DSC 2x12 “through the valley of shadows”
Apr. 4th, 2019 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mswyrrI've loved the show all along but it's incredibly satisfying to see them hit such a high note.
That came together so beautifully I am a little dizzy over it. Lemme see if I can break down the LOOOVE.
-Right, so Control tells us that it was created out of the Federation’s trauma over the Klingon War - they sought to have control by making Control, to prevent another war, a loss so terrible. To make things safe. Like Michael tried to make little Spock safe by breaking his heart. It’s an understandable reaction: loss is a terrible, terrible thing. But as Jett–who lost her wife in the Klingon War, and that is so important because of how it ties together the different responses to trauma and loss–tells Hugh: you can’t run from it. What the hell are you doing, running from it? This is what we have. This life, this loss, this death. You can’t take the parts you like and sanitize the rest. You can live or you can die, but you can’t live safe. Nobody is safe until they’re dead. Control is just following that traumatized logic to its natural conclusion: a world where nobody ever loses anyone again.
Because there’s no love, there’s no joy, no sapient life.
-Michael is the right person to fight Control because she, in the first half of the season, processed her own weakness in that area. She fought her way through, like Paul and Hugh are having to fight. Like Pike is having to fight. To say: this is who I am, this is what I love, this is the sorrow I am willing to bear for the beauty of that belief. For the joy I can have in my choices, the satisfaction of living my life on my own terms.
-Control saying “to prevent a war from even starting” - “with control it’s not an impossibility” is in direct opposition to the surrender Pike chooses - surrender to the price of living as he wishes to live, in the beliefs he has devoted himself to. When he tells himself “You are a Starfleet captain. You believe in
service, sacrifice, compassion… in love" it reminded me of reciting the Nicene Creed. In that sense of telling/speaking your belief to yourself.
-The writers clearly have some folks who know divorce/blended families imo. Ash and L’Rell were such a divorced couple trying to be decent but with all this damage between them and their love for their son, which causes as much conflict as it can give them common ground. Pike letting them know their boy grew up to be a good man–someone who has his own faith and principles and has fulfilled his part in the story of protecting life–was so kind and so heartbreaking.
-Michael and ASH. As part of this beautiful kaleidoscope of long-term relationships, broken and healed, as part of the idea that you never really stop loving someone, even as your life changes.
-SPOCK AND MICHAEL. They’re reconciled but that doesn’t mean they cannot be SPICY and SASSY and annoooyyyyed at each other LOL <333 He’s always gonna be her beloved, annoying little brother and she’s always gonna be his big sister who doesn’t want to listen to her little bro (but he’ll look out for her anyway as best he can!). The joy in their reunion (and the love of Amanda and Gabrielle) shows the very sweetness that everyone is fighting to protect.
Oh, it hurts like hell. Loving and living. It hurts like HELL. And sometimes, like, Hugh, we just need a freaking break. Time to heal. But it is so good. There is so much goodness there too.
-Gabrielle left and changed as a person, but her love didn’t leave Michael or Gabrielle’s heart. Tenavik has become a person L’Rell and Ash will never know, but he’s also the best of his parents. And the love in their hearts and in his hasn’t died, through time and change. We lose people but the miracle is in all the ways that we don’t when we might have.
Jett saying to Hugh: look at this chance you’ve got. What’s the matter with you??? You’ve got a chance. Grab it. Live your life. ;___;
Annnd then you combine all that with the worldbuilding–cool Klingon stuff, the fallout of the Federation lingering in a realistic sense through their Control mistake–and the beauty of the visuals and I just…. /hugs episode/ YEEESS.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-07 04:47 pm (UTC)Because there’s no love, there’s no joy, no sapient life.
YES. I love this SO much.
I'm just really impressed with this season thematically.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-07 09:01 pm (UTC)YES. I love this SO much.
I'm just really impressed with this season thematically.
Yes! They had a lot of big ideas in S1 that I saw and appreciated in concept, but in execution there was just too many to give enough space to all of them and they could have done better to focus in one one or two. This season they've found that groove of giving their big, deep themes enough space and it's wonderful! <3