Star Trek: Discovery — 2x10 — The Red Angel
Synopsis
Burnham is stunned when she learns her ties to Section 31 run deeper than she ever fathomed. Armed with the identity of the Red Angel, the U.S.S. Discovery goes to work on its most critical mission to date.
Remarkable scenes
- Pike: "Burnham is going to wake up one day, access time travel technology that doesn't exist yet, and take it upon herself to save the galaxy." Spock: "That supposition fits her emotional profile rather precisely. Particularly her drive to take responsibility for situations often beyond her control." Burnham, annoyed: "Thank you for sharing that with the group, Spock."
- Georgiou: "I was thinking you may be smarter than the Stamets I knew. You're also much more neurotic. Have you considered medication?"
- Tilly after the awkward scene with Georgiou: "...What just happened?!"
- Leland revealing to Burnham the truth of her parents.
- Cornwell: "Love is a choice, Hugh. And one doesn't just make that choice once. One makes it again and again. [...] The only way to make a new road is to walk it."
- Burnham's writhing exposure to the toxic atmosphere.
- Spock's refusal to end the mission, letting Burnham die.
- The red angel coming to rescue Burnham and getting caught in the trap.
- The red angel turning out to be Burnham's mother.
Review
We finally have the identity of the red angel: it's BurnhamBurnham's mom. We finally have an answer as to what precisely the red angel is: it's a time travel suit that Section 31 invented as part of an arms race with the Klingons 20 years ago. It was also developed to investigate the question as to whether a series of technological leaps in various civilizations' past were the result of contamination of the timeline, akin to what occurred in Voy: Future's End or Enterprise's Temporal Cold War. Though ironically, the technology developed to investigate this question could itself be the cause of that contamination. What precisely Burnham's mom is doing in the suit and how she survived the Klingon attack is a question for the next episode.
It continues to be a concern for canon that so much ultra advanced technology is being invented in the 23rd century. The existence of a personal time travel suit—even a classified one—presents serious problems for canon that are perhaps even worse than the spore drive. Like with the spore drive, we must ask what happens to this suit? Why is it never used again after the events of Discovery? It's unclear if the writers are much interested in that question as their track record of bothering to think these things through is mixed at best. Another wrinkle in canon worth thinking about that the writers probably aren't thinking about is how can Spock spend so much time with Mirror Georgiou now but know nothing of the mirror universe ten years later in TOS: Mirror, Mirror? Hopefully we get satisfactory answers eventually. One more murky detail is why exactly is Michael getting angry at Leland for the death of her parents? This is basically shooting the messenger territory. It seems her parents were lost in the line of duty on a mission they signed up for.
Aside from that stuff though this is a pretty engaging episode. We continue to see the narrative transition from mystery to suspense. It's nice to see Culber back at work while continuing to sort out his feelings. It's nice to see Cornwell's past as a counselor leveraged here. And the closing scenes involving setting the trap for the red angel are classic incoherent (in a good way) time travel logic that deliver solid dramatic tension, a satisfying payoff, and a compelling cliffhanger.