The War Without, The War Within

As Star Trek: Discovery (the show) is about to wrap up its first season, Discovery (the ship) has returned to its own universe. And it seems clear that no temporal antics are going to unwind the dire straits in which it finds itself after all. This is the timeline they'll live in now, and the quest resumes for fans to connect it to what we know of the original series, set less than a decade later.

While the Federation is on the ropes, it's not really quite as "finished" as last week's episode led us to believe. The "war without" part of the title was about searching for a way to punch the Klingons in the nose hard enough to end the open destruction phase of the conflict (turning it more into the Cold War sort of situation between the Klingons and Federation we saw in the original series). To that end, they're going to need more spores. That set up a cool sequence about terraforming a planet to serve as a spore haven. This is what a decent budget and modern visual effects can give you; this was actually a super technobabbly scene, but it was so loaded up with eye candy that it didn't feel like it.

But it's the "war within" part of the title that served up the more satisfying elements of the episode. There were interpersonal reckonings all throughout. A few were glossed over without sufficient commentary. (Sarek's forcible mind meld with Saru could be construed as a form of rape; L'Rell wasn't really given a chance to process either the death of Voq or the realization that T'Kuvma's dream of uniting the Klingons had utterly failed.) Mostly, though, they dug right in to the most vulnerable parts of the characters.

Ash Tyler is a wreck, back to "himself" in a way, but fully possessing the memories of Voq and everything he did as a Klingon aboard Discovery. That led to a somewhat satisfying scene with Stamets, a limited form of therapy for the audience in which Stamets just let Tyler have it with the most cutting things he could think to say. "Limited" therapy, I say, because I still don't think the writers fully appreciated the icky submessage they were sending by showing Star Trek's first prominent LGBT relationship just to immediately end it. But at least they are playing the death for all the drama it's worth.

There were plenty of other great Tyler scenes. Tilly, once an outcast herself but now much more at home on the Discovery, took it upon herself to reach out to him in a touching moment in the mess hall. Much later, there was the scene between Tyler and Burnham, where she confessed a Gordian knot of emotion -- she knows on one level that the man who attacked her is gone, but he wore the face in front of her now, the face of the first man she ever loved. Greater still was the scene near the end where Burnham got some fatherly advice from Sarek: not to regret opening herself up to love. The sentiment would sound wrong from probably any other Vulcan, but this of course is the man who reconciled marrying a human woman with maintaining an emotionless exterior. He knows of what he speaks.

Admiral Cornwell had a potent emotional ride of her own. Nine months of losing the Federation -- really, of losing everything -- led her to the brink, and the loss of Starbase 1 pushed her over. Her quiet reverie in the captain's chair spoke volumes, and became the moment where she was willing to do anything to turn the war around. She went to the Emperor to make a deal, and the terms were not going to be small. On a (wink, wink) completely unrelated note, not long after, Cornwell showed up on the bridge with Captain Georgiou, back from dead and ready to take command of the Discovery.

I do hope that the writers aren't looking to play this for surprise, because it should be abundantly clear to everyone that this Georgiou is really the Emperor dressed up to lead the sheep as the wolf she is. But the far more compelling question is, which of our characters know or suspect the truth? Having just gone through their mirror universe ordeal, it seems quite unlikely that many would be taken in by the ruse. Does that matter? Are they willing to sign on to the lie to win the war? In particular, what does this mean for Burnham and Saru, the people closest to the real Georgiou? Is this a desecration of the original's memory, and if so, is that an acceptable loss in this moment? What happens when "Georgiou" has finished this mission and has saved the day? Will Cornwell honor her deal? Will Burnham and Saru think she should? What would that even look like, letting another Lorca wander around our universe subverting the Federation's ideals?

It's all a compelling set-up for more than Discovery can probably resolve in a single remaining episode -- even at the breakneck pace they often move the plot. But hey, there is a season two in the works, and you gotta leave something for that. I give "The War Without, The War Within" a B+.

Next week, the season finale!