Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Episode 7 - "The Serene Squall"
Episode 7 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds unexpectedly set up Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Set in 2259, Strange New Worlds chronicles the voyages of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount). Meanwhile, Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck), the Enterprise's Science Officer, is being thoroughly explored in the years before the Vulcan becomes Captain James T. Kirk's (Paul Wesley) First Officer and best friend. While Strange New Worlds has compellingly focused on Spock's relationship with his fiancée, T'Pring (Gia Sandhu), episode 7, "The Serene Squall," shockingly reintroduced Spock's half-brother and the villain of Star Trek V, Sybok.
Directed by William Shatner, who also plays Captain Kirk, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is infamous for being poorly received and the lowest-grossing movie starring the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series. In Star Trek V, Sybok (Lawrence Luckinbill) is a Vulcan holy man on a mad quest to travel to the mythical world of Sha-Ka-Ree beyond the Great Barrier, where he believes he will find God. Sybok hijacks the USS Enterprise-A and uses his telepathic powers to convert the crew into his followers. Only Captain Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) stand against Sybok, who Spock admits is his half-brother as the first-born son of Sarek (Mark Lenard) and a Vulcan princess. Kirk, Spock, and Bones join Sybok on Sha-Ka-Ree and meet "God," who turns out to be a malevolent alien bent on universal conquest. Realizing his folly, Sybok sacrifices his life so Spock and his friends can escape "God." Finally, Spock destroys "God" with a photon torpedo and mourns the brother he lost.
Strange New Worlds episode 7 sneakily set up Star Trek V by introducing a new character, Dr. Aspen (Jesse James Keitel), a Starfleet Counselor now working beyond the border of the United Federation of Planets. Coercing Captain Pike's Enterprise to help their rescue colonists kidnapped by a pirate ship called the Serene Squall, Aspen, who is a nonbinary character, reveals they are really Captain Angel, one of the pirates, and they boldly commandeer the Enterprise. Most of the crew are taken prisoner by the pirates but Angel really only wanted Spock, who they planned to exchange for a prisoner of the Ankeshtan K'Til Vulcan criminal rehabilitation center overseen by T'Pring. The prisoner, who goes under the assumed Vulcan name, Xaverius, is Angel's husband, and Spock realizes the Vulcan in question is his half-brother, Sybok.
Ingeniously, Strange New Worlds episode 7 mirrors the key aspect of the maligned Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - the Starship Enterprise being commandeered - although it's not apparent at first. Spock doesn't even realize Dr. Angel is playing mind games with him and manipulating him through his emotions until it's too late, and this echoes how Sybok uses his own powers to bend the Enterprise's crew into becoming his followers in Star Trek V (although Sybok fails to sway Spock). Although Angel only wants to free their imprisoned husband and they aren't on a quest for the divine as Sybok is in The Final Frontier, parts of their scheme are eerily similar to what Sybok will do in Star Trek V 28 years after Strange New Worlds.
Only the back of Sybok's head is glimpsed in the final moments of Strange New Worlds episode 7 and it's unknown who plays Spock's brother. But in describing Sybok to Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush), Spock effectively conveys how dangerous his older sibling is because he was warned to stay away from Sybok. The fact that Sybok is incarcerated in a Vulcan rehabilitation center establishes his rejection of logic, which sets up his later belief that he is God's messenger. Further, Sybok having a wife in Captain Angel is a revelation; Angel's devotion to him shows that Sybok is a man of great passion who inspires that same passion in return from his partner. Now that he is part of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' prequel years, Sybok is bound to return later in the series and further lay the groundwork for his ultimate quest to find God in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams Thursdays on Paramount+.