Star Trek: Discovery 4x11 "Rosetta" Review

By the start of this episode, Discovery has gotten closer to communicating with Species Ten-C, but they still have to get inside the hyperfield that the species has built around themselves. In the meantime, they're near a former gas giant that they believe is the species' home planet, and they make the decision to go down to investigate and hopefully find something that will help them communicate with Ten-C once they meet them.

While Discovery tries to find something on the planet, Book and Tarka make plans to hitch a ride on Discovery to make it through the hyperfield, which includes them going on Discovery themselves to execute their plan. It's actually kind of creepy how easy it apparently is for people to sneak onto the ship. I know Book knows the ship well and Tark is a genius, but that still raises a few security issues...

While on Discovery, Book and Tarka overhear General Ndoye talking to President T'Rina and learn that she's frustrated with the plan of going down to the planet instead of immediately talking to Ten-C. Book convinces Tarka to bring her in on the plan, which they do, but she insists that it be a back up plan only. Book agrees to that, but I have this sneaking suspicion that Tarka won't and will jump in and ruin things again.

Honestly, I'm frustrated that Book still trusts him at all after everything that's happened. It doesn't sit well with me.

While they're doing that, the crew on the surface of the planet finds some bones that have me extremely curious what this species is going to look like, and they also start hallucinating. It turns out that they've found Ten-C's pheromones (essentially), and those pheromones convey what their emotions were even after a long time has passed. It's...interesting. Honestly, it feels a little weird, but okay. Michael refers to it as their Rosetta Stone, which I figured was coming when I saw that the episode was titled "Rosetta."

While they're on the planet, Detmer makes a reference to having attended PTSD therapy, which I greatly appreciate after her mental health storyline seemed to have just been dropped for a long time.

Adira also admits to admiring Detmer in this episode, which was cute. It reminded me of when Stamets mentioned Adira looking up to Tilly earlier in the season, but of course, Tilly's not currently on Discovery (and I miss her). I guess it makes sense that Adira would find someone else to look up to since they're young compared to the rest of the crew.

On an exciting note, Reno's in this episode! It feels like ages since we've seen her, so I was happy to have her pop up. I enjoyed her interactions with Adira and how she gave them advice as well. Plus, Tarka takes her captive, so I'm hoping that means she's in the next episode as well.

Towards the end of the episode, they theorize that Ten-C built the hyperfield to protect themselves after their planet was destroyed, and yeah, that makes sense. I'm very curious to meet these people at this point, so I really hope that we do actually get to see them in the next episode.

How I Met Your Father 1x08 "The Perfect Shot" Review

This episode continues the trend of name dropping as many celebrities as it can within an episode. I'm pretty tired of it, especially when it comes to any scene involving Valentina's job. Did How I Met Your Mother name drop this often? I know it did sometimes, and it's possible it was this bad and I just don't remember it. But this feels really excessive, and boy, is it probably going to date the show in just a few years.

We meet Meredith in this episode. Technically, we've seen her before in the infamous video of Jesse proposing, but now we actually get to know her a bit. Sid obviously has a negative opinion of her, and I can see his point of view from how she's portrayed in this episode, but I could also see her becoming more sympathetic if we were given more time with her. As someone who strongly believes public proposals are a bad idea unless the person you're proposing to has said they're okay with it, I completely understand her feeling like she was put on the spot and saying no. And I do think it was Jesse's fault for doing that as a surprise. I actually hope that's dealt with more in the future, and it doesn't just continue to be portrayed as if we should be sympathetic for Jesse.

Anyway, it turns out that Meredith has gotten a record deal, and her single is going to be about Jesse. Jesse doesn't actually learn that in this episode, but I'm guessing he will. We also don't know what the song is like yet, but I have a feeling that is going to play a role in a future episode, and I'm curious about what direction that will go in. I'm hoping maybe it'll take a step towards making Meredith less of a villain, since she'll be expressing her own feelings in the song.

This episode also expands on comments Valentina made last time about her hating her job. It turns out that her job is even worse than what I imagined. Her boss has a doll, so he can insult her while claiming he's not actually doing so. It's crazy to believe that Valentina was putting up with this at work without venting to Sophie about it at all. That had to have been hard to take, and I hope something happens where she's able to get a new job or, at the very least, things change with her current one.

Throughout the episode, Sophie is struggling to find the perfect picture to send to the woman from last time. Her and Jesse both talk about being struggling artists, and Sophie gets worried that she'll never make it. Jesse encourages her, but later in the episode, she and Drew fight about it. I like that this potential end to their relationship relates back to the initial conflict of Drew being more "put together" than Sophie. Sophie being an artist doesn't mean she's immature or less put together, but Drew's belief that her dream isn't serious does make sense with the way he seems more serious about life. It feels like a very natural end to the relationship, though I was honestly expecting them to stay together a bit longer than that.

