Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x10 - "The Red Angel"

Equipped with time travel technology he then then started to jump through time to right what once went wrong, never to return?

 

What an extraordinary episode! The drama and the feels are all there: a heartfelt funeral send-off for Ariam; Saru's elegant singing courtesy of Doug Jones' actual vocal gift; introducing Lt. Nilssom, the original actress who has played Airiam; the awkward confrontation between Georgiou, Stamets, Culber, and Tilly; the pep talk that therapist Admiral Cornwell gives Culber; Michael righteously punching Leland for her parent's demise; the satisfying sibling bonding between Michael and Spock; the emotional reconnection between Georgiou and her "surrogate daughter" Michael; the troubling witnessing of Michael's tortured dying; Leland's gruesome eyeful reward; finally Mom with wings...yes that mom.

 

So what is your issue, exactly?

 

Yes! There's still a way to victory in this!

 

Everyone seems to forget the lowly Starfleet Commander who "happened" to be stationed at an outpost by Bajor whose mother "happened" to be one of Bajor's Prophets who live in a wormhole with no temporal boundaries.

 

I wonder if you get CBS in a wormhole don't mind me I'm just being silly.

 

No, I mentioned him. No one can forget the Sisko.

 

The showrunners have said that Discovery is all about Michael...the unfolding story is told from her perspective, much like Picard and Georgiou will have their respective show told from their perspective.

 

When Spock insists that everyone stick to the plan that Burnham die for the Red Angel appear, even when everyone doubts it, it made me think back to "Spectre of the Gun". At the end of that episode, everyone else was also not 100% sure but Spock didn't waver and said they couldn't have the smallest doubt.

 

Two others, in fact. eschaton and IMC Headquarters. But I posted that before I checked any other thread. I don't remember everything everyone says offhand. I figured there was no point in editing what I said earlier because now it's there for other people to call me out on. Like now.

 

He truly did have her back...brother dearest. Another great moment from this episode.

 

They are obviously starting to turn Georgiou a bit more soft in preparation for her own series and/or her continued role on Discovery which I don't mind, I expected that but it still surprised me that she was the first one jumping to Michael's rescue.

 

She must still love Michael, at least her Michael, which she has transferred those feelings to our Michael. I rather liked that scene where they were talking before the experiment.

 

I had the same issue. That was the point I was like "man, this episode is a bunch of melodramatic crap." Though it did right itself later on.

I mean, in a broad sense I suppose you could say Leland was "responsible" for their deaths. But it was clearly a mistake, and everyone involved worked for Section 31. It's like if your parents are in the military, are killed in combat, and you eventually meet their commanding officer who planned the mission 20 years later. Yes, if it wasn't for that call, they would be alive. But to err is human. And it happened when she was a small child. And Leland was obviously wracked by guilt about it for decades. I can understand being confused, saddened - but filled with rage as if he was the murderer?

I wonder if we as viewers were supposed to identify with Michael here, or see her in the wrong. Georgiou earlier in the season telegraphed something like this would happen. On the other hand, there's a symmetry between Leland's "responsibility" for Burnham's parents and Burnham indirectly causing the death of Georgiou is painfully obvious - meaning Burnham should have been able to identify with Leland.

We know Section 31 has access to tech that Starfleet thinks is "futuristic" in general. Also, it's entirely possible that Mama Burnham upgraded the suit in the future.

As I said, the bionural match thing may be accurate. Just because it was Mama Burnham in the suit this time doesn't mean it's always been her. Some of the earlier intervention into the timeline may have been future Michael. For example, Burnham would have a reason to save Saru and the Kepiens, but her mother wouldn't give a crap.

 

I thought about that angle too. While she would be forced to save herself, she could alter the approach to avoid the trap. She knows how they're trying to catch her and would be able to change her plan. Some tech to avoid the trap or alter the timing of her rescue--it is a time suit after all. In other words, rescue her before the trap is set.

So, I'm glad it wasn't her because that would cause many complications and defies logic. Based on the information they had, including Michael in their plans to catch Michael didn't make sense. Ultimately it worked because it wasn't Michael.

 

I have no problem with Michael's reaction to Leland's admission. It was her parents. Considering everything connected with Burnham started with the deaths of her parents, her reaction is completely understandable. Was it right? No. Yet it was very human.