I don't get why being back to mirror universe made lorca super evil. From all you had seen, the core of his personality was a grey character. Not black and white. That said, the twist that he was from there was amazing in my opinion. I hadn't seen it coming. Would have been cool if the time jump had placed them somewhere where they could interact with characters from the old shows, like janeway, sisko, pickard etc. I like parts of the show and the visuals are spectacular, but the whole klingon war has been a bit of a mess. It does feel like the cast is starting to come together as a group.
Basically while he was in the prime universe he was able to blend in very well, taking advantage of the war to come off merely as 'hard, grizzled veteran', and knowing how to at least pay lip service to all the ideals. In the mirror universe, once he was off the Discovery and away from Burnham, there was no more need for such a facade.
Does it make his character less nuanced? Somewhat. He outright states he thinks the Federation is weak and not an ideal to be followed; indeed he's even more hardline than Emperor Georgieu about it. Almost everything we saw about him prior was an act, rather than genuine beliefs given the chance to come to the fore by circumstance, which is a bit odd given how that concept is one the show made into a bit of a theme with the Mirror Universe. But it does serve a general point (if one that, by the preview, is about to get more confusing), and I feel was reflected in a peculiar aspect of the character interactions this episode.
Namely... did anyone else notice that with Lorca gone, the crew was interacting more like a 'standard' Star Trek crew? The minor roles got more speaking lines with their names given out to make clear who they were, there was a briefing, plan building, and just... it all felt very 'Trek', for lack of better phrasing. Saru very much belongs in the Captain's chair, as his confidence is clearly growing, he's considerate of his crew, and he rebukes the idea that the Federation's idealism is a weakness. It's like Lorca was a corrupting influence that minimalised everyone outside of his personal sphere of preference. Also Saru yelled 'FIRE' I almost jumped out of my seat in excitement. Give that man a promotion already.
In light of the preview though, I think the ending line by Saru is a bit overblown, because as Cornwell states, they've lost 'only' 20% of their territory, which isn't really what the map shows - arguably because it only shows the parts threatened by the war, mostly in the Beta Quadrant - and that they've lost a third of their fleet. Both indications of the war going badly and the Klingons making firm advances rather than things going back and forth, and likely to snowball into certain defeat, sure, but that's not 'they've won the war'. They're
winning. Semantics perhaps, but I feel like it's an important distinction in where this storyline goes and how it sets up for the cold war scenario in less than ten years - at least with the above that can perhaps be recovered from reasonably, vs if the Federation only had 20% of its territory left, for example and the Klingons had literally decimated their fleet. Then again, this isn't the first time Trek has sided with the idea that the nominal rivalry would very much go the way of the Klingons if things ran on long enough (see: Yesterday's Enterprise). I am made curious that the show is going to go back to flirting with the idea that maybe Terran/authoritarian tactics are indeed necessary to preserve the Federation's ideals and all; with Lorca firmly established as having actually been a pretty bad dude, it would be odd to go around tolerating the literal fascistic dictator because there's no way to win the war without her. Mind, Discovery has been very much a case of mixed signals on exactly how it feels about the necessity of military might and pragmatism - and what it might condone as a result - so while I'm a little concerned, until the episode is actually out I'm going to keep my fingers crossed. At the same time this is the franchise and fandom that outright celebrates 'In The Pale Moonlight', so maybe I shouldn't be surprised if it goes the other way.
...Man, I did like the episode in itself, but it does leave a weird aftertaste.
