As Star Trek: Discovery season 2's story unfolds, it’s looking more and more like the Short Treks released late last year were predicting a lot more than anybody realized. Alex Kurtzman introduced the idea for Short Treks as supplementary content after he signed a deal with CBS to expand the Star Trek franchise on television. Early descriptions categorized the standalone episodes as content that would offer closer looks at certain characters and allow the new Star Trek universe to expand in a more unique, focused way.

One of the many criticisms of Discovery levied by old school Star Trek fans was the series apparent abandonment of the ensemble nature of previous Star Trek shows. All five older series boasted large casts of characters each working in a position of prominence aboard a ship or station. Those large casts provided the series with multiple narrative perspectives, ultimately making it possible for the less serialized shows to fill large network orders. And considering one of Star Trek’s central themes is cooperation, it was satisfying watching a solid teamwork in concert to overcome obstacles.

Related: Explaining Star Trek: Discovery's Biggest Canon Inconsistencies & Plot Holes

The bridge crew of the Enterprise D was as well known a squad to audiences as they were to each other, but Star Trek: Discovery’s first season was notably absent of that kind of camaraderie. While the Short Treks didn’t give any more insight into characters like Dr. Pollard or pilot Kayla Detmer, they did represent Discovery’s commitment to fleshing out its own universe more, little by little.

However, it now looks like the short films weren’t designed solely to give a little extra insight into Saru’s heritage or Tilly’s relationship with her mother; now that we’re deep into Star Trek: Discovery season 2, it’s hard to ignore the connections between the shorts and some of the season’s major storylines.

Runaway: Tilly Makes Another Friend No One Else Can See

The first Short Trek premiered in October of 2018 and followed a day in the life of Ensign Tilly. She has a frustrating conversation with her very overbearing mother that stokes her own self-doubt about joining the command program. Then, while eating alone in the mess hall, she discovers a young alien woman who’s used her ability to become invisible to stow away aboard the Star Trek: Discovery. After Tilly convinces Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po she means her no harm, the young alien woman reveals she’s from a planet that’s about to achieve warp capability and is poised to join the greater space-faring community. Terrified by the changes her world is about to undergo and frightened of her own ability to lead through them, Po ran away to Discovery. Tilly’s self-doubt is paralleled in Po’s, and the ensign proves she has everything it takes to make it through the command program when she kindly reassures Po that the princess is more than prepared to ascend the throne.

While Po hasn’t shown up in Star Trek: Discovery season 2, Tilly did get another invisible friend to help in . “May” was a spore that latched onto Tilly from the mycelial network in the hopes that the idealistic ensign would be able to defeat the “monster” that was terrorizing her race. The monster turned out to be Dr. Culber, who’d been reconstituted in the network after his death, and unknowingly did damage to May’s species. Initially, May appears to Tilly as a vision of one of Tilly’s childhood friends, and the inexplicable hallucinations drastically shook Tilly’s confidence in her abilities to complete the Command Training Programs. But after getting dragged into the mycelial network and forced to deal with the situation by herself, Tilly rose to the occasion and not only helped May get rid of her monster, but manages the situation with impressive diplomacy.

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“Runaway” and the May subplot both feature Tilly confronted with an invisible young woman in need of her help, as well as her growing confidence in her abilities. The two stories share far too much in common not to be intentionally related in some way.

"The Brightest Star" - A Crash Course in Kaminar and Saru’s Family

Doug Jones as Saru Star Trek: Discovery Short Treks

In his position as one of the only alien series regulars on Discovery — and a new-to-Star-Trek species to boot — Saru’s background was enigmatic and compelling. Curiosity swirled around his identity as a prey species and what that meant for life on Kaminar. Did his people live in hiding and constant fear of being picked off by the predator species that also occupied the planet? Why was he the only Kelpian to join Starfleet and how did he do it? And what was the root of his devotion to the late Philippa Georgiou?

