Strange New Worlds’ Stars Break Down M’Benga and Spock’s Near-Death Experiences

One thing about watching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is that we know the canon of this long-running franchise. We know that certain characters are going to still be around when Pike’s (Anson Mount) time as the Enterprise‘s captain concludes. But the latest episode, “Off Hour,” thanks to the real-time aspect of it, still ratchets up the tension as it puts some of our favorites in some serious danger. TV Insider spoke with Mount, Babs Olusanmokun, Jess Bush, and Martin Quinn about those moments and more. Warning: Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4 Episode 6 ahead!

It’s as alpha shift’s ending that everything goes wrong: The Enterprise is caught in a slip-stream wormhole. With electrical surges across the bridge, Pike is among those hit. The radiation in engineering is at such a lethal level that there isn’t time to wait for everyone to evacuate before the doors are sealed. When the magnetic seal on one of the sickbay tables is compromised, M’Benga (Olusanmokun) pushes Chapel (Bush) — the two had just been fighting about him thinking about leaving the Enterprise — out of the way and is the one to be pinned — badly.

Below, the cast dives into the moments that had us immediately double-checking our Trek knowledge to ensure no one was going anywhere.

Does M’Benga die?

With M’Benga bleeding badly and the scans showing a fatal trans-lumbar severance, with the table pinning him keeping him alive, Boyce (Brian Markinson) tells Chapel that there’s nothing she can do. But she refuses to accept that or to leave him. Instead, as the temperature dangerously drops, she uses that to their advantage, planning to freeze M’Benga and use neutrinos (which are theoretical) to heal the molecular structure of his damaged tissue — which they have access to because of the position they’re in. Even as M’Benga has accepted his death, first trying to get her to leave then admitting that he’s grateful he’s not alone and instead with a friend in his final moments, she refuses to give up, even with the tip of her finger freezing, getting stuck to the table as she pushes it off him once he’s frozen, and breaking off. But in the end, it’s a success and M’Benga survives!

“It was incredible,” Olusanmokun tells TV Insider of the “beautiful, beautiful moment.” “He was ready to give up. His child is gone. In his head, he’s done the math and it’s all over. For Chapel to really grab him and be like, ‘Nah, dude, it’s not happening,’ in such a strong way — clearly she was not going to give up — that touched him deep inside: ‘There is still love for me in this world. There is somebody that will notice if I’m not around.’ That really stirred him on.”

For Chapel, it was impossible to separate how much she believed in her plan and how much it was that she refused to accept it might not work, says Bush. “The journey of this episode for her was her love for M’Benga, their bond made it impossible for her to accept that version of events. It was impossible for her to accept that he would die. And so she was forced to do these things that ended up making her believe in herself in a way that she hadn’t before and to believe in herself above what anyone else might believe. She was forced to stand on her own two feet, follow her instincts, and believe in what she was capable of. Her refusal to accept M’Benga’s death forced her to believe in her plan.” Bush also confirms that there wasn’t anyone or anything that could have gotten her to leave M’Benga in sickbay to die.

But before that near-death experience, M’Benga and Chapel argued when she found out he’s thinking of leaving the Enterprise and had even requested a transfer.

“It’s a matter of all the things that have been going on and he’s just like, ‘Maybe this is becoming too dark here and I’ve got to recharge somewhere else,’” Olusanmokun explains. “There’s some stuff he doesn’t want to face again. ‘Maybe this is getting too much for me.’ Maybe being a reservoir for others for so long is getting to him. It’s not that the Enterprise is bad, it’s just for him.” After all, he’s also the one to tell Chapel that she should stay there; when the episode begins, she’s still there on temporary assignment and has yet to request a permanent position.

But his near-death experience may change his mind, at least for now. “The love and care that Chapel showed him in that moment really, really meant a lot to him,” the star says. “That was a call, a siren of, ‘You’re not alone and you are loved, you are seen, you are appreciated.’ Chapel’s insistence — ‘No, no, no, no, there’s no way you’re going out alone here’ — might have woken something up in him. The story goes on, but I think the uncertainty will be there. But I think that’s a moment that he would cherish. That’s a moment that he would really reflect on and enjoy that moment for a while, enjoy that care and kindness and love for a while before we see him fully take a run off the Enterprise.”

Something that Strange New Worlds has shown us over these four seasons thus far is how close Pike and M’Benga are. So, how’s the captain feeling about the doctor possibly transferring off his ship? Mount likens it to a very similar situation the cast is in; the series is ending with its fifth season, which has already been filmed.

“I would imagine serving in an outfit like Starfleet is not unlike doing a show, a long-running show that you form these incredibly tight bonds that you eventually have to say goodbye to,” he shares. “But the show is the most important thing. And in Starfleet, I would imagine the mission and the ship are the most important thing.”

Does Spock die in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4?

