Star Trek Kills Off SPOILER

Star Trek just said goodbye to a major character. SPOILERS follow for today's season finale episode of Star Trek: Prodigy, "Supernova, Part 2." When last week's first part of "Supernova" ended, the USS Protostar crew was in a bind as Starfleet had fallen into the Vau Na'kat trap, their ships' computers hacked into turning against each other. Gwyn managed to use her knowledge of languages to send out a message to non-Starfleet ships in the area asking for aid, and some came to help out. However, more Starfleet ships continue to arrive in response to distress calls automatically being broadcast by the endangered vessels, all falling to the same virus.

Dal and the rest of the Protostar crew conceive of a plan to end the threat by activating the ship's protostar drive to get away, ultimately leading to the ship's destruction. The crew plans to escape in a replicated escape shuttle, but someone needs to stay behind to see the plan through. That job falls to Hologram Janeway, the Emergency Training Hologram that has mentored and bonded with the crew throughout Prodigy's first 20 episodes.

While this instance of Hologram Janeway will perish with the ship, a copy will be uploaded to a storage device, allowing her to join the crew aboard the shuttle. They are all set about putting the plan into motion but Hologram Janeway discovers that her program file is too large to fit on a storage device. It seems her experiences with the Protostar's young crew have caused her to literally grow beyond the ability to be duplicated.

Rather than tell the crew and have them argue with her about what needs to be done, Janeway hides this information from the Protostar crew. It is only after the ship has gone on its way and the crew is aboard the shuttle that they realize what has happened, as the storage device they believed contained Hologram Janeway's program copy instead contains only a record message telling the crew how much they've meant to her and sending them on their way.

The plan is a success. Starfleet is saved, and the flesh-and-blood Janeway, the Vice Admiral that has been pursuing the Protostar throughout the second half of the season, returns to Earth. She begins trying to clear their name before the escape shuttle is even found. Once the crew does make its way to earth, she fights, successfully, for their place in Starfleet Academy under her supervision, setting up Prodigy's second season.

Star Trek; Prodigy is streaming now on Paramount+.