Monday, January 29, 2018

Quick Thoughts on Star Trek Discovery Ep 13

What's Past is Prologue
That doesn't even make sense
Spoilers!

Let's just say things got intense.

With the massive (at least to me, last person to figure stuff out) revelation of last episode I really went into this episode thinking they were going to milk it for a while. Not so, because this episode was if you'll pardon my french - balls to the walls.

Lorca gets out of the torture chamber in the end of the last episode, through fairly-fortunate-plot-device-means and in the beginning of this episode he has already rescued all his former followers from their respective torture devices. His apparently second in command, Landry, says to him "I don't know how you got us all out of here..." and frankly neither do I because it is never shown how Lorca goes from getting out himself to somehow getting access to and releasing every prisoner on the ship. Something that presumably would've been quite the feat, and what I expected this episode to be all about. Unless I fell into a coma and missed it, it all just happened off screen.

In an exposition heavy dialogue between evil-Lorca and evil-Stamets, Lorca reveals that him coming to the prime-universe was basically just a fluke (prime being our universe). He even realizes it's a fluke because he himself is convinced nothing but fate could've made it happen and I'm inclined to agree even though I do not believe in fate. It's either fate or lazy writers, because they could've just as well made it evil-Stamets' work somehow. Of course, one of the first questions that come up as soon as you find out this Lorca is the evil-Lorca is where the heck the prime-Lorca is? Maybe he will show up in the next season? Did I ask this in my last post too?

Prime-Stamets figured out in the previous episode that the Terrans are drawing so much energy from the mycelial network they are basically killing it. And with it also life in all the parallel universes everywhere, ever. Considering there are probably an infantasmal number of parallel universes out there, it's also safe to assume more than one other universe has noticed something is wrong and is trying to do something about it, but that's never adressed here. Otherwise it's great to know that one of all those universes can wipe out life all over from being incredibly stupid and no one would ever know, which I guess isn't impossible in the fantastical world of sci-fi writing.

Ok, which one of you guys wiped out life as we know it?

Either way, Lorca and his army make their way through the ship and manage to wipe out Philippa's crew. Her crew didn't seem particularly capable though, as just before Michael manages to escape the throne room although it is literally packed with guards all over.

Michael sends a message to Saru, explaining the truth behind Lorca, he and Stamets in turn explain the issue with the mycelial network dying. Saru rightly points out that it is odd that his threat-ganglia didn't react to Lorca's deviousness, but the matter is never answered and quickly glossed over. Instead they devise a completely crazy plan about destroying the core of the throne-ship, which apparently isn't a star but a big ball of spores (?) drawing energy from the network. Michael goes to Philippa, convinces her to bait Lorca into letting them into the throne room from where they can release the protection over the ball.

Then there is some back and forth about whether Discovery will get blown up in the process or not, use up all their spores in the process and so not be able to get back home or not... but in the end they manage to solve all those issues.

Sci-fi henchmen are not known for their battle prowess.

But before that happens, Michael and Philippa make it to the throne-room under the pretense that Michael is handing Philippa over to Lorca to join his forces. Lorca is easily convinced for some reason. And yet again a vastly outnumbered group (Michael and Philippa) manage to make an easy job out of reducing Lorca's much greater numbers to zero in what is admittedly probably the coolest fight scene in a Star Trek series to date.

Which isn't saying much because all we've got so far is the now infamous scene between Kirk and a Gorn, a couple of scenes with Klingons flailing their Bat'Leth and not much else... but this fight scene was actually pretty cool and enjoyable.

It all ends with Philippa killing Lorca. So now I really hope prime-Lorca turns up somewhere because I don't want that to be the end of Lorca! There is actually a great interview with Jason Isaacs on that matter over here.

Is this where prime-Lorca is hiding?

Then Discovery blows up the energy ball and beam Michael out of there. Michael grabs on to Philippa who gets beamed to Discovery as well, and isn't too happy about it. Discovery rides on the shock wave of the blast to use it to get back to their own universe and succeed!

Sort of. Turns out they've ended up nine months into the future, a future where the Klingons have won the war and wiped out the Federation. Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire. And that is where they leave us.

This felt like a season finale to me, but I am glad it isn't. Great episode either way.

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