We’ve
said
this
many
times
before,
and
will
no
doubt
say
it
a
least
a
few
times
before
as
it
nears
its
final
end
this
season:
Star
Trek:
Discovery
is
not
a
subtle
show.
It
never
has
been,
but
ever
since
it
really
found
its
confidence
and
understood
where
its
strengths
were,
it
has
never
shied
away
from
yelling
them
loudly
in
the
audience’s
faces.
Sometimes
this
works
in
Discovery’s
favor,
like
it
did
in
last
week’s
stunningly
tight
time-twisting
adventure—the
show
firing
on
all
cylinders
to
play
with
a
format
it
knows
it’s
really
good
at,
and
using
it
to
do
the
character
reflection
it’s
also
really
good
at.
Sometimes,
it
means
you
get
an
episode
like
this
week’s
“Mirrors,”
a
perfectly
perfunctory
episode
that
ties
together
three
different
stories—that
needed
to
be
told
at
this
point
in
the
season,
so
you
might
as
well
shove
them
all
into
the
blender
and
get
it
out
at
once—under
a
familiar
dramatic
message:
Discovery
loves
Love.
It
loves
romantic
love,
it
loves
the
love
between
friends,
it
loves
the
bonds
love
creates
to
help
people
change
and
grow.
You,
the
protagonist:
have
love!
You,
the
villains
of
the
arc:
have
love!
You,
the
background
support
crew:
have
some
love,
too!
Image: Paramount
You
know
what
else
this
season
of
Discovery
also
loves,
apparently?
Set
re-use.
After
the
premiere
gave
us
some
clever
re-dresses
of
Discovery
hallways
and
rooms
to
become
the
Romulan
science
ship
that
kickstarted
this
whole
race-for-progenitor-tech
off
in
the
first
place,
and
last
week
cleverly
used
the
time-hopping
conceit
to
dress
and
re-dress
Discovery
again
for
different
eras
of
the
show,
this
week
Michael
and
Book
take
themselves
on
an
inadvertent
crossover
with
Star
Trek:
Strange
New
Worlds,
but
not
like
Lower
Decks
did.
More
so
that
they’re
simply
just
on
the
Enterprise
sets
instead!
After
discovering
that
Moll
and
L’ak
are
hiding
out
with
the
next
clue
in
the
pocket
of
extradimensional
space—safeguarded
by
a
rapidly
opening
and
closing
wormhole
entrance—Michael
races
into
action
to
find
them,
leaving
Commander
Rayner
in
charge
back
on
Discovery
and
dragging
Book
along
with
her,
where
they
discover
that
the
duo,
and
the
clue
they
seek,
is
hiding
out
in
the
damaged,
abandoned
remnants
of
the
ISS
Enterprise:
the
Mirror
Universe
version
of
the
iconic
ship.
Alas, Discovery really doesn’t do much to interrogate its own history with Trek’s famous alt-reality; at this point in continuity, Discovery has previously told us, it’s now truly separated from the prime reality, having interdimensionally drifted to the point there’s not been crossover for centuries. Discovery also doesn’t even really explore what it means that the most iconic version of Starfleet’s flagship, twisted into its Terran Imperial form, is now just hanging around, not just as ancient 23rd century technology but filled with materials not of this reality. Sure, at the end of the episode it’s how everyone escaped the destabilizing extradimensional pocket, and Michael taps Owosekun and Detmer to go drag it back to Starfleet for preservation. But really, the ISS Enterprise is here for set dressing: it is the arena in which “Mirrors” dumps its boatload of backstory to fill us in on what’s driving Moll and L’ak.
Image: Paramount
That is, at least, the interesting thing about “Mirrors”—while it is unsurprising that it turns out Moll and L’ak’s story is about two people cast aside by their societies and former families who find strength and love in their connection, the show does at least give some interesting twists to it all. It turns out L’ak is in fact a member of the classic Trek species the Breen, and cast-out royalty at that, giving an interesting bite to the idea floated last week that it could be them who they ultimately sell the Progenitor tech to should they get their hands on it. It’s also necessary at this point in the season, half-way through, that, well, we actually get motivations for our villains beyond them just getting the thing our heroes want: L’ak has a Breen blood bounty on his head for betraying his people to be with Moll, and all they want is just the opportunity to be free and together and live a life that they define.
It’s interesting! It’s well done! It’s a nice twist for the villains to not just be antagonists for antagonism’s sake! But the show does have to get this all out by slamming the proverbial brakes on its adventure—which happened last week already, but happened last week to give us a really smart use of a classic Star Trek storytelling structure to tell a story that Discovery could only tell knowing it was coming into its final journey, to look back on how far it had changed. Here, the brakes are slammed on to dump a bunch of flashbacks to one specific Breen hangar while our characters hang out on the dimly lit Strange New Worlds backlot. And it’s what we get in the other threads of “Mirrors” too—as we see Michael and Book reflect on their own past together, while Book tries (and regularly fails) to connect with Moll over their shared connection to Booker the Fourth, and as, back on Discovery, we see Rayner try to bring together everything he’s learned about working with this crew to help pull its captain back out from the breach when things start going sideways.
Image: Paramount
Alone, these are all interesting and necessary kernels of ideas, but mushed together into one story to once again smash over our heads that Connection, Understanding, and Love For Each Other Are Good undermines those ideas a little, and renders them clunkily explored in their own ways. Moll and L’ak largely escape this unscathed as “Mirrors” gives most of itself to their backstory. But that in and of itself feels clunky because it means the thread with Michael and Book half-heartedly acknowledging each other just in case they die feels like an addendum rather than a satisfying point in their shared arc. It means back on Discovery, with barely any time to spare for Rayner’s first big command test without Burnham, we go from knowing absolutely nothing about his Kelleran culture to us and everyone on the ship knowing about five or six different allegedly important parts of its cultural tapestry that it turns out are fundamental to understanding Rayner as a person too. (Admittedly, this is also a Star Trek classic—Trek loves pointing at a single member of a species and tying their entire sociopolitical or theological systems to our understanding of their character.)
Ultimately, it just leaves “Mirrors” as a series of interesting parts that, as a whole, are simply fine. At the end of the day, everyone gets out the extradimensional pocket fine, Mol and L’ak get to half-heartedly escape, and the quest can continue. It’s just now we all know all these characters just want love in the end , and perhaps, most likely—because this is Discovery and it’s what it loves to do most—in the end, the vast majority of them will get it. Necessary stage setting perhaps for this season, but after such an incredible way to center those ideas in the legacy of the show last season, all this feels a bit more like a bump in Discovery’s road.
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