{"id":7823,"date":"2021-05-21T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7823"},"modified":"2021-05-02T10:47:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T17:47:27","slug":"mark-watches-discovery-s02e03-point-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2021\/05\/mark-watches-discovery-s02e03-point-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Discovery’: S02E03 – Point of Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third episode of the second season of Star Trek: Discovery<\/i>, Tilly deals with an impossibility; a surprise visitor brings upsetting news to Burnham and Pike; Tyler deals with a secret. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ash Tyler<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so much here to chew on, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! I wrote that I found the place where the Klingon arc ended last season to be a lot more interesting than what came before it. And now? Oh, this is so much better! I know a lot had to happen to set up this part of the arc, but this story of belonging and identity that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now attached to both L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell and Ash Tyler? OH MY GOD, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SUPER INTO IT. In the time since the season one finale, L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell had<\/i> built some sort of organization and alliance of all twenty-four houses, but that alliance was unsurprisingly precarious. I kind of expected that there would be Klingons committed to their own selfish desires for power. More so than that, though, I expected that Tyler would not have an easy time fitting in with this society, even if he knew the language and the customs. How could the Klingons ever get over his outward appearance?<\/p>\n

Which does transform Voq\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original struggle into something similar yet completely different. He faced stigma for being an albino Klingon, but Tyler faces an even worse stigma for being… a human Klingon? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have the terms to properly describe him, which is the whole point. His very existence is unprecedented. So, in that context, I understood why L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell kept her child a secret. First of all: Wow, Tyler already had a lot to deal with? The fact that L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell had a child with Voq before his transformation was already a huge thing, but I can see L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell being afraid that Tyler would be pushed away even further from her. I can see her being worried that her having a child while being one of the first female Klingons to lead them would be seen as a weakness, too. I CAN SEE A MILLION POSSIBLE REASONS FOR ALL OF THIS. I mean, she hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even bothered naming<\/i> her child for fear of attachment and fear of how it would upset her mission to unite all the houses.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean she made any of these decision lightly, of course, though Tyler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anguish over discovering this secret is valid, too! He is constantly torn between the world of the Klingons and the world of the Federation, and it certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make him feel better to find out that L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell had kept his child from him. That would be such an invalidating thing to experience! Still, that being said, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure if I necessarily bought how quickly Tyler decided to jump headfirst into being a father and<\/i> L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s partner? It was absolutely believable that he did not reciprocate L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affections for him because of what had happened to him. We saw that acted out in the first half of the episode, but then Tyler makes a change after holding his kid once? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely possible that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing some crucial emotional context because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any experience with children of my own. I will say, though, that I found it interesting that Voq\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memories\/personality were what reached through to Tyler and helped him change his mind. It would have been easier if the writers had established that Tyler no longer had access to anything Voq once knew or experienced, so this being more complicated is<\/i> more interesting.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how I felt about all that, I was OVER THE MOON at the first appearance of Section 31 on Discovery<\/i>, which also arrived with CAPTAIN GEORGIOU. Oh my god, she has her own ship? She works for the secretive nightmare part of Starfleet??? Because of COURSE she does! What other place could she possibly thrive in? The part that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t abide by any of Starfleet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s regulations!!! I feel like unleashing Georgiou on the world without any accountability is potentially a bad idea. Here, we see the ramifications of Tyler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contact with Burnham. The news of potential instability within the Klingons was passed to her so that she could ensure that L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell stayed in power. AND OH LORD, DID SHE EVER. Her solution\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto fake the death of Tyler and the child and let L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell craft a narrative of unity\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis absurdly effective, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also so feral??? Like what the fuck???? I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t surprised it work, given that the other Klingons responded so well to L\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparent dedication to the Empire. (I mean, she was<\/i> dedicated to her, but she managed to save the man she loves and her child in the process.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like introducing Section 31 has just given Discovery<\/i> another dose of chaos, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M READY.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spock<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a big fan of stories about complicity and accountability, so holy shit, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so excited to see how Spock\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story will further unfold? Yet I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even guess<\/i> as to how this all fits together. There is either a species or an individual who is behind what is now known as the Red Angel, the figure that visited Spock, Burnham, and the people of New Eden. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re obviously tied to the Red Bursts, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even BEGIN to piece this all together. Why Spock? Why at the moment when Burnham fled from her home on Vulcan, desperate to return to Earth? None of this feels like an accident or coincidental. Burnham might be hesitant to assign meaning where there is none, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to link all of this together.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, while this mystery is utterly compelling ever time it appears onscreen, I was glad that the writers didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the potential of having Amanda visit Burnham by herself. God, MIRA SORVINO RULES AS AMANDA. What she has to convey here is so complicated<\/i>. There is grief. Anger. Confusion. Desperation. By the time Burnham began to reveal her role in the events of years prior, Sorvino had already given a show-stopping portrayal. But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, my favorite scene in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Point of Light\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has to be where Amanda and Burnham try their best to be honest with their failures as a family. I could see both of them butting heads with Vulcan logic, all while the most intense emotions swam about in their hearts. While Burnham doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reveal what it is she did to deliberately hurt Spock all those years ago, it was obvious that the act was immensely, immensely fucked, so much so that she could only tell her mother that something happened. She can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even speak the full truth aloud. Amanda, on the other hand, is vulnerable as hell when she reveals how she believes she failed Spock: By withholding her human side to best raise him as a Vulcan. I think that confirms my theory that the scene where young Spock watches Amanda and Burnham bond while Amanda reads spurned jealousy in him. Burnham got something that Spock never had a chance to have: open affection from his mother.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So: how is the Red Angel connected to all of this??? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know!!!<\/p>\n

Tilly<\/b><\/p>\n

I ALSO DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW HOW THIS PLOT CONNECTS TO THE RED BURSTS AND THE DARK MATTER EITHER!!!! Holy shit, that tiny, tiny moment in the season one finale that I saw but otherwise let pass out of my mind was A KEY PLOT POINT. Tilly got infected by some sort of fungus from the Terran universe! Oh god, I really, really think my theory is right: May is not from the Prime Universe! It would explain why May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personality is so vastly different from the one that Tilly remembers. Of course, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible that age and time changed that, because I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I have the same personality as I did back in junior high. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m nowhere near as shy as I once was.) But this has got to be it. Why else would she think Stamets was the captain?<\/p>\n

OOOOH NEW THEORY: What if this has to do with what the other Stamets was doing to the mycelial network? Maybe??? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. We get cliffhanger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d in this episode once the fungal parasite thing is pulled out of Tilly\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gotta be connected to all of this!!!<\/p>\n

Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this is so fun to try and figure out. I said this in the video, but I love<\/i> mysteries like this, particularly in the speculative fiction realm. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel ready at all, and in this case, the storytelling around it is just so good!!!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Point of Light\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My third novel (and middle grade debut) THE INSIDERS has been announced! Check out the cover reveal and pre-order links here.<\/a>
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"