All of these questions are answered in “The Brightest Star,” Saru’s Short Trek that covers his initial departure from Kaminar and the life he led before doing so. The story takes place about two decades before the events of Star Trek: Discovery and provides a wealth of insight into the “Great Balance” between the Kelpians and their prey species the Ba’ul as Saru dreams of a different life besides the calm march toward certain death the rest of his race seems content with.

While we had no way of knowing this at the time, “The Brightest Star” is essentially a prequel to Saru’s storyline in Star Trek: Discovery season 2. Audiences met his father and his sister during the Short Trek, as well as seeing an actual Kelpian give themselves up to the Ba’ul when called. Those were the building blocks upon which episodes like “An Obol for Charon” and “The Sounds of Thunder” were built, and that ultimately foreshadowed much of Saru’s journey this year.

Related: Star Trek: Discovery Crippled The Enterprise To Explain A Plot Hole

Page 2 of 2: Time Travel & Harry Mudd In Star Trek Discovery Season 2?

Star Trek Discovery Calypso

"Calypso" - Another Nod to Time Travel?

“Calypso” is the Short Trek that’s the least related to Discovery’s crew as it takes place 1000 years into the future. The ship’s been adrift for a millennium after her last crew abandoned her for as yet unknown reasons, and in that time, the ship’s computer has evolved into a sentient being named Zora capable of a wide range of emotions. When an escape pod arrives containing the first real live person she’s encountered in centuries, Zora jumps at the chance to nurse him back to health and enjoy his company. Aldis Hodge plays Craft, a soldier in a vague war that’s missing his family while he’s away fighting and luckily encounters Discovery after he was forced to abandon his ship.

“Calypso” doesn’t focus on any particular Star Trek: Discovery character, but it does play with the idea of the far future which, considering the pointed mentions of tachyon particles and the prescient behavior of the Red Angel, seems significant. It could be that we’ll get a glimpse of the era Hodge occupies, or perhaps even the crew that wound up abandoning her. This may even be that Zora's is the Red Angel.

The themes present in "Calypso" are worth looking at as well. The short questions the nature of identity, addresses loneliness and isolation and explores an impossible romance when Zora gradually starts to fall in love with Craft. Their “relationship”, as it were, is pretty reminiscent of what’s happened between Ash Tyler and L’Rell following their attempted partnership, L’Rell’s unrequited feelings for Tyler and her eventual decision to send him back to the Federation. It’s not an exact parallel (Zora and Craft did not procreate), but it’s curiously close.

"The Escape Artist" - Will Harry Mudd Return In Star Trek: Discovery Season 2?

Harry Mudd made a predictably criminal return in “The Escape Artist,” the final Short Trek that followed one of his grand schemes to its victorious (finally) conclusion. The skilled grifter is captured by different bounty hunters all aching to collect, with it eventually revealed that Mudd’s created cyber clones of himself and proceeded to “sell” each one to different bounty hunters and pocketing the money for himself. The plan’s simple genius is actually a neat callback to the character’s Star Trek: The Original Series roots.

In the episode “I, Mudd,” the morality-challenged renaissance man (Roger Carmel) crash-landed on a planet inhabited by kindly, if clingy androids. They cared for Mudd, and even create an android version of his shrill wife Stella. Unfortunately, they took a shine to humanity and refused to let him leave their planet unless he provides them with some replacement people. He attempts to force the Enterprise crew to take his place, but when that predictably goes awry, Mudd winds up still stuck on the planet with 500 Stella androids programmed to see to his needs (a.k.a. nag him constantly, be nightmares).

Harry Mudd's actor, Rainn Wilson, wrote “The Escape Artist” and is a massive Star Trek fan, so it’s clear the android element of this short is at least partially an homage to the character’s roots. Indeed, this particular short feels more nostalgic than it does predictive. It’s such a lighthearted romp that it doesn’t feel like it points to anything specifically in Star Trek: Discovery’s current, stakes-laden season. But with Harry Mudd, you never know.

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