SPOILER ALERT!! Please do not read this if you haven’t seen the episode “Vaulting Ambition” yet. There is such a wonderful surprise in it that will make you want to go back and watch all the episodes again!
From the beginning, it was clear there was something different about Gabriel Lorca. He’s no Kirk and he’s certainly no Picard. In fact, as I’ve mentioned several times on this very blog, he’s the most un-Starfleet-like captain we’ve ever seen on Star Trek. And now we know why. Because he’s not from Starfleet.
It was also clear that Lorca had some kind of an obsession with Michael Burnham. The writers of the show brilliantly played it as “Lorca needs Burnham because he thinks she’s the key to winning the war”. But that was just a ruse.
In fact, the only Starfleet-like thing to ever come out of Lorca’s mouth was when he manipulated Lt. Paul Stamets into continuing to use the spore drive, even after it was clear that the lieutenant’s health was at risk. Lorca played Stamets like a fiddle when he said that after they win the war, they could use the spore drive to explore the universe–and maybe even explore some of these parallel universes that he just happened to notice.
Turns out Lorca was just looking for a way home.
We’ve seen people from the mirror universe pose as their prime universe’s counterparts before. I seem to recall Deep Space Nine did that a couple of times. Even in the original “Mirror, Mirror” we briefly see the Kirk of the Terran Empire being put into the brig of the USS Enterprise. (Funny how the bright lights aboard the ship didn’t seem to bother him.) But this is definitely the first time in Star Trek history where we’ve been introduced to the mirror-version of a character before we’ve even met the prime version!
Which begs the question, what happened to Lorca prime? I have a feeling we’ll have an answer to that soon, but I think it’s safe to assume that the Lorca of the Terran Empire would have disposed of his doppelgänger as soon as he arrived in our universe. Otherwise, if that Lorca were discovered tied up in a closet somewhere, that would blow his cover. Besides, these Terrans are ruthless killers. Rest assured, the real Starfleet Captain Lorca is dead. Which means that Jason Isaacs might not return to the show next season.
Then again, I said the same thing about Shazad Latif’s character. After the less-than-surprising reveal that “Ash Tyler” is actually Voq the Torchbearer last week, it was nice to actually be surprised that another one of our regular characters isn’t who they claim to be. (Who’s next? Tilly? Will she turn out to be Lt. Barclay who got a sex change and traveled back in time?) But, after watching this week’s episode, it looks like the writers have decided to keep Shazad Latif around for a while. Even though L’Rell did the Klingon death howl when she supposedly erased whatever was left of Voq from Ash Tyler’s mind, I somehow doubt we’ve heard the last word from Voq. I think all she did was put the genie back in the bottle.
Also in this week’s unusually short episode, Paul Stamets works with himself to get out of the mycelial network. No doubt the mirror-Stamets is up to no good, but at least the good Stamets got to say goodbye to his dead lover, Hugh Culber. This scene also helps explain that lingering shot of Stamets in the mirror at the end of “Choose Your Pain”. All-in-all, it was a lovely, touching scene.
As for the disease that has destroyed the Discovery‘s fungal forest, I guess that helps explain why we’ve never seen a spore drive on any of the later Star Trek series. My guess is that the mycelial plane will be rendered inert by the end of the season. Which means that the data from the Defiant files is still their best bet for getting back to their universe. But they’ll have to get through the Tholians first!
Did Georgiou just feed Burnham a piece of Saru!?! Yeah, that happened.
But the best part of this week’s episode was the ret-conned explanation as to why it’s so dark in the mirror universe. Not just metaphorically, but literally! Burnham’s remark last week that “even the light is different” in this universe should have been a major hint that Lorca is native to the mirror universe. And even though, as I pointed out above, it does create more than a few inconsistencies about how these evil Terrans are able to walk around unnoticed in our universe, it does finally explain why nobody in the Terran Empire knows how to turn on the damn lights!
Next week’s episode is titled “What’s Past is Prologue”, which makes me think we may finally meet the prime Lorca of our universe, probably through the use of flashbacks and non-linear storytelling. The best case scenario would be to set the next episode aboard the USS Buran, just after the start of the war, and we’ll see if it was the “real” Lorca who destroyed his own vessel, or if it was the mirror Lorca who did the deed. After that, the crew of the USS Discovery will only have 2 episodes left to get back to their own universe before the season is over. And, although it’s probably too early to start making predictions for next season, I have a feeling that we may someday see a Captain Michael Burnham who doesn’t work for the Terran Empire.
The Trekaissance 