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The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 6, "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach," now streaming on Paramount+.
A familiar face from Captain Christopher Pike’s past unexpectedly resurfaces as the Enterprise approaches the non-Federation world of Magellus and stumbles into a high-flying conflict. And while Pike may be blinded by being reunited with his previous infatuation, the rest of the crew learns that a more sinister operation is proceeding right under their noses. By the end, yet another doomed romance and horror ensue as the Enterprise faces the ultimate no-win scenario in the latest adventure.
The Enterprise responds to a distress signal to intervene in a skirmish between two starships above Magellus, resulting in the aggressor attacking the Enterprise. Nyota Uhura (played by Celia Rose Gooding) accidentally critically damages the attacking ship, with the Enterprise moving to rescue its crew. Pike is surprised when one of the passengers beamed aboard from the vessel that issued the distress signal is Alora, a long-lost love he encountered earlier in his career, with the romantic tension still palpable between them.
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Alora explains that they are transporting a child heralded as a major religious figure known as the First Servant, who is preparing to ascend to a position of power, but their attackers intercepted them on the way to the ascension ritual. La’an Noonien-Singh and Uhura investigate the wreckage of the attacking ship, recovering a neural dampener intended for use on the First Servant. As Spock presents this to the First Servant and his guardian Elder Gamal and is impressed by the boy’s technical aptitude, Pike tours Alora’s palace... where they uncover a conspiracy against the First Servant.
Noonien-Singh recovers data chips from the wreckage -- despite the Magellans’ directive otherwise -- with Uhura deciphering them to reveal that the attackers were an offshoot of the Magellan civilization. This suspicion coincides with the First Servant abruptly being teleported off the Enterprise after the sudden appearance of a combat cruiser, with Uhura deducing Gamal is responsible for its arrival. Spock realizes that the cruiser's appearance was a feint, with the First Servant beamed elsewhere on the Enterprise and Spock and Pike discovering the boy still safely on board.
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When Pike and the First Servant arrive on Magellus to carry out the ascension ceremony, Pike brings up all the questionable circumstances around the entire incident to Alora who feigns ignorance. Pike is permitted into the inner sanctum where the true nature of the ritual is revealed: a sacrifice of the First Servant results in the preservation of Magellus’ ecosystem, thanks to the child’s neural implants. Horrified, Pike moves to stop the sacrifice from taking place -- only to be forcibly subdued by the guards and remanded back to the palace. Alora informs Pike that attempting to reverse the process will result in the First Servant’s sacrifice being futile as she justifies her civilization’s process to survive.
A disgusted Pike returns to the Enterprise to report his findings about the Magellans, while Gamal explains that the conspiracy to stop the ceremony was an attempt to upend a society based around the suffering and sacrifice of innocent children. Gamal shares the neural technology used on the First Servant with Doctor M’Benga, hoping to treat the chronic condition of M’Benga’s daughter, while the Enterprise departs from Magellus to continue its exploratory mission. While Strange New Worlds may be hampered by its own premise, it continues to deliver emotionally affecting stories.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.