Star Trek Discovery episode 13 - the Star Wars episode

That was an action packed episode!

Am still behind an episode as I finally saw episode 13 while episode 14 has already been released.

Anyway, all appears answered regarding Lorca.

(1) Indeed, the cross over to the Federation universe was due to a transporter accident during an ion storm just like in ST-TOS, Mirror Mirror.
(2) He was through and through an evil-hat villain purely out for his own power.
(3) He said a "Star Wars" like line to some so-and-so about that person's lack of vision much like Darth Vader did in Episode IV about finding some flunky's lack of faith disturbing.
(4) His attempt to draw Burnham over to the "dark side" was somewhat like Darth Vader trying to pull over Luke Skywalker.
(5) His falling to his death in the spore reactor looked a bit like the Emperor falling into the reaction chamber in Episode VI. The Engage - the Official Star Trek Podcast guys are speculating that maybe falling into the spore reactor might be a crazy way to keep the character alive for the future in some strange scenario. I hope not.

The giant Emperor Starship was a bit of a mash up of the Death Star and the Gigantic Imperial Star Destroyers. Also, the attack against the reactor core was straight out of the Star Wars Episode IV.

Regarding Georgiou and Burnham, they wind up teaming up to fight Lorca. The climatic hand-to-hand fight with the two of them on the same side against Lorca and Landry was just like the fight in episode 2 against Voq and T'Kuvma. This time however Georgiou survives the battle with Burnham's help. Georgiou's mirror character was certainly no saint but she did recognize her time as Emperor was up and was willing to fight for a cause other than her own. Though I suppose revenge against Lorca may have been the dominant motivation. How that will play out in the following episodes will be interest to see.

Doug Jones as Saru continues to amaze as he absorbs the news of Lorca's betrayal and responds with strong leadership for the crew. He gets to give his version of the St. Crispin's Day speech to rally the team. In that speech, he put a twist on the old Klingon proverb of "this is a good day to die."

Here is the whole speech from the UK Independent's recapper:

“It is well-known that my species has the ability to sense the coming of death. I do not sense it today. I may not have all the answers. However, I do know that I am surrounded by a team I trust. The finest a Captain could ever hope to command. Lorca abused our idealism. Make no mistake: Discovery is no longer Lorca’s. She is ours. Today will be her maiden voyage. We have a duty to perform, and we will not accept a no-win scenario. You have your orders. On your way.”

Meanwhile Stamets of the mirror universe was an evil-hat villain like Lorca and is promptly killed Federation Stamets figures out, with help from Tilly, how to get the crew home. Unfortunately, they wind up missing by 9 months and see the Klingons have nearly defeated the Federation. Out of one frying pan into another frying pan with a time-travel twist! This is a bit like Star Trek Enterprise after the horrible battles of the Xindi arc, they find themselves in a time shift in the "Storm Front" two-parter that kicked off season 4. Will see if the Disco writing team resolves this problem in two episodes or do they leave it hanging for season 2?

Many loose ends to address:

(1) What (if anything) did the ISS Discovery do while in the Federation Universe? The Engage podcast guys suspect perhaps the ISS Discovery helped the Klingons.
(2) How will the Federation recover from what appears to be a military defeat?
(3) Will L'Rell and Tyler-Voq have a role to play in helping Discovery turn the tide of defeat?
(4) What will mirror Georgiou be doing in the Federation Universe?
(5) Will there be more spore drive travel? Perhaps, using it to time travel?
(6) How will the spore drive technology be put back into the proverbial genie bottle? Will there be perhaps some intelligence behind the spore network and they will decide to shut the door to more usage of the network much like how the DS9 wormhole aliens can open or close the wormhole as they wish?