that one guy

That's the current narrative, but I don't think that will actually turn out to be true at all. We don't even know Lorca's real backstory yet. We only have his word for this. Maybe it's true. Maybe they're still alive. Maybe Lorca died too and this is "not the man I used to know." Maybe he's possessed. Maybe the ship is bringing an ancient evil back with it every time it travels through the Mushroom space. Maybe it's really going to Onion space. Is there a Garlic Dimension? I think that was the same phaser he keeps under his pillow. He did mean for her to be captured. I don't think he's Mirror Universe, only because it would be weird to have a character be a doppelganger when we've never met the original. There's no real point to that, just make him evil. Stamets, though - boy he's not the same character at all this episode, so if he hasn't been swapped out, he's possessed by an alien intelligence or something. But that's - not the same guy he was in eps 3-5.

I'm not sure whether the fantasy realm is "real," or whether it's the result of someone in the "real" world doing something strange. I, too, was somehow comfortable with the time travel body switching overacting storyline, and yet the Scissor Kingdom stretches my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. Somehow I managed to forget Michael Eklund was in this until he showed up, and I was like, "Bobo Del Rey? I thought that was a different show!" Not just the same actor, but the same hair and the straightjacket.

I guess I missed that piece of dialogue. A lot of Klingons must have been also engineered to look more 'human'. Maybe the Admiral will come back as a genetically engineered Klingon. I don't believe she did say that explicitly. It was implied. She said she came from a long line of spies, and languages are useful. She didn't state that she, or any of those spies, were genetically engineered to look human. They totally were, though. But it was just implied, not stated.

And I love him for it. He does secretly evil so well! Re-watching. He's not secretly evil. "Technically, we are not related." That's just straight up villainy.

Me, too, I liked having a point of view character who didn't know what was going on on the bridge. When she came up to speak to the Captain, for example, and didn't know he'd been captured. This made it easier to keep some of the show's mysteries mysterious. OTOH, it puts her in more scenes with Lorca, which may be important later if he gets increasingly shifty erratic. Which would only make him fit in better. Shifty characters: Lorca - PTSD makes him at least temporarily unfit for command Stamets - shot himself full of alien DNA, probably possessed by evil intelligence from another dimension. Tyler - if he's not a spy I'll eat my shirt L'Rell - obviously has her own agenda at odds with Kol, but maybe at odds with Voq too. Claimed to have been captain of a ship for 7 months, when she was really stranded on T'Kuvma's ship until 3 weeks ago. Comes right out and says "I'm from the shifty sneaky lying spying clan, wink wink, nudge nudge." Ripper - what were you really doing on the Glenn, huh? How did you really get there? For a harmless mushroom-eater, you sure kill a lot of people! Security Chief Tori Landry - Cylons aren't really dead if you kill 'em within range of a Resurrection Ship. Cadet Tilly - where does she hide all that hair? Clearly she has a scrunchie that's connected to the evil mushroom dimension. See Stamets above. Sarek- is played by James Frain, who is always, always, always secretly evil. Michael - never trusty Vulcans. Plus, I mean, mutineer. Saru - doesn't like Lorca, doesn't say so to his face, probably informing on him behind his back. Lt. Daft Punk - how can you even tell if it's the same person under there all the time? Could be a Klingon. The two obvious Borg drones on the bridge - 'nuff said. The replicator - you KNOW it's lying about the fat content of those burritos. And what about sodium, huh? Admiral Cornwall - worst excuse for a booty call ever. Dr. Wilson Cruz - You'd think he'd notice his boyfriend was possessed by an alien entity, wouldn't you? Harcourt Fenton Mudd - I don't know, something about that guy. I think he's on the up and up.

I was also afraid Lorca was going to sabotage the mission to get rid of the Admiral. Whether or not he knew it was a trap, his decision not to rescue her to further his own agenda was stone cold. I mean, technically he just asked command for orders, but based on how they reacted to his mission to rescue Sarek, he knew damn well what those orders would be. And the odd thing is, they're not "wrong," Admiral Cornwell herself would order him not to go after her, that's exactly the kind of cowboy shit that's convinced her he's unfit for command. And yet, he'll let her suffer torture rather than endanger his own career. The unhinged captain is maybe part of why nobody seems to remark much on how unhinged Stamets seems to be after modifying his DNA to make himself part of the drive system? No wonder the spore drive is never mentioned in "later" Star Trek shows, I'm pretty sure between the unstable, ill-understood technology and the unstable leadership, this thing ends in some sort of major disaster. Guess: the drive itself attracted Ripper. Connecting the ship to the mycelial network also connects . . . other things? . . . to the ship. Deadly, dangerous things.

