Star Trek: Discovery | Season 2 | Episode 3 : “Point of Light”
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KBear Recap [Read time: 5-7 min]
“They are an omen. Seven drops of paint ready to rain down on us.” Kol-Sha
Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is recording her personal log. She is talking about the seven signals and hoping to get in contact with her foster brother Spock. Burnham needs to understand what the seven signals are, “My failure to understand feels like a failure to reach him at a time when he might need me most.” Ensign Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) is running a half-marathon with other members in the Command Training Program. Her ghost May (Bahia Watson) is running beside her and annoying the hell out of her. Trying to get away from her causes Tilly to win the race and run her personal best. Tilly doesn’t feel triumphal. The bridge gets a yellow alert, bridge members, Lt. Cmdr. Airiam (Hannah Cheesman), Lt. Keyla Detmer (Emily Coutts), Lt. Gen Rhys (Patrick Kwok-Choon), Lt. Joann Owosekun (Oyin Oladejo) and Lt. R.A. Bryce (Ronnie Rowe) give different reports on the mysterious craft that is approaching Discovery. When they get the craft in view, Burnham identifies it as Sarek’s diplomatic Vulcan ship. The captain aboard the ship says one to beam aboard. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) believes Sarek is there because he reported Spock’s connection to the seven signals to Star Fleet command, and they reported to Sarek that Spock checked himself into a psychiatric hospital on Starbase 5. He feels like he betrayed Spock’s confidence, but Burnham assures him he was only following protocol. Pike sends her to greet Sarek. To Burnham’s surprise, the person who beams aboard the Discovery is her foster mother Amanda Grayson (Mira Kirshner). When they hug Amanda whispers to Burnham that Spock needs their help.
Ash Tyler (Shazad Latif) and Chancellor L’Rell (Mary Chieffo) are meeting with the Klingon counsel. Ash is showing them the prototype for a new Klingon fighter, the D7 class battle cruiser, the classic one used on the other Star Trek series. Kol-Sha (Kenneth Mitchell), the father of the miserable and deceased Kol [Also played by Kenneth Mitchell] gives them a hard time. He wonders if L’Rell will let Ash also command the Klingon fleet. Kol-Sha and others on the counsel don’t like Ash because he’s human and they don’t like the truce with the Federation. Kol-Sha even blames the seven signals on L’Rell, “They are an omen. Seven drops of paint ready to rain down on us.” He has war paint on his face, L’Rell orders him to take it off, and he refuses. As her Torchbearer, Ash jumps Kol-Sha to remove it, the paint gets on his hands.
Amanda went to Starbase 5 to see her son. No one would discuss his case with her or even let her see him. Burnham is incredulous, they would have to inform her of his condition or let her see him since she is his mother, and a diplomat’s wife. Since they wouldn’t tell her anything, Amanda took matters in her own hands and stole Spock’s medical file. It is encrypted so she wants Burnham to break into it.
Ash complains to L’Rell that no one accepts him because he looks human. She says they do. He even accuses L’Rell of treating him like Ash Tyler instead of Voq. She speaks English to him in private. L’Rell tenderly touches him and says, “If you are Voq then want me back.” Ash responds, “You touch me and that intimacy to me, Tyler, feels like violation.” They are in a quandary.
Amanda and Burnham meet with Captain Pike. Pike explains to Amanda he is afraid he can’t open the encrypted file, it would be against the rules. Burnham argues he can as a captain if it is an emergency. Pike: “Was she this bossy as a kid?” Amanda: “On Vulcan, we call it persistent and yes, she was. She learned that from me.” Since he won’t open it, Pike decides to contact the commander of Starbase 5 to get some answers. He contacts Captain Diego Vela (Xavier Sotelo). Vela tells him that Spock killed three doctors and escaped. Pike is shocked and asks why this is being kept so hush-hush, shouldn’t there be a general alert so all starships can be on the lookout for him. Vela says it is complicated and they have a special unit looking for him. Amanda vouches that her son is too gentle a soul to have done that. Burnham agrees with her mother. Pike tells them that makes three. He orders Burnham to break into the encrypted file.
