Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiere. Captain Christopher Pike is on a mission as Season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dawns — and it’s an emotional one.

Strange New Worlds season 3 premiere wastes no time pulling viewers back into its high-stakes universe of diplomatic tensions, ethical quandaries, and emotional reckonings.

Further confirmation can be found in the previous season of Strange New Worlds during the Lower Decks crossover, of all places. After Ensign Boimler and Ensign Mariner were thrown back in time 120 years, a throwaway line between them foreshadowed the latest episode in spectacular fashion.