Sure, we were never truly concerned about Spock even as he put himself in a deadly position to save the ship; they need the neutrinos not just to save M’Benga but also for fuel. But Spock must take spacewalk at warp to recalibrate the ion pod. But when the pod absorbs too much radiation, with the risk of the neutrinos sparking a fusion reaction and the pod blowing while still in the hull, taking out the Enterprise, Pike must make the decision to jettison the pod without knowing if Spock has evacuated when they lose communication with him. Spock, of course, does survive, but with radiation sickness — and fortunately the data they need in his mind, which La’an (Christina Chong) gets via a mind meld.

Jan Thijs/Paramount+

That’s another tough decision that Pike had to make this season after, in the premiere, having to let the Martians blow up a planet in the past. This one was harder, Mount tells us. “The more immediate one emotionally is probably the call to possibly kill his crewmate because we’re also seeing everything that that relationship has meant to Pike have to appear in his eyes in that moment,” he explains. “That was a challenge.”

Is Chapel leaving the Enterprise?

During M’Benga and Chapel’s heated argument about him possibly transferring off the ship, he brings up the fact that while she’s an indispensable medical officer, she remains on temporary duty assignment. As he puts it, she’s always had one foot out the door. She argues she’s keeping her options open. But by the end of the episode, even with M’Benga possibly leaving, she tells Pike she wants to put in for a permanent duty station on the Enterprise. The doctor reminded her that she has it good there.

“Historically, Chapel has avoided committing to people, places, paths. I think nothing has ever really felt truly right to her. And I think if you were to take her to a therapist, she would figure out that that was a version of avoidance and fear of commitment to places and the vulnerability of doing that,” Bush tells TV Insider. “But I think for her consciously, she believes that things just are never quite the right fit for her, so she continues to move on to not commit to one thing. But her experiences with M’Benga and their friendship that’s been made deep through the war, through trauma, through moving through life together in such a bonded way has meant that he has been the one thing that’s felt like home to her. And so she’s kind of justified her staying on the Enterprise as her loyalty and devotion to him and told herself that they’re a package deal, they go everywhere together.”

She continues, “But I think when he reveals to her that he’s maybe thinking about leaving and in a way that wasn’t really looping her in, on one hand, it feels like that doesn’t make sense with her understanding of their friendship. So it’s pretty heartbreaking to hear that — and confusing. And on the other hand, it makes her confront the feeling and realize that she might want to stay there of her own volition. And that’s really scary as well. This is the first time that she’s come to a place that actually feels like it fits, and that’s scary to her because I think committing to a place invites a level of exposure and vulnerability that she’s maybe not used to or has avoided in the past.”

After Chapel was forced to “believe in herself above everybody else” to save M’Benga, when others told her there was no hope, “she realizes that she thrives in this kind of environment. She belongs here. This is her place,” Bush says. She can also, “even if she might not want to, without M’Benga. It’s a huge growth moment for her realizing that she cannot bond herself to him solely and she needs to make decisions for herself, commit if she wants to grow, if she wants to feel love in a way that is whole, to have herself be fully seen. I think she knows herself a little more deeply by the end of the episode in a way that allows her to trust her gut and choose to stay here without M’Benga.”

M’Benga had been hoping that by “giving her space, [she’d] come to her own decisions,” adds Olusanmokun. Part of being “a true friend” is knowing when to speak up, and so, he feels like he needs to tell her, ‘I don’t want to be your way, but maybe you’re hiding again. Maybe you’re trying to run off again.’ That’s a big part of M’Benga. ‘There’s nobody else around here to say that to you, so of course I’m going to say that to you.’”

In Mount’s mind, “it was probably an open invitation” from Pike for Chapel to decide for herself. “He clearly saw her talents and knew that there would be a place for her on board the Enterprise. I think there would be a place for her on board any vessel — incredibly talented character and Jess plays her just perfectly.”

Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Is Scotty finally settling in on the Enterprise?

Scotty (Quinn) came on board the Enterprise after losing his former crew, and he’s settled in pretty well, though he has second-guessed himself. He does so again here, with Pelia (Carol Kane) stuck in her quarters, leaving it up to him to make sure their plan for the neutrinos works, not just to save their doctor but also get them the fuel they so desperately need. When he is able to reach Pelia, she assures him that he’s doing the right thing and to listen to and trust the Enterprise, even as he admits that after the Stardiver, he feels like he can’t keep doing this. But she reminds him that starships are capable of miracles. And after he successfully does the impossible and gets the ship back up and running, he takes a moment to touch the wall of the Enterprise. He’s been left with a faith in the ship and the crew that he didn’t believe he could have, agrees Quinn.

“I think he’s realizing that sometimes it’s not all in the manual and that you’ve got to just listen to your surroundings and something will happen, and I think that he’s trusting that a little bit more and trusting the ship a little bit more and really listening to the ship,” he says. “He spends a lot of the episode trying to get through to Pelia when really he’s got some of the answers himself, so he’s getting his confidence back as well. I think through a lot of Season 3, Scotty lost a little bit of confidence. He wanted to do everything himself. He realized that doesn’t work and then he’s reaching out constantly for help. And then I think in this season, he’s getting his confidence back and that episode’s a big part of that, a lot of lessons that he had to learn thanks to Pelia.”

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Thursdays, Paramount+