Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 6 - "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach"

Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) dark future became even more tragic after Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode 6. In "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach," the Captain of the USS Enterprise meets an old love, Alora (Lindy Booth), who is the minister of the planet Majalis. Alora met Lieutenant Pike ten years prior, in 2249, and they had a brief love affair. But Pike's discovery of the terrible truth behind Majalis' technologically advanced society curtails any chance of Alora using her planet's medical science to heal Pike when he's horribly disfigured in the future.

After receiving a vision from a Klingon time crystal in Star Trek: Discovery season 2, Pike learned that he will become irradiated with delta rays in 2266, which will condemn him to a life in a wheelchair robbed of his speech and motor functions. This has haunted Chris ever since, although he has forced himself to come to terms with and accept his destiny. Number One AKA Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn) posited that Pike may still have control over his fate, but Star Trek: The Original Series canon records that Pike's accident will happen as foretold, and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) will risk his own Starfleet career to save his former Captain and deliver him to the illusion-casting aliens of Talos IV. Tragically, in spite of the United Federation of Planets' own technological advancements, there's no medicine in the union of worlds that can heal Pike. Yet Alora indicated that Majalan medicine could possibly save Pike in the future.

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However, after the events of Strange New Worlds episode 6, Pike will not accept Alora's offer for Majalan doctors to heal him when he gets injured. After Alora, the young First Servant and future ruler of Majalis (Ian Ho), and his father, Elder Gamal (Huse Madhavji) beam aboard the Enterprise, Pike becomes mired in a conspiracy to kidnap the First Servant. Thinking he needed to protect the boy from enemy aliens, Pike was horrified to learn that the true villains are Majalis and their culture. Majalis' advanced society, which is closed off to outsiders and the Federation, is dependent on their planetary computer plugging into and draining children like the First Servant. The computer forces the First Servants to horribly suffer before inevitably killing them. Because he's morally and ethically opposed to Majalis' society, Captain Pike rejected Alora and her offer to heal him when the time comes he is critically wounded.

Strange New Worlds Captain Pike tragic

The fact that Pike now knows there is potential salvation for him when his life as he knows it ends makes his plight even worse. Chris was bitterly disappointed when he realized the truth that Alora dedicated her life to serving and protecting, and Pike now cannot imagine being with her. The Captain of the Enterprise also now understands why Majalis didn't join the Federation, which would never abide by their society's cruel laws and hidden customs. Pike also knows that for him to benefit from Majalan medicine, he would have to reject the Federation and join Majalan society, which is something he can never do in spite of his feelings for Alora. This means Pike continues his journey toward his tragic destiny knowing that he can't and won't ask Alora and Majalis to save him when the time comes.

However, while Pike ponders his inevitable doom, Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) received news of salvation for his daughter, Rukiya (Sage Arrindell), who is dying of terminal cygnokemia, which is beyond the medical knowledge of the Starship Enterprise's doctor. Although Federation science has no cure for Rukiya's disease, Elder Gamal offered a Majalan treatment for M'Benga's daughter that could be the first step towards a cure. Elder Gamal also rejected Majalan society, which killed his son, the First Servant, so it was morally ethical for Dr. M'Benga to accept his help. Yet because M'Benga and Elder Gamal aren't aware of Captain Pike's dark future, the former Majalan doctor can't similarly offer the Captain of the Enterprise his medical expertise in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Next: Strange New Worlds Massively Retcons Spock & Chapel's Friendship

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.