Warning: This post contains spoilers for the final season of Star Trek: Discovery, most importantly, the final episode, "Life, Itself."
Star Trek: Discovery wrapped up five seasons on May 30, 2024, giving fans a glimpse into the future for Sonequa Martin-Green's Michael Burnham and David Ajala's Cleveland Booker. The cast and crew didn't know the series had been cancelled while they were filming season five so there was no concrete ending to Discovery until they were allowed to go back and film a coda. It's a fast forward into the future where Burnham is now an Admiral, and she and Book have an adult son, Leto, who has been promoted to a captain in Starfleet.
Burnham is taking Discovery on one final mission, and she sits in the captain's chair, she sees the friends and family she made aboard the ship. The emotional scene comes with a face-to-face between Burnham and Saru, and, in an interview with TV Insider, Doug Jones shared what was happening during every take of that scene.
" And I’ll tell you the final scene where she’s kind of gone back in time and is back on the bridge with her old crew, oh, what an emotional day that was. So that was a real gift and I was the first one to greet her when she came out of that stupor. And there was no dialogue—it was going to have music over it—so every time Sonequa stepped up to me face-to-face, she whispered, “I love you.” And I whispered back, “I love you,” and you’re not going to be aware of that, but take after take after take, we did not miss one take with that. And at one point she said, “I could do this all day.” And I said, “Me too, me too.” And by then we were getting [teary]. So it was a teary day for sure, but happy tears."Doug Jones
Though we don't hear the words Jones and Martin-Green share with one another, it's easy to see the love between them as, in their character roles, they connect with one another for one last time. It's a truly special moment as it brings their characters full circle. They began with a trust in one another aboard the USS Shenzhou that was marred by Burnah's mutiny, and the end of the series shows the restoration of that trust. It was truly a beautiful moment, made even more beautiful by Jones' behind-the-scenes information.