To Be Announced

Bookstore in Chengdu 

Because it hit me what’s so absolutely heartbreaking about it. Aside from the fact that our gentle, kind, peaceful crew are trapped in a universe that goes against every single one of their values, and not only do they have to pretend to be something they’re not, they have to find out WHAT THEY WOULD BE CAPABLE OF if they only lived in different circumstances.

So when Jim asks the computer to read out his service record…

And that hurts, right? You can see in his eyes he’s sure he never would’ve done something like this, but keep watching.

Destroying a planet? A whole PLANET? That’s about as evil as you get, right? That look on Jim’s face is very very clearly “I couldn’t have. I would never. But I did.”

BUT THEN.

And we don’t see Jim’s face for this one. I’m furious we don’t see Jim’s face for this one, but if we did I have a feeling it would break our hearts into ten thousand pieces. Jim has very real, singular reasons for believing himself incapable of an atrocity like that (specifically: he lived through one). But in this universe, he did it. In this universe, he’s capable of inflicting the kind of trauma he himself endured onto countless other people.

It’s no wonder this is what happens next: