‘Star Trek: Discovery’: Blu del Barrio Talks Adira’s Major Mission & Teases Series Finale

Where No One Has Gone Before

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Episode 9 “Lagrange Point.”]

Uh-oh, the crew needs to help their captain, stat! Star Trek: Discovery‘s penultimate episode ends with Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green) in a precarious situation.

When the Breen get their hands on the Progenitors’ tech first, the Discovery crew stages a heist in hopes of getting it, and Michael, Book (David Ajala), Adira (Blu del Barrio), and Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon) sneak on board, disguised. Things, of course, go sideways, and Michael ends up following Moll (Eve Harlow) into a portal in the Progenitors’ tech … which the crew does get off the Breen ship only for a white light to come exploding out of it and scans show no sign of Michael. Uh-oh!

Below, del Barrio talks about Adira’s journey, the responsibility they take on in this episode, and more, plus teases how the series ends in the May 30 finale.

Adira’s really come into their own this season, and we especially see that in this episode. What do you attribute to their ability to step up like they have? It seems to be a combination of Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Michael, Culber (Wilson Cruz), Stamets (Anthony Rapp), even Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie)…

Blu del Barrio: It is a combination of all of them, and I also think it has to do with just time plainly, their having had time on that ship to kind of get their footing and feel confident the way they feel confident, how they do in this mission. There’s a sense of, okay, I can do this. When they are given the responsibility of even going on a mission this big, I don’t think it’s something they would’ve been asked to do last season, the season prior. I think that they’ve just really solidified their space on this ship. And with that comes a bit of “I can do this” energy that was really fun to get to play.

I couldn’t help but think that Culber and Stamets seeing Adira off on this mission is like “dads seeing their kid off to college.” Did it feel like that to you?

Oh, yeah, very much. Yeah, dads seeing their kid off to any big event. It was very, very much that. I loved it. And I had my parents see me off to the airport for college and it felt exactly like that and the worry and concern, and it was very, very sweet. It was cute.

Marni Grossman / Paramount+

That family is one of my favorite relationships on the show.

Mine, too. Yeah, it means a lot to me because we’re all very close in real life as well, and they’re very big mentors to me and Ian [Alexander, who plays Gray]. And Ian is one of my very good friends and is going to stay that way. So yeah, it means a lot.

Why was it so important for them to go on this mission for their journey?

I think that they needed to be entrusted with something this big to kind of gain that confidence and self-assuredness in themselves. This was a really huge mission. This is also very near the end of the season. It’s a really big responsibility and a really big mission with a lot of weight on it. And I think being the one that’s asked to go, just by itself, lets them know how necessary and needed they are on this ship and as a crew member, and as much as you shouldn’t always need external validation, I think Adira does a little bit and they’re still very young and learning. So this for them is very much, I think, the last little cherry on top of, okay, I am really meant to be here and I am needed here and wanted here.

And it’s a very risky mission, too. 

Yeah, and I like the confidence that they have, even with something being so scary. I think that they’re just really running on this high of, oh, I’m wanted for this and I can do this and I’m ready for this. Because of how much of a perfectionist they are and how much of a go-getter they are, this is definitely the mission for them.

Talk about Jonathan Frakes directing you this episode. When I spoke with him yesterday, he remembered directing your first episode.

Yeah, I’ve had the best possible journey with Jonathan because I got the honor of having him direct my first episode ever doing this show, which was crazy. But yeah, having him again for this episode was such a beautiful close of that circle because he is probably my favorite director of all time that I’ve ever worked with because of the way that he makes the environment on our sets. He gets there and with the hope and almost expectation that everybody there have a great time. Filmmaking is really hard, and making a TV show is really hard and there’s so much stress involved, and a lot of the time that’s kind of the energy that you get from a director because they have all the weight on their shoulders.

