History Recap / StarTrekDiscoveryS1E10DespiteYourself

%%* HiddenHeartOfGold: Everyone in the Terran Empire is putting on a fierce front to mask fear, at least according to Burnham.
%%-->'''Burnham:''' Terran strength is born out of pure necessity. Because they live in constant fear, always looking for the next knife aimed at their back. Their strength is painted rust. It's a façade.

%%* MirrorUniverse: A rite of passage for any ''Star Trek'' series, and here ''Discovery'' gets its day.

''Discovery'' finds itself in the MirrorUniverse, and they have to find the way home without revealing who they really are. Tyler undergoes a crisis when Culber discovers evidence he's not who he thinks he is.

* AgonyBeam: The agony booth is a standard fixture of Terran brigs. Lorca unfortunately has to spend his time in one since that's how Terrans treat their prisoners.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The ''Shenzhou's'' bridge crew breaks into applause when they see Burnham has killed Mirror Connor, who by his own admission was never as popular as Burnham.

** In a similar vein, Burnham was grateful when Georgiou planned to help her get her own command. Now she also gets to be an evil Terran captain -- of the mirror version of the ship she previously served on. As if that weren't bad enough, one of her first acts is killing the mirror counterpart of the deceased Ensign Connor when he attempts a KlingonPromotion.

* BodyHorror: Culber's description of the surgical alteration done to Tyler/Voq is disturbing. What drops it to FridgeHorror levels is that while Culber identified significant scarring around the organs that hadn't been detected previously, there was apparently nothing odd about the organs themselves...suggesting that ''they're the real Tyler's organs''.
* BuryYourGays: Culber gets his neck snapped when he gets too close to the truth about Tyler. In After Trek, Executive Producer Aaron Harberts claims they are very much aware of the trope and try to avoid the bad parts of it.

* CassandraTruth: Stamets briefly becomes lucid (signified by his eyes returning to normal briefly) and tells Culber "The enemy is here!" Culber writes it off as insane rambling, but Tyler later snaps Culber's neck and Stamets repeats the line.

* EvilMeScaresMe: Tilly is ''terrified'' of her mirror counterpart, who is apparently a blood-soaked tyrant of epic proportions. She tells Burnham that she's going to now have nightmares about herself.

** Two involving Tyler: Saru's danger ganglia abruptly come out when Tyler enter the bridge, and Stamets warning "The enemy is here."

* NeverFoundTheBody: Mirror Burnham was lost and presumed dead in her pursuit of Mirror Lorca. Burnham uses this to impersonate her alternate self, claiming she was FakingTheDead as a ploy to capture Lorca.

* OddNameOut: Mirror Tilly's nicknames include "the Slayer of Sorna Prime," "the Witch of Wurna Minor" and... "Captain Killy."

* OhCrap: Tilly's reacts this way when she sees that her Terran counterpart is captain of ISS ''Discovery'' since she isn't looking forward to impersonate her.

* RedBaron: Captain Tilly of the Terran Empire is known as "The Slayer of Sorna Prime", "The Witch of Wurna Minor" and "Captain Killy". Saru snarks that the last one isn't very clever.
* {{Retcon}}: The U.S.S. ''Defiant'' (NCC-1764) is shown as a wireframe diagram and has several stark differences from the classic Constitution design as shown in "The Tholian Web" and "In a Mirror Darkly", suggesting either that it was modified in the century or so it spent under the control of the Terran Empire or that the [[CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel more advanced look]] of ''Discovery'' will be carried forward. Without a Prime Universe ''Constitution''-class for reference, it's hard to say for certain.

* ShoutOut: Culber mentions the "[[Film/TheManchurianCandidate Manchurian Protocol]]" used to test for brainwashing.

%%* HardWorkMontage: The U.S.S. ''Discovery'' transforming into the I.S.S. ''Discovery''.

%%* NeckSnap: Culber is killed by Tyler this way.

%%* OhCrap: Tilly's reaction when she sees that her Terran counterpart is captain of ISS ''Discovery''.

-->'''Burnham:''' Terran strength is born out of pure necessity. Because they live in constant fear, always looking for the next knife aimed at their back. Their strength is painted rust. It's a façade.

* HiddenHeartOfGold: Everyone in the Terran Empire is putting on a fierce front to mask fear, at least according to Burnham.

** As Burnham notes during her JerkassFacade explanation, Terrans constantly put up a tough front because everyone really is waiting to stab them in the back.

* JerkassFacade: Everyone in the Terran Empire is putting on a fierce front to mask fear, at least according to Burnham.
-->'''Burnham:''' Terran strength is born out of pure necessity. Because they live in constant fear, always looking for the next knife aimed at their back. Their strength is painted rust. It's a façade.

* AnyoneCanDie: Tyler snaps Culber's neck when Culber tries to prevent him from going on the mission with Burnham and Lorca, since his tests have him convinced that Tyler is not who he seems.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Tilly wanted to be a starship captain. Now she gets to be an evil Terran starship captain. Naturally, she's not thrilled.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Upon learning of the vastly different Terran Empire, Lorca has the crew go all-in so they can blend in. This includes repainting the hull and interior, switching everyone's uniforms, and even reprogramming the displays.

* HardWorkMontage: The U.S.S. ''Discovery'' transforming into the I.S.S. ''Discovery''.

* JerkassFacade: Everyone in the Terran Empire, at least according to Burnham.

* KlingonPromotion: Wouldn't be the mirror universe without it. Tilly's counterpart became captain of ''Discovery'' by knifing her superior, and Captain Connor tries it on Burnham.

* MirrorUniverse: A rite of passage for any ''Star Trek'' series, and here ''Discovery'' gets its day.

* NeckSnap: Culber is killed by Tyler this way.

* OhCrap: Tilly's reaction when she sees that her Terran counterpart is captain of ISS ''Discovery''.

* DeadPersonImpersonation: Burnham does this with her presumed-dead alternate self, so she can access encrypted Terran files on the ''Shenzhou''.
** Dead Ship Impersonation as well, albeit retroactively. ''Discovery'' has its markings and uniforms altered to match its counterpart. When they get back to the main universe several episodes later, it turns out their jump into the Mirror Universe caused them to swap places with the ISS ''Discovery'', which had since been destroyed by Klingons when it found itself in the main universe.

** Stamets shouting "Don't go to the palace!" as well as the comments about the mysterious Emperor are also clear foreshadowing (especially given TheReveal that his calling Tilly "captain" in an earlier episode was foreshadowing).

[[caption-width-right:350:Sylvia Tilly posing as Captain Killy.]]