The episode ends with an incredible cliffhanger...

A white-knuckle cliffhanger ended the first half of Star Trek: Discovery's first season. Frenetic, fascinating, and sometimes shocking, "Into the Forest I Go" raised more questions than it answered.

I'm so glad that, at the end of the first half of this season, Star Trek: Discovery has found its path forward.

It does offer some pretty robust weight to the theories around Tyler being an unwitting Klingon fifth columnist.

To say the least, the mid-season fall finale of "Star Trek: Discovery" was everything a fan of the show could want, and might even have been ground-breaking enough to convince a few naysayers in the process.

I'll say it again: Never make plans for the future on a TV drama. It always leads to bad things.

The tension between science and violence - and a deftly paced episode - made for compelling viewing.

There were far more questions than answers in the Star Trek: Discovery midseason finale.

After a fairly 'meh' episode last week, Star Trek Discovery sees it's mid-season break in with one hell of a finale.

It doesn't even have the depth of Enterprise's Xindi arc.

With the main bulk of the action over, the episode falters and stumbles around loose ends and new ideas until it walks into a conclusion that seemingly launches another soft reboot akin to the shake-up we saw in episode three.

Discovery is a show that is taking longer than I would like to find its footing, but I've waited much longer for far less interesting shows to get their narrative together and take me in bold, focused, new directions.

Some solid elements, but the story contrivances -- particularly the relatively simple solution to the problem that has been plaguing them -- are infuriating.

There are few things I love more than a good "one day away from retirement" setup.

The episode itself felt too eager to get to what was next on the docket, when it would have been better served ending this current chapter in a way that felt more earned than it was.

Personally, although I may question the direction we seem to be heading, this was a great finale in terms of addressing many of the biggest issues introduced so far.

Thanks to the ending, there's a very clear endpoint for at least one storyline, but plenty more to be explored going forward.

This week's episode, the midseason finale, felt like it was ignoring the previous eight episodes and all of their character work.

"Into the Forest I Go" pulls out all the stops. Space battles! Explosions! Dead Klingons! PTSD! And a not at all terrible ending that leaves plenty of things to chew on during the two month break ahead of us.

The first half of Discovery Season 1 ends on a solid note, even if "Into the Forest I Go" doesn't quite rise to the level of some previous episodes.