spacefungusparty | Discovery 1x14: The War Without, The War Within

Here is your episode discussion post for Discovery 1x14: “The War Without, The War Within.”

Please be aware that there will be spoilery comments on this entry. As always, I'll be back later this evening to join in the party once I've had a chance to watch the episode, and if the conversation hasn't gotten too far without me I will add some discussion starters or other remarks behind a cut.

Guys, what do I even say here? Straight away Georgiou ordered Saru to his knees and then announced that she and Burnham had dined on Kelpien entrails the night before (that happened wayyyy sooner than I thought it would), then there was a strike team with more Andorians and Tellarites, and then once they'd secured the bridge they beamed over Cornwell and Sarek, who promptly got a previously-on download by mind-melding with Saru. Sarek and Georgiou has a "who's the best parent" contest about Burnham, Cornwell hunted out L'Rell and had a nice catch-up session including L'Rell saying Klingons won't ever stop now that they've had a taste of Federation blood (tell that to 200 years of future on-again-off-again-ness, L'Rell...). Georgiou is even creepier when she's watching Kat and Sarek and just smiling. We seeded a moon with space fungus. Tilly is the friend who literally won't give up on you even if you've committed actual murder (at least so long as you weren't the one committing it), and, gah, what do I even say about Ash's face. Sarek gave actual decent parental advice for once (I thought, at least), but Burnham (very justifiably) can't handle looking at Ash anymore and oh my god, he's so sad. They're both so sad, and it hurts me. And then Stamets is so sad, and so angry, and that hurts me, too. Everybody is so sad!

And then we go down the rabbit hole of Georgiou didn't tell Burnham the whole thing about how to bring the Klingons down because she knew she wouldn't be able to handle it, but Sarek is okay with it (because apparently Surak didn't have anything bad to say about genocide, or the Vulcans have managed to lose the thing with his actual writings again after all the work that Archer and T'Pol and T'Pau did in bringing it back) and hey, while we're on the subject, Archer and the Enterprise NX-O1 got a great name-check as the last Federation crew to set foot on Qo'noS.

Because that's where we're going. We're going to beam into a cavern on Qo'noS and scan for military targets with drones and then, I don't know, I missed the exact plan but I'm pretty sure it involved turning the planet into a husk of dust or something. And how are we going to do this? Cornwell and Sarek have decided to say that Georgiou didn't actually die at the Battle of the Binary Stars, and put Emperor Georgiou in her identity and her place and oh my god you guys this is a TERRIBLE IDEA, but all it took was the sight of the back of her head and I was flailing with joy and horror. Captain Georgiou is back, except she's not because she's Emperor Georgiou and she is terrifying still, even when she's almost pulling off being Captain Georgiou.

Next week is going to drive me absolutely insane. And then the wait until season 2 will do me in for good.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

saturnofthemoon

Things that defy science: Georgiou went through a vicious battle, was transported to another universe without her personal stylist - yet her hair and makeup are flawless.

From:

kore

....clearly Emperor Pippa dommed someone into being her personal stylist within moments.