Star Trek: Strange New Worlds loses [spoiler] but the actor isn’t done

This post contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode “All Those Who Wander.” 

Just when we’re getting to know and love the characters on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and all of their quirky habits, the series goes for the gut punch on the latest episode, “All Those Who Wander.” When Captain Pike takes an away team to locate a missing ship and its crew, they’re confronted with the horrific knowledge that their enemies have returned. The Gorn have hatched aboard the ship, and all of the crew is dead, but something has been left behind. Gorn hatchlings are inside an alien who is still aboard the ship.

The crew are in the battle of their lives as the Gorn are faster, stronger, and undetectable to scanners. Not even Hemmer’s telepathy can reach them for they have blocked any psychic connections. Pike and his team are fighting an invisible enemy. Right away, they lose a crew member, an ensign who was just promoted to lieutenant shortly before the mission. We didn’t konw anything about hi,m, and though his death was tragic, the crew is crippled by the loss of another character who fans were just beginning to love as well. Hemmer.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds delivered a blows that’s going to leave a mark.

When Hemmer learns that the Gorn have left hatchlings inside him, he sacrifices himself to save the crew. Cadet Uhura, who saw Hemmer as a mentor, is devastated as is the rest of the crew. Spock, who had unleashed his emotions to challenge the Gorn, has to fight for control, and there’s an overwhelming sense of sadness that permeates the main characters. Hemmer’s death is a raw, emotional scene that stings.

If there is any good news to be found in this farewell, it’s that Bruce Horak, the actor behind Hemmer, told The Hollywood Reporter that this was not be the end of his career on Star Trek. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Hemmer will return even in flashbacks. It could simply mean that Horak will take on another role in a different series even.

Either way, the Enterprise has lost its engineer, the fans have lost a wonderful character, and the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds had to say goodbye to Horak. It’s a brutal ending so early in the series, and we weren’t ready for it.