Discovery Season 2 Revisited
I continued with my occasional Discovery rewatch, so you're getting some s2 thoughts.
I still like the season a lot, but looking back on all four seasons, I think overall s2 is the weakest one, writing wise. This has nothing to do with the factor(s) listed by both the "s2 is the best" bunch and those who dropped out for it, to wit, Pike and Spock. (They are a plus for me, so I would say that, yes, but hear me out.) The reason why I think s2 isn't as good overall as the other three seasons is that it suffers from a combination of weakest attempt at a Big Bad (I don't think I'm being controversial here when saying that Control as both antagonist and villain (doesn't have to be the same thing, and isn't always on Discovery) really isn't up to snuff when compared with what the other seasons offer), some rehashing of s1 plots and characters that wasn't necessary (Ash Tyler & Michael), less than convincing solutions for several by themselves interesting subplots (Saru's discovery of the truth of the "culling" and the subsequent big change for all Kelpians, the Ash/Voq & Hugh Culber confrontation, and Culber's season long post resurrection PTSD and connected enstrangement from Paul Stamets suddenly wrapped up in the final episode).
Now all seasons try a combination of an overall season arc with individual episodic development - in s1 it's the Klingon War that frames the season (it starts in the pilot and ends in the finale), in s2 it's the mystery of the Red Angel which turns out to be a stable timeloop (mostly) created by our heroes themselves in order to save the galaxy from the big bad, in s3 it's the mystery of the Burn and the challenge of rebuilding the Federation, and in s4 it's the mystery of the DMZ and the 10c. Now I have no problem with the "stable timeloop" part of the s2 overall arc, but with the "Control" part of it. I very much suspect the writers worked backwards from knowing they'd have to create a situation where Michael and friends would have to leave the prequel era and travel 900 years into the future (i.e. an era completely uncovered by any ST incarnation so far) without a possibility of return. Which I'm totally behind - I think that was one of the best creative decisions the show ever made. I even can understand that they wanted to do one more variation of that ST stalwart from the TOS days, the evil AI, especially since it sets up a good contrast to Zora the positive AI in the later seasons (and Zora was foreshadowed in the webisode "Calypso", produced between seasons 1 and 2, so they definitely knew they would be going there). BUT it's really hard to buy into the whole "Control can't be allowed access to the Sphere data because it would achieve full sentience" justification when Control is shown to all intents and purposes as already sentient in the second half of the season. Plus as solely evil, Control isn't just very interesting as an opponent.
(All evil Big Bads have their uses - but one of the many reasons why I thought "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" were by far the most interesting incarnation of the Terminator franchise was that in addition to good old Skynet we got not just Cameron but the AI posing as Catherine Weaver and John Henry, who was opposed to Cameron weren't reprogrammed but developed sentience without wanting to destroy humanity on their own.)
Bringing back Section 31 falls under the category "questionable, but I can't make up my mind whether I'm more against or okay with it" creative decision fo rme. Leaving aside the continuity problem (i.e. in DS9, Section 31 is supposed to be this ultilmate secret, in Disco, everyone knows it exist, and even if you assume that in the intervening century, this knowledge got deliberately hidden and erased, I just don't buy some older Starfleet personnel wouldn't renember), and also leaving aside that I suspect the main reason for reintroducing Section 31 to the tv Trekverse was the then planned spin-off around Georgiou which now in all likelihood will never happen, some aspects of how its used in s2 work for me - I can see someone like MirrorGeorgiou, whose entire previous existence was about achieving and then maintaining power, scheming and intrigue, initially honing on an intelligence service as the ideal way to do that in this new universe she's now stuck in, until her long term goal (presumably overtaking Leland and becoming head of Section 31, then using it to rule the Primeverse from behind the scenes) becomes derailed by season events and her growing affection for Michael. Also, one consistent trait Ash Tyler has both in his Voq and his Tyler personality is that he needs both people and an ideal to be loyal to and is then ready to do just about anything for them, plus it makes sense that in the Klingon Empire which has just finished a war that had whipped up xenophobia to extreme heights even for Klingons, his human appearance would be a hinderance rather than a help for L'Rell, and that hed then fall for Section 31's recruitment pitch.
