DISCO S1E10 "Despite Yourself" Review By AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequte:Good:Fantastic

Wow, what an about-face from the last two episodes! Finally, another Fantastic episode of Discovery! The crew is slowly figuring out where they are, with the help of a computer core salvaged from one of the many destroyed Klingon ships. They are definitely in a mirror universe. In fact, they must be in the same mirror universe that TOS and Enterprise intertwined with, because there are records of the Defiant having visited. Though I'm confused on this, because the timeline is wrong, and Saru states that the Defiant is a ship from their own time. Plus the name Defiant is also given to two different ships on DS9, so I'm not sure. Anyway, they determine that getting on board another ship and accessing its classified files will lead them to finding the same way home that the Defiant apparently rode in on.

Discovering the realities of their surroundings is key to blending in. This universe has the Terran Empire in charge, which is a xenophobic human organization. All other species are either apparently subordinate or rebels to the empire. Tilly is captain of the Discovery (which was foreshadowed by some Stamets ramblings in the previous episode), Lorca is an outlaw, and Burnham is the captain of the Shenzou that disappeared while trying to hunt him down. The crew sets about turning the ship into the I.S.S Discovery, down to the smallest detail, and the plan is for Burnham to take back the Shenzou with her captured fugitive Lorca and her security escort Tyler.

But while Tyler was retrieving the data core, he had another one of his freak out episodes. So he pays another visit to L'Rell, who clearly has a spell on him and is attempting to activate him by using a stage hypnotist's approach of a special phrase. He gets close to succumbing, but it doesn't quite work. She demands that he state his "other name," but he can't come up with it. Because of this he visits Dr. Culber and demands a complete checkup. He suspects that the Klingons have seriously altered him, and wants to know the truth before he leaves with Burnham and Lorca on the mission. Culber confirms his suspicions, basically finding that his bones have been crushed and their lengths altered, and every organ in his body has been involved in some sort of surgery. He believes that Tyler isn't really Tyler. There are two personalities occupying his altered body. And then Tyler snaps Culber's mother-lovin neck! I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. It was a truly shock moment that I physically reacted to. I was just getting to like that guy, too.


This episode is Fantastic and works in so many ways. For one, we finally get a definitive answer on Tyler. He is a Klingon operative, unbeknownst to himself. I'm running with the assumption that he's Voq, but who knows? Watching the crew take on their new roles, especially Tilly, was a blast. The scenes where Burnham is forced to be a brutal dictator type as she takes her ship back were intense and very well-acted. The element of danger once again exists, as Discovery is in total unknown territory and is unable to use the spore drive to jump away from harm. Also the crew really gels and comes together to pull this thing off. The show ends not so much with a cliffhanger, but a couple interesting scenes. Lorca is in an agonizer booth, and Burnham (having not yet gotten any Defiant information) is making out with Tyler. However, "Despite Yourself" is not perfect. For instance, I thought it was pretty funny that Lorca told Culber that he wasn't Stamets's doctor anymore, but there is absolutely no one else in sick bay, so....

Published February 6, 2018