Discovery's Most Mysterious Character Finally Explained - And It's A Star Trek Deep Cut

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of "Star Trek: Discovery."

After nearly seven years on the air, "Star Trek: Discovery" has come to a satisfying end with this week's series finale, titled "Life, Itself" — though not without answering a lingering question or two along the way. The galaxy-spanning trail of breadcrumbs has led to the final hiding spot of the Progenitors' lifegiving technology, with Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the USS Discovery successfully flinging the dangerously powerful MacGuffin safely out of reach into the center of a black hole, the threat of Moll (Eve Harlow) handing the weapon over to the Breen having been neautralized. Fans were even given a glimpse of Burnham's blissful life together with Booker (David Ajala) decades in the future, putting a nice and tidy bow on characters we've spent the better part of a decade getting to know and love.

And yet, one decidedly unsentimental supporting figure has lurked in the background for three seasons now, alternately helping and annoying Burnham over the course of her missions in this 32nd Century setting: the mysterious Dr. Kovich, played by filmmaker David Cronenberg. Shrouded in secrecy by the very nature of his Starfleet job, the character didn't necessarily demand any answers as to his backstory or, as it turns out, his true identity. But for one last parting gift, the "Discovery" writers decided to drop a bombshell at the very last minute and, in the process, tie this "Trek" series together with another through one heck of a deep-cut reference.

Yup, we've actually seen Kovich before ... in a manner of speaking. "Enterprise" fans, it's your time to shine! Because, as it turns out, Kovich was none other than the temporal operative known as Agent Daniels all along.

Leave it to "Star Trek" to take familiar concepts, flip them sideways, and throw a curveball at you. In this franchise, chess is of the fifth-dimensional variety. Alternate universes exist, but beware the one where your parallel self sports a sinister-looking goatee. And, most importantly, there's always a Cold War rampaging all around us — but one with little regard for time and space. In one brief coda of a scene wrapping up the (at times) rocky dynamic between Burnham and Kovich, "Discovery" took the Temporal Cold War concept and tied it together by uniting the mysterious Kovich with a certain Agent Daniels who popped up at various times throughout "Enterprise." Wild, I know.

For those in need of a refresher, Daniels was portrayed by actor Matt Winston and first appeared in the season 1 episode "Cold Front." At the time, he appeared to be a simple crewman aboard the Enterprise but, in actuality, had been sent back in time from the 31st Century to capture a high-priority target attempting to tamper with the timeline. (Sorry, Marvel, you're not the only one to come up with a spin on the Time Variance Authority.) The futuristic figure returned to plague Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) on numerous occasions, sending him back through time on dangerous missions or preventing him from certain actions that would alter the timeline too significantly. More than once, Daniels showed a knack for cheating death through unexplained means, once even alluding to the idea that he was only "more or less" human.

Viewers haven't seen Daniels since his last appearance early in season 4 of "Enterprise" ... or, well, so we thought. Who knew he'd eventually end up returning in the form of Kovich centuries later?

As far as plot twists go, does the Kovich reveal truly shake up the events of "Discovery" all that much in retrospect? Not really, if we're being honest. Is it basically little more than blatant fan service in a finale that was noticeably light on any major developments in terms of the grander lore? You bet. Does any of that make this reveal less fun? Nope!

David Cronenberg's casting as Kovich instantly imbued the character with an air of authoritative mystery entirely on its own, all but daring protagonists like Burnham to pry him with pesky questions about his personal business at their own peril. Those defenses finally came crashing down in the finale, however, allowing Burnham the briefest of chances to ask Kovich about himself. His response: Kovich is his code name and his real name is Agent Daniels of the USS Enterprise ("and other places"). That goes a long way towards explaining the character's "resourceful" nature, as he vaguely put it to Burnham earlier in season 5, and certainly helps strengthen the continuity between otherwise disparate shows in the franchise. (It does make a certain amount of sense to tie "Enterprise" together with "Discovery," given that the last few seasons set far in the future roughly line up with Daniels' own origins.)

And so "Discovery" ends exactly as it began: by being itself. The finale had a little bit of everything, from universe-ending stakes to highly-charged emotional moments to a dollop of fan service and nostalgia. After five total seasons, we'd say this series earned every inch of its final victory lap. If you're so inclined, every episode of "Star Trek: Discovery" is now streaming on Paramount+.