Ever since I saw Rekha Sharma show up, I have suspected/assumed that someone would secretly be a Cylon Klingon, because every time any of the Cylon actors show up anywhere, I point at the screen and yell "s/he's really a Cylon" because I'm a dork like that. But then I was like, "nope, she's really a Klingon. That would be awesome." Star Trek accidentally set up this whole thing with "Trials and Tribble-ations." Before the DS9 team went back in time and visited "Trouble with Tribbles," the audience just assumed that Klingons always looked like aliens, and you didn't see that when watching TOS because it was a low budget 60's TV show that couldn't even afford uniforms that fit and recycled the Romulan war bird model as a Klingon bird of prey. I'm from before the CGI era, I don't need stuff to look the same, I just need it to look cool. I don't mind at all when a character is played by a different actor, as long as the actor is good, I don't need an on-screen explanation etc. I see live theater all the time, stuff doesn't look "real," and it doesn't matter. But "Trials" had the DS9 characters see and interact with TOS Klingons, and ask what's up with that, and Worf says "We don't like to talk about it." Which was obviously intended as a throwaway line and a joke, but now the can of worms is open. So, now we have the prequel series, and the Klingons look like aliens and we don't see any who look human. Some "fans" are yelling about this on the Internet saying this is a mistake. I don't get where they're coming from, at all. Obviously it's a plot point, not a mistake. There are Klingons who look like humans, we don't see them and Starfleet doesn't appear to know this. Obviously SOMEONE is going to secretly be a Klingon. How could you put together a prequel series and not use that? You could not. I mean I guess you could, but you'd be very bad at your job. It is totally obvious that the changing appearance of Klingons will be a plot point, and that until Starfleet is aware of what's up, the human-looking Klingons will be spies. Going all the way back to "Trouble with Tribbles," there was a human character who ended up being a Klingon in disguise. And Kirk was not surprised at all, because they'd done this sort of thing before. Yet in Discovery, they aren't conducting a witch hunt for Klingon spies yet. So that will inevitably be a plot development. The only question is how and when. There is absolutely zero chance, nada, zip, none, no chance at all, that the show will not feature a human-looking Klingon in disguise spying on Starfleet. That will 100% certainly happen. It's not a question. The origin of the whole Klingon story in Star Trek is cold war paranoia. This is how it works, this is how you write stories, this is how you make TV shows. There is going to be a spy, it's a Chekhov's gun kind of thing. The only question is, "is it Ash Tyler?" I don't know that for certain. But Javid Iqbal doesn't seem to exist. Iqbal is Shazad Latif's birth surname, "Latif" is a stage name. Iqbal means "luck" or "good fortune" in Farsi. Javed means "eternal." "Eternal Luck" can kinda be paraphrased as "Live long and prosper." Which, if it's really a fake-out, is pretty funny. So I'd be willing to bet a shiny nickel it's him. Plus, I mean, the whole prison ship thing is obviously a set-up. Nobody's been on that ship for seven months. We just saw L'Rell last episode, she has been trapped with Voq on the sarcophagus ship for six months, but last episode she had a plan to escape back to her people - the shifty spy clan no less. Now, a few weeks later, she's captain of a prison ship? And Ash says he's been on board for seven months? It's obviously a lie. Which means the whole Prison Ship thing is staged, it was just thrown together to run an op on Lorca. They knew what Discovery can do, they knew there would be a rescue attempt. And they let him get away, to send a spy to infiltrate the ship. My theory? Since a rival clan has now stolen the cloaking device, L'Rell's people want the blink spore drive to even the scales. And she just about told us last week. Her people are spies. There's a way Voq can win the war, but he has to give up "everything." He's stranded on a derelict ship to die! What else does he have to give up? What does he want most? "Remain Klingon." To give up everything means he doesn't get to remain Klingon, see? That's why that slogan exists on the show! Why would you be all "Remain Klingon" unless, you know, it was an open question and not a done deal. Somebody Klingon is not going to remain Klingon. Chekhov's Slogan. Most of all, Voq wants to not be assimilated into the broader universal culture being pushed by Starfleet. So he's going to have to assimilate into Starfleet. It's just the most interesting thing you could possibly force that character to do. So there you have it. Pure speculation? Absolutely. But they've left all these pieces around and this is how they go together. If they don't pick them up and use them, then narratively they've left these pieces lying around like a bunch of Legos to be stepped on.

