Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3 - "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3 brings back one of the franchise's most iconic villains with an interesting twist. Even though Strange New Worlds season 2 is just getting started, the show has already proven that it will keep up the high-quality storytelling this season, kicking things off with a stellar premiere and a gripping second episode to match. Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" has continued this run of great episodes, delivering an action-packed time-travel adventure for Lt. La'an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong).
In Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, La'an ends up trapped in an alternate timeline after her reality is erased by an unknown attack in Earth's past. Working together with the new reality's Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley), La'an must stop the attack and restore the original timeline to prevent a dark future for Earth. Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3 is packed with twists and turns, but perhaps the biggest twist comes at the end of the episode when La'an must prevent the death of a child being held in a secret laboratory, a young boy who also happens to be one of Star Trek's most well-known villains.
Young Khan In Strange New Worlds Season 2 Explained
Khan Noonien-Singh (Desmond Sivan) makes a return to Star Trek in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, which provides the franchise's first-ever look at his childhood. After La'an stops the time-traveling Romulan terrorist Sera (Adelaide Kane) from murdering Khan, she meets her direct ancestor face-to-face and gets a brief glimpse of his life as a genetic experiment in a secret underground lab. The scared young boy in the episode is very different from the Khan (Ricardo Montalban) first introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series, but the glimpse of Khan's origins is exactly what makes his appearance in SNW so compelling.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 stops short of having Kirk meet his future arch-nemesis, since Kirk is killed by Sera before La'an stops her. Kirk dying is luckily not a paradox, since the version of him that is killed was never meant to exist, but his death and meeting Khan both have a deep effect on La'an. Having to save Khan's life knowing what he becomes is a difficult decision for her, but his death would have ended her own life and any chance at the Federation's existence. Although La'an makes the right choice in the end, the episode shows how heartbroken she is by both events.
Strange New Worlds May Have Answered Picard Season 2's Khan Tease
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has both shed new light on Khan's life and changed the Star Trek timeline, which may also answer the huge Khan-related question created by Star Trek: Picard season 2. In the Picard season 2 finale, Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) is shown looking at a file labeled "Project Khan" after his daughter Kore Soong (Isa Briones) deletes the rest of his life's work in genetic experimentation. The file is dated as being from 1996, and the episode implies that Soong intends to use the information in it to continue his work in genetic modification, likely with disastrous results given how Khan and his fellow Augments turned out.
While the Project Khan tease may have been meant to foreshadow Arik Soong's (Brent Spiner) appearance in Star Trek: Enterprise, Khan in Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 2 may be the result of Adam Soong's Project Khan. This could be the answer to at least one major question that Star Trek: Picard left hanging. Given that the franchise has reignited interest in Khan with the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, perhaps the full explanation of Khan's new timeline will be coming in the future.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.