“I was not a real mother…I wasn’t what he needed.” Amanda Grayson
Burnham and Amanda watch a Star Fleet psychiatrist’s (Pay Chen) report on Spock, “His disassociation appears to be acutely emotional…suggest extreme empathy deficit.” Amanda is distraught, she has to consider the possibility that he did kill the doctors. Burnham goes over the reasons it could have happened. Amanda regrets the way Spock was raised. Sarek wanted him raised Vulcan, so to accommodate that, Amanda hid her emotions from Spock. Amanda: “I was not a real mother…I wasn’t what he needed.” Burnham: “You gave us love every second.” Amanda: “It was different with you Michael. I gave you all my joy and my affection that I was not permitted to give to him.” As they hug, the picture of the angels Spock drew for therapy show up. Amanda recognizes them, Spock drew them when he was a child. This surprises Burnham; Amanda tells her, “Your brother called it the Red Angel.” Burnham receives a call and excuses herself to answer it.
The call is from Ash, he appears as a hologram in her quarters. He gives her a report about the situation with the Klingons. If L’Rell falls, so does the truce with the Federation. Her enemies are trying to use him against her. L’Rell is standing up for him against them. Burnham can tell he admires her, he admits he does. She tells him about her Spock trouble. They engage in some small talk. Burnham: “I heard that post-war, the Klingons are growing their hair again.” Ash remarks how good it is to talk to her, and they look at each other longingly. He has to go.
Commander Saru (Doug Jones) is conducting a shadow exercise with the participants in the Command Training Program. They are to shadow members of the bridge crew, Tilly is to shadow Captain Pike. May is talking to her the entire time, trying to find the captain. When Tilly points to Pike, she doesn’t believe her. Tilly thinks she is talking about Lorca, but she describes a shorter, blond man. Tilly is acting strange and everyone notices. Pike says something to Tilly but Tilly screams at May. Saru calls her by her full name like a parent. Tilly is embarrassed and confused and quits the program.
Ash is alone, still trying to rub the paint off his hands. He sees someone lurking in the room, it is L’Rell’s uncle Ujilli (Damon Runyan). Ash is pissed off so he puts a knife to his throat and confronts him. Ujilli tells him he should ask L’Rell what is going on. He tells Ash he can’t keep this secret from him any longer and they enter a room with a Klingon crib. Ash walks up to it. In the crib is a tiny albino Klingon baby. Ujilli: “Behold, the son of L’Rell and Voq.”
L’Rell and Ash have a heated discussion about the baby. She got pregnant before Voq went through his transformation for the mission. She couldn’t be pregnant during the mission so the baby was gestated ex-utero. She hasn’t seen the baby yet nor given it a name. Ash is upset and she tells him he’s only had to deal with this the few minutes he’s known, she had to deal with it the whole time. He asks why she hadn’t told him about the baby. L’Rell: “I wanted you to be able to return to a human life without obligation. You will not be here forever Tyler.” He’s upset L’Rell thinks she knows what he wants. She brings up his conversation with Burnham, she knows he contacted her. Ash says it was just to inform Star Fleet about the situation here. L’Rell wonders why he had to contact Burnham of all people, couldn’t he contact someone else there. Ash tells her when he looked at the baby with its albino skin, it was like he was looking at Voq. It made him feel whole, he wants to raise the baby with L’Rell. She touches him and he doesn’t flinch. [They are making progress.]
“How can she not know what tears are? That’s impossible. Show me a teenage girl that’s never cried. You can’t. I know. I’m a xenoanthropologist.” Michael Burnham
Burnham and Amanda discuss the Red Angel. Amanda tells Burnham that when she ran away as a girl after the logic extremists tried to kill her, Spock came to Sarek and her and said the Red Angel told them where to find Michael. Sarek went to the location and he found young Michael there. She and Sarek just assumed Spock used logic to find Burnham, but he insisted it was the Red Angel. Amanda feels like Spock’s encounter with the Red Angel changed him and made him withdraw from everyone. Burnham speaks up, “My presence was a danger to the family. If the logic extremists couldn’t get to me, they would try to get to him. He was my little shadow, so I had to wound him deep enough to keep him away from me.” Amanda: “What did you do?” Burnham remains silent. “The fact that you’re not saying anything means you must have hurt him irreparably,” Amanda says, staring at her daughter, “Which is why the four of us can never get together, which is why you’re always too busy.” Burnham tells Amanda how she has reached out to him as adults, but he refuses to talk to her. Burnham: “I won’t give up on him. I will find him.” Amanda kisses her on the cheek and sternly says, “No. I will.” Amanda walks out with an angry and hurt expression on her face.