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But Frakes walks in like it’s a playground, and you somehow don’t see all the little cogs turning inside his head of how he’s going to shape the episode and how he’s going to put everything together. He’s doing that quietly inside his head. On the outside, he’s like a kid. He’s like a little kid and in the most beautiful way, and he makes everybody smile and laugh and have a wonderful time. So having episodes with him is you feel like a kid on a playground and that kind of levity and light and even when there’s really heavy stuff, he knows how to get out of you exactly what he needs, and he knows how to do it in a way that is nice and feels good for everybody. And I think he’s just a genius and wonderful and the best.

The episode ends with Michael going into that structure. What can you preview about the finale and the crew’s attempt to help her?

I won’t say anything because I don’t want to get in trouble, but it’s a really good finale. It is a really, really good finale and it’s very heartwarming. And I will say that the fact that we got to go back to Toronto and film a little end bit that we almost certainly wouldn’t have gotten to—most shows don’t get to do that when they get told that they’re ending—it was such a huge thing, and I’m so grateful that we got to do that because I think it ties everything together really beautifully. But it’s a really beautiful episode, and I’m very excited for it.

What can you say how the series ends for Adira?

I’m really happy. I feel good about where Adira ends up, and that also I think was really lucky. I will say that for a lot of the season where we didn’t know this was our last, I think we got lucky in that it’s a really beautiful season to end on, and I feel the same way for a lot of characters. I feel that they end up in a really beautiful spot, but I feel that where Adira ends up, their future just looks very bright, very, very bright and good, and only going up.

Do you think there’s hope for Adira and Gray, or have they kind of closed a door on a romantic relationship there?

I personally think there’s hope. I definitely think there’s hope. I think that their relationship was so beautiful and pure and it’s a very deep relationship, beyond romantic. I think that just as individuals they have such a very, very deep connection. They’re just so young and they’re both starting on paths that are very, very different. And probably this separation is needed for the best because it could be really hard to keep a relationship intact the way that they wanted to while they’re separated like this, but because they’re so young, yeah, I absolutely think that there is hope for them in the future, 100 percent.

John Medland / Paramount+

What are the chances of seeing you in another Star Trek series after Discovery?

I have zero idea. I know literally nothing. I would love to be in another series. I would love Adira to get to do more, especially because they were so young in Discovery and seeing them in the future and older would be really, really cool. And I would love that.

Starfleet Academy would be great, see them in a teaching role maybe…

That would be really cool. I’m also very excited for that show. But yeah, I think it would be cool to see them in any iteration in the future. It’d be really fun.

And that’s a great thing about this franchise—it’s very possible.

Yeah, it’s very possible.

How will you remember Adira and the show?

It probably is one of the biggest areas and times of growth in my life, growth and transition. But yeah, it was almost like five years, I think, for me in my real life that Discovery was actively a part of it. And I don’t know that I’ve changed more at any other point in my life than I did in those five years for the better and how much I grew and how much I learned. I think of it as a hugely good and beautiful transition period in my life, kind of into early adulthood that I hold very near and dear to my heart, and it’s really crazy to get to look back on it and be able to watch an episode of that time. But yeah, I’m very grateful for it.

How has it been saying goodbye?

Oh, really hard. It was definitely really hard. It’s been a minute now, so I feel a little better about it. But yeah, no, it was really rough for all of us, and I am so grateful, again, that we got to go back and say goodbye because we didn’t know when we were filming it. We got told when we were all back home and separated from each other. And so it was all of a sudden like, wait, we didn’t get to have closure. We didn’t get to say goodbye. We didn’t get to—But the fact when we went back to film that very little last bit, a lot of our crew came back as well, I was so hoping that they would, and that was the best thing because we are so close with our crew and a lot of our crew has been there since the beginning for so many seasons, so that made it really nice. Those few days were hard, though. They felt very surreal and we all knew, but it also didn’t feel like it, and I don’t know. It was very strange and hard, but really nice as well.

Star Trek: Discovery, Series Finale, Thursday, May 30, Paramount+