STEP TWO: Punch, high-kick, shoot, and stab everyone.

STEP THREE: Profit.

Oh, and also, a spaceship blew a roof off the place.

This episode was directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, who has a real flair for visceral science-fiction action.

(He previously worked on TNTsFalling Skies,which costarredDiscoverys Doug Jones as adifferentpoignantly endearing alien).

Wait, never mind: Michelle Yeoh killed a man with a sword.

In last years Chapter One,Discoverywas expensive-looking, sincere, ambitious, long-winded.

In this Mirror Phase, the show blew itself up.

(She nuked the entire site from orbit.

Its the only way to be sure.)

They even brought back the great Rekha Sharma, too-briefly playing the evil version of Security Chief Landry.

The war, and all your devious designs, mean nothing now, Saru told LRell.

Was there a wink to the audience there?

Did the Klingon Wareverreally matter?

Isnt it more fun when everyone wears gold body armor, and every elevator trip is a deathmatch?

Its possible that this was the plan all along.

The revelation that Captain Lorca was, literally, his own bad self suggests a clever act of deconstruction.

And yet, part of what I loved about this Mirror misadventure was how fullyDiscoveryembraced its own bad self.

You say deconstruction; I saydestruction.

Witty calamity burst free every few minutes.

In Sundays episode, Lorca perches Evil Stamets right above the burning supernova-ish core of the mycelial online grid.

I hate poetry, he saysand then a henchman blows Evil Stamets to red sparkly bits.

There were alotof red sparkly bits in this episode.

ButDiscoveryis pretty violent in general, snapped necks and exposed ribcages.

How can I put this?

If youre going to be the most violentStar Trekshow ever, you might as well be afunviolentStar Trekshow.

(Cut to Burnham, in Episode 1, astronaut-fighting with a Klingon.)

This instinct is in no way a betrayal of whatStar Trekcan be.

Sundays goofy-thrilling hand-to-hand fight scene is just one boulder-toss away from Kirk fighting the Gorn.

Is there some deeper meaning to glean from all this?

Reply Hazy; lets discuss after the finale.

Like:She is the Emperor of the Galaxy, commander of an economy that runs on ambitious assassination.

Surely she has planned for days like this?

But also: They saved Michelle Yeoh!

But at its best, the Mirror Phase sawDiscoveryreconfigure itself as a swagger-y space opera.