You are Cordially Invited: I loved this episode. You guys knew I was going to love this episode. That said, Worf is still kind of an asshole. I’m a little torn here. Jadzia is a scholar of Klingon culture, so when she agreed to traditional, she absolutely knew what she was getting into. No excuses. But the feminist in me is still kind of mad that the resolution to this episode was her getting on her knees, literally, and begging. Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved the episode.

I even kind of loved their talk where Ben convinces her to do that. I think it’s a really good spin on the “act your age” speech that adults give their children. It was also a very intimate moment where Ben acknowledges that he may treat her like Curzon, but she’s not Curzon, and can’t expect Curzon to carry her through things. And let’s be honest, Curzon has carried Jadzia through a lot of crap. Obviously it’s hard to draw a line, but his name has certainly gotten her in close with a lot of Klingons. She did her own good work from that starting point, but she started pretty far down the line. So I’m glad we finally had that conversation.

But Jadzia was also very right to me in that regardless of Curzon or his accomplishments, she has an element of pride that deserves to be maintained. The husband got to go on a soul searching journey while she got bullied by her future, I guess mother in law? I mean honestly I’ve come to respect Klingon culture in a lot of ways, including their more violent nature. I’m learning to keep in mind that my values are inherently human and even within “human” fall into another subset. So we can’t expect aliens to share those values. But uh... even in Star Trek, it’s usually the female or feminine unit that’s treated a certain way in a given random species. The obvious counter example is the episode Angel One from TNG but let’s be honest that was also kinda messed up. The obvious worst example is the Ferengi, which I know is the point, but I think we’re setting a pretty awful example by having Moogie never actually succeed in her liberation movement.

I had a lot of fun, I was excited to see them get married, Worf’s soul searching journey was cool, Jadzia’s party was AWESOME (especially the morning after- every part of that was hysterical except the whole get on your knees and beg thing) (Were Kira and Odo in the closet?- by the way, love how we got around a difficult conversation by saying “look they had it.”).

I imagine Discovery and Picard do a better job of reflecting modern values (I know from asking around that at least Discovery has a better reflection of modern understanding of sexuality). And I also know that I need to judge this within the context of it’s time period (which is why I overall still really liked the episode) but really come on, Worf.

Resurrection: Come on, Dax, Kira has already told you she doesn’t like to see a man’s brains when she dates them.

This episode paints Kira as a little more naive than I tend to feel like she is. They know there’s a 50/50 chance that someone from that universe is a bad person. They also knew that Bajorans were not necessarily good guys over there. So I see that we’re supposed to see Kira in this episode as blinded by seeing her dead ex boyfriend, except more exciting. But I just feel like at this point, Kira should know better. Someone other than Quark should have gone, “Uh, he’s a professional thief. We should maybe not trust him so much.”

I don’t have a ton to say about this episode beyond that. I’m not a huge fan of the mirror universe episodes. I like this one better than some of the others because, imo, it was a little less confusing, and also didn’t follow the same patterns. But it wasn’t a stellar episode either. And I would really like to see Kira as something other than a hopeless romantic falling in love with all kinds of guys on the show (except Odo of course). Everyone is attracted to Kira!

Statistical Probabilities: “So we go down fighting. How terribly courageous of us.” I almost always agree with Julian, but honestly he has a lot to learn about spirit.

It’s an interesting thought that Julian could have been a brilliant military strategist, but he chose doctor. That’s what’s so captivating about him to me. And in a broader context, it’s interesting to believe that potential could be applied to any field or any context. Julian can perform calculations with tremendous ease. He could have been a mathematician, engineer, etc. but when I think about normal people with average potential, it doesn’t feel so unbound. For example, my mathematic and foreign language skills are severely lacking compared to my other skills, and that’s after years of trying to develop both of them. I don’t think that I ever had an equal potential to develop in those areas as I do in my chosen field (biology) or even in something else, like history or art. We tell ourselves as children that we can be anything if we put our minds to it, but I’m just not sure that’s the case. Certainly not to the same level of excellence as we might have in another field.

I absolutely loved watching Julian work with his friends (I don’t want to call them mutants- that just doesn’t feel okay). It reminds me of working on a science competition team in high school, finishing each other’s sentences, being part of a well connected team. Ender’s game vibes, anyone? And then I felt so sorry for how it turned out. I see the show is back to trying to break everyone’s spirit. I also see that Julian didn’t learn much from the Quickening. I love Julian and who he is but his only character evolution has been becoming more somber and sober. He’s still reckless but not in a hopeful way anymore. More in a completely arrogant way. It feels like the cookie cutter character flaw and it hasn’t shifted at all.