"How much more can you pack into an episode???" – The internet reacts to Star Trek Discovery episode 13

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Welp. Star Trek Discovery episode 13 was a wild ride. At the risk of sounding like a broken record every week: Watch. This. Show. Seriously. For those of you who haven’t caught up (or haven’t even boarded the Discovery yet, for shame!) then there are big spoilers in the Twitter reactions below. So make like a parallel universe and split.

Where do I start? Mirror Lorca and Mirror Stamets both seemingly died (as did the Emperor); we got one of the best hand-to-hand fistfights this side of Daredevil and – here’s the kicker – the USS Discovery made it home… 9 months late. Yes, the Klingons have won the war. All is lost, for now…

Mirror Lorca falls

Star Trek Discovery’s capacity to surprise every week is quite remarkable. Not only did Mirror Lorca die (I think?), he did so in spectacular fashion: he fell into a giant star and, before that, was impaled by Emperor Georgiou in a scene resembling her own mirror self’s death. Poetic..

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Mirror Stamets, we hardly knew ye

Is Stamets gone too? This is reaching Game of Thrones-levels of beloved bodycounts, people. Mirror Stamets seemed to be cooking up something nefarious last week and now, just like that, he’s gone. The Mirror Universe giveth, the Mirror Universe taketh away.

Time for change

This episode almost acted as a season finale and soft reboot all wrapped into one – and we’ve still got two episodes left! Good thing, too. The dilemma that reared its ugly head at the end of the episode won’t go away easily: the Discovery returned to its own universe, only to be met by news that they’d arrived home 9 months after they left and that the Klingons have won the war. For Voq’s sake.

ICYMI

Leave it to Twitter to deal in small, possibly insignificant details. A green spore landed on Tilly’s shoulder as they finally returned home. I’m pretty sure the spores aren’t meant to be luminous green. Merely symbolic? Or something more, perhaps? Watch this space.

The best (Star Trek) show in a long, long time?

It’s early days but, yeah, it could well be. Knee-jerk reactions are always the order of the day when something new and brilliant comes along, so time will tell. Having said that, immediate bias may give way to people waking up to this instant classic of a show. Please tell your friends.

Image: CBS

Bradley Russell
Bradley Russell
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

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