The episode starts with an historic event in Burnham’s life, the destruction of her life as she knew it at age 10. Living an idyllic life with her parents until the Klingons arrive and spoil it all. Just before they can trap her, Burnham’s Mum, Dr Burnham, manages to escape, to 950 years into the future! And in that future, all sentient life has been destroyed by Control.
She makes numerous attempts, 840 and counting, to influence the future and remove the finality of the destruction of the Galaxy by Control. She works out that Control manages to achieve the retrieval of the Sphere data each time, and this is the whole fulcrum of the gain that Control gets each time. Obviously 840 attempts at saving the Galaxy would make someone a little bit cynical and outspoken. And we find that Dr Burnham has removed her compassion for her Daughter when they finally meet at Burnham’s insistence when her Mother clearly doesn’t want to be connected and tied emotionally to her Daughter.
Control manages to capture Leland and through some great CGI, Control explains via emulating Burnham, Pike, Saru and finally Leland himself that Control needs to up its game and consume Leland’s body with nanobots, not a pleasant moment as I really felt Leland’s pain.
During the 840 attempts, Dr Burnham explained that she was responsible for the Discovery crossing paths with the sphere and thus this causes Pike to disagree then agree with Dr Burnham that the Sphere data must be deleted. Upon being commanded to delete the data, Saru establishes that the Sphere has created a self-defence mechanism and has protected itself within a secure environment by using a primitive language that no one knows.
Leland, or should I suggest LelandControl. Now uses all means at his/it’s disposal to get that data. He convinces Tyler and Georgiou that the data is not safe with Pike and Discovery, but we all know it is, and they agree. Tyler attempts to discreetly place what looks to be a high tech flashing bottle top, near to the computer of the Discovery to suck the data out and send to LelandControl but he has a change of heart and informs LelandControl that he’s having doubts that he’s doing the right thing, so does the right thing and stops the transfer. LelandControl, at this point should’ve rolled his eyes but instead he beamed down to the surface where Burnham and her Mother were having a reunion.
I should state at this point that a lot of Einstein’s Laws have already come into place and time is demanding the return of Dr Burnham and her hi-tech suit to return to the 950-year point, or more accurately, 930 year point (because Dr. Burnham’s trip in the Angel Suit was 20 years ago).
Putting that all aside, LelandControl beams down to find Georgiou in defence of Burnham and Dr. Burnham and her and LelandControl go all Bruce Lee on each other. And I’m sure that Michelle Yeoh smiled when she read that part of the script. The fight scene, I have to say, was quite realistically brutal with neither gaining the victory over the other, I do have to say that LelandControl has a similar flashing bottle top and tries to drain the transfer that Stamets and Co are doing to the Angel Suit. Pike’s bridge crew suggested transferring the data from the sphere to the Red Angel Suit before Time whisked the suit and Dr. Burnham into the future and thus removing the Sphere data out of the grasp of LelandControl but before they could do it, the Angel suit and Dr. Burnham were whisked off to the future by a temporal time storm. And as she disappeared, Burnham got Stamets, Nhan, Georgiou and Burnham beamed up immediately and then Pike rained hellfire in the shape of a salvo of torpedo’s down on the location of where the team had just been and hopefully killing LelandControl but no, he/it escaped and to make matters worse, has a 100% copy of the Sphere Data and also has warped away in the Section 31 ship leaving Tyler in an escape pod.
VERDICT: I rate this episode 10 out of 10 because, like its predecessor, it’s an amazing episode. Sonequa Martin-Green’s emotional depth as an actress is just amazing. And this episode was all about her, her Mother and LelandControl. All three have amazing acting talents and, for once, the other cast took a back seat in a very laidback supporting role, but Tilly still managed a one-liner or two, which I love. There is a more settled respect between Burnham and Spock and maybe a more suitable understanding of each other. Ethan Peck was rightly cast as Spock in my opinion.
The direction of this episode is as stunning as the visual affects and just everything about this episode has raised the bar above the previous episode. I cannot stress that in an ever changing world that we live in, Star Trek has evolved too and anyone who disagrees with that statement is stuck in the past and needs a Red Angel suit.
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