All Sophie says is that they had a fight, but I'm assuming they broke up considering she kisses Jesse at the end of the episode. Either that or they're going to break up pretty soon.

If I remember correctly, Sophie just told her son an episode or two ago that we had a long way to go before she got with his dad, so the fact Jesse and Sophie have already kissed really makes me think he's not the dad. (I'm extremely suspicious of Sid at this point to be honest.) This episode was the first one that made me feel even a little invested in them potentially though, as I liked the way they bonded over being artists. I don't know. We'll see how it goes.

Book Review: A Black Women's History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

Published: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Beacon Press
Received: purchased
Read from January 8 to February 24, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country

In centering Black women's stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women's unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today.

A Black Women's History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women's lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women's history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation.

Review:

A Black Women's History of the United States is the fifth book in the ReVisioning American History series that aims to look at US history through perspectives that have historically been overlooked. This one, as is obvious from the title, is about the history of Black women in the US.

Each chapter starts by profiling a Black woman from the period that the chapter focuses on. I really liked this structure. The authors didn't focus on Black women who everyone's heard of. Instead, I learned about a lot of remarkable women for the first time, and their stories helped personalize that era of history before we delved deeper into the chapter and learned more about it.

I really appreciated such a deep dive into history centered on Black women. There were parts of the book that I had heard before, but a lot of it was new information. I've never read a book that was entirely focused just on the history of Black women, and I really appreciated being able to read about it so in-depth.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about US history, especially in ways that it's long been overlooked.

How I Met Your Father 1x07 "Rivka Rebel"

In this episode, Sophie meets with a gallery owner who she admires, but instead of being asked to be in her gallery, the woman wants her to take pictures at her daughter's bat mitzvah. The daughter ends up being an influencer who is difficult to work with. It was kind of painful seeing the daughter portrayed as a caricature essentially.

I liked Valentina finally opening up to Sophie about her job not being all that great. They both seem to come into contact with an impressive amount of celebrities though.

There were so many celebrities name dropped in this episode that it felt excessive.

Meanwhile, Charlie is settling into his job as a bartender, and he loves it. Until he gets a 1-star review on Yelp, and then he becomes very concerned about fixing it. In the end, it turns out to have been Ellen, and they have a cute scene together where he makes it up to her by writing a positive Yelp review. They're probably my favorite relationship on the show so far. I love their friendship!

Sid opens up to Jesse about feeling stressed about wedding planning because he wants to have two weddings, including one in India, but he doesn't know how to tell Hannah. He eventually does, and things go well. Still, I have a feeling that Hannah and Sid are going to break up. I think it's just all the struggles they seem to have gone through in just seven episodes and the distance between them.

Overall, I liked this episode. Charlie and Ellen's storyline was my favorite. While I found Charlie annoying at first, the traits I found annoying aren't as prominent anymore, and he's really grown on me as a character. I hope that continues.

Star Trek: Discovery 4x10 "The Galactic Barrier" Review

This episode starts with a meeting about what to do next. They've made first contact, but they still don't have a way to directly communicate with the unknown species.

We learn early on that Bryce isn't going on the mission with them. I'm not sure if that means we'll be seeing less of him in the future, too, or if this is just for this episode. It feels like more and more of the crew are leaving, and while I do get it, that's sad. Supposedly, we are going to see Tilly again (and Saru didn't leave for as long as I thought he would), but it's still sad to potentially lose some of the cast.

On the bright side, Adira is back after also leaving for a bit! I missed them, and they have an absolutely adorable scene with Stamets in this episode that I loved.

T'Rina ends up coming along on the mission, and we get more development on her and Saru's relationship. I'm still pretty neutral about this. I don't have many feelings about them one way or another. I keep hoping that I'll become more enthusiastic about it, but that hasn't happened yet.

This episode gives us a long look at Tarka's backstory. I appreciate getting to see it as I half expected that the whole story he'd fed Book was a lie, but I don't feel any more sympathetic towards him than I did before. I get that he was friends with the guy and wants to reach him again, but that part of the episode wasn't emotionally powerful enough for me to sympathize with how desperate Tarka is.

Right before Discovery leaves the galactic barrier, they get a message that the DMA is in the path of Earth and Ni'Var. It's bad news, and honestly, I hadn't seen that coming, though in hindsight it seems like an obvious move on the writers' part. I feel pretty confident that they'll save the day before the planets are destroyed, but I am excited for the tension it'll create.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode. Immediately after watching it, I went searching for fan theories about what happens next. I don't do that often with Discovery, but I was curious about what everyone is thinking. I'm not going to go into detail about what I read, but it did make me feel even more curious about the coming episodes.