Do we get to see the Defiant today I hope so anyway looks like a lot of stuff is gonna happen let’s see!
After last week’s series of predictable plot twists we now get to see the fall-out. The danger stakes are much higher as Burnham and Lorca head to the Imperial Palace.
Turns out the records on the Defiant have been redacted, so they’ll have to infiltrate the records at the Imperial flagship (which Lorca points out is conveniently where they’ve been summoned, remarking that it’s a ‘glass half full’ situation). It’s also pretty convenient the goalposts of the McGuffin have been changed at the right time too. Burnham also gives Lorca analgesic to help with his torture, though tbh he was looking like he was enjoying it so.
Anyway, Burnham is predictably terrified at meeting her own personal ghost, as much as Lorca logically points out that Empress Georgiou isn’t her Georgiou at all, despite having the same body. Also the flight conn for the Palace identifies the shuttle as ‘ISS Shenzou shuttle’ – what, do the shuttles not have individual names at this point? 🙁
[subpar opening title]Staments is continuing her sporetherapy, optimistically commenting on his skin condition. As Saru reminds her of the stakes (in case she’s forgotten?), he is called away to sickbay as there is a medical emergency. Meanwhile Staments and Staments are bantering with each other and I’m just going to take a moment and enjoy this. brb
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| OH BOY |
So Mirror!Staments explains that he was performing experiments with the spores until an accident caused him to fall into some sort of coma on the Palace. Shortly after, Staments started performing experiments connecting him to the network, and ever since Mirror!Staments has been trying to contact Staments (hence the flashes) so he could help him escape and wake up.
Burnham meets Georgiou, who gives him a Kelpian (we finally get to see non-Saru Kelpians). Lorca is dragged off to Agony Booths as Burnham is welcomed back with applause as Georgiou expresses rejoice as her ‘daughter”s survival.
Meanwhile Voq is causing mayhem in sickbay, rejecting sedation and screaming Klingon. Saru expresses disbelief that he is Klingon, for some reason. Everyone seems confused about how they’ve made Voq come across Tyler like so well.
Meanwhile, in a very Atreusian moment, Burnham is enjoying dinner with Georgiou until she reveals she’s eating the Kelpian she chose. Burnham tries to explain why she went into hiding to capture Lorca but Georgiou reveals that she knows that Lorca and Burnham were actually conspiring to overthrow her. She has Burnham arrested and taken away for execution.
Burnham reveals she’s from the Prime universe, using Prime!Georgiou’s combadge as proof (saying there is no way to fake it’s quantum variance, even though Discovery managed to disguise their quantum signature? I guess it works differently on things tho). Georgiou immediately kills all of her Council bar one to keep this a secret.
Saru speaks to L’Rell about Voq and that he is suffering. L’Rell seems to imply that Tyler and Voq were combined into one, rather than Voq being modded into Tyler, but refuses to help as she claims that Voq knew what he was signing up for. Meanwhile Staments is chasing a ghost of Culbert around the ship, away from his work. Culbert’s ghost reveals that he is dead.
Burnham and Georgiou debate the Federation vs. the Terran Empire. Georgiou demands the engine plans for the spore drive in return for their freedom. Meanwhile Saru convinces L’Rell to help Voq by beaming his suffering self into the cell. A guard drags one of Mirror!Lorca’s followers into the brig to try and get Lorca to admit to what he did to his sister. Lorca obviously doesn’t know and so the guard kills the follower with a virus that makes him explode much like the people do in Cloverfield.
Meanwhile, with phasers aimed at her, L’Rell attempts to help Voq. She uses some weird laser gloves to apparently perform neurosurgery, because apparently she has that training??? Voq starts speaking English, we see some flashbacks to Voq, and then L’Rell screams? So I guess … stuff happened???
Staments and Ghost!Culbert talk about his death. Mirror!Staments knocks on their door and tells him the place is ‘quicksand’ (probably explaining that the network is trying to stop him from escaping for … reasons???). Ghost!Culbert tells Staments that Mirror!Staments corrupted the network, causing damage, and that Staments needs to save it. And he then tells Staments to open his eyes to wake up, causing both Staments and Mirror!Staments to wake up. Staments and Tilly rush into the forest, but all the spores have been taken over by the sickness.
Georgiou talks about how Mirror!Lorca groomed Mirror!Burnham, choosing her and calling it ‘destiny’. These words, plus Georgiou’s suddenly revealed sensitiveness to light, causes Burnham to suddenly realise (literally out of nowhere) that Captain Lorca is Mirror!Lorca!
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| Surprise! |
It explains a lot about how quickly Lorca realised they were in the Mirror Universe and why he already theorised about parallel universes. To be fair, much like the Tyler/Voq theory, people guessed this very much early on in the series. However this theory was considerably much more speculative with little actual evidence, which caused me to disregard is as a baseless fan theory.
Oh how naive was I.