Star Trek: Discovery fans now have an explanation for some of the show’s most unsettling moments to date.
SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery, “Vaulting Ambition,” follow.
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Lt. Paul Stamets has turned himself into a living experiment. His experimental spore drive needed a navigator. No one was comfortable continuing to use the suffering tardigrade. Stamets broke Starfleet protocol and took the role himself.
Since then Stamets has had a series of strange moments. These include visions, like one of Cadet Tilly as a captain and another of a palace. There was also one moment where his mirror reflection seemed to act independently. The episode “Vaulting Ambition” provided an explanation.
Stamets’ intense use of the spore drive left him in a strange state. Tilly has been able to help, but Stamets is still in a coma. His consciousness entered the mycelial network that the spore drive uses to travel. There he met his mirror universe counterpart.
Mirror Stamets reveals that he too is in a coma. His consciousness was sent into the mycelial network after an experiment went wrong. He’s been trapped there for some time. The network has been corrupted, and the corruption is starting to affect him as well.
Mirror Stamets was losing hope of ever finding his way out. Then Prime Stamets entered the network. Mirror Stamets has been trying to make contact by sending visions of the mirror universe. The vision of Tilly as a captain was actually the mirror universe Tilly. The vision of a palace was the ISS Charon, the Emperor’s palace ship. That creepy mirror image was actually Mirror Stamets observing his doppelganger.
By the end of the episode, both Stamets and Mirror Stamets are awake. Can Stamets save the mycelial network and get Discovery home? Is Mirror Stamets responsible for corrupting the network? That’s what Dr. Hugh Culber told Stamets inside the network. These questions still need to be answered in Star Trek: Discovery‘s remaining first season episodes.
New Star Trek: Discovery episodes become available to stream Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS All Access.
