"The Wolf Inside" Burnham's mission inside the Mirror Universe continues. Days? Weeks? Little progress has been made in getting the necessary information back to the Discovery. While Lorca hangs out in a torture chamber, Burnham hangs out with her Klingon boytoy Tyler and laments the intoxicating darkness of this seductively malevolent world (ya know, when you're treated like a Queen). She found the data pertaining to the USS Defiant, which previously and mysteriously transported to the Mirror Universe way back in the original Star Trek series in the 60s and was followed up in the 2000's with Star Trek Enterprise (it not only crossed over, it went back in time). Here it is the key to getting home. Aboard the Discovery, Tilly grows into her new confidence and demands to take over Stamets' health. With her knowledge of the spores, she thinks she can save him. In a blow to her new confidence though... it kills him. Until it doesn't. Once again, Stamets continues the most interesting subplot with the least screen time and we get hints that his mind may have been switching between realities all along. The fun part of Mirror episodes is seeing the mirror-counterparts of our favorite characters (hopefully with a mean-looking black goatee!). Last episode we got Lorca as a fugitive, Tilly as Commander, and Burnham fell into her role at the end as the feared and revered Captain of the Shenzhou (her longtime dream, in a way... just not like this). This week we see Saru as her slave aboard the Shenzhou. There's no Tyler here, but there is the Fire Wolf, the albino Klingon from the pilot who is now leader of the rebels, a band of various aliens organized to fight the Empire (as Burnham notes, the closest approximation of the Federation). Tyler loses his $#!% when he sees himself in his former Klingon form, uniting Klingons with other species rather than protecting them from them, and basically gives away his whole cover. He starts speaking Klingon, fighting with a bat'leth and the mantra from the pilot, "Remain Klingon" takes on a whole new meaning for him as he hears the words echo in his muddied memories. We also get great cameos of some classic Trek aliens, my favorite Andorians with the blue skin and antennas sticking out of their white hair, and the Tellarites too. Lastly we get to see the "Prophet" Sarek (rocking that black goatee!) who shares a mind-meld with Bunham to verify her strange betrayal of the Empire. She warns them to abandon their base before she can bomb it in the hopes of doing some good in this universe. Back at the ship, Tyler confirms and confesses to Burnham everything we've known for weeks, and we see how heartbroken she is. He was supposed to be her tether to reality (bad choice!). Slave-Saru saves her life when Tyler attacks her (thank goodness she was nice to him earlier) and with the rest of the crew watching, she must execute him by teleportation into space. She ascents. Can she go through with it? Even better, she insists on energizing him herself. And lest you think she's pulling a fast one and sending him to some warm hot tub instead of the cold vastness outside, we quickly cut to his body materializing. Will we finally be rid of his lame subplot? Alas, the Discovery picks him up and saves his life in a move I would've saved for next week. Even Tyler agrees with the audience, "You should've let me die." But Saru pulls the Defiant data out of his pocket, secretly placed there by Burnham. Mission accomplished. UNTIL! A new ship appears and bombards the planet below, killing the rebels before they could escape. It's a big ship. The Emperor's ship. Or should we say Empress? It's Burnham's mentor and mother-figure, Georgiou back from the dead in this world, a perfect personal foil for Burnham who was responsible for her death in Episode 2. Will she have what it takes to face her next week? To Be Continued... Conclusion: This was a pretty fair followup to last week's strong status-quo shift. We get more character inversions, learn more about the new world, and everyone finds themselves forced to make some pretty dramatic personal choices. It was a service episode, moving things along the plot, but it managed not to lose any of the momentum from last week nor succumb to the weight of its story. It's clear the writers have a vision for the back half of this season and I'm excited for it to end strong. Last week's Episode Next week's Episode Don't forget to Like and Subscribe!
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