Buuuuut even before Control takes over, I don't think the show could decide just how ruthless or not ruthless they wanted Section 31 to be. More to the point: one great Discovery quality that's evident in the show as a whole, with now four seasons to look back to, is that it's the go-to show when you make a case for the Federation and Starfleet instead of against it. (Looking at you, Picard.) It's basically a show long reply to Sisko's "It's easy to be a saint in paradise" line from DS9. Now, DS9 showing the darker sides of the Federation was (relatively, the very occasional TNG ep aside) new - in the 1990s. Three decades later, it really isn't anymore. So showing "this is actually why Starfleet ideals are good, and check out what the Federation does in anything but paradisical circumstances, how it's still about the members helping and being there for others, not about militarily defeating the Big Bad" is what this particular watcher wants and needs in a 2020s version of Star Trek. ST: Discovery doesn't make you root for the heroes to get away from an organization that's at best bureaucratic and at worst actively corrupted and do their own independent thing, it makes you root for the heroes bringing more people together in an organization that ensures people who otherwise get ignored or trampled on by the rich and mighty won't have to suffer alone. And that's why bringing back Section 31 from ye olde DS9 days is, like I said, questionable.
All this being said: there's a lot I like and love about season 2. Something that strikes me this time around is that Disco avoids a trap several other shows have fallen into which, like Discovery, had a big twist (or twist) and/shocking reveal in their original season, and ever after tried to replicate this with diminishing effect. Discovery doesn't do that. There's no attempt to do an equivalent of the Tyler = Voq, Lorca is actually from the Mirrorverse reveal in season 2 (or any other season). Instead, the season takes seriously that after the whole Lorca experience, the crew would need to relearn how to trust in a (good) Captain, and how to be explorers again after the Klingon War era on the Watsonian and that the viewers would need some lighter episodes before things get dark again on a Doylist level, and comes up with the "Pike as Captain for the season" solution. (BTW: since the s1 finale explicitly says our heroes are on their way to Vulcan to pick up their new Captain, clearly it was never intended for Saru to continue as Acting Captain at this point. Which given that his s2 arc involves finding out one of the key premises of his life was actually a lie and radically changing makes sense. As for Michael, Michael only got forgiven for the pilot actions, reinstalled from "Specialist" to "Commander" Burnham at the end of the first season - promoting her to Captain in s2 would not have made sense on a Watsonian level and would have shortened her long term arc on a Doylist one.) Could it have been an original to the show character instead, preferably a female one? Sure. But then they'd have had to find a justification why Temporary Captain of the Season won't continue with Discovery and would have been possibly gained fannish hostility, whereas it was clear from the beginning and long before a spin-off was a possibility that Pike would not stay on Discovery beyond the season, given his continuity ordained fate.
It helps that both writing and acting wise, s2 of Discovery Pike really works. Until then, Bruce Greenwood's Pike from the Kelvin Timeline had been my favourite incarnation of the character (sorry, Jeffrey Hunter). Here, Anson Mount's Pike quickly overtook him during the original broadcast, and this didn't change during rewatch. Brother, the s2 opening episode, is a great introduction episode for this version of the character, establishing his friendly, respectful approach to people (with the scene where he asks the Bridge Crew to introduce themselves doubling as the beginning of fleshing the Bridge Crew out somewhat in the show), commitment, sense of humor, and all this without trying to make him perfect (hence his mistaking Michael's intention when she shoots down his original suggestions for the rescue mission for the Hiawatha). Pike as the Captain in s2 also provided an opportunity to show Michael's growth outside the context of life or death and war situations. Note that while she doesn't tell Pike immediately about her Red Angel vision (believing it to habve been a hallucination due to the circumstances), she does so the moment she finds out someone else saw the same thing. Later, when the Quest for Spock becomes a thing, she doesn't try to go behind his back but keeps him on the level with the information she finds. This is a far cry from Michael as introduced in the s1 pilot even before the Klingons become a threat and she attempts mutiny (note that pilot!Michael ignores all safety agreements previously made to explore the Ship of the Dead). It's a different dynamic than she had with Prime Georgiou (because Pike isn't her adored mentor - they respect each other, but aren't as close), and not as intense as her relationship with Saru, and of course very different from her relationship with Lorca (pre reveal). In a less focused on way, this is true for Pike and the other Discovery crew members as well, and and just all around a good showing-above-telling example of ahow a functional Captain-and-crew dynamic works. As for Pike's own character, again just looking at the second season of Discovery, which was made before they could know a spin-off would be greenlighted, it takes a character who until then (in the Prime timeline) only had a failed pilot and a later episode giving him a tragic fate with seemingly no choices about it and not only fleshes him out as a person but provides him with an arc which does make his fate and the knowledge of it as something that is the result of his choosing to save others.