It appears that Rhaegar was obsessed with the prince that was promised prophecy, and that it was all tied up in his head with the history of his family. He was sure the ptwp was going to be his son, whom he wanted to name after Aegon the Conqueror. He is also apparently the source of the "dragon has three heads" thing, and wanted to have three children, named after the three conquerors. So he had a son named Aegon, and a daugher named Rhaenys. But Elia was bedridden for the second pregnancy, and probably wouldn't have survived the third. Rhaegar clearly hoped for a second daughter, whom he'd have wanted to name Visenya, after Aegon's other sister-wife. Then he'd have a complete set. Collect them all! However, by the time Jon was born, Rhaegar was dead, Aerys was dead, Elia, Aegon, and Rhaenys were dead, and Lyanna had a boy. So she named him Aegon, probably in hopes that he would be able to fulfill the prophecy that Rhaegar had so fervently believed in. The two Aegons were never alive at the same time, and Rhaegar was probably sure the baby would be a girl. So Lyanna named him, but either named him in honor of what she believed Rhaegar's wishes would have been, or believed in the prophecy herself. Rhaegar would not have named Jon Aegon if the other Aegon had lived, in fact he'd almost certainly have named him Viserys, because he was going to be named Visenya when they assumed he was going to be a girl. As for the "how bad is the aunt/nephew incest" question, I guess it's moot if Daenerys really can't have children, but it's a problem, not so much for the thing itself, but because her family had a history of it. The Spanish Hapsburgs had a huge run of cousins marrying and uncles marrying nieces, it ended badly. The problem is, the multiple generation of relatives marrying each other increased the risk of a matched set of identical chromosomes. The over/under on the number of identical pairs of chromosomes Charles II had is 6. Out of 23. This is a question of probability, so it could be less but could be more. It's likely he had 2 different rare recessive genetic disorders simultaneously. Jon likely wouldn't have any because Lyanna Stark is totally different genetic stock (First Men, it seems like Catelyn Tully was the first Andal to marry into the Stark clan, they build a Sept just for her, implying before her it was the old gods of the First Men all the way back). But Rhaegar and Daenerys are likely to share more than the average number of chromosomes for a brother/sister pair, because their parents were also brother and sister. Somebody did an analysis of the Targaryen family tree (ladder) and concluded that they probably share 44% of their genetic material (again, probability, so maybe less but maybe more). That means, they each of 46 chromosomes, 20 of these in common. There may be a couple cases where 3 of the 4 they hold between them are the same, with the odd one out coming from Lyanna. In short, while I actually sort of ship them, I think they should adopt. But while the lack of genetic diversity may be linked to Targaryen madness, it would also explain Daenerys' immunity to fire, which is not shared by Jon or Viserys - it's a recessive gene, you need two of them to be fireproof. Jon got the dominant gene from Lyanna, Viserys likewise only got one gene, but it's located on one of the chromosomes that Dany has two of. I believe I thought too much about this, and will stop now.

Ooh, good catch! So much of the wardrobe and costuming on this show reflect where the characters are in their personal journeys - she's wearing a braid like a Dothraki man, and probably hasn't cut her hair since taking command of the horde, nor will she unless defeated in battle. Which reminds me - if I have a big disappointment with Season 7, it's that Sansa and Daenerys haven't met. They have such similar stories, and also have both worn a variety of elaborate braided hairstyles over the years. I always imagined we would see them bonding in a scene where they talked strategy while doing each others' hair. It's unlikely that would ever happen on screen because: 1. all the relationship and character establishing conversations are now being cut for time as the end nears, and 2. those are wigs. But you know that, in addition to trading stories about elaborate ways to execute people (dogs, fire, faceless assassins, crucifixion) they would spend some time talking hair care if they ever met.

And when they do, I judge them. I judge them as selfish. I judge them as irresponsible. I judge them as bad parents for bringing children into this world and not making a better commitment to them. I judge them for the damage they do to those children. I judge them for breaking the trust and faith that their spouse had in them. I judge them for taking the support, physical, economic, mental, and not living up to their part of the bargain. I judge them for not taking action to make sure their children are cared for once they do leave them. Oh, I totally agree. I've been on the receiving end. But this didn't actually start the war. Arys was Rickard Stark's liege lord, a relationship with mutual responsibilities, built on the principle of reciprocity. When his the Starks came to him and asked, "where is our sister/daughter, we haven't seen her in months, she was last seen with Rhaegar," the response he was duty-bound to give was the truth - "I have no idea what that boy is up to, haven't seen him in months, think he's in Dorne, but I will find out." The fact that he was in Dorne, and Lyanna was guarded by Arthur Dayne, a Dornish Kingsguard, implies that his Dornish wife actually knew what was going on. It's even possible the marriage was annulled because she refused to give him another child, and told him, "I can't go through that again, go find another woman to die in childbirth for her prince, it ain't me. I've got two kids to take care of already, and I can't risk dying on them just because you want to have another girl so you can name her after Aegon's other sister." Which is totally what he wanted. He would have been disappointed anyway!