Ash and L’Rell go back to see the baby but find Uncle Ujilli hanging from a rafter. A hologram of Kol-Sha appears holding the baby. L’Rell demands her son back and tells him the counsel will not approve of his dishonorable act. He says the counsel will be fine with it when they find out Ash is a spy. The paint he had on his face that Ash tried to wipe off had listening devices in it. He heard the conversation between Ash and Burnham. He will give the baby back and let them flee if L’Rell hands over the chancellorship to him. They are to meet him later that evening.
Burnham is in her bed crying when Tilly walks in. She tells her Saru told her what happened earlier. Burnham asks Tilly to talk to her. Tilly breaks down and starts crying. May is in the background trying to keep Tilly quiet. May: “Your eyes are dripping.” Tilly: “Because I’m crying.” Tilly tells Burnham after the dark matter accident, she started seeing the ghost of a girl she knew briefly in middle school. That May was meek, and goofy once you knew her. Ghost May is insistent, Tilly feels like she is trying to groom her for something. Since May can’t keep Tilly quiet, she disappears. Burnham begins to work it out. She reasons that this creature can’t be the ghost of May or be a part of Tilly’s subconscious. Burnham: “How can she not know what tears are? That’s impossible. Show me a teenage girl that’s never cried. You can’t. I know. I’m a xenoanthropologist.” They both realize the dark matter discharge went for Tilly because of her being around the spores. Burnham tells Tilly that she doesn’t need sickbay, she needs Stamets.
L’Rell and Ash meet up with Kol-Sha and his men. Since it is a Klingon meeting, it ends up in a big fight. Ash and L’Rell hold their own against the superior numbers, but Kol-Sha doesn’t have any honor and uses a devise to paralyze them. He is going to have L’Rell sign over her chancellorship before he kills them. Kol-Sha plans on making L’Rell watch him kill Ash first. A mysterious figure enters the room and uses a device to kill all of Kol-Sha’s men and put him in a bubble. L’Rell cuts him open, killing him. The mysterious figure reveals herself to be Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh).
“Do not refer to me as Chancellor, for I deserve a fiercer tittle. From this point forth, you will call me MOTHER!” L’Rell
While L’Rell holds her baby, Georgiou looks on in disgust, she had a wet nurse take care of her kids. She wants to talk to L’Rell alone, so Ash leaves with the baby. Georgiou asks if L’Rell could kill Ash. She puts a blade to Georgiou’s neck. That gives Georgiou her answer. She tells L’Rell that Ash and the baby are liabilities for her. Georgiou only saved her to preserve L’Rell’s chancellorship for the Federation. L’Rell: “I will not choose between the chancellorship and my son and his father.” Georgiou: “I told you what I am here to protect. I am not giving you a choice.”
Tilly and Saru are in the lab with Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp). Saru wishes that Tilly had told him sooner about what was happening with her, but he will get her back in the Command Training Program. Tilly is worried about Captain Pike, but Saru assures her that Pike has a sense of humor and he’s fond of her. Stamets finishes his test and tells her what is going on. Stamets: “Just as I suspected, you are hosting a eukaryotic organism.” Tilly: “A fungus?” Stamets: “Obviously, multicellular since it has …opinions.” May is in the background offended being called a fungus. She also tells Tilly that Stamets is the captain and he controls the ship in the booth he uses for jumps. May tries to get Tilly not to trust Stamets and Saru and only trust her. Tilly ignores her and lets Stamets use a devise that sucks May out of her. May is a blob, they quickly put it in containment.
L’Rell addresses the Klingon counsel. She tells them that she and Voq had a child together. She found out that Ash was a traitor, he killed her and Voq’s child. Kol-Sha died rescuing her. She commends his house for coming to the aid of another Klingon house. L’Rell holds up Ash’s decapitated head. She tosses it in the lava stream. She holds up her baby’s severed head and tells the counsel this will be the only child she will ever bear. L’Rell: “Now…You are my children, as I raise this family to greatness. Do not refer to me as Chancellor, for I deserve a fiercer tittle. From this point forth, you will call me MOTHER!” The counsel roars in approval.
Ash and the baby are on a Section 31 ship. Section 31 faked their deaths and made the severed heads so L’Rell could retain power. The ship is orbiting Boreth, a planet that houses a monastery. L’Rell wanted the baby to be raised in the monastery where it will be safe. The baby will never know who his parents were. Ash is surprised the Emperor is a member of Section 31. Ash tells her he just wants to be somewhere where he fits in. Georgiou: “Control believes that misfits have merit, so we keep busy.” Tyler: “I’m surprised you call yourself a misfit, Emperor.” Georgiou: “The freaks are more fun.” Leland (Alan Van Sprang), the agent who recruited Georgiou joins her when Ash walks away. Leland: “Control values his skill set. We would like you to work on your recruitment speech.” Georgiou: “Don’t give me notes. He’s in.”
