Star Trek: Khan is hitting the halfway point, and “Magical Thinking” has delivered a huge character moment that paves the way for more drama to come!
The episode opens with Khan Noonien Singh musing on the losses of Richter and Sylvana and how he wants to shield his people from how bad it is. He’s joined by Ivan, still his loyal aide to the point of helping Khan dig graves for the pair, as Khan is concerned that showing weakness can harm the overall morale of the Augments.
We then get a fun teaming of Marla McGivers and Ursula, where Khan's beloved shows her grit, standing up to the woman casting her out so much. They’re on the hunt for more about the Ceti eels as Ursula realizes how it infected Richter after an autopsy. The hunt reveals that Marla had secreted a phaser, which Ursula agrees to keep quiet about from Khan.
The high point of the episode is another excellent talk between Khan and Marla on how he needs to let his people mourn their losses. Khan invokes the title as he dislikes such “superstitions” as believing in an afterlife or a higher power, and they all need to move on. However, Marla’s words on how bringing people together makes them stronger sink in, and he later leads a memorial for the fallen with the repeated line of “I grieve with you.” Khan then uses that to rouse his people into paving the way for a new era, with Marla also swept up in his words. Again, Naveen Andrews makes these monologues sound beautiful, and it's no wonder Khan can inspire others.
The story then jumps to 2293 as Dr. Rosalind Lear is listening to the logs and is visited by Ensign Tuvok. Lear asks many of the questions fans have long wondered about, such as how the USS Enterprise didn’t know Ceti Alpha VI was unstable or how Starfleet somehow missed the planet being destroyed when the USS Reliant flew in. Tuvok's evasiveness about Captain Kirk keeping some things secret from his log only makes Lear more suspicious.
Tuvok can tell Lear is still trying to “prove” Kirk left Khan to die, openly accusing her of having a confirmation bias clouding her judgment. Once more, why Lear wants to prove Khan was wrongly marooned is a mystery hanging over the story.
The tale returns to the logs, which jump ahead four months to the Augments building a community, Marla and Khan together, and Marla even discovering she’s pregnant. She also discovers the Ceti eels are all birthed from a queen and destroying her destroys the hive. Khan, of course, wants to lead the attack, but then Marla reveals she's pregnant. At first, Khan is thrown off only to be driven further to defend his new family.
The audio effects are awesome as the Augments battle the queen, with Marla showing up with her phaser to take it down for good. Rather than be upset at her hiding the weapon, Khan is impressed enough to propose to her (on bended knee no less). The episode thus ends with them married before the rest of the crew.
It’s a wonderful entry to show how Marla finally won Khan’s heart and, more importantly, his respect. However, it’s also a melancholy tale, as we know we’re on the verge of the disaster soon to set upon Ceti Alpha V — and that makes this the last bit of happiness Khan will enjoy.
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