Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 5x05 - "Mirrors"

[F. King Daniel]

Lots of technobabble. Lots and lots.

He takes Michael aside but doesn't bring up her wanting to go on this mission with her boyfriend? And not someone, you know, QUALIFIED FOR THESE MISSIONS??

Will we meet Mirror Pike?? Mirror Spock??? I want a Michael/Mirror Spock scene. She'd just speech him to death.

Hugh is sad again.

Lok is a Breen? Take that, novelverse. And the Breen don't wear Star Wars helmets anymore but legally distinct helmets.

Lok looks like a delicious Haribo when his skin does that.

Mol and Lok are soooo clingy. Yay toxic codependence!

They're gonna have to crash what's left of the Enterprise through the Wormhole now they've lost the shuttle, right?

They'll separate the saucer, won't they? It's what they do in situations like this.

Stabbing. Good thing they're in sickbay. That's literally the very best place to be stabbed in.

I love how these Breen talk English and take their masks off like DS9 didn't build up a mystique for literal years. All for Haribo people.

Okay so they're doing a tractor beam instead of separating the saucer.

Meanwhile, on board Discovery: Technobabble.

The ISS Enterprise was really just to use the SNW sets and nothing else at all.

Hugh is still weird about dying and coming back, they should have thing for that cos it happens so often in Trek.

The way Michael is infodumping about the ISS Enterprise crew's fates, I'm thinking it's gonna tie into the Section 31 movie somehow.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Lok is a Breen? Take that, novelverse.

Not necessarily.

Spoiler

The Breen are supposedly a 'confederacy' of four different humanoid species. L'ak could simply be one of those species.

 

[SJGardner]

Well, this has been a roller coaster, truly because the constant twists about the direction Moll seemed to be going kept giving me whiplash, even in the flashbacks, where at first she seemed like to be simply secuding L'ak for the perks of having a corrupt officer on her side, but then she seemed to be genuine in how much she opened up to him. For most of the episode, it seemed like Book will be given his reality check about their family connections giving him a way in, considering the mentor who raised him also abandoned Moll who lost her mother too shortly thereafter, leaving her with a lot of resentment that she can't just shrug off because this random guy who claims to have been the protégé of her absentee father asks her nicely. But then Book admitted to being a Kweijan survivor with Moll being his only family left, and the realization that they both know what it's like to be completely alone in the world finally broke something in her.

Needless to say, the extremely contrived way the episode still managed to upend this came completely out of left field for me. While I liked the base idea that they would toy with us by getting Moll and Book to finally connect, then setting up a tragedy to hurl her into villainy, the abrupt way L'ak stupidly fell on his own knife just in time for his lover to arrive and immediately assume Burnham stabbed him threw me straight out of the story for a moment. Discovery, up until this week, has largely been a series that managed to avoid the cliché of "misunderstanding and miscommunication leads to tragedy" drama setups, so this moment stood out for me in how forced it felt, especially after the sickbay force fields being raised in just the right way to force Book and Moll as well as Burnham and L'ak to stay together. Ultimately, the fact that L'ak was stated to be still alive at the end softened this a bit, but I don't suppose he'll be in a state to talk Moll down from doing anything rash and impulsive for a while. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the "outcome [Burnham] feared" that Zora talked about last week would end up as the possibility that L'ak dies and Moll attempts to destroy the Federation in revenge.

Her backstory about wanting to find the planet her father had talked about fell a bit flat, maybe because of how much venom she told the story to Book with. It made me feel like she was lying through her teeth to L'ak when she told him she needed the money to move there. But other than this, the resentment she felt for her father still managed to be compelling. But the one I've truly managed to sympathize by the end of this episode was L'ak, having fallen into an inescapable situation, no matter if it was a genuine forbidden love between the two or just Moll manipulating him.

Well, let's see the worldbuilding stuff then. We finally know what the Breen look like. AND, most importantly, the reveal of them being former humanoids who evolved into apparently gelatinous beings gives a whole lot of context to their alliance with the Dominion - while the Founders would still consider them inferior as they probably can't exist as an amorphous liquid and link with each other, they still share a similar perspective. The look of their refrigeration suits looked reasonably Breen in design, and the fact that they can speak normally, they just choose not to, not to mention their ability to survive in Earthlike environments without the suits is perfectly in line with what Weyoun alluded to about all of it being for reasons of secrecy, all but directly stated to be xenophobia towards "inferior" species.