KBear Review [Read time: 1-3 minutes]
L’Rell with Ash Tyler by her side introduce plans for the D7 class battle cruiser as a symbol of Klingon strength and unity. The Klingon counsel is divided in their support for her. The opposition is led by Kol-Sha, the father of Kol, who was also against L’Rell and Voq. L’Rell and Ash aren’t as united as they need to be. Even though L’Rell has defended Ash to the counsel, Ash feels that she still sees him as Ash Tyler, human, not Voq, Klingon. Of course when she tries to get close to him, her touch feels like a violation to his human side. Ash contacts Burnham to let her know the situation on Qo’noS. It is still apparent that the two have feelings for each other. Ash finds out from L’Rell’s uncle that she and Voq had a child. Seeing the child connects Ash with Voq and L’Rell and he wants to raise the child with her. Kol-Sha has other plans, using the paint on his face [Which contained listening devices, don’t ask] that got on Ash’s hand when he tried to wipe it off, Kol-Sha heard Ash’s conversation with Burnham and he found out about their child. Kol-Sha killed L’Rell’s uncle and kidnapped her baby. He tells the two he will also tell the counsel that Ash is a spy. He’ll give back the baby and let them flea if L’Rell hands over the chancellorship to him. Ash and L’Rell realize Kol-Sha will kill them anyway, so they fight him and his men. Kol-Sha being a dishonorable man uses a devise to paralyze them. Before he can kill them, Emperor Philippa Georgiou rescues them. She didn’t do it out of the goodness of her heart, she did it as an agent of Section 31. They want L’Rell to stay in power to maintain the peace. Georgiou convinces her that Ash and the baby are liabilities to her staying in power. They fake Ash and the baby’s death, using fake decapitated heads to sell it. L’Rell’s new title will be Mother. The baby is sent to a monastery on the planet Boreth and Ash will join Section 31.
On board Discovery, Amanda arrives to get Burnham’s help. The staff on Starbase 5 wouldn’t let her see Spock or give her any information. She is forced to steal Spock’s encrypted Starfleet medical file. Captain Pike finds out that Spock broke out of the psychiatric hospital and killed three doctors. Starfleet is hiding this and hasn’t notified the rest of fleet. Neither Amanda, Burnham, nor Pike believe this so Pike orders Burnham to break the encryption. The Starfleet psychiatrist says in her report that Spock’s condition suggest extreme deficit, another way of saying he is psycho. Amanda worries it could be true with the way he was raised to be Vulcan, and she is afraid hiding her emotions damaged him. We find out that Spock had seen the Red Angel when he was a child, the Red Angel helped find young Michael when she ran away. Amanda thought seeing the Red Angel had changed him, and made him withdrawn. She finds out he changed because of Burnham. She did something awful to him to create a distance between them to protect him from the logic extremists who wanted to hurt her. Spock has never forgiven her. Amanda isn’t too pleased with her either. We still don’t know what she did to fracture her and Spock’s relationship.
Tilly is still being haunted by May. She causes Tilly to have a breakdown in front of Captain Pike and Saru during a training exercise. After finally coming clean to Burnham about what has been happening to her, Burnham figures out that May isn’t a ghost or Tilly’s subconscious. Stamets runs some tests and determines May is a eukaryotic organism. It was probably a fungus that was in the mirror universe that attached itself to her. He uses a device to suck May out of Tilly and contain May in her true blob form.
This reminded me of a Season 1 episode, primarily because of the Klingon storyline. Their storyline wasn’t as bad as it was last season, but I still don’t care about the Klingon’s in this series. It was good seeing Michelle Yeoh. You can tell she enjoys playing the naughty Emperor Philippa Georgiou. Her entrance was badass. The decapitated heads were a funny touch. The Klingon storyline is an overblown soap opera. I’m waiting for L’Rell’s evil twin to show up. It also felt like a backdoor pilot for Michelle Yeoh’s Section 31 spinoff. If she’s going to be wearing black leather uniforms, I’m all in. The rest of the episode was pretty good. Of the three episodes, this was my least favorite, but it wasn’t a bad episode. So far I’m encouraged how this season is going.
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