It's not nice, but people behave like this all the time. Divorce sucks, particularly when you have kids and your spouse runs off with somebody s/he was cheating on you with. Typically, though, the grandparents don't respond by lighting people on fire. That's why he's called "the Mad King." Aerys II was an angry, evil, paranoid son of a bitch who was unfortunately King. His belief that everyone was conspiring against him became self-fulfilling prophecy. It's not Rhaegar's responsibility to manage, regulate or control the behavior of his abusive father who is also an absolute monarch. You can just as well blame Jaime for not stabbing the guy earlier, or Barristan for rescuing him when he was held hostage and Tywin seemed content to let his old friend the King rot or be killed. On another note, realizing this morning the historical precedent behind the summit. In 1936, one of his allies kidnapped Chiang Kai-Shek, to force a summit with the Communists, and the Chinese civil war was put on hold so that everybody could fight the Japanese invaders together. Revolutionary forces became the Fourth Army or whatever, for the duration of WWII. So the idea that Cersei would drop hostilities and join the fight was not actually crazy, or at least not in the real world. (That would have been an interesting story too - having Jaime kidnap Cersei to force a deal.) And she wouldn't have been crazy to accept, the PR would have been valuable. This "somebody will win in the North, and then we'll fight the winner" thing was her plan with Littlefinger, the Boltons and Stannis and results were . . . mixed I guess. "To hell with the North, let's build another wall at Moat Cailin," might make sense, if they had the resources to do so. Gotta pull back on something I said before. I said there was a history of difficult pregnancies/births when Targaryens tried to have kids with non-Valyrians. Actually Daenery's mother died in childbirth just like Jon's, didn't she? And she was Aerys' sister. So, the line of Targs was in danger of dying out just like the dragons did. It was either because of the inbreeding itself, or alternatively the polar opposite - the unions with the Martells and Blackwoods diluted the blood of the dragon. So Elia nearly died, Dany and Jon's moms did die, Dany (magically) miscarried. I'm not sure Mirri Maz Dur was telling the truth, but Dany's conclusion that she can't have children and the line of Targaryens is ending isn't actually totally out there. In her head this is magic, fate or karma, but "the genetic consequences of multigenerational inbreeding" can't be ruled out.

There was this Robert rebellion that the Targs were losing so he hid the fact to protect Lyanna & Jon's life So there's this history of difficult pregnancies when it comes to Targaryens trying to have children with non-Valyrians. This is why they mostly married their own or House Velaryon. Dany blames Mirri Maz Dur for her stillbirth and childlessness, but is that the truth? Rhaegar believed this three headed dragon prophecy, but only managed 2 kids with Elia, they were difficult births that almost killed her. He met Lyanna at the Tourney at Harrenhall, the Mad King though there was a plot against him, and ordered Rhaegar to find and kill the Mystery Knight. It turns out the Mystery Knight is just Lyanna Stark defending Howland Reed's honor. She's feisty, she's hot, she appears strong as a horse and tough as nails. Rhaegar doesn't kill her, and thinks she's a great candidate to bear his third child (it doesn't work out in the end, she'd not blood of the dragon and dies in childbirth). Rhaegar tells his dad the Mystery Knight disappeared, leaving his shield behind. Dad knows nothing of his relationship with Lyanna, that's why it's a secret. If he found out, he'd have her killed. He was trying to protect Lyanna (and Jon) from his own father. Aerys II never knew the truth. And also, Daenerys can probably have kids - but only with Jon. Or a Velaryon or Celtigar, or one of the surviving ethnic Valyrian masters of Volantis. Daario was either shooting blanks, or just didn't have any Valyrian ancestry.

There was that one time he strangled his girlfriend after finding her in bed with his dad.

I read a pretty smart military analysis of the use of dragons somewhere, don't know where it is right now. But essentially, they aren't nukes, they're close air support, like the A-10 Warthog. A dragon can be taken down by a scorpion (Meraxes in Dorne) or the rider can be killed, etc. The Army of the Dead can be fought with conventional forces, penned in by fortifications, lit on fire by wildfire, flaming arrows etc. The Walkers can be hit by arrows with dragonglass heads. These methods would be more effective alone than dragons alone. Combined with conventional forces, dragons would be really helpful, essentially as giant matches to set wights on fire with. But dragons without an army to support aren't really all that, unless they're attacking a stationary target. The Dornish were never defeated by dragons because they refused to mass their forces into a big convenient target. Think of trying to fight against the Dothraki with a dragon, rather than with them. They'd just scatter. The Valyrian Freehold did manage to keep the Dothraki out of central Essos before the Doom, but they had a lot of dragons, not just two or three. Aegon Targaryen used dragons to stunning effect, but always in support of his conventional forces. All of which is to say that, I'm pretty sure had Dany flown north to scout the Army of the Dead on dragonback, she would have found the Night King and she'd be dead now, and the Night King would be riding undead Drogon. Now if she'd taken 5,000 men on horseback, and also a dragon, that mission might have succeeded.