The other TOS character present in s2 is Spock. As I said in my s1 rewatch post, would the whole thing have worked if it had been new Vulcan character X instead who was Michael's enstranged foster brother? Sure - for Michael's story. Michael patching up her relationship with him, and her continued interaction with Amanda and Sarek could have happened with original characters and been as meaningful re: her own development - where being at peace with this family of hers needed to happen before the big time jump. But the reason why I'm so glad Michael's foster family weren't new characters X, Y and Z but hardcore ST legacy characters Spock, Amanda and Sarek is that adding Michael to the mix imo added something to each of them, and their relationship with each other. I've said it in the SNW episode review where Discovery's Amanda makes a welcome reappearance - I really love that Amanda in both shows gets to do more than have cameos (true for Amanda in TOS post Journey to Babel or be used to provide Spock with Angst (Kelvin Timeline), that we see her as a person. The scene where she talks/argues with Sarek not just about Spock but their marriage one third into s2 of Discovery is the first time an on screen incarnation of ST gave us such a scene, full stop. (The TNG episode Sarek in the powerful scene where Picard channels Sarek's emotion makes it crystal clear, among other things, how deeply Sarek loved Amanda and does love Spock, but not in all the decades and the many visual Trek incarnations did we get a scene (let alone severall) showing Amanda's pov of the choices she made by deciding to live Vulcan style with Sarek and raise thehir son this way, and what she does and doesn't regret. (Before anyone brings up tie-in novels, I'm talking about screen canon.)
Michael isn't free of the ST trend of letting the leading characters have Daddy issues (she has them with Sarek in s1), but Sarek aside, all her other parental and/or mentor figures are women - she's definitely the ST character with the most mothers. (Gabrielle, Amanda, and in aspects both Georgious. I'm not saying you can't interpret her relationship with the Philippas as shippy instead, but that there are parental overtones at the very least at the start of either relationship is, I think, undeniable.) And in a universe where mothers tend to get killed off sooner rather than later and mother-child relationships get not nearly as explored as father-child relationships, I really love that about Discovery. Amanda's increasing prominence in s2 (as well as the introduction of Gabrielle) is part of it.
I'm also impressed of how the show avoided simply repeating the emotional beats s1 had with Sarek and Michael in s2's storyline about Michael and Spock. Not least because sibling relationships are different. But also because having spent the previous season rebuilding herself remotionally after the shattering experience of the pilot, Michael is in a different place emotionally in s2, and while the guilt she feels re: Spock is part of her motivations through the first half of the season, it doesn't cripple her, and she can use what's she's learned so far to help them both. I adore relationships that are messed up but where we also see the participants making each other better instead of worse.
Lastly: in s1, Tilly's primary relationship was with Michael, and their friendship was the first thing that drew Michael out of her stoic self loathing. In s2, they're still close friends, but Tilly's primary friendly relationship developed throughout the season is actually with Stamets (their relationship was already shown in the second half of s1, but not as central as in s2), plus we also see her with Kayla Detmer, Airiam and Joann Owosekun. In retrospect, I do suspect one reason why Tilly got demoted to recurring in s4 was because by then, most of her original functions and relationships were shared or given to other characters. The "young ingenue science whizkid with a tendency to babble"/"has a firm friendship with Stamets" to Adira, evidently. But the closest confidant type of friendship she had with Michael also fades away (Michael has those type of scenes she used to share with Tilly with Book and/or Saru instead, depending on the context). This isn't yet a problem in s3 because s3 has Tilly develop a realationship with Saru and grow to (temporary) second in command level instead, with even acting Captain status in the s3 finale. But I very much suspect that between seasons, the writers realised they had Tilly basically already achieve everything s1 Tilly dreamed off (even, temporarily, the Captaincy) and didn't quite know what to do with her anymore, hence let her question herself and decide to go into teaching cadets instead. Rewatching the first two seasons heightens my regret re: this development, because Tilly is such a vivid presence on the show there, and Mary Wiseman is great in the role. But I can also see the problem in a show that, even for a ship that's explicitly a science vessel, has an overabundance of scientist characters, where Tilly couldn't always stay the young, unexperienced one (her growing up arc was great!), where's also no lack of competent First Officers (Michael or Saru as Captain and how the show deals with this is an s3 thing, see also older reviews there), and where with Stamets and Reno even the constant doubling of great engineers is a given. So I'm enjoying regular character Tilly for as long as I'm getting her during this rewatch.
