Season 2 grew on me. At first I didn't think I'd like it as much as Season 1. "Brother" had me wondering about the new direction. "New Eden" was a great episode but looked like it would fit in a little
too well with Older Trek. Then "Point of Light" was the first episode of the season that felt definitively
Discovery to me. But it was also a throwback to Season 1, tying up its loose ends. So I still wasn't fully sold on the new season compared to the previous one.
"An Obol for Sharon" looked like it would step into the bizarre by finding out what was going on with Tilly and then ending up trapped in the Mycellial Network.
Section 31 came into the picture in "An Obol for Sharon" too. As far as I was concerned, Section 31 was where all the Cool Kids hung out. Past Tense because I eventually realized it was just Georgiou who's the Cool Kid. Leland, who looks like an awesome biker who'd be right at home on
Sons of Anarchy, turned out be be a pushover until Control gained control of him. Now he's like the Terminator. Control should've taken control of him sooner. Even Georgiou noticed. "Leland is authoritative, decisive, and badass all of a sudden. What's wrong here?"
Then we get into "Saints of Imperfection" where Burnham, Stamets, and Discovery herself have to rescue Tilly from the Mycellial Network and they find Culber along the way. That was when what was starting in "An Obol for Sharon"
really kicked into High Gear and turned Totally Wacky. That's the point where I was hooked into the season. I have no idea what the writers were smoking, but what turned up on screen looks great. You have to bow to the insanity of it. That may be an issue for some people, but I'm not so stuck-up about it. Wackiness is fun sometimes.
But it can't be super-wacky all the time. "Saints of Imperfection" was more grounded but also showed the conflict between the Kelpians, the Ba'ul, and changed the Kelpians for keeps by getting rid of their Threat Ganglia across the board. And nothing was cooler than seeing the Ba'ul come up on Discovery's screen. So, at this point, I was definitely hooked. It was a different tone than Season 1, but I was onboard.
Going back to "Brother" and "New Eden": in "Brother" when have the entire bridge crew introduce themselves -- something that was never done in Season 1 -- and in "New Eden", Owosuken was a main supporting character and they put her family's luddite background to use. Later on, we have the building subplot Airiam before she has an entire episode spotlighted on her in "Project Daedalus". In one of the early episodes of the season, we learn that Detmer's been flying since she was 12. We gradually see more interactions between the crew. Them eating, bantering. Stamets and Reno verbally sparring. Culber and Tyler having it out. Culber leaving Stamets cold after breaking off their relationship.
And on that note: we now have three gay people in the crew: Stamets, Culber, and Reno. Georgiou has a discussion about pansexuality... that Tilly awkwardly walks in on. Discussions we've actually had in my own social circles. I have a lot of LGBT friends. I have some friends who are outright pansexual. I see myself as somewhere in-between. And it's great to see those types of conversations being had on
Discovery. What we see might not seem like much, but it means something to me as a viewer. And the light, casual way they handled the exchange was perfect. It didn't feel like heavy-handed TNG Preaching.
Some things were tied up and addressed once and for all too. The Klingons are firmly under L'Rell, the D7s look like D7s, they have their hair again, and then there's Tenavik. He and the Klingons on Boreth are nothing like any Klingons we've ever seen before. And I mean that in a good way. I want to see more of
these types of Klingons. These are
Magic: The Gathering Klingons.
And Tyler is Tyler. It's not "Is it Ash or is it Voq?" He's not AshVoq anymore. I don't like that he was basically just Section 31's Stooge for a while but being neither Starfleet or Klingon, this seemed like a third option for him. Just a shitty third option. Who knows where this will go, but being an Operative living in the gray area seems like it would have more mileage than being a split-personality sleeper-agent Klingon whose original endgame would've been getting caught. It's a step up.
I didn't even get into Pike, Spock, the Enterprise, or the TOS stuff yet. On purpose. I wanted to talk about things that were specifically unique to
Discovery first. But for TOS elements: I feel like I know Pike a lot better than I did before and what he's like. They suitably updated the Enterprise for DSC and explained what the Enterprise was doing during The War. Talos IV was great. I like this version of Spock. And somehow, they managed to make Spock and Burnham as foster-siblings work. They fight, they argue, but they can also still get along and have a working chemistry.
Then there's Burnham. They did indeed in fact start showing us more of her real family and that'll likely come more into play when Burnham goes into The Future and moves away from Spock's Family. The crew who are going with Burnham, who they've started to develop, will probably also come to full fruition.
So Season 2 ended up being more than I thought the season would be... and started to show signs of what the
series could be. Season 1 was just the beginning. You don't get everything all at once and that's something the Instant Gratification culture we live in needs to learn. Be patient. Wait for things to take shape. I happened to also enjoy what I was watching
as it was taking shape.
I don't think
Discovery has "
Grown the Beard" but I do think it's "Grow
ing the Beard".
