Summary[]
Michael Burnham wakes up in sickbay, thinking that she only dreamt of meeting her mother. But Pike tells her that it's true. Dr. Gabrielle Burnham is the Red Angel. She escaped the Klingon raid on Doctari Alpha with the time travel suit. But instead of going to the past to avert it, she found herself 950 years in the future, at a time when Control, the evolved AI, had already eradicated all life in the galaxy. Whatever she tries, she can't prevent it from happening, and after every mission she is pulled back into the desolate future. The forcefield still holds her in place on Essof IV, but it won't last for long.
On the Section 31 ship, Control modifies Leland's body with microscopic devices to act as a human instrument. The mind-controlled Leland wants Tyler to access the data obtained from the Sphere, allegedly to secure it. Conversely, Gabrielle Burnham tells Pike that the Sphere data will be crucial in the evolution of the AI and has to be deleted. She tried to destroy the Sphere herself and she sent the Discovery to intercept, but in all cases Control eventually got hold of the data. Despite Saru's objections, Pike orders to delete the files from Discovery's memory banks. The data, however, builds an encryption around itself that protects it from deletion.
Michael Burnham, Spock and Stamets come up with a plan to transfer everything to the time travel suit so it would vanish in the future, and to save her mother by powering transport enhancers with dark matter, which will allow to beam her into the space-time continuum of the present. In the meantime, Leland has sent Georgiou to the site, equipped with a device to intercept the data stream and copy it to the Section 31 ship. But Georgiou is suspicious of Leland's behavior and tells Tyler to look after him. Leland immediately attacks and seriously injures Tyler.
Tyler still manages to warn the Discovery, but Leland has already beamed down to Essof IV where he kills the security personnel and destroys the time crystal as well as the controls of the transport enhancers. Georgiou fights against Leland, who is impervious to phaser fire. Burnham and Stamets decide to disable the forcefield emitters so the suit with the data would be pulled into the far future, knowing that they have no means of keeping back Gabrielle Burnham. Pike orders Burnham, Stamets, Nhan and Georgiou to be beamed up and then destroys the site. Leland, however, manages to escape with 54% of the Sphere data. The Discovery picks up an escape pod with Tyler.
Errors and Explanations[]
Nit Central[]
- Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 - 2:16 pm: If the suit is always tethered to its point of origin and always returns to it, why is it returning to the time period 950 years in the future where Burnham's mother ended up, instead of the 23rd century lab it originally departed from? The point of origin may have shifted to the far future.
- To prevent Control from getting the Sphere's data, Discovery's crew decides to delete it. However, the file protects itself by continuously rewriting its access codes, making deletion impossible. Ok fine, so why not physically destroy the memory modules it is stored in? That may not be possible - Control could disrupt the activation of the destruct mechanism.
Ex Astris Scientia[]
Continuity[]
- Bernd Schneider: What will happen to dark matter? If it's so easy to harvest it and to put it to practical use, there is no reason why Starfleet would forget about this immensely powerful and efficient new energy source. The harvesting could have been subsequently banned in order for some reason.
Nitpicking[]
- Gabrielle Burnham can't talk to anyone and can stay in the past for at most a few moments before the "rubber band" pulls her back 950 years into the future. It is a total mystery how she could relocate the people from World War III without a starship or another method of traveling across the galaxy. Maybe they got pulled through the wormhole?
- Every appearance of the Red Angel opens a micro wormhole and would draw a lot of attention. How could Gabrielle Burnham possibly be present at events in her daughter's life without being noticed? By hiding in plain sight!
- After not caring for it in the past couple of episodes, Stamets suddenly knows how to harness the energy of dark matter and use it for a practical purpose? Perhaps he suddenly revieved a flash of insperation!