I still like the season a lot, but looking back on all four seasons, I think overall s2 is the weakest one, writing wise. This has nothing to do with the factor(s) listed by both the "s2 is the best" bunch and those who dropped out for it, to wit, Pike and Spock. (They are a plus for me, so I would say that, yes, but hear me out.) The reason why I think s2 isn't as good overall as the other three seasons is that it suffers from a combination of weakest attempt at a Big Bad (I don't think I'm being controversial here when saying that Control as both antagonist and villain (doesn't have to be the same thing, and isn't always on Discovery) really isn't up to snuff when compared with what the other seasons offer), some rehashing of s1 plots and characters that wasn't necessary (Ash Tyler & Michael), less than convincing solutions for several by themselves interesting subplots (Saru's discovery of the truth of the "culling" and the subsequent big change for all Kelpians, the Ash/Voq & Hugh Culber confrontation, and Culber's season long post resurrection PTSD and connected enstrangement from Paul Stamets suddenly wrapped up in the final episode).
Now all seasons try a combination of an overall season arc with individual episodic development - in s1 it's the Klingon War that frames the season (it starts in the pilot and ends in the finale), in s2 it's the mystery of the Red Angel which turns out to be a stable timeloop (mostly) created by our heroes themselves in order to save the galaxy from the big bad, in s3 it's the mystery of the Burn and the challenge of rebuilding the Federation, and in s4 it's the mystery of the DMZ and the 10c. Now I have no problem with the "stable timeloop" part of the s2 overall arc, but with the "Control" part of it. I very much suspect the writers worked backwards from knowing they'd have to create a situation where Michael and friends would have to leave the prequel era and travel 900 years into the future (i.e. an era completely uncovered by any ST incarnation so far) without a possibility of return. Which I'm totally behind - I think that was one of the best creative decisions the show ever made. I even can understand that they wanted to do one more variation of that ST stalwart from the TOS days, the evil AI, especially since it sets up a good contrast to Zora the positive AI in the later seasons (and Zora was foreshadowed in the webisode "Calypso", produced between seasons 1 and 2, so they definitely knew they would be going there). BUT it's really hard to buy into the whole "Control can't be allowed access to the Sphere data because it would achieve full sentience" justification when Control is shown to all intents and purposes as already sentient in the second half of the season. Plus as solely evil, Control isn't just very interesting as an opponent.
(All evil Big Bads have their uses - but one of the many reasons why I thought "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" were by far the most interesting incarnation of the Terminator franchise was that in addition to good old Skynet we got not just Cameron but the AI posing as Catherine Weaver and John Henry, who was opposed to Cameron weren't reprogrammed but developed sentience without wanting to destroy humanity on their own.)
Bringing back Section 31 falls under the category "questionable, but I can't make up my mind whether I'm more against or okay with it" creative decision fo rme. Leaving aside the continuity problem (i.e. in DS9, Section 31 is supposed to be this ultilmate secret, in Disco, everyone knows it exist, and even if you assume that in the intervening century, this knowledge got deliberately hidden and erased, I just don't buy some older Starfleet personnel wouldn't renember), and also leaving aside that I suspect the main reason for reintroducing Section 31 to the tv Trekverse was the then planned spin-off around Georgiou which now in all likelihood will never happen, some aspects of how its used in s2 work for me - I can see someone like MirrorGeorgiou, whose entire previous existence was about achieving and then maintaining power, scheming and intrigue, initially honing on an intelligence service as the ideal way to do that in this new universe she's now stuck in, until her long term goal (presumably overtaking Leland and becoming head of Section 31, then using it to rule the Primeverse from behind the scenes) becomes derailed by season events and her growing affection for Michael. Also, one consistent trait Ash Tyler has both in his Voq and his Tyler personality is that he needs both people and an ideal to be loyal to and is then ready to do just about anything for them, plus it makes sense that in the Klingon Empire which has just finished a war that had whipped up xenophobia to extreme heights even for Klingons, his human appearance would be a hinderance rather than a help for L'Rell, and that hed then fall for Section 31's recruitment pitch.
