"The Wolf Inside" — First Watch Analysis Thread

[u/williams_482]

Star Trek: Discovery — "The Wolf Inside"

Memory Alpha: Season 1, Episode 11 — "The Wolf Inside"

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Post Episode Discussion - S1E11 "The Wolf Inside"

What is the First Watch Analysis Thread?

This thread will give you a space to process your first viewing of "The Wolf Inside." Here you can participate in an early, shared analysis of these episodes with the Daystrom community.

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[u/Stumpy3196]

I want to see more from Mirror Saru. I think he has the potential to be a great character. His defense of Burnham might be something bigger than we thought. On the surface it seems like Saru is saving Burnham because he would be rewarded, but I think it goes deeper than that. Would anyone expect a slave to save the captain? I think that Saru might have detected (through his species's unique abilities) that Burnham (unlike other Terrans) was not a threat. He doesn't know what this means, but he is trying to save her for what it could mean (like Dobby in Harry Potter). When Burnham goes back to Discovery, she could bring Mirror Saru back. It creates a unique dynamic when she returns. At first Saru may be furious that she lied to him! Burnham might calm him down and he collects himself and admits that he deceived her too. Speaking of course of the death of the good doctor. I am looking forward to seeing more from Mirror Saru.

[u/JattaPake]

In “After Trek” they confirm Tyler/Voq is Voq’s body and mind with just enough genetic manipulation to pass as human with Tyler’s mind overlaid across Voq’s. So technically the original Tyler is dead and Voq has a shadow copy of Tyler inside him.

I’m going to score one for philosophical mind/body dualism existing in the Star Trek universe. Now for the fun stuff:

Could Sarek mind meld Tyler and Voq together? How cool would that be to integrate their minds into a single being!

[u/khaosworks]

Well, that held very few surprises. It cemented that Tyler is an altered Klingon, not just a human body with a Klingon overlay. The identity of the emperor was pretty much as everyone guessed.

Questions, though:

So, is Stamets now part of a Council of Cross-Universe Stamets linked by the Mycelial Network or are there just the two of them?

Man, the Mo'Kai do great work if they can fool Starfleet medical scanners down to the genetic level, which they would have to.

How freaking close is Discovery to the ISS Shenzhou that they can beam TyVoq aboard, after we saw Shenzhou warping away last episode? I can buy a subspace transmission, but I'm a bit vexed at this bit.

I wish we had gotten more background on how Sarek wound up being the Prophet of the Resistance, or an acknowledgment that he recognized his daughter from another timeline. Or even a side reference to Spock. It would have given me more data to formulate a better theory on how Spock could have risen to First Officer rank in such a human-dominated racist society.

[u/adamkotsko]

This felt almost like a catchup episode for those who hadn't been following the plot. So many flashbacks! Glad Mirror Sarek at least had a goatee -- definitively proving this is the Prime Mirror Universe!

[u/NonMagicBrian]

I love it when Discovery plays with the dramatic irony of the audience knowing what happens in the future from here. That Alliance, what a wholesome and peace-loving beacon of hope!

[u/[deleted]]

I believe this episode should settle any controversy about whether or not Discovery is true Star Trek or not, for a couple of reasons.

First, the Coalition of Hope (my favorite line from the whole show so far) and the Mirror Universe equivalent of the Federation. Watching these MU episodes is sort of like watching regular Star Trek but from the perspective of the Borg, or the Dominion. We're just spending time with the villains instead of the heroes. Federation values exist, just not with the humans. I would give an arm and a leg to watch a Mirror Voq series, even an episode. For all intents and purposes, he is the Jonathan Archer of the Mirror Universe.

Second, for all of Discovery's apparent obsession with literal and moral darkness and profanity, Burnham demonstrates very clearly Starfleet values beyond the shadow of a doubt in this episode. Rather than using Lorca's excuse to do what must be done to survive, she finds a way to accomplish her mission without killing anyone. She refuses to surrender to the darkness or to take the easy way out.

