Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 7 – “Erigah”
Since her first appearance on Star Trek: Discovery, Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro) has been one of the show’s best characters. Despite only appearing in seventeen of Discovery’s sixty-two episodes so far, Reno never fails to make her presence known with her biting sarcasm and often hilarious observations. Discovery’s main characters like Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Ambassador Saru (Doug Jones) have joined the ranks of Star Trek’s greatest, and will surely be missed when the series is over. Jett Reno received far less screen time, making the potential end of her Star Trek career even more unfortunate.
Introduced in Star Trek: Discovery season 2 premiere, Reno joined the crew of the USS Discovery after she was rescued from the wreck of the medical frigate, the USS Hiawatha. Since then, Reno has served in engineering, helping Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) keep the Crossfield Class starship up and running. Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 7, “Erigah” revealed more about Reno’s past, which apparently includes working as a bartender, a shuttle pilot, and a smuggler, among others. While Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio) work to decipher the final Progenitors’ clue, they seek information from Reno. Always busy working on the ship, Reno walks and talks, revealing pieces of her fascinating history.
Commander Jett Reno served as an engineer on the USS Hiawatha during Star Trek: Discovery‘s Federation-Klingon War, and when her ship crashed, Reno volunteered to stay behind to care for injured crew members. Stranded on an interstellar asteroid, Reno kept her fellow Hiawatha crew members alive for over ten months before the USS Discovery found them. Soon after she was rescued, Reno joined Discovery during its investigation of the Red Angel, and she remained on the ship for its journey to the 32nd century. Although Reno initially butted heads with Stamets, the two eventually formed a somewhat dysfunctional friendship.
Despite the trauma Reno has experienced, including losing her Soyousian wife during the Klingon War, she remains a breath of fresh air among the crew. Her no-nonsense attitude and ability to take every situation in stride make Jett an invaluable addition to the USS Discovery, and she’s helped save the ship on multiple occasions. In some ways, Reno’s sense of humor feels like a callback to Star Trek: The Original Series and Dr. Leonard McCoy’s (DeForest Kelley) lovable irascibility. Although Reno only pops up a few episodes per Star Trek: Discovery season, her commentary and interactions with the other characters are often the highlight of the episode.
As revealed in Star Trek: Discovery’s “Erigah,” Commander Reno worked several different jobs before joining Starfleet. As Tilly and Adira search for answers about the last of the Progenitors’ five clues, they learn Reno used to work with rare manuscripts. When they ask Jett about it, she replies that she “may have padded [her] résumé with that one.” In reality, Reno smuggled old manuscripts. At Tilly’s surprise, Reno lists off numerous “odd jobs” she had before Starfleet, including: “VIP shuttle pilot, deep mercury welder, [and] bartender at a cozy little dive on Ashalon Four.”
This history fits Jett Reno perfectly, and she has added even more fantastical experiences to her life’s story since joining the USS Discovery. Not only has she survived a starship crash and been stranded for nearly a year, but she has also traveled 930 years into the future. In Star Trek:Discovery season 4, Reno was abducted by Dr. Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) when she caught him sabotaging Discovery. Reno helped convince Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) that he had chosen the wrong side, and escaped Tarka’s force field prison using black licorice and a spare communicator chip.
With the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery spin-off, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, the possibility remains open for Commander Reno or any other Discovery character to appear in the new series. While Reno doesn’t seem a likely candidate for teaching Starfleet cadets, she would make a hilariously perfect guest lecturer. Considering this is Star Trek, there is also the possibility that time travel or some other science fiction solution could send Reno to one of the other ongoing Trek series. (If Ensigns Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) can cross over from Star Trek: Lower Decks to the live-action Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, then anything is possible.)
In Star Trek: Discovery‘s “Erigah,” Commander Reno mentions that she “used to move hard-to-find folios for a shady antiquarian archivist.” Could this archivist be someone who has already appeared in another Star Trek project? On Strange New Worlds, the Lanthanite Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise, Commander Pelia (Carol Kane), once ran an antique and curio shop on Earth. Before Discovery’s trip to the 32nd century, Reno could have known Pelia in the 23rd century, and the two would likely make great scene partners. Whether or not Jett Reno appears in any future Star Trek projects, she remains one of Star Trek: Discovery’s most memorable characters.
New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery stream Thursdays on Paramount+.