'Star Trek: Discovery': Where Is Spock Hiding?

The search for Spock continues in Star Trek: Discovery, but could the series have offered a clue to his location that most fans overlooked?

In tonight's episode of the series, "The Sound of Thunder," Discovery's crew considers where Spock may have gone to hide. Few places spring to mind. It would be hard for him to return to Vulcan, his home planet, or to Earth, where he attended Starfleet Academy. His home since graduating from the Academy has been the Enterprise, and he can't return there either.

But Spock may have sought shelter on a world he once visited during Enterprise's journeys. In Discovery's second season premiere, Capt. Pike discovers a fortune cookie fortune. It reads, "Not every cage is a prison, not every loss eternal." The fortune is an Easter egg referencing "The Cage," the original pilot for Star Trek which featured Pike as captain of the Enterprise. It may also be a clue to Spock's whereabouts.

The events of "The Cage" occurred three years before the events of Star Trek: Discovery's second season. In the episode, the Enterprise investigates a distress call from the planet Talos IV. The distress call is a trap and Pike finds himself taken prisoner by the Talosians, the last survivors of a once advanced race.

The Talosians destroyed themselves and their planet in a nuclear war. The survivors used their enhanced mental abilities to create illusions indistinguishable from reality. They became addicted to their own illusions but also grew bored with their own imaginations. They began luring and capturing other species to use as the basis for new illusions to watch.

Though the Talosians offer to create a paradise-like illusion for Pike to live out his life in, the captain of the Enterprise does not agree to remain in captivity. The Talosians are convinced to release Pike, and the Enterprise departs on good terms. In the Star Trek episode "The Menagerie," years after the events of Discovery and after an accident leaves Pike's body scarred and crippled, Spock collaborates with the Talosians to return Pike to Talos IV. There, he can live out his days in the Talosian's illusions, as they had promised.

Could Spock be hiding on Talos IV? Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman already confirmed that Talosians will appear in the show's second season. This could be how that happens.

Spock knows that the Talosians live on Talos IV. He knows that the surface of the planet is uninhabitable, thus making it unlikely anyone would come to the planet unless lured by the Talosians. That makes it a great hiding place. Spock may also hope that the Talosian's mental abilities can help him discover the nature of his nightmares involving the Red Angel. If he is hiding there, it could also provide some connective tissue between the events of "The Cage" and the events of "The Menagerie."

Do you think Spock is hiding on Talos IV? Let us know in the comments.

New Star Trek: Discovery episodes become available to stream Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access.