Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 1x08 - "Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum"

I actually thought the bodies were..um.. being harvested for food.

 

I took that as him just fucking around with her to add to her humiliation. But, the stuff on the Klingon ship was all a bit unclear, more due to the poor editing. I gather from After Trek that the Admiral and L'ress were supposed to have some great dynamic, but it was edited out.

 

Because once she accepted being a member of his house and swearing fealty- he, as one of the Leaders of said House now legally has the right to execute her.

 

The way they were talking about how she “got away from her” I definitely understood as she had gotten off the ship.

But now you bring it up, it seems rather unclear, and they could have been talking about “the attempt”.

 

But if L'Rell was only staging the fight in the hallway once Kol showed up, and not intending to kill Cornwell, it seemed to me that she was using a little bit too much gusto. I know she had to try to make it look good, but she sure smashed Cornwell into that electrical panel awfully hard!

"Sorry, Admiral, I didn't mean to electrocute you there."

Still, though it was kind of left ambiguous, I think Cornwell may still be alive and that the plan she supposedly worked out with L'Rell is in motion. That last lingering shot of her lying on the floor seems to speak to her living status.

 

I think you're right. In the age of TV-MA Trek, they could have made it much more apparent that she's dead. Instead, she looks unconscious, without a burn mark on her. She'll be back.

 

I also took it as one of those “wahahah! I’m not just evil, I’m SUPER evil” kinda things.

The guy didn’t really strike me as big on legalese, or as someone who waits for a legal reason.

Belonging to a different house didn’t save any of L’Rells buddies down in the corpse storage, as they didn’t have the red markings on their face.

 

Remember that there is also the inverted universe. The one were space is white and the stars are black. The one were people age in reserve, you are born at old age and die as a baby. That was the episode that introduced use to Robert April, first captain of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). The last TAS episode.

If things are reversed, but the ages people in that universe are in the same places, than Tilly is the oldest in that universe and thus is the Captain, until she gets too old (and small) to command and should retire once she hits age 12. They might promote her to Admiral while she's a teenager after all her years of service.

Yeah, anyone would be confused after going their and back without context.

 

Personally I find the existence of spaceships way more realistic, than the thought of Tilly being a captain on it.

 

If Voq is in a suit made out of Tyler, then L'Rell needs her own human being to make a suit out of too.

 

As a feudal society, rights often depend on rank by defacto if not dejure. L'Rell is high enough to pledge the fealty of her whole house. In fact, that pledge may still be binding even after her execution (which could be a reason for the ceremony, Kol still wants dem ships)

If all of those corpses, prior to their corpsing, were commoners or low level nobility, Kol might just off them because he fears no reprisal even if their deaths were illegal. Meanwhile, someone might come looking to avenge L'Rell, so Kol plays by the book there.

Remember, Klingon honor (like in all honor societies) exists solely to justify nobles murdering each other over petty insults. Also to justify stealing each other's property after petty insults.

 

That's something that really left me unsatisfied with this episode. Beyer's plots have a lot of moving pieces in her books and very complicated stories, but they tend to add up in a very fulfilling way with great payoffs. Watching this episode really felt as if they had to cut out a lot of connective tissue from these scenes and the result was very confusing. I feel like there is a perfect 1.5 hour version of this episode on the cutting room floor that would have been much better received.

 

After the last two episodes, this one is a bit of a let down. I have somewhat liked the development of Burnham's character, but Burnham/Tyler feels entirely artificial and I lay the blame for that at the feet of the writers, not the actors.

They haven't quite figured out what sort of show they want this to be. Do they really want to push boundaries or play it safe? Pick one.

 

It was good and all, I think.

My only real comment is that I really, really love Jayne Brook as Admiral Cornwall and Mary Chieffo as L'Rell. Two great talents, with really nice chemistry together.

I really hope Cornwall isn't dead. I can't remember the last Starfleet admiral I liked.

 

Yeah that crossed my mind too. L'Rell wants to get on Discovery. I'm still hoping she needs to use the Admiral for more than a disguise.

 

pretty good. didn't take the Klingon ship long to arrive at the planet at the end mind...

 

It's been funny how insanely close by ships tend to be in this show.