About Ensign Tilly
Quick note I really and truly loved everything else about this episode. Like forreal Michael and Book, Ni’Var, the qurom, the Quwot Milat showing up. I loved all of that but this one thing needs to be written about.
First Michael and Sylvia’s friendship has been neglected pretty much since the middle of season 2 as is often the case with women’s friendships in television. What they’re doing this seasn however goes a step beyond simply neglecting it, they’ve actually made Tilly into the white fairweather friend who is only a friend as long as it serves her.
If I didn’t know better I’d say it was Captain Killy playing the long game. Now I have two schoools of thought about this. One that the writer’s room is so blind to their own white privilege that they don’t actually see what they have done with the friendship, Tilly not standing by Michael and then benefiting from her choice by getting Michael’s job.
The other is that they are revisiting the bonds of friendship between the three main characters, teasing out the weaknesses and addressing them directly within the show.
I hope it’s the latter. Emotionally many of the relationships fell flat for me as of the end of season one. The Disco crew did a full 180 and went from hating Michael to loving her. Michael deserves all the love and respect and her relationship with Disco’s crew grew well over season right up until the end where it seemed to progress from growing friendships to best friends and family in the blink of an eye.
A lot of the underlying contention never seemed to be properly iron out IMHO. So as frustrating as some of this is if they are going in this direction it could work and really make them into an unstoppable trio on the Kirk, Spock McCoy order.
Conversely though they could blindly be going in another direction wholly unseeing of their white privilege.
As much as I want it to be something else we’ve seen time and again in Disco how care and support often flows from Black and POC characters to white characters. Michael is reflexively supportive. Owosekun and Detmer are canon but it’s Detmer that we see Owosekun supporting and never the other way around.
At this point it’s difficult to predict where the writers are going. Narratively it really does point toward Saru not yet being up to the captaincy and making a series of errors that eventually lead to colossal failure for the Kelpien with Michael saving the day at the last minute and maybe even becoming captain. But narrative sense has a funny habit of going out the window when racism and sexism are in play. So who knows where they are really going with all of this.
And for anyone who asks what exactly takes this situation beyond the pale:
Tilly immediately tells Saru he needs to inform the admiral because it will make them look bad, very season one of Tilly to put appearances over loyalty and friendship, conversely others have pointed out that it was very community orientated. From that perspective maybe it’s not so bad but then we head immediately into
Tilly demanding an apology from Michael
Tilly making the entire thing about herself: “what would happen to me?”
this is her best friend she never asks why Michael made that decision, never asks to meet Book or anything.
When Michael finally does express her thoughts and feelings that she might leave Tilly immediately ices her out. That’s really fucking shitty behavior from someone who proclaims themselves as your best friend
When Saru officers to make her XO she could take the opportunity to speak up for her so-called best friend but she doesn’t
She takes the promotion (fine)
when she next sees Michael her question is how do I make this easy for you in reference to Michael leaving showing that she has accepted Michael’s choice all well and good but in light of everything else it’s hard not to read it as Tilly not really caring all that much now that Michael can’t really do anything for her or worse rushing Michael away so she can keep her job
It’s so fucking ugly. At no point does Tilly ever behave in the way one would want a friend to behave. Michael was clearly going through it in the episode getting demoted, going to Ni’var, the qurom was an emotional ringer where all her shit was exposed to a group of strangers and all this for Starfleet while she is wondering if she even still wants to be a apart of it.
Truly I have to asks with friends like these who needs enemies?
And if you still can’t see it ask yourself is this what you would want from your best friend in a situation like this?