This week we get a double-whammy Star Trek of a recap due to my America trip. A lot has happened as we wrap things up in the Mirror Universe, meet evil Lorca and see Saru kicking ass as acting-captain.

We return as Burnham and Lorca head towards to Emperor Georgiou and her flying palace ship. Lorca reminds Burnham that the emperor she is about to meet is not the same as her deceased Captain Georgiou.

Stamets starts responding to the spores but is stuck in a coma. We find him wandering around in the spore forest, only to be confronted by his Terran counterpart who has also been trapped within the mycelial network. Terran Stamets explains that there is a corruption within the network and they need to escape or else they’ll be devoured by it.

The tragic lovers

Within the mycelial network, Stamets catches Hugh walking past. He chases after him and finally finds him in their quarters. When asked “are you caught in the network too?” Hugh tells Stamets that he’s gone.

The scene is tragic as Hugh explains to Stamets that he died. Stamets recalls that he saw Tyler kill him and we get a heartbreaking flashback of him cradling Hugh’s dead body.

As Terran Stamets shouts through the door, prime Stamets asks for them to go back to the way things were. He and Hugh walk through living together as if nothing was out of place, and Stamets asks if Hugh knew how much he loved him.

But their peaceful time together can’t last as Hugh explains that Terran Stamets is the one who corrupted the mycelial network and that if he doesn’t fix it, life and all multiverses will die.

“The simplest way back is to just open your eyes” explains Hugh when Stamets asks how he can get back to the Discovery to save everyone.

Ganglia soup

Burnham meets Emperor Georgiou who looks super badass in the Terran uniforms. Lorca is handed over and taken once again to the agonisers. As a reward for her returning with Lorca, Georgiou asks Burnham to pick a Kelpian from a lineup.

Later, Burnham is taken to the Emperor’s rooms to have dinner. There she struggles to maintain her act, finding out that the dinner they are eating is made out of the Kelpian she had earlier picked. The dinner is probably one of the darkest things to have happened in Star Trek.

Over dinner, Georgiou informs Burnham that she knew she worked with Lorca. She demands why, before calling the guards and informing them that she’ll be executing Burnham herself.

In the Throne room, Burnham tries to explain to Georgiou that she didn’t betray her because she’s from a different universe. Georgiou then quickly dispatches her council using what can only be described as the fidget spinner of doom.

Goodbye T’Kuvma

Back on the Discovery Tyler is still going through a lot of pain as T’Kuvma’s personality breaks through. Saru tries to get their prisoner L’Rell to help save him, but she refuses, claiming that T’Kvuma gave up everything for his fight.

Without being able to treat Tyler, Saru beams him into the brig with L’Rell, and seeing him in agony in person makes her change her mind. She agrees to help save him. On the condition that she is the only one able to to do the procedure, they are taken to the medical bay.

There L’Rell seemingly takes away T’Kuvma’s presence from Tyler’s mind, and he stops speaking Klingon. She then gives the Klingon death cry to her memories of T’Kuvma. Whether Tyler is truly back to being fully human is not confirmed as he finishes the Klingon prayer in English.

Mirror Lorca

It’s official. The Lorca we know has always been the Mirror Lorca. When Georgiou explained that one of the only differences between the mirror humans and the prime humans is their sensitivity to light, there was that “Ooohhh shiiii” moment from us the audience.

Even throughout episode 12, there was doubt over whether or not Lorca could be the mirror version, as he refused to submit to the Terran guard. However, the reveal was everything and more. Not only do we have confirmation that he’s the Mirror Lorca, he’s also definitely evil, with the same race supremacy feelings as the rest of the Terran Empire.

Episode 13 sees him taking freeing and leading the prisoned rebels on the palace ship. He then stages a second coup, and Georgiou and Burnham have to team up to defeat him.

The emotional toll it takes on Burnham is obvious. Out of the two, one is a mirror version of the Captain she let die, the other is a Captain who has always been secretly evil and manipulated her and her crew into the Mirror Universe.

Warp bubble

To save the mycelial network, the crew on the Discovery decide to shoot into the palace ship’s energy source – that is the mini star thing that seems to be powering it. It’s in fact boosted by sucking energy from the mycelial network at a rate that doesn’t allow it to regenerate.

However, they don’t have enough firepower. Unless they use the entirety of their spore collection. If that works, they would get caught up in the blast and disintegrated. Finally, if they do manage to survive the blast, they have no spores left to make it home.

Acting-Captain Saru really steps up in the leadership game and directs the crew that he will not accept a “No-win” situation. Motivated by his badassery, the crew come up with a plan involving using the warp drive to create a protective barrier, and riding the spore waves from the blast to power their spore drive and get home.

They just need Burnham to drop the protective shields on the palace ship.

The final betrayal

On the Palace ship, Emperor Georgiou’s crew are being taken out by Lorca’s rebels. She is ambushed and finally retreats to her sanctuary. Burnham finds her there and promises to save her and defeat Lorca.

In reminiscence of her and Lorca’s plot, Burnham takes Georgiou to Lorca in the throne room. There they hail the Discovery and Burnham tells Saru that she’s exactly where she needs to be.

As a queue, Georgiou and Burnham then fight back against Lorca’s team and the ensuing fight scene is pretty darn great. They manage to defeat Lorca, but Burnham is unable to kill him. Georgiou stabs him and kicks him out of Star Trek’s version of the moon door.

However, the rebels are still in control of the ship and Georgiou says she’ll buy Burnham time. Discovery finally manages to get a lock on Burnham, but before she is teleported away, she takes Georgiou with her.

Disovery then shoots the palace ship, goes into warp, rides the spore waves and makes its way back home. Happy ending! Only they’re 9 months late and Klingons have taken over most of the galaxy…