And of course the ISS Enterprise itself. Even if it's the "evil twin", it still felt like coming home, with Michael seeing Book step to what used to be Spock's station being a particularly touching moment. I found it a bit weird however how, after referencing him, no mention was made of him having been the High Chancellor killed because of his reforms. Still, I appreciated the message of hope in the crew mutinying and Mirror Saru leading a bunch of refugees into our universe so that they could be safe and free. The other parts of the denouement were tied together in a nice, if a bit heavy handed way as well, Michael and Book's recap of how each clue seemed to be packed together with a message about respecting wildly different life, understanding cultural context, hope and grit giving everyone a second chance... Discovery seems to be set on the path of having its grand finale directly reiterate Star Trek's core message and values in a distilled form.

One technical nitpick though: photon torpedoes are already matter/anti-matter warheads. I didn't quite understand how replacing that payload with pure antimatter would enhance an ongoing matter/anti-matter reaction. Oh well, it isn't the first time Star Trek gave us incomprehensible technobabble that made no sense. No big deal.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

What happened to the third biosign that was in sickbay?

It was the fluid filled canister Burnham found, that is the clue to the next destination

 

[Kraig]

One technical nitpick though: photon torpedoes are already matter/anti-matter warheads. I didn't quite understand how replacing that payload with pure antimatter would enhance an ongoing matter/anti-matter reaction. Oh well, it isn't the first time Star Trek gave us incomprehensible technobabble that made no sense. No big deal.

My Guess is pure antimatter would increase the energy yield because it is using the matter of the nebula at the edge of the worm hole to convert directly to energy when they both make physical contact, instead of having to carry both matter and antimatter to cause an explosion in a near vacuum. My other guess for the reason for the hexagonal pattern is to equally disperse the energy around the worm hole aperture.

 

[Russell Oviatt]

The Breen lost their snout, and now we know what they look like under the helmet

I like it. Almost looks a little boba fettish. As much as I like the old breen costume this new one looks neat

 

[thribs]

Anyone in the UK notice that the episode is rated 18? I don’t see anything in that episode that should make it above a 12.
It’s like that random Farscape episode

 

[Charles Phipps]

Not necessarily.

Spoiler

The Breen are supposedly a 'confederacy' of four different humanoid species. L'ak could simply be one of those species.

Agreed.

 

[UssGlenn]

Then again, Burnham ALSO said evacuating wasn't really a Terran thing...so if anything that implies they'd have less methods to escape.

didn't they also say something about it being part of sickbay? Perhaps a way to evacuate the sick and injured?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

What happened to the third biosign that was in sickbay?

It was the fluid filled canister Burnham found, that is the clue to the next destination

They were scanning for quantum signatures from their own universe. 2 on the bridge and 3 in sick-bay including the relic.

 

[Macintosh]

Burnham is once again the poster child for unresolved conflicts of interest by taking her boyfriend and nobody else on an away mission in which the boyfriend already has a conflict of interest even without Burnham being there. The whole of Discovery is just... conflict of interest inception at this point.

And after literally decades of mystery the Breen turn out to be Gummi Bear humanoids who could speak English all along but just didn't want to. Fucking hell

And the ISS Enterprise is off to get a programmable matter floaty nacelle refit just in time to come riding to the rescue at the end of the season isn't it... Rayner will probably end up captain and that's going to be the 32nd century Enterprise that reappears regularly in the Starfleet Academy spinoff series.

The first couple of episodes of this season were really great, but then the next two felt like filler, and this one felt like... god I don't even know what. Gratuitous DIS S2 fanfic?

 

[jackoverfull]

Another strong instalment, even if it felt a bit like watering the juice. Nice to get some backstory on our fugitives and I like how’s reyner is integrating with the crew.

The ship being the mirror enterprise felt a bit throwaway but ok.

The love story seemed to come out really out of nowhere, with moll coming on strong from the beginning for no reason at all. Unfortunately this has been a consistent issue in discovery since the beginning.

so the breen have a part gaseous form inside those suit but can revert to solid if they want? I can work with that…

Between 7 and 8, I’ll go with 8.

 

[jackoverfull]

How did a ship that had been abandoned for 800 some years still have power?

good question. I guess that the scientists who put the clue there made sure it would last.

What happened to the third biosign that was in sickbay?

it was the vial. But agreed it was very confusing.

Where did the Warp Pod come from when earlier in the episode they stated that all the Enterprise's escape pods and small craft had been launched?

Been wondering that myself. It’s clearly identified as terrain.

As I understood it, they hollowed out a torpedo and used equipment from sickbay to build a makeshift life support system. Thing is, that thing didn’t look like a torpedo at all and was obviously big enough to carry the two of them…

Why couldn't the 31st century Discovery catch up to a 23rd century Terran Warp Pod who's warp trail they could follow?

maybe interference from the wormhole?

How the hell did a 23rd century Terran Warp Pod avoid the scanning capabilities of the entire 31st century Starfleet?

these two seem to know many tricks!

 

[Quantum21]

Not really. There's still a fraction of technobabble compared to avg episodes of the latter Berman era, and what's there is usually shorter and quicker.

