RAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! I was so pumped and it was cut off right in the middle. Damn, this episode kept me on the edge all the way through and I didn't even realize the running time was over before the last scene cut to the promo. A natural
10, obviously. Now I'll try to cobble together some useful information from my notes, because it's mostly just a list of things I'm yelling 'LOVE IT' about. It's gonna be a long one.
Alright, first things first. The Enterprise. She's a damn beauty and I agree with Pike. She looks as good as I remember, and we even got lots of lingering establishing shots. The whole sequence from them arriving aboard through taking the turbolift and entering the bridge was an uninterrupted cornucopia of nerdgasm, from the handles and the glass panes in the turbolift to the breathtakingly gorgeous bridge. It looked even closer to the original from the other angle, the turbolift exit was in the right place and the captain's chair looked as it should too. I don't care to analyze anything about it, the atmosphere of the whole ship just screamed "TOS Enterprise" at me in a way the Kelvinprise never did. Absolutely stunning job from everyone involved.
Tilly's back, and she was absolutely wonderful. She was finally able to do the things she's good at again, be it being Burnham's friend or brainstorming with Stamets and Reno. I especially loved her gleeful reunion with Po where she got to play the big sister once more. The young queen worked really well with that vibe of youthful confidence of a teenager who knows how smart she is and feels she can succeed at everything, and I just loved every second of Georgiou getting a bit of her own medicine from her.
I was glad Spock immediately came to the conclusion that the red signals were Burnham's work, as I was momentarily afraid the writers would gloss over that bit. The whole realization that the Discovery has to go to the future was built up really well, and it was no surprise that the crew would decide to stay too. Their farewells to their families were beautiful, and even if no one we don't already know was named, it was still obvious who the recipients were, be it Stamets' sibling, Owosekuns's whole family or Detmer's best friend. I even saluted Pike at the end of his final address to the bridge crew; it just felt like the right thing to do. Sarek and Amanda's farewell to Burnham was also deeply touching and she finally seemed to be in touch with her emotions at death's doorstep. So her running back to Tyler and kissing him was actually understandable, even if they still don't really have any chemistry at all for me. And I'm not just saying this because I'm a Burnham/Tilly shipper (to the point where I was briefly disappointed that Tilly didn't kiss her when she said fake-goodbye. Well, that's what fan fiction is for anyway).
Granted, the moment Spock decided to stay too I knew it would lower the numbers of possible endings quite a bit; either the time jump will partly (only Burnham going through) or wholly fail, or Spock would leave before the end of the season. I remember seeing him in a shuttle in the promo for next week so we might already have an answer. I didn't have a problem with his decision to stay, as I would've found it out of character for him to turn his back and go to the Enterprise just because canon dictates so. Well, we only have to wait for next week to find out what happens.
Observations:
- The sphere's data merged with Discovery and immediately went into self-preservation mode... did we just witness Zora's birth?
- Poor Hugh really seemed like he didn't expect that conversation with Paul to go that way. I felt like his decision to transfer to the Enterprise was more like a Plan B in case Hugh didn't rekindle their relationship.
- I loved all the quips and one-liners. "Lieutenant Spock [long beat] there are no words" ... "I still dislike you." "The feeling's mutual." ... and of course "What mirror universe?" with that little wink to let Georgiou know he knew all along. If only Linus got a one-liner too.
- Just to randomly nitpick something: When Burnham said her goodbyes, the display behind her said "106 km" instead of "10^6 km" and it bugs me to no end. Choose a font with upper index support or use a circumflex, dammit.
