8 Ups & 2 Downs From Star Trek: Discovery 5.7 - Erigah

At the risk of sounding repetitive, although that is half the point, this is only my second ever Ups & Downs and already my second UP to Tilly and her -isms. The brilliant one-liners and Tilly brilliance more generally continue, however. 

In last week's episode, Whistlespeak, Tilly was focused on the wellbeing of one of her students in particular; this week, in Erigah, her imperative is the protection of all her cadets from the Breen. With the Dreadnought on the way, Tilly, phaser in hand, sets off to Federation HQ before Commander Stamets stops her and convinces her to stay. Tilly's skills are needed aboard Discovery to help decipher the current clue from the aptly named Betazoid (Doctor MARINA [!] Derex). In general, it's also a great episode for Stamets this week. He plays the needed role of gentle reminder(er) of the importance of the main mission within all the Breen brouhaha.

A little later, and whilst we could have done without another mention of Adira's over-egged time bug woes — not your fault, let's move on — I couldn't help but appreciate the very Tilly-ness of the advice and encouragement she gives them as both work on the quandary of the Betazoid book: "You're really finding your way, and you shouldn't be afraid to take on more…," Tilly tells Adira. "You have it in you." Tilly really is a teacher through and through!!

We also got more 'hilariously sarcastic Tilly(-isms)' this week. Of particular note, towards the end of the CV conversation with Commander Reno:

Adira to Reno: "You really got around. Oh, not like that."

Reno: "Oh yeah! Like that!"

Tilly: "Well, story for another time."

Maybe that's what the coda is really all about!