mswyrr | star trek discovery, 2x04, "an obol for charon"

This and 2x02 are definitely my favorites of the season so far!

Like last week, a lot happened here. Unlike last week, I felt like there was a strong thematic core that held it all together beautifully: mortality and connection. The nature of mortality, and how we either continuously change and grow or we die and that growth itself is a kind of death/rebirth. The fact that it all matters because we can try to reach out across tremendous divides and sometimes, miraculously, find someone out there who is willing to reach back. To be with us in our fear and pain, to try to understand what we’re saying.

There’s a journey from “Welcome to the tower of Babel” (people divided from each other, each locked in their own language, their own pov) to “You understand me” on several levels: between the sphere being and the Discovery crew, between Stamets et al and May/the spore being, between Saru and Michael. The divides yawn between us; sometimes we cannot hear each other at all. Sometimes we’re very afraid and fear can lead to aggression. Or we cause harm without meaning to (Michael with Spock, Stamets with the spore species, the sphere with Discovery). And even when we can hear, it often hurts to be with someone in the reality of their pain.

Saru says they have to let their “shields” down - let their guard down - let understanding of the being in. Pike sees no reason to do this. It’s too much of a risk. Michael says: I trust Saru’s feelings implicitly.

Specifically his feelings.

There is no wholly rational justification for reaching out, taking the risk. Especially after you’ve been hurt. You have to choose, trust your feelings, take a leap. And hope that at the other side of that leap there’s something beautiful waiting for you. And that even if there isn’t, you weren’t wrong to try.

So, in the end, Michael knows that she has to reach out to Spock. No matter what. The spaces between us can yawn so vast and cold. But the chance to connect is worth all of it.

I was on the fence about whether the Baul were evil dudes or if there was something more complicated going on there… tonight shifted things pretty strongly into Evil territory. I’m REALLY happy we’ll be getting more now that Saru is F E A R L E S S - what does that mean exactly? What will his first moves be to break the rules and help his people? SO EXCITE. “The Brightest Star” Short Trek was a lovely story and developing the Kelpians further is everything I was hoping to come out of that. I think our chance to see Siranna again has really gone up and /flail/ I’m so happy about that. Particularly since Saru and his sibling’s relationship might end up paralleling or reinforcing somehow what their goal is with Michael and Spock!

As I mentioned in my theme post, I really liked how Michael’s perspective changed: this episode was necessary for her to figure out what precisely she wants out of seeking Spock. And now she knows! Hearing her be able to tell Saru “I love you” was just beautiful. It was nice how their sibling-like love for each other was so key to her broader understanding of wanting to reach out to Spock. It’s really cool to have Michael’s journey at the heart but balanced in such a way where all the storylines and journeys of other characters feel connected into a bigger whole.

Poor Stamets… and poor spore people. May is kind of a total dick, but they’re a lifeform that’s been accidentally ravaged. Discovery has been killing unknown numbers of sentient lives/destroying their homes every time they jump. I guess Hugh is probably living among them somehow perhaps? And maybe he’ll be found as they seek to fix the damage they’ve done… I think something like that is coming. LOL @ Stamets’ self-righteous rant at Jett about how eco friendly spore drive tech is. Not quite!

I hope we get more about Tilly’s recovery and where her story goes after this illness/invasion. Excellent work with her so far! Whatever they had to pay to license the use of “Space Oddity” was ABSOLUTELY worth it. Heartbreaking and lovely. And that ending!! EEEEK.e.

On my second viewing, it really stands out how they explicitly have Tilly reference the theme of connection by using that very word: May tried to connect with me but I couldn’t be there for her. [ETA: exact quote “She wanted to connect to me, and she tried so hard. But I don’t really think I was the friend to her that she needed.”] IMO if we’re getting the brother+sister bond explored through Saru (as a sibling like figure to Michael and in his relationship with Siranna) then Tilly + May is about teasing out the failure side of connection: the connections we push away for whatever reason. And what happens when the person is gone, so you can’t ever repair that damage?

It’s like a triangle where the top point is Michael and Tilly and Saru are the “legs,” each getting components of Michael’s story explored in different ways. A less fraught brother+sister bond for Michael to connect with through Saru and Tilly exploring the ultimate failure state of not connecting with someone… the state that Michael will be fortunate enough to avoid. But it *might* have happened to her: Spock might have died during their decade of avoidance.

Pushing someone away can be forever. A full treatment of the themes of connection and mortality kind of requires that angle be explored, since that is one way they can intersect.

There’s also the possibility that they’re going to raise the question of how much May is truly gone using the quasi-mystical spore realm… it depends on how they intend to work out Hugh’s return and questions of what lingers from people who are gone.

I think DSC knows what it *is* now - a very protagonist focused story that nonetheless can paint on a larger canvas without losing that sense of focus. The main themes center on Michael and her journey. But they are big enough that other characters can fit within that, explore them from another angle.

They’re really hovering around mortality and connection. The limits of our knowledge and our existence as mortal beings and the leaps of faith we must make within that. To connect and live. Primarily the focus is on family as a connection, but that is malleable enough that we can see multiple kinds of family. And even the legacy of a 100k year old sphere being leaving the Discovery crew its last will and testament.

They’re kind of like family now, because they let their shields down and extended trust and were willing to listen to all the things it has known. There’s definitely a parallel there: Saru who wants to leave Michael, who he thinks of like a sister, his legacy of information, and the sphere wanting them to share in its long life.

Definitely there’s a connection, even if it cannot fit the family framework. The sphere being cannot be truly gone because everything that it could share it passed on to the people of the Federation. (In its own act of trust about how they’d use that.)

For a further example of what I mean about a bigger canvas while also being focused on Michael: in S1 Saru was pretty much only a sibling symbol in Michael’s story. There was the rivalry, the jealousy, and buried affection. There was a little bit about him wanting a leadership role, but not much. Now he still is in a sibling role to Michael; loving him as a brother in his darkest moment helps her face some of her fears and find clarity about what she wants in seeking Spock.

But Saru also has another sibling of his own and a journey with his species that can dovetail with the overall themes of Michael’s central journey but be a bit more fleshed out. Provide plot propulsion and a bigger universe/more species in the story. He has more dimensions in a way that will doubtlessly weave in to Michael’s dynamic with Spock - whether Saru + Siranna as siblings are intended to be a contrast or a reinforcement, I’m not sure. But it’s a great way to have more dimensions in a way that ends up speaking to the central issues of the protagonist’s journey rather than departing from them.

I feel like in the very best episodes of the season, which for me are 2x02 and 2x04, they get it juuuuuust right about a central core with enough spokes on the wheel that it feels like the secondary characters are getting their own stories of appropriate size.

I am very interested to see how the not!May stuff with Tilly ends up working out… I think that’s going to tie into the points about trust and connection. Inadvertently hurting people or being hurt and what we do with that in the end. Certainly the reason why the spore being chose May is that, in Tilly’s mind, that’s a connection she didn’t cultivate the way she feels she should have. So she’ll be resolving that, even though the real May is gone.

Major kudos to the writers on taking the heart of s1 and strengthening the whole around it! The limbs and such lol.