Star Trek: Starfleet Academy S1E4 - Klingons' New Homeworld & Jay-Den's Journey

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 4 - "Vox in Excelso"

Jay-Den Kraag (Karim Diané) affirms what it means to be Klingon as his race faces extinction in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4. Directed by Doug Aarniokoski, and written by Gaia Violo and Eric Anthony Glover, the powerful and deeply resonant Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 uses debate as a vehicle to explore Jay-Den's inner conflict as a Klingon and a Starfleet cadet.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy season 1, episode 4, is a long-awaited update on the state of the Klingon Empire in the 32nd century. The great warrior race is now barely eking out an existence as refugees after the Klingon homeworld, Qo'noS, was destroyed by The Burn. Despite facing an existential threat, the Klingons refuse "charity" from the United Federation of Planets.

Jay-Den Kraag's trauma after being abandoned by his Klingon family leaves him incapacitated as a public debater, leaving Caleb Mir (Sandro Rosta) struggling to understand his Klingon friend. However, Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter) executes a shrewd plan to give the Klingons a new homeworld, but only because she listened to and understood Jay-Den's revelations about the Klingons and about himself.

How The Klingons Get A New Homeworld

Thanks to counseling from Commander Lura Thok (Gina Yashere), who was able to empathize with Jay-Den Kragg Klingon-to-Klingon, Jay-Den's courageous speech at the debate podium outlined how the Federation could rescue the Klingons but still allow the great warrior species to retain their honor and save face.

Following Jay-Den's plan, the Federation offered Faal Alpha, a planet ecologically comparable to Qo'noS, to the Klingons, but the proud warriors refused to accept Federation "charity." Jay-Den made Captain Ake realize that the Klingons needed to fulfill their cultural mandate to conquer. Rather than be "given" Faal Alpha, the Klingons had to win it from the Federation in battle.

Jay-Den's gambit was for the USS Athena to lead a Starfleet armada to Faal Alpha and accuse the Klingons of trying to conquer the planet. Klingon honor demanded war, and Captain Ake's old friend, the Klingon leader Obel Wochak (David Keeley), agreed to "fight with" Starfleet. What followed was a non-lethal skirmish that still satisfied the Klingons' requirement for battle.

Starfleet yielded and retreated from the superior Klingons, who "won" Faal Alpha as their spoils. The eight remaining Klingon houses and the remainder of the Klingon Empire gained their new homeworld through "conquest," satisfying Klingon honor. Obel Wochak thanked Captain Ake, Jay-Den Kraag, and the Federation for recognizing his people's need to remain Klingon.

Jay-Den Became A True Klingon Warrior

Jay-Den Kraag became a true Klingon warrior by being true to himself and hatching the plan to save his people. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 revealed that 16 months prior, Jay-Den was abandoned by his family on Krios Prime. Jay-Den's brother, Thar (Tremaine Nelson), found a Starfleet Academy recruitment beacon and knew this was the right place for Jay-Den, who wished to be a healer rather than a warrior.

After Thar's tragic death, Jay-Den's father, Enok (Sean Jones), forced him into the Klingon rituals to become a warrior. When Jay-Den refused, Enok smashed his son's Starfleet beacon. Enok and Jay-Den's mother, L'vanna (Dorothy Atabong), left Jay-Den on Krios Prime. Although his Starfleet device was in pieces, Jay-Den still managed to find his way to Starfleet Academy.

Thanks to Commander Thok, Jay-Den realized that Enok purposely missed a killshot, and the Kraags abandoning him on Krios Prime was their way of letting their son go. Without the traditional expectations of becoming a Klingon warrior, Jay-Den was left on his own to pursue his own destiny, which brought him to Starfleet Academy.

Jay-Den did not consider himself a Klingon warrior, but he also did not see himself as worthy to be a Starfleet cadet, which explains his reticence thus far in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Jay-Den's crucial role in teaching the Federation to understand the Klingons' needs allowed Kraag to claim the mantle of a Klingon warrior while also fully accepting his place as a Starfleet cadet.

Jay-Den's Friendship With Caleb & Darem Takes A Leap Forward

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 showed how much Jay-Den Kraag's friends care for him, even as the Klingon pushed them away. Jay-Den rejected Caleb's overtures of friendship, telling Mir that they "are not brothers." Yet Caleb was also right that he and Jay-Den share many things in common, as they both are essentially orphans and survivors who found their way to Starfleet Academy.

While Genesis Lythe (Bella Shepard) and SAM (Kerrice Brooks) expressed their support for Jay-Den, the remarkable breakthrough came from Darem Reymi (George Hawkins). Darem taught Jay-Den a private Khionian ritual to instill courage in the Klingon, which showed the true quality of Darem's character beneath his alpha male swagger.

When Jay-Den finally spoke about what was in his mind and his heart, his mutual hard feelings with Caleb melted away, while Darem and their fellow cadets applauded Jay-Den, proud of him after finally understanding their silently conflicted Klingon friend.

Once he recognized himself as a Klingon warrior, Jay-Den was also able to eat the Klingon "warrior's stew" of entrails that Caleb gave the replicator the recipe to. In true Star Trek fashion, Jay-Den has gained genuine friends and a found family in Starfleet Academy.

Captain Ake Had A Romance With A Klingon

When Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) presented Captain Ake with the plan to give Faal Alpha to the Klingons, he needed Nahla to tap into her past with the Klingons' leader, Obel Wochak, to sell the idea. Despite Nahla's hesitation to reopen that door, the half-Lanthanite Chancellor Ake agreed to host the 200-year-old Obel in secret at her Starfleet Academy quarters.

Evoking Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax's (Terry Farrell) relationship with Lt. Commander Worf (Michael Dorn) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Captain Ake and Obel Wochak had some sort of relationship - or at least a mutual attraction they both once acted upon. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 implies that Nahla and Wochak rekindled their bond, with Ake showing up "hungover" for Starfleet Academy's debates.

Captain Ake correctly placed her faith in Jay-Den Kraag, and it had to be Nahla to present Jay-Den's solution to Obel Wochak, in the form of provoking "war" with the Klingons so that they could "defeat" the Federation and "conquer" Faal Alpha as spoils of war.

Nahla's intimate knowledge of Klingons, thanks to her bond with Obel Wochak, allowed her to trust Jay-Den so that the Federation could rescue the Klingons.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 4 is the most complex, substantive, and satisfying exploration of the Klingons in years, developing the character of Jay-Den Kraag and recontextualizing the great warrior people's place in Star Trek's late 32nd century.