I reckon (firmly believe) M'Benga injected himself and killed all the officers, with Rah just barely escaping as another covered for him. He had been known as the most deadly close-combatant and with the help of that #12 concoction and his rage, that is a very plausible thing to pull off
Review by nicky2910BlockedParentSpoilers2023-07-31T06:10:52Z
Color me confused by this episode. I understand it's about war and the ramifications it has on the people fighting in it, losing your humanity, lust for revenge, blood lust... all this enhanced by some drug (that we've already seen in episode 1 of this season).
But what did actually happen on J'Gal? Did M'Benga kill the Klingons, or did he inject the Klingon commander who then killed all his officers? (Have to watch that again...) - Anyway, M'Benga turned out the real monster of J'Gal, and he reinforced that image by killing the Klingon commander/now ambassador of the Federation pretty much in cold blood... and everyone knows things are fishy, but there are no consequences. I realize that this episode is supposed to be uncomfortable, and it's not about what happened on J'Gal that bothers me (because "inter arma enim silent leges" and that goes doubly for morals), but the murder/incident on Enterprise? Just that M'Benga was even interacting with the Klingon should have raised multiple red flags, not even speaking that he was fighting with him... Considering his PTSD he should have removed himself from the situation after the dinner and be done with it. Don't know what Pike was thinking, honestly.
So, I'm not sure where this episode was going. It certainly didn't make me more sympathetic to M'Benga.