Lots of technobabble. Lots and lots.

He takes Michael aside but doesn't bring up her wanting to go on this mission with her boyfriend? And not someone, you know, QUALIFIED FOR THESE MISSIONS??

Will we meet Mirror Pike?? Mirror Spock??? I want a Michael/Mirror Spock scene. She'd just speech him to death.

Hugh is sad again.

Lok is a Breen? Take that, novelverse. And the Breen don't wear Star Wars helmets anymore but legally distinct helmets.

Lok looks like a delicious Haribo when his skin does that.

Mol and Lok are soooo clingy. Yay toxic codependence!

They're gonna have to crash what's left of the Enterprise through the Wormhole now they've lost the shuttle, right?

They'll separate the saucer, won't they? It's what they do in situations like this.

Stabbing. Good thing they're in sickbay. That's literally the very best place to be stabbed in.

I love how these Breen talk English and take their masks off like DS9 didn't build up a mystique for literal years. All for Haribo people.

Okay so they're doing a tractor beam instead of separating the saucer.

Meanwhile, on board Discovery: Technobabble.

The ISS Enterprise was really just to use the SNW sets and nothing else at all.

Hugh is still weird about dying and coming back, they should have thing for that cos it happens so often in Trek.

The way Michael is infodumping about the ISS Enterprise crew's fates, I'm thinking it's gonna tie into the Section 31 movie somehow.

 

[The Wormhole]

Everything about the breen in DS9 was full of contradictions.

One of my favorite inconsistencies with the Breen comes from TNG Hero Worship. The kid who idolized Data said his ship was attacked by aliens wearing helmets and everyone else was all "well, that rules out the Breen." Then in DS9 the Breen are known for never removing their helmets.

 

[jackoverfull]

He takes Michael aside but doesn't bring up her wanting to go on this mission with her boyfriend? And not someone, you know, QUALIFIED FOR THESE MISSIONS??

But he is qualified: as Michael said, his connection with moll is important in trying to turn her around.

Will we meet Mirror Pike?? Mirror Spock??? I want a Michael/Mirror Spock scene. She'd just speech him to death.

I’d love to see Spock, especially after she assumed he’d be as ruthless as anyone else (did she forget about sarek?).

The ISS Enterprise was really just to use the SNW sets and nothing else at all.

In true Star Trek tradition!

The way Michael is infodumping about the ISS Enterprise crew's fates, I'm thinking it's gonna tie into the Section 31 movie somehow

I think we will see that cho (was that her name?) in the s31 movie. That was my feeling anyway.

I found it a bit weird however how, after referencing him, no mention was made of him having been the High Chancellor killed because of his reforms

I think they considered they may want to tell his story one day, so they implied this chancellor being him without flat out saying it.

who could speak English all along but just didn't want to.

like the hutt in Star Wars. Or the french in our universe.

 

[Tosk]

One of my favorite inconsistencies with the Breen comes from TNG Hero Worship. The kid who idolized Data said his ship was attacked by aliens wearing helmets and everyone else was all "well, that rules out the Breen." Then in DS9 the Breen are known for never removing their helmets.

That's not how the exchange goes.

Data "The Breen have outposts in this sector. The attack on the Vico is consistent with their battle tactics and their level of technology."

Picard "Thank you, Data. But what would the Breen be doing inside the Black Cluster? The boy described a boarding party with helmets and phaser rifles."

La Forge "Boarding party? I don't think that's likely, sir. [...] There was absolutely no evidence of anybody coming on board the Vico."

 

[Nerys Myk]

Michael definitely says "It's a Terran warp pod". I'd guess that being Terrans, they would have more ways to escape a ship than our universe.
View attachment 39435

Maybe it's not a escape vehicle then? Just a small transport craft.

 

[Mr Awe]

Well, that was entertaining but average. Giving it a 7.

The plusses. Great to see the ISS Enterprise again. Some decent character moments. A little bit of action and drama. But nothing really excelled to be honest. But passably entertaining.

On the downside. Ugh, some of Moll's dialog was awful. Not sure if it's the dialog itself or the actress. It was particularly bad during the flashbacks. Those didn't really work that well either. I'm a bit underwhelmed by the Breen. Not sure why we didn't see their faces earlier then. They can breathe normally and all.

Huge missed opportunity. Should've at least had a photo of Peck with a goatee. I mean seriously?! They didn't think of that?!

Cool they take the ISS Enterprise back to HQ. I've said this before and I'll say it again. The Tantulus Field comes into play. It's onboard the ship. More Mirror Enterprise to come!

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Maybe it's not a escape vehicle then? Just a small transport craft.

The only place we might find out would be the S31 movie. Strange that it was still on the ship when everything else was gone.