With “Terra Firma, Part 2,” the third season of Star Trek Discovery reached the end, for the time being, of Emperor Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius’ storyline.
And what an ending it is!
Arguably no “Mirror Universe” story since writer Jerome Bixby introduced it all the way back in “Mirror, Mirror” (1967) so powerfully uses the concept’s potential to illuminate, in a Halloween carnival funhouse reflection way, the ideas driving the enduring appeal of Star Trek.
Here are my five favorite moments from “Terra Firma, Part 2.” Did yours make my list? As always, you can give your take on Twitter, on Facebook, or in the comments after this article!
Star Trek Discovery takes us back through the looking glass
Yes, this episode’s inverted opening credits are nifty. They are analogous to how Star Trek: Enterprise replaced its usually inspiring and optimistic montage of humanity’s exploratory milestones with a “sizzle reel” of our worst, warlike moments instead for “In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II.”
But our opening approach to the ISS Discovery impresses even more. The upside-down camera moves bring us through the ship’s lower hull to its brig, where, in another reversal, captive interrogates captor. Mirror Michael Burnham demands to know why Georgiou is showing her mercy.
This intense opening sequence delivers several direct shout-outs to “Mirror, Mirror,” beyond the existence of the Mirror Universe itself.
We see an agonizer booth—apparently far more painful than the one in which Mirror Chekov suffered.
We see the Emperor possesses a Tantalus Field device, meaning the Terran Empire plundered that poor “unknown alien scientist”’s lab long before the Terran James Kirk seized command of the ISS Enterprise.
Even Georgiou and Mirror Burnham’s confrontation, set in and outside Burnham’s cell, harkens back to the way Spock surveyed with fascination the loud, raving doppelgangers of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura in the USS Enterprise’s brig.
“Terra Firma, Part 2” isn’t the first trip Star Trek Discovery takes to the Mirror Universe. But for all these reasons and more, it is the most artful.
Georgiou promises to bring all the fireflies to Mirror Burnham
Even across alternate dimensions, a parent’s love for a child can remain constant.
We’ve already heard Georgiou utter “the orison of every parent”—”Why can’t they just believe what I say? Why do they only learn from pain?”
Now we hear her express her hopes she and Mirror Burnham can “remake” themselves and create a brighter future for the Empire. “I’ve seen what this world can be,” says Georgiou, “and it is luminous.”
The fireflies she brings her daughter symbolize that light. They also reflect Georgiou’s commitment to Mirror Burnham.
I’m not arguing Georgiou’s a candidate for Mother of the Year!
But Michelle Yeoh makes this monologue an utterly convincing argument, far more than the script’s several assertions of the fact elsewhere, that her character’s time on “our” side of the mirror has fundamentally changed her for the better.
Georgiou offers Mirror Saru hope they will both survive
In the second season of Star Trek Discovery (“An Obol for Charon”), Saru became the first Kelpien in more than two millennia to survive the supposedly terminal madness of vahar’ai.
Now, Emperor Georgiou reveals the condition’s true nature to Saru’s Mirror Universe counterpart, giving him a precious glimpse of hope for what his own future could be like.
The always amazing Doug Jones makes magnificent choices playing his scene. The wonder in his widened eyes is visible even beneath those bright blue contacts. The tones of dawning awareness in his voice as he learns of Prime Saru are resounding.
In its way, this scene pays homage to Captain Kirk calling Mirror Spock to revolution at the end of “Mirror, Mirror.” But in this scene, Georgiou offers Mirror Saru a vision of a new future not only for himself but also for her: “This is my home, now and forever, and I will make it what it needs to be.”
The Guardian of Forever reveals himself on Christmas morning
OK, it’s not really Christmas, even if the snowy landscape of Dannus V looks fitting for the holiday.
But Georgiou’s reaction to her return to the Prime Universe after having failed to bring peace in the Terran one echoes, deliberately or not, Ebenezer Scrooge’s reaction on waking up after his ghostly visitors leave him: “What day is this?”
Certainly, learning Carl is none other than the Guardian of Forever—complete with Bartell La Rue’s booming voice when he wants it—feels like Christmas morning to long-time Star Trek fans! (I only wish I’d caught on Carl’s name is a tip of the hat to the late Carl Sagan.)
Like Scrooge’s spectral guides through Yuletides past, present, and yet-to-come, Carl the Guardian has enabled Georgiou to accomplish a time-consuming work in a very short time span. He has given her the chance to reshape her destiny—to literally “rewrite the headlines” of her life.
The Discovery crew offers toasts to a now absent friend
Michelle Yeoh and Sonequa Martin-Green deliver heartbreakingly beautiful performances as Georgiou and Burnham say their farewells. I don’t leave that moment off this list lightly.
But as a long-time Star Trek fan, I was even more delighted by the choice to end this episode with a “wake” for Georgiou.
It made me think of Admiral Kirk and his crew toasting their “absent friend” Spock in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It brought to mind Captain Picard and his crew doing the same after Data’s self-sacrifice in Star Trek: Nemesis.
And it offers several Star Trek Discovery cast members chances to shine.
Burnham is absolutely right. Emperor Georgiou was “the most unexpected of gifts.”
I wasn’t thrilled with the series’ choice to turn the noble, nearly ideal Starfleet captain I’d seen in the Star Trek Discovery pilot episode into a murdering, morally ambiguous (at best), maladjusted refugee from the Mirror Universe. But the arc on which the series’ creative team sent Georgiou proved intensely satisfying.
It demonstrates how the highest ideals of Star Trek—the openness, honesty, and love we achieve in our best moments—can lead even someone like Emperor Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius to become the best possible version of herself, and inspire them to make their world the best it can be, as well.