrio as Adira, Ian Alexander as Gray, Tig Notaro as Chief Engineer Reno and Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou. Seasons 1-3 are currently available to stream on CBS All Access.