Star Trek: Discovery season 2, episode 3 “Point of Light” tells a familiar story of a strained relationship set against the Klingon Empire.

Clear eyes, full hair, lots of losing happening on Star Trek: Discovery season 2, episode 3. The Klingon’s make their first debut post-war and it looks like they can use a bit of a rallying cry. Meanwhile, we get closer to uncovering what unforgivable action drove a wedge between Burnham and Spock. Plus, eukaryotic organisms, graphic deaths, and enough capes to make your head spin.

“Point of Light” set up the signals as a source of frustration for the Klingons (they choose to believe it is an omen against L’Rell) but just as it tries to tie the Discovery mission to the politics of the Klingon home world, it just as easily severs any hope of keeping the Klingons in the story at all.

If you strip away the waring houses, the brutal display of betrayal, and the paint laced with advanced technology to spy on your enemies and the story of L’Rell and Ash Tyler could be told on any primetime show. Tyler is a misfit, a product of some experiment to preserve someone else. He
does not fit into the mold that L’Rell wants him to no matter how hard she tries. And the Klingon Empire will never see past his human form and accept the faint echoes of Voq buried deep within. And if he could, Tyler would crawl out of his skin just to feel accepted in his new reality.

On the surface he has everything going for him — a loving companion, a leadership position, a mission to bring about a new fleet of superior technology to better the Klingon’s presence in the universe. But he looks to the stars. There is a ship somewhere with a crew who welcomed him and made him feel safe when he was battling the worst of his newly discovered identity. But he chose this path, he walked behind L’Rell and leaned into the mission to rebuild the Klingon Empire.

But that dream, the noble mission, is not what he imagined. The daily beatdowns by the unsettled houses, the complete dismissal by Ujilli, L’Rell’s uncle all boil over when he and L’Rell are alone one evening. The Torchbearer title does not hold any meaning to him. Instead of filling him with pride and honor, he feels as if he is a totem from L’Rell’s past. Does she really love him and accept who he is? Affection is not in her physical, romantic actions. Tyler addresses her advances as “violation.” She does not speak to him in Klingon, but instead uses English in his presence. If he cannot be treated as an equal by the chancellor in the privacy of their quarters, how will he ever grow to feel accepted in their public appearances.

So, Tyler does what every antihero in this scenario would do, he reaches out to the greener side of life — he called Michael Burnham. Their phone call could be best described as awkward teenage angst. He masks his call as official business, hoping to escalate the message that the Klingon Empire is unstable to the proper Starfleet authorities. But he chooses Michael as his channel. Why? Because he trusts her and because she fits the human side of his existence.

Michael can also speak to the part of him that pushed him to make his initial decision to leave. After all, their two antihero stories run parallel in “Point of Light.” Michael pushed Spock away, in order to protect him from the Logic Extremists. But instead she irreparably damaged their relationship. Tyler chose to follow L’Rell and work through the trauma they both endured as a result of the actions she took to preserve Voq. Both of their decisions were misguided, but they are both choices that they made in good faith.

It appears it is in Tyler’s nature to follow what is right over digging deep to understand what he wants. When he discovers that L’Rell had a child with Voq and hid the baby away, Tyler commits himself to being a father and partner for the chancellor, no questions asked. He is a defender. But the right thing ends up being that L’Rell needs to get Tyler and the baby out of sight and out of minds of the Klingon houses.

And Philippa Georgiou is just the person to deliver this directive to L’Rell. So long as Tyler is at her side, the Klingon houses will never fully unite behind L’Rell. But is she gives up her child and her partner, and stands tall with with Tyler’s head in her hands, there is a chance for her to maintain and, with time, build her influence over the Empire. She can step into command with a title that holds more power and respect than chancellor, a title that only a woman can have — Mother.

This is where L’Rell’s story should go. It is the ultimate symbol of power for L’Rell not only as she steps up to steer her people into a new age, but for her to move forward from the death of Voq and what their relationship was for the moments when it did exist. Tyler shares with her some of Voq’s memories. They are real, but only as memories. New ones could be made with Tyler, but letting him go was the choice she needed to make.

Now, did Georgiou nudge (or possibly force) her hand here? Probably. But I think it was a a good choice for L’Rell. Unfortunately, I also believe it was a goodbye to the Klingon “Mother.” Georgiou succeeds in what I assume was her mission all along, getting Tyler aboard the Section 31 ship, recruiting him to join the sleek operation. I will miss his Klingon Torchbearer garb. Maybe Section 31 can loan him a cape.

Cutting back to Burnham’s storyline for this week, I was a bit disappointed in how long it is taking to drag out what Burnham did that was unforgivable in the eyes of Spock. It is clearly something that has plagued her for many years and something that both Sarek and Amanda were oblivious to for many more. There are four people now who claim to know and trust Spock most. But no one can seem to pinpoint where he may be headed or what is going on with his escape from Star Base 5.

Granted Burnham’s head is in a bit of fog. The arrival of Amanda opened a flood of memories and confessions that are taxing not only on Amanda, but on Amanda as well. It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that Amanda buried her love and affection for Spock. I hope that once we finally catch up with him it is revealed that Amanda was a loving parent who gave Spock at least somethings he needed to develop the human half of him. Sarek told Burnham already this season that he hoped her presence in his life would teach Spock empathy. He was not as closed off to the idea of Spock exploring his human side as Amanda makes it seem.

But as a mother, she too made a choice to give him what she thought was the life of a Vulcan. Mixing these two very different stories about motherhood into one episode provided a uniting feature for both the Discovery and Klingon storylines. Even if we take a step back from the Klingon Empire for the time being, it was a nice way to unite the plots after a season at war.

Next week’s preview appears to tap into the Saru/Burnham familial bond. I think that will set up a nice primer for Burnham to then move into addressing the issues of her her foster family’s past. So now that we are seemingly done with the Klingon home world, Section 31 will likely arrive to fulfill Pike’s ominous, yet vague mention of the people who would be hunting for Spock.

Stray Observations

Star Trek: Discovery season 2, episode 4, “An Obol for Charon,” airs Thursday, February 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access and on Friday, February 8 on Netflix worldwide.