Buuuuut even before Control takes over, I don't think the show could decide just how ruthless or not ruthless they wanted Section 31 to be. More to the point: one great Discovery quality that's evident in the show as a whole, with now four seasons to look back to, is that it's the go-to show when you make a case for the Federation and Starfleet instead of against it. (Looking at you, Picard.) It's basically a show long reply to Sisko's "It's easy to be a saint in paradise" line from DS9. Now, DS9 showing the darker sides of the Federation was (relatively, the very occasional TNG ep aside) new - in the 1990s. Three decades later, it really isn't anymore. So showing "this is actually why Starfleet ideals are good, and check out what the Federation does in anything but paradisical circumstances, how it's still about the members helping and being there for others, not about militarily defeating the Big Bad" is what this particular watcher wants and needs in a 2020s version of Star Trek. ST: Discovery doesn't make you root for the heroes to get away from an organization that's at best bureaucratic and at worst actively corrupted and do their own independent thing, it makes you root for the heroes bringing more people together in an organization that ensures people who otherwise get ignored or trampled on by the rich and mighty won't have to suffer alone. And that's why bringing back Section 31 from ye olde DS9 days is, like I said, questionable.
All this being said: there's a lot I like and love about season 2. Something that strikes me this time around is that Disco avoids a trap several other shows have fallen into which, like Discovery, had a big twist (or twist) and/shocking reveal in their original season, and ever after tried to replicate this with diminishing effect. Discovery doesn't do that. There's no attempt to do an equivalent of the Tyler = Voq, Lorca is actually from the Mirrorverse reveal in season 2 (or any other season). Instead, the season takes seriously that after the whole Lorca experience, the crew would need to relearn how to trust in a (good) Captain, and how to be explorers again after the Klingon War era on the Watsonian and that the viewers would need some lighter episodes before things get dark again on a Doylist level, and comes up with the "Pike as Captain for the season" solution. (BTW: since the s1 finale explicitly says our heroes are on their way to Vulcan to pick up their new Captain, clearly it was never intended for Saru to continue as Acting Captain at this point. Which given that his s2 arc involves finding out one of the key premises of his life was actually a lie and radically changing makes sense. As for Michael, Michael only got forgiven for the pilot actions, reinstalled from "Specialist" to "Commander" Burnham at the end of the first season - promoting her to Captain in s2 would not have made sense on a Watsonian level and would have shortened her long term arc on a Doylist one.) Could it have been an original to the show character instead, preferably a female one? Sure. But then they'd have had to find a justification why Temporary Captain of the Season won't continue with Discovery and would have been possibly gained fannish hostility, whereas it was clear from the beginning and long before a spin-off was a possibility that Pike would not stay on Discovery beyond the season, given his continuity ordained fate.
It helps that both writing and acting wise, s2 of Discovery Pike really works. Until then, Bruce Greenwood's Pike from the Kelvin Timeline had been my favourite incarnation of the character (sorry, Jeffrey Hunter). Here, Anson Mount's Pike quickly overtook him during the original broadcast, and this didn't change during rewatch. Brother, the s2 opening episode, is a great introduction episode for this version of the character, establishing his friendly, respectful approach to people (with the scene where he asks the Bridge Crew to introduce themselves doubling as the beginning of fleshing the Bridge Crew out somewhat in the show), commitment, sense of humor, and all this without trying to make him perfect (hence his mistaking Michael's intention when she shoots down his original suggestions for the rescue mission for the Hiawatha). Pike as the Captain in s2 also provided an opportunity to show Michael's growth outside the context of life or death and war situations. Note that while she doesn't tell Pike immediately about her Red Angel vision (believing it to habve been a hallucination due to the circumstances), she does so the moment she finds out someone else saw the same thing. Later, when the Quest for Spock becomes a thing, she doesn't try to go behind his back but keeps him on the level with the information she finds. This is a far cry from Michael as introduced in the s1 pilot even before the Klingons become a threat and she attempts mutiny (note that pilot!Michael ignores all safety agreements previously made to explore the Ship of the Dead). It's a different dynamic than she had with Prime Georgiou (because Pike isn't her adored mentor - they respect each other, but aren't as close), and not as intense as her relationship with Saru, and of course very different from her relationship with Lorca (pre reveal). In a less focused on way, this is true for Pike and the other Discovery crew members as well, and and just all around a good showing-above-telling example of ahow a functional Captain-and-crew dynamic works. As for Pike's own character, again just looking at the second season of Discovery, which was made before they could know a spin-off would be greenlighted, it takes a character who until then (in the Prime timeline) only had a failed pilot and a later episode giving him a tragic fate with seemingly no choices about it and not only fleshes him out as a person but provides him with an arc which does make his fate and the knowledge of it as something that is the result of his choosing to save others.
