DISCO S2E3 "Point of Light" Review By AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

It's kind of weird that the first Good episode this season is also the first episode of Star Trek ever (to my knowledge) to so prominently feature a severed baby's head. That was disturbing. I have some other nits to pick with this otherwise fine episode, and I guess I'll just go ahead and get them out of the way here. So Klingons are back to having hair, huh? Don't get me wrong, I think it's better, but really? Can't make it more than one season without changing how the Klingons look? L'Rell is completely different. She has hair, her ridges have morphed, her face is rounder and softer, and her scar is barely noticeable. I was halfway through the episode before I was certain it was even her. Ok, moving on...

A lot happens in this episode, even though we're not visiting another distressed planet or anything. We get a little further along with the Spock story, as we find out that he actually is not in the looney bin, but has killed three doctors and escaped. The visiting Amanda doubts this claim. She has gone the extra step of stealing Spock's medical records, and Pike authorized snooping into them. No surprise, Spock is seeing the Red Angel too. Somehow this all relates to the falling out between him and Burnham, but we don't really get any details on that.



Next, Tilly is straight up losing it as her dead friend has become a constant part of her life. She tries to ignore her, but the apparition becomes increasingly demanding, and Tilly can no longer hide what's going on from the others. Once everyone is on the case, they determine that one of the mirror universe spores is growing inside of her and has become a life form. They suck it out with the chunk of meteor, in a scene that seems borrowed from Ghostbusters. The result is a quarantined blob of goo. They seem to give no thought to why the being was utilizing Tilly to communicate with Stamets. The being was insistent that Tilly pass on a message to him, but she refuses. I'm sure this message will come up again. I'm inclined to guess that the being wasn't nefarious, and they should have taken a second to listen.

Also, things are going to shit with the Klingons. Tyler's decision to serve as an aid to L'Rell is backfiring, as the Klingon's don't care for a human in such a tight relationship with their leader. I didn't really get why Tyler would want to hang out with his former captor, rapist, and sort of murderer anyway. Oh, by the way, L'Rell has a baby with Voq that she's somehow been hiding too. A rival Klingon leader learns of this, and kidnaps him in order to blackmail L'Rell into turning over the empire to him. This backfires, the rival is killed, and in order to regain the confidence of the many houses, L'Rell tells the Klingons that Tyler was a saboteur, who killed her baby, and the rival Klingon killed him to protect her. She presents Tyler's head, and the baby's head as proof. The empire is saved.

Except for our last plot in this episode. Actually Mirror Georgiou, working on behalf of the covert Star Fleet Section 31, is the one that saved L'Rell and Tyler and the baby. Baby Voq will be raised in a monastery, and Tyler will join the former Emperor in Section 31.

Got all that? It's a lot, and it's all done very well. Even though I tire of the intensity of the Klingons, I was glad to see something developing in this season aside from the seven lights mystery. The evil Geougiou should be an interesting character to have around, and I love the idea of following Section 31 to see what they're all about. Season two finally feels new and exciting! But please no more baby decapitations!

Published February 8, 2019