You astonish me.

they connected them again in ways that are so interesting

I have a post somewhere where I put La'an into Kirk's background for TOS, building off s2 in which my assumption was that La'an would be important to Kirk in some way and then he would lose her (I don't want La'an to die, but her dying theory has been around since s1, and I do feel like it might happen - and they might mirror Captain Kirk's death, and she would die in Jim's arms. Also she stabbed him now, so later, she might take a stab for him)

and then when Kirk meets Khan, he remembers La'an and lets him live, and when he meets him again, he gets to be reunited with his son and get a new chance (so for me there is this huge connection with La'an and Khan and Kirk and David/Carol)

but one thing that Kirk heard from La'an in this episode after she stabbed him was that David will also die like that. Sam mentioned that Kirks have to die alone.

La'an: "Your little boy is going to die just like you. At the hand of a blade. Bleeding out in a dark corner of a space." Sam: "We're gonna die. In space. Alone. Like Kirks are born to do."

And so in a way, they connected La'an and David's death. After Kirk reunites with David thanks to Khan, he will soon lose him as La'an told him.

"who better captain a ship of the damned than a Kirk" - Jim is so traumatized and messed up. But does it come from him? Does it come from La'an? Some entity? La'an (who is also so traumatized) has become what she fears the most while telling Kirk what he is afraid the most. Like even without any shippiness, this is so intriguing, because they thought it clearly needed to be the two of them. (Like Spock cut off his ears, Kirk could have stabbed himself while seeing Sam, for example, but they thought they needed La'an to hurt Kirk, so it means they should follow up on that, right? Am I getting delusional here?)

Also the parallel between Spock/T'Pring and Kirk/La'an is also interesting. I wonder if real T'Pring will be back. Would be a shame if they just brought the actress back for this little thing.

Anyway, another thing! Spock thing.

– it's like I'm watching a soap opera T_T (also Spock's hair is so ugly)

– love to see that Kirk still opens up to La'an so easily

– also Kirk reading Patrick O'Brian is canon now. Amazing. (I should read the first book lol)

– "Let's boldly go." why do they feel the need to just add these things? It's so silly and makes Kirk silly. Write him like a person not a "gotta give him all the pop-culture lines I can think of" 🙄 (He never said that btw. The fear about McCoy rises tbh because so many lines that he never said or that were taken out of context are a part of cultural subconsciousness. And some of it AOS then made canon and ugh too as well. Dammit, Bones. is something Kirk said twice, but no one remembers. Dammit, Jim. was said by McCoy one time in TWOK(?) and he's known for it T_T and the I'm a doctor was not even a part of it. The first time he said that on screen was in Beyond. Beyond, you know? But Dammit, Bones, you're a doctor is a thing Kirk said.)

– why do so many people who worked on Supernatural write for this? 😅 also this episode is too dark to watch during full daylight...

– She still calls him James 💕

– this is so bad lol like kissing Spock just because she's going away with Kirk like "don't worry, babe, I have no feelings for him" (the awkward beginning would suggest otherwise. What was that about anyway)

– I'm not going to read into this. I'm not going to read into this. I'm not going to read into this. But also Kirk definitely still feels a connection to La'an. (This is 100% my bias, but I will never give up on that.)

– But also like 50% of what Kirk says is just... so bad lol I wonder if it was this bad in s2 as well

– "Why is Spock in my nightmare?" :D I love T'Pring, even though she isn't real

– La'an sure likes to say "James"

– Spock and T'Pring is so good T_T I love T'Pring, this show should have more T'Pring. S1 was so good. No matter what I say here, I genuinely loved s1 and 2.

– thx for making Kirk Sr. absent. I mean they already did in s2, but thanks for not changing that, bad family situation is so important for my (characterization of) Kirk

– I wish this show had more Spock and Una. Or Una in general.

– anyway, no idea what I have watched since there was no explanation. But I don't watch horror, so I found most of it boring.

– Kirk's familial trauma is good (and it was why I wanted to watch this) because that just fits my idea of Kirk, even though the execution felt lacking. I feel like they expect that people will feel sorry for Kirk because they know he has a son (and know TWOK and TSFS), but it just felt like a weird nostalgia baiting rather than really delving into how much it hurts Kirk not to be there for his son. (And I'm someone who literally considers Carol and David so so so important to Kirk, so like I should be affected, but it just felt hollow)

– the whole episode, actually, felt very emotion-less, like things were happening, characters were suffering, but idk, it wasn't affecting me. And sure, why not show Sam dying in front of Kirk just so he can carry even more trauma around when the guy dies a few years later for real, but also make that scene more emotional? More poignant? IDK

at least the scene between Spock and T'Pring had a great tension, but also T'Pring has more presence than Spock 😅

– I wonder if they're trying to establish a Kirk and La'an arc again (otherwise it feels a bit pointless, unless they wanted to put an end to "and what about Carol, actually? Do you remember Carol? You mentioned her like idk what two years ago in the show's timeline?" and they felt like La'an had to be around for that, idk), since he wanted to ask her something and didn't, but also La'an tried to kill him and so she will now never want to be around him again, probably (but also the nightmares she'll probably have where James and James will merge. I do not have the ability to write a fic tho). So they probably just wanted to put an end to it.

– I don't like that it feels they're trying to kill La'an eventually. I don't think it's necessary to just kill off all characters who were never in TOS. But it feels like La'an is going to die protecting the crew.

– thanks for having Kirk and Spock exchange like one line only.

– the scenes between Kirk and fake!Sam were also good (but you know, like remembering TOS, and how one episode could make you feel so many emotions and also fall for a character you haven't seen before, this was also so hollow. But I suppose that's the down side of having so many characters.)

– also I wonder if Spock and La'an are gonna break up, because "I am back to logic now". Funny that it was a manifestation of T'Pring that brought him to that, and I guess if I were more invested into ST atm, I'd probably have more thoughts about that and how it reflects on Spock and T'Pring's relationship (I can't help it, it's still my fave Spock's relationship)