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At the end of Discovery's first season, mirror universe Terran Emperor Georgiou joins the crew of Discovery. While the mirror universe is declared a secret and Georgiou is presented as her prime universe counterpart Captain Georgiou to the outside world, virtually anyone aboard Discovery has been to the mirror universe and is probably aware of what is going on.

At the end of season 2, Discovery

departs to the far future.

At this point, keeping up all the "vows of silence" makes no sense anymore.

Not at last because many of those orders to keep things secret concern Discovery itself.

What's the point of still treating mirror-Georgiou as if she were a member of the crew? In 3x04, she is even invited to Saru's dinner, along with the bridge crew (and only the bridge crew!), as if she were a close friend or an especially esteemed crewmember of any sort.

I understand why exiling her somewhere may be considered too risky, given the improbable skill and willingness that she demonstrates to use anything and anyone she finds to her advantage. But why in the world is this character not locked up in a brig?

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  • Because they expected to be able to go back to their normal time and you don't just abandon military discipline because you're temporarily not on base?
    – Valorum
    Nov 7, 2020 at 21:31
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    @Valorum: As far as I understood, Discovery's crew very much does not expect to ever go back to their normal time. In fact, permanently removing themselves from their normal time was the entire purpose of time-travelling to the 30-something'th century in the first place.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 7, 2020 at 21:38
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    @Valorum: Even so, note that the consequence of combining "we must keep the existence of the mirror universe secret" and "the mirror universe counterpart of Captain Georgiou is our prisoner" cannot possibly be "we allow the prisoner to roam freely and treat her as if she were Captain Georgiou, with virtually all priviledges implied by this". Logically, it should be "we lock her up and keep the existence of this prisoner secret, as well".
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 7, 2020 at 21:38
  • For some reason, this is reminding me of the time in Voyager when a second-season episode ended with the "original" Ensign Harry Kim dead, and his doppelganger taking his place in the crew . . . and then all the characters and writers implicitly shrugged and forgot the whole thing, never to refer to it again in the remaining seasons of the show! They seem to have taken it for granted that the two Ensign Kims were perfectly interchangeable spare parts, so why make any fuss?
    – Lorendiac
    Nov 8, 2020 at 4:17
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    @Lorendiac: I think they were, because they used to be the very same person until Voyager hit the anomaly that duplicated the ship.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 8, 2020 at 7:34

2 Answers 2

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Because they need her.

Without doubt former Empress Georgiou is ruthless and unprincipled. But she's also been shown to have a protective streak a mile wide centered on Michal Burnham.

That protectiveness can and has been turned to encompass the whole Discovery crew at least in so far as they represent additional tools for ensuring Michael's survival.

Discovery is currently sitting nearly a millennia away from it date of launch. It's technology is antiquated and without both the Spore Drive and the Burn giving them at least some room to work with, the ship and crew would be about as impressive as the Mary Rose rocking up to confront the Borg.

Georgiou has demonstrated the ability to keep the crew alive numerous times. Locking someone in the brig for that is undoubtable a position of Death before Dishonour. Perhaps a Star Fleet crew looking to bring about the re-birth of the Federation should be following such a principle. But if they did, they wouldn't have made it out of S3E02. And without having picked up a little of that same philosophy Michael would have been unlikely to have made it out of S03E04.

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    It was only 600 years between the launching of HMS Victory and the battle of Wolf 359. Discovery is over 900 years in its future — think Mary Rose, not Victory.
    – Mike Scott
    Nov 8, 2020 at 13:30
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    @MikeScott noted and updated :)
    – Jontia
    Nov 8, 2020 at 16:19
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    Well, Burnham apparently did rather fine for a year without having Emperor Georgiou around. And it's not at all clear that "protective streak" can be relied upon in any way and will not turn into a "destructive streak" the next moment. The way the character is presented, it seems likely she will sell out Discovery as soon as she finds an opportunity to ally herself with a more stable faction that grants her a command position. Yet, although I think it still doesn't explain why she is e.g. even invited to Saru's dinner party, I agree "they need her" is probably the supposed reasoning ...
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 8, 2020 at 21:47
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    ... by the contrived plot logic DIS goes by, so I'll accept this answer.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 8, 2020 at 21:47
  • @O.R.Mapper I'm not sure Discovery stands out on its own for this sort of logic.
    – Jontia
    Nov 9, 2020 at 22:25
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as for the legal side of the matter, she has been granted political asylum as a refugee, and has comited no crimes agenst the UFP. Therefore she probobly not be legaly detained unless there is an extradition agreenment with the miror universe or has comited a crime under the laws of the UFP.

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    "has comited no crimes agenst the UFP" - this may be a questionable claim. Note that nowadays, it is possible to be held responsible for certain crimes committed in another country towards people in that country. Furthermore, it is possible being an active member in an organization like the Terran Empire is a crime in itself. On the other hand, I concede the Federation may be "shooting itself in its own foot" in that respect by keeping the existence of the mirror universe secret and therefore removing it from the set of legally valid considerations.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 8, 2020 at 21:37
  • This is a guess, however it would fit the context. Besides ds9 s1e5 makes it clear that regardless of the meathod of entry, anyone within the boarders can make a refugee claim. Georgiou was also meantioned as being a refugie in season 1. There is also the fact that, yes they could not arrest or detain her without reveling the existance of the alternate universe.
    – noam
    Nov 10, 2020 at 0:23

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