Discovery 2x3 "Point of Light"

rating: ***

the story: Amanda visits, Tilly's ghost is explained, and we revisit the Klingons.

review: "Point of Light" was an episode attempting boldly to accomplish three things at the same time (four, really, but we'll get back to that), and the whole was less than the sum of its parts for it. 

The lead story, ostensibly, was actually the first plot point I reference above, Amanda's visit.  Amanda, of course, is Spock's mom, Sarek's wife, and Burnham's adoptive mother, and we've seen her a number of times over the years, and a few times in Discovery itself, but this might be her biggest spotlight to date...The problem is that because she has so much to compete with, she ends up the loser of the bunch.  Like "Lethe" last season, the Sarek spotlight, we get to find out more of what it was like to be Spock and Burnham's parent, not only relation to them, but the effect on the parent.  But where Sarek got a strong focus and a definite resolution, Amanda has to settle for a serialized tale.  It's been my observation that while serialization can work wonders, the best storytelling always knows when parts of a story need to work on their own.  This one is going to need other episodes to justify it, not just because it's part of an overall mystery, but because Amanda herself doesn't get to complete her statement.

But the good news is we quickly get a kind of resolution for Tilly's arc this season, even if it clearly has further room to blossom.  In this instance, Discovery did a classic bit of Star Trek storytelling (some kind of alien intelligence was messing with our people) in a thoroughly Discovery manner.  This part works for all the reasons the Amanda part doesn't.

Revisiting the Klingons means Ash Tyler and L'Rell, last seen in the first season finale ending the war and uniting the houses.  But Klingons being Klingons, there's an attempt to sabotage L'Rell's position as chancellor (or, Mother, as she dubs herself at the end of the episode).  More importantly, it's a chance to revisit Tyler, and he's got a new samurai look and seems far more comfortable than he ever was last season, and that's good.  And spending more time with the Klingons also lets us see where Discovery's depiction of them melds with other versions, even if the seeing them with hair doesn't work for all of them. 

But that part of the episode also sees the return of Georgiou, who'll be getting her own series, so this episode also serves as a backdoor pilot.  I'm not as sold on Georgiou as a compelling character as I am Tyler, so it's good that he's apparently going to be joining her adventures. 

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Feels less like something casual fans will be wild about and more for Discovery faithful.
• series - After two episodes that were for casual fans, it feels about right to go in that direction.
• character - Lots of focused storytelling, obviously.
• essential - Lots of important stuff happening, too, in ways that feel more organic than Discovery can sometimes feel.

notable guest-stars:
Shazad Latif (Tyler)
Mia Kirshner (Amanda)
Michelle Yeoh (Georgiou)