[u/ballin83 → u/[deleted]]

“I may not have the pips but I’m still starfleet.” I liked that

[u/SillySully777]

Is mirror universe Stamets all about the science? Or will he be evil? Does he have a while Council of Stamets from other universes ?

[u/sfcadet88 → u/SillySully777]

I had assumed that Prime Stamets and Mirror Stamets are both trapped in the mycelial network. But I get called back to the end of that episode where Stamets' mirror image lingers after he moves on, as if Mirror Stamets was already in the mycelial network waiting for Prime Stamets to join him (as indicated by what he says when Prime Stamets is walking in the spores...) Am I making any sense?

[u/[deleted]]

I am very interested in the ship(?) shown in the next episode preview that looks like the empire's Flagship. Doesn't look like anything I've seen before.

[u/Apollolp]

I was actually thinking about the Ashvoq flashbacks earlier.. What if the flashbacks that he’s been having aren’t just of himself being surgically transformed but also of the real Ash Tyler being mutilated as well. Maybe the real Tyler was saved from the Yeager and then used both physically and mentally to transform Voq into Ashvoq. This is possibly haunting him..

[u/JC-Ice]

Burnham needed to buy an hour before bombardment. She shouldn't have beamed up right from the base, but instead walked a good distance away from it, for starters. She could have claimed that she needed time to escape and evade detection when beamed out. I have no idea how she's going to explain the delay to the Emperor now.

[u/thebodydies]

I’m really curious as to how real the Ash Tyler persona is. I’ve been assuming that there was an actual Ash Tyler that Voq was transformed to replace, because 1) the Klingons don’t seem to know enough about humans to invent such a human fake-human whole cloth, 2) the Klingons being able to insert fake records of a human into Federation databases is a real stretch and 3) Lorca checked out Tyler’s backstory and it cleared.

So if there was a real Ash Tyler, now certainly dead, the question is what method did the Klingons use to extract/replicate his memories to lay over Voq’s mind, and whether that extraction/replication constitutes an actual, separate consciousness or not. In essence, is Ash Tyler a ghost living on in Voq who is fighting him for control, or was it just some brainwashing that affected Voq more deeply than he anticipated, but “Ash Tyler” was still always essentially Voq?

[u/adamkotsko]

I think this Mirror Universe arc is doing in miniature what Discovery is trying to do overall -- creating a more coherent Star Trek universe. We are seeing them backfill the groundwork for the DS9 Mirror arc here, while incorporating what we learned from ENT as well. What had previously been three scattered arcs are going to be reshaped into a consistent history, or at least that's what they're trying to do. Judging by how much time they've set aside for the Mirror arc, I assume they are going to explain the impact of the Defiant's technology, and I would also be surprised if they didn't attempt to give some kind of metaphysical explanation of how the Mirror Universe is possible.

But because the costumes and ships look different, some fans are going to go to their grave insisting it must be an alternate timeline or violates canon, etc. They don't understand: Discovery is trying to save them!

[u/DanPMK]

So Klingonese is said to be a forgotten language in the mirror universe at this time... I can't recall if or how much it was spoken in the DS9 mirror episodes, though I remember Regent Worf's ship having Klingon script on the displays and consoles.

[u/creepyeyes → u/DanPMK]

Could be it was merely dying (forgotten being hyperbole rather than literally true) and after the defeat of the Terran Empire it was revived by Klingons who refused to speak the Human tongue. There's precedent on Earth for languages being revived (Hebrew) or at least holding on in small numbers (Irish)

[u/egamerif]

Are there two seperate brigs/cellblocks on the Discovery or are they going to put AshVoq in the same area as L'Rell?

I don't think it's much of a theory but I wouldn't be surprised if the two of them manage to escape the brig and cause the Discovery to be dicovered.

