This scene...from Discovery s2 "Perpetual Infinity"
I was rewatching s2 and I'm always struck by how good this scene is. Michelle and Sonja are both so talented and it's so subtle how many things are happening.
Gabrielle is Michael's biological mother the one Michael idolizes and grieves and lost so tragically.
Philippa's her chosen mother, not just because she adopted Mirror Michael, she's made choices (and will make choices) that prioritize Prime Michael's safety and well-being over her own.
Philippa accustomed to having the upper hand, she knows things from her universe. Gabrielle knows thousands of timelines,thousands of futures stretching out from this point. She's one of the few people who has more knowledge than Philippa.
Philippa would use this to her advantage, if their positions were reversed.
Gratitude is not the Terran way, so that's uncomfortable, but also Philippa doubts her affection, doubts her usefulness to Michael (her own daughter betrayed her, surely she will fail this one too?).
Gabrielle sees this person from another universe of violence and betrayal, and she must have doubted Michael when she saved the Emperor, and then Philippa saves Michael, over and over, she dies for her. It doesn't save the timeline, it's futile be sure Control keeps winning, but the evil Emperor from another universe.that doesn't believe in self-sacrifice dies for Michael, and the galaxy.
Philippa keeps doing the thing Gabrielle can't do, she keeps putting Michael first.
And the contrast between them is more.intense because Philippa is so emotionally vulnerable in this episode. Michael's (understandably) a wreck because her mother is alive and then her mother won't talk to her and then she's so cold, after all this time. Michael and Gabrielle's relationship is so layered and tentative and careful.
Philippa's relationship with Michael in contrast is very open in this episode and the one before. Philippa's incredible emotionally vulnerable (for a Terran and for a human of this universe), she would have saved Michael over the mission last episode, she sends Michael on a collision course with Leland, and she stood over Michael while she was unconscious, freshly back from the dead, for five hours.
The contrast between Gabrielle's very careful emotional distance and Philippa's emotional availability in this episode fascinates me.
And it ends with Philippa putting herself between the galaxy (and Michael) and harm once again.
Philippa could be using her section 31 connections to try and return to her universe, say fuck Control, fuck this soft, too bright place, but she stays. She works for the Federation, she fights for hope.
Which is another great contrast because Gabrielle is so fatalistic.
They're also both geniuses and there's so much power between them and contained in this scene. I love it. It's so well done.
Michael keeps getting her mothers (and mentors) torn away from her, but the one she kidnapped away from dead (and self sacrifice, Philippa you're a terrible Terran) stays.
I love how it takes two different universes for Michael and Philippa to get the depth and very reluctant vulnerability they don't get in other relationships, how they are found family in the most complicated way.
