7 Ups & 2 Downs From Star Trek: Discovery 5.9 — Lagrange Point
3. UP — Rayner's Lagrange Point
To be frank, I hesitated over this one. I wasn't sure whether I loved or loathed Rayner this week. It was as if I was at a Lagrange point of my own making, pulled both ways by the gravity of the UP and the DOWN, yet heading towards neither because of the centrifugal pseudo-forces of my mind. An exterior nudge soon forced me out of my inertia. It's an UP for Rayner and his ever complex, curmudgeonly but caring, personality!
In amongst the curter quips, clapping of hands, and back-to-business splashes of cold water, Rayner does show his softer side. His aforementioned exchanges with Tilly were a highlight of the episode. Rayner has also suffered a lot, and whilst that is, for so long as he maintains his own agency, not an excuse to be rude, it is an explanation, a reason to allow him his own 'ups & downs,' especially given the news that Tahal was on the way.
The crew of the Discovery have all seemed to warm to Rayner, too, not in spite of, but because of his quirks. They even eventually persuaded him to stop wearing a hole in the deck-plating and give the chair a go! The theme of the episode is equilibrium, and Rayner is reaching a balance — his very own Lagrange point.