Norm!
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Well (spoilers for those that want to read my thoughts on it)
Spoiler!
Thank god that story arc is over, and hopefully ends the mirror universe story line for good.
I guess they tried to write a redemptive ending for Georgiou, but it just felt like so much padding, un necessary speeches, a lot of sneering, and basically to describe it as stuff. As we have what is literally the death allegory with redemption of her walking through the Portal minded by the GUARDIAN of FOREVER EVER EVER, I mean I didn't imagine that, it really happened. But I guess the avatar was St Peter, and the portal the gateway to heaven.
Burnham continued her horrendous overacting as EVIL, all Sneers and menacing glaring at the camera, I actually cheered when she got a sword rammed through her, until we had to live through 30 seconds of a dying scene that was only missing "I'mmmm ssoooo sssoooo cold, tell Booker that I love him".
I honestly think that the writers missed the actual point of the mirror universe, they were satisfied with just merely making it an inverse of the normal universe where everyone is diametrically opposite of their characters for no other reason but evil. Therefore we got a bunch of 2 dimensional characters walking around doing things just to be sadistic or evil. When you compare it to the Mirror Mirror universe where their conduct had a purpose, and even the DS-9 portrayal where they might have been sadistic but again, there was a purpose to the sadism.
Instead in this mirror universe we got a combination of Klingons at their worst and space pirates where the idea of their sadism and poor decisions wasn't based around anything logical. In Enterprise, their mirror universe episodes were excellent, the humans were brutal because of their determination to survive and protect their empire, and then you combine it with a brutal promotions through murder system and the desire to gain more personal power.
Instead of they took the mirror universe literally, trying to answer the question that if you look in the mirror what kind of person is the one looking back at you from the other side. The mirror universe instead as a world building exercise of complete opposites, should really be about the worst case scenario around how brutal humanity could be given the right situation.
I mean I guess part of the fun of it, is that nothing in the mirror universe matters except for the empty fun of watching Michael murder a few people, Detmer being stupid. Georgiou falling for the double blind betrayal, and Burnham eating two feet of cold steel. Its all in the end meaningless popcorn. However the problem is that its right in the middle of a series that has a progressing plot line.
The sad thing for me, is that if you look at Georgiou as a whole, she really does represent the ultimate wasted character that they desperately tried to fix as they pushed her out the door. She started as a person out of time and place with a different and brutal viewpoint of reality, the ultimate expression of the ends justify the means. Her ruthless and dismissive nature should have been a black heart in a crew of white. Instead as we progressed along she went from something interesting to a ineffectual, powerless, insult comic without a soundtrack, and the funeral scene where they called her a bad a$$ and tough and all those other things rang a bit hollow for me.
The interesting thing here, is that this thing really goes against Trek Lore in two ways, one major and one minor. They basically confirmed that no matter what you do, time cannot be changed. Michael Evil Michael still ended up dead, Lorca was not captured and the events of the first season were still likely to tick along. However on the Lore line, they did rewrite history. The rise of the Klingon, Romulan alliance was originally caused by the events of Mirror, Mirror with Spock reforming the empire and accidentally weakening it enough for those races to rise against their master. Instead we now have the events caused by Lorca and Michaels actions.
Meanwhile weirdly Booker took the Burnham role as super genius problem solver with what seems to be a nu-necessary victory lap at the end, with the "Look I was helpful" smugness. Saru got some praise from the Admiral. Snarky Engineering lady returned after months crawling around in the ship just I guess rebuilding it. We're going to get information from the ship in the bubble so they can continue to investigate the burn.
Overall, this arc seemed really uneccessary, and as a popcorn distraction, it wasn't done well, it was boring and nonsensical and was a way to get rid of a character that really hadn't done anything in a long time.
The Detmer Watch - I put this in here, because well, she deserves better in that role. This week she got lots to do, but came across as an idiot in the end. She fumbled the ambush, and in a move that we could see coming at the start of the execution of traitors, was betrayed by Michael (EVIL). But at least she got a few lines beyond aye sir. So that was good.
Captain Killy Just can't carry off evil executor torturer. She looks more like a smug child. But I guess we're supposed to see this as the mirror of second in command good Tilley or something like that.
Hopefully next week they get back onto solid ground with the burn storyline, though the last 3 episodes have seen what I think is a decline in writing, they can ramp things up on what should be an interesting story.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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