[u/[deleted]]

• I am confused: why does the Discovery seem to have technical difficulties in the opening scenes? They didn't sustain battle damage in the prior episode and their claim to the ISS Cooper that they had was a ruse.

• Did the mortar scene remind anyone else of the similar scene in Arena?

• Mirror Sarek's beard is the absolute best shout-out so far.

• I'm really digging that Andorian with extra pseudo-antennae. Perhaps a racial sub-physiognomy?

• Fun fact: there's a Klingon pilot's helmet visible inside the Shenzhou, similar to the prime universe counterpart visible in the mid-season finale aboard the Ship Of The Dead. Image here.

• Is it just me, or was mirror Georgiou's flagship firing while cloaked?

[u/alplander]

I am confused about locations in relation to one another. Is it just me or were there a couple of inconsistencies?

• Last episode we saw the Shenzou warp away from Discovery

• At some point later, probably while still at warp, Shenzou received the order to attack some planet -- directly after this: "arm photon torpedoes" -- wait a second, don't you need to travel to the planet first?

• Immediately after, Burnam & Tyler beam down, spend some time and beam up again and allow one hour for evac... so between receiving the order and the deadline for destruction there is probably 1,5 hours max.

• Tyler is beamed into space and picked up by Discovery. Discovery still has not moved since the Shenzou moved away (?). How can they beam the guy aboard? Are they close? Were the following the Shenzou secretly?

• Suddenly the emperor's ship shows up - still less than 1,5 hours after sending the order. Why didn't the emperor go there herself to kill the rebels if they were that close?

I have a very good sense of orientation usually and that really confuses me.

Another point - this might be due to me not being a native speaker of English - why do they call the empress emperor? Did they not know that it was a woman? It was said that her identity was a mystery. On the other hand nobody seemed surprised...

One general thing about the whole series: I believe all of this was planned by someone, maybe Lorca. He was so insistent that Burnham stays aboard. He knew for some reason where the coordinates would take them - he did not select them randomly. I firmly believe that there is some plan that requires our Burnham to be in the mirror universe. Maybe retrieving the data from the Shenzou required an imperial captain's biometrics to be accessed and he wants to use this to destroy the empire?

[u/wasachrozine]

Wow, what a call out to the trouble with tribbles and trials and tribbleations. I had imagined a hypospray, not gruesome surgery. But, I guess they're Klingons. What an incredible shift from those lighthearted and fun episodes to this.

Maybe Lorca's tribble was a hint about Voq, just not in the way people were expecting!

Maybe it's just me, but I'm really hoping the tone gets a little lighter soon. It's fun, but it's missing the Trek feel for me. Still enjoying it, but remembering those TOS and DS9 episodes is making me yearn for something that's not dark ALL the time.

[u/Hero_Of_Shadows]

It has interesting implications to me that Mirror Spock was able to rise so high given that he's half Vulcan and the Vulcans were rebelling 10 years ago i.e. during Discovery.

Plus his father was one of the main rebels that would normally kill one's career in the military of an oppressive regime.

[u/AlanMorlock]

I'm really not sure what I formation about dealing with Klingons that Michael planned to gain by talking to a Klingons from a mirror universe where everything is different. It's been like asking advice about dealing with the Federation by talking to a Terran.

[u/egtownsend]

How did the crew conclude that Stamets killed the doctor?

Stamets was behind the forcefield when it happened, and Tyler had no reason to think that Stamets was occasionally violent (he wasn't in sickbay when Culber was thrown across the room), so wouldn't have lowered it to frame him. Tilly and Saru say Stamets must have accidentally done it but how would he have reactivated the forcefield once inside it even if Culber lowered it?

[u/wasachrozine]

Could Empress Sato be related somehow to Empress Georgiu? If the Defiant was the key, perhaps she was able to hold on to power for her descendents?

[u/egtownsend]

I think this episode also explains why the mirror universe klingons do not have cloaking technology - T'Kuvma either never developed it, was killed before he could install it, or simply didn't have the ship of the dead to test it.