The other TOS character present in s2 is Spock. As I said in my s1 rewatch post, would the whole thing have worked if it had been new Vulcan character X instead who was Michael's enstranged foster brother? Sure - for Michael's story. Michael patching up her relationship with him, and her continued interaction with Amanda and Sarek could have happened with original characters and been as meaningful re: her own development - where being at peace with this family of hers needed to happen before the big time jump. But the reason why I'm so glad Michael's foster family weren't new characters X, Y and Z but hardcore ST legacy characters Spock, Amanda and Sarek is that adding Michael to the mix imo added something to each of them, and their relationship with each other. I've said it in the SNW episode review where Discovery's Amanda makes a welcome reappearance - I really love that Amanda in both shows gets to do more than have cameos (true for Amanda in TOS post Journey to Babel or be used to provide Spock with Angst (Kelvin Timeline), that we see her as a person. The scene where she talks/argues with Sarek not just about Spock but their marriage one third into s2 of Discovery is the first time an on screen incarnation of ST gave us such a scene, full stop. (The TNG episode Sarek in the powerful scene where Picard channels Sarek's emotion makes it crystal clear, among other things, how deeply Sarek loved Amanda and does love Spock, but not in all the decades and the many visual Trek incarnations did we get a scene (let alone severall) showing Amanda's pov of the choices she made by deciding to live Vulcan style with Sarek and raise thehir son this way, and what she does and doesn't regret. (Before anyone brings up tie-in novels, I'm talking about screen canon.)
Michael isn't free of the ST trend of letting the leading characters have Daddy issues (she has them with Sarek in s1), but Sarek aside, all her other parental and/or mentor figures are women - she's definitely the ST character with the most mothers. (Gabrielle, Amanda, and in aspects both Georgious. I'm not saying you can't interpret her relationship with the Philippas as shippy instead, but that there are parental overtones at the very least at the start of either relationship is, I think, undeniable.) And in a universe where mothers tend to get killed off sooner rather than later and mother-child relationships get not nearly as explored as father-child relationships, I really love that about Discovery. Amanda's increasing prominence in s2 (as well as the introduction of Gabrielle) is part of it.
I'm also impressed of how the show avoided simply repeating the emotional beats s1 had with Sarek and Michael in s2's storyline about Michael and Spock. Not least because sibling relationships are different. But also because having spent the previous season rebuilding herself remotionally after the shattering experience of the pilot, Michael is in a different place emotionally in s2, and while the guilt she feels re: Spock is part of her motivations through the first half of the season, it doesn't cripple her, and she can use what's she's learned so far to help them both. I adore relationships that are messed up but where we also see the participants making each other better instead of worse.
Lastly: in s1, Tilly's primary relationship was with Michael, and their friendship was the first thing that drew Michael out of her stoic self loathing. In s2, they're still close friends, but Tilly's primary friendly relationship developed throughout the season is actually with Stamets (their relationship was already shown in the second half of s1, but not as central as in s2), plus we also see her with Kayla Detmer, Airiam and Joann Owosekun. In retrospect, I do suspect one reason why Tilly got demoted to recurring in s4 was because by then, most of her original functions and relationships were shared or given to other characters. The "young ingenue science whizkid with a tendency to babble"/"has a firm friendship with Stamets" to Adira, evidently. But the closest confidant type of friendship she had with Michael also fades away (Michael has those type of scenes she used to share with Tilly with Book and/or Saru instead, depending on the context). This isn't yet a problem in s3 because s3 has Tilly develop a realationship with Saru and grow to (temporary) second in command level instead, with even acting Captain status in the s3 finale. But I very much suspect that between seasons, the writers realised they had Tilly basically already achieve everything s1 Tilly dreamed off (even, temporarily, the Captaincy) and didn't quite know what to do with her anymore, hence let her question herself and decide to go into teaching cadets instead. Rewatching the first two seasons heightens my regret re: this development, because Tilly is such a vivid presence on the show there, and Mary Wiseman is great in the role. But I can also see the problem in a show that, even for a ship that's explicitly a science vessel, has an overabundance of scientist characters, where Tilly couldn't always stay the young, unexperienced one (her growing up arc was great!), where's also no lack of competent First Officers (Michael or Saru as Captain and how the show deals with this is an s3 thing, see also older reviews there), and where with Stamets and Reno even the constant doubling of great engineers is a given. So I'm enjoying regular character Tilly for as long as I'm getting her during this rewatch.