'Star Trek: Discovery': Will Paul Stamets leave the ship forever? Here's why he may still hate Michael Burnham
Spoilers for 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 3
'Star Trek: Discovery' might have gotten a happy ending for the Federation, the crew of the Discovery, and the universe as a whole with the return of dilithium, but there's one person who's not entirely happy with how things went down: Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp).
Last episode, we saw Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) make the hard choice of preventing Stamets from rescuing his family, and though everything turned out alright at the end, Stamets clearly still hasn't forgiven her — and he might not stay long on the Discovery because of it.
As Stamets stated in the last episode, his entire life was at risk. Not only was his husband and the love of his life, Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz), dying of radiation poisoning in the Verubin Nebula, but he'd just learned that Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) was there as well. Stamets has, through the course of the season, taken on a mentoring role over Adira, proudly watching them figure out their identity while on the ship.
Burnham, however, trapped Stamets in a force field bubble and sent him away from the Discovery ship — the only ship in the universe able to reach the Verubin Nebula in time — to keep the Emerald Chain from being able to use Stamets to activate the spore drive.
Stamets was clearly outraged at Burnham for taking this choice out of his hands and risking his loved ones. To further compound this betrayal, Admiral Vance (Oded Fehr) doubled down on Burnham's decision, not allowing Stamets anywhere near the Discovery and holding him against his will.
By the end of the episode, however, Burnham is able to defeat the Emerald Chain and use Booker's (David Ajala) unique empathic abilities to connect to the spore drive and save the day anyway. However, Stamets remains unforgiving.
While the two haven't yet spoken, Stamets' feelings are clear. His smile on being reunited with Culber and Adira immediately drops when he sees Burnham, and he is unable to fully congratulate her when she takes the Captain's chair. There is a lot of unresolved tension between the two.
With Booker able to travel using the spore drive, Stamets's most vital role is now redundant ± meaning he has an unprecedented opportunity to leave the ship forever. As Captain, this is a situation that Burnham has to rectify as soon as possible, or Season 4 might just see Stamets say goodbye to the ship permanently.
All episodes of 'Star Trek: Discovery' are now available on CBS All Access.