Third episode of this season looks set to revisit Section 31, one of my favourite things to come out of DS9, and the L’Rell and Tyler and Klingons but now with hair again! (Either this was always the plan or it’s a reaction to the backlash from the last season.)
Burnham starts the episode once again narrating before being interrupted by a slightly oddly shot sequence with flickering lights and an odd frame rate of a half marathon that Tilly is taking part in, when she herself is interrupted by dead!Maya!
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| Star Trek: Sixth Sense – yeah I know I made that joke last blog, so what |
She runs through the ghost!Maya, who flickers like a hologram, further adding to the mystery. When she finishes, ghost!Maya tries to assert that her cheering on helped Tilly beat her time, so Tilly responds by pointedly thanking Burnham for her support and then her and ghost!Maya glare at each other, which I dunno if it was suppose to be funny but just seeing Maya, who has been portrayed as having an insufferably constant grin, actually having another facial expression.
Saru and Burnham enter the bridge under yellow alert as a ship approaches. We do get this cool camera sweep as we visit each station in one take as they each give one bit of information on the ship, but I do wonder why information is so spread that each officer needs to give one tiny bit when surely one officer could’ve given multiple bits of info?
The ship appears on screen and Burnham recognises it as Sarek’s ship, however when she arrives at the transporter, it is Amanda who beams in.
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We revisit Kronos where we see the Voq and L’Rell present the new D7 battlecruiser to the other Klingons. One of the Klingons isn’t a fan of Voq/Tyler, and starts to stir, so Voq is like ‘come at me bro’ and comes at him.
The Federation refused to give Amanda access to Spock (for unknown reasons) so she stole his medical file (fair). Voq argues with L’Rell about people not accepting him because he looks Human and how she keeps speaking in English to him (so why doesn’t he just only speak in Klingon, and also what’s stopping him getting surgery to look Klingon again?). He also makes reference to how, as Tyler, he had memories of L’Rell raping him – which even though these were fake memories, the portrayal of a male rape survivor was still something well executed in the last season.
Pike calls the Federation base that Spock was at to get an update, but it is revealed that Spock supposedly killed three of his doctors and fled the base. Neither Pike, Amanda or Burnham agree with this being an accurate assessment of Spock’s nature and set out to investigate.
Amanda and Burnham talk about how Spock not being allowed to explore his human emotions as a child, before they both spot the Red Angel in Spock’s drawings. Before they can explore it further. Voq calls Burnham, expressing his concern about if L’Rell falls, the peace falls with her. There’s a brief mention about the Klingons growing their hair out again. The two of them chat about their personal issues, which I find a bit odd because another thing I appreciated last season was how Burnham was very clear about cutting him out from her life after his betrayal, and if they end up getting back together I think that demeans it. I suppose as long as they don’t bounce back to the same level of relationship, I’ll buy.
Poor Tilly is being given her chance to show off to the Captain but is being distracted hugely by her ghost. (I really hate her ghost.) Tilly freaks out and has an outburst, shocking the crew. Overwhelmed, she says she quits and leaves the bridge. Poor Tilly.
Meanwhile Voq is trying to rub off some warpaint from his hand obsessively when he spots L’Rell’s uncle spying on him. He threatens him, where he reveals it’s L’Rell who is keeping secrets. L’Rell’s uncle reveals that Voq and L’Rell had a son.
Drama ensues as L’Rell reveals the baby was gestated outside of the womb and she hasn’t met him, as she considers him a vulnerability. She also didn’t tell Voq and she didn’t want him to feel tied to a Klingon life. She also expresses concerns about him contacting Burnham. Voq!Tyler tells L’Rell he can’t give her back the old Voq, but seeing his son helps him feel a whole, and he devotes himself to her and to him.
Amanda reveals to Burnham the Red Angel has visited him for the first time the same night Burnham ran away from home after the bombing, telling him where she was. Burnham reveals she hurt Spock irreparably in order to distance him from her to keep him safe from the Extremists.
Meanwhile Kol-Sha, having embedded listening devices in his warpaint that got on Voq’s hands (what a gamble of a plan), has kidnapped L’Rell’s son and is holding him ransom for the empire.
Tilly confides in Burnham about her ghost and breaks down. Burnham deduces that the ghost she is seeing isn’t a hallucination or a ghost, but a reaction between the dark matter, the spores and Tilly – and so they need to speak to Staments.
Voq and L’Rell fight Kol-Sha’s Klingons, and manage to kill most of them, however reinforcements arrive and Kol-Sha paralyses the two of them. However before he can execute Voq, GEORGIOU arrives with some fancy tech that just kills everyone. CURB STOMP.
Georgiou tells L’Rell she’s here to help maintain her leadership, at whatever means. Staments figures out that May is a symptom of a parasite from the spores, and manages to extract it from her, isolating it in a force field. L’Rell is forced to exile Voq and her son, and tells the rest of the Klingons that Voq betrayed them and killed her son, and that she was only saved by Kol-Sha, who died for his efforts, in order to reinforce her leadership. Voq (for some reason, despite his apparent devotion) gives up his son to a Klingon monastery, where he will grow up not knowing his parents. Georgiou invites Voq to join Section 31.
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