STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
SEASON 2, EPISODE 11
SEASON 2, EPISODE 11
Perpetual Infinity
Series: Star Trek: Discovery - (2017 - 2024)Season: 2
Episode #: 11
Original Airdate: March 28th, 2019
Writer(s): Alan McElroy & Brandon Schultz
Director(s): Maja Vrvilo
Guest Stars
Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou
Ethan Peck as Spock
Alan van Sprang as Leland
Sonja Sohn as Gabrielle Burnham / The Red Angel
Kenric Green as Mike Burnham
Rachael Ancheril as Nhan
Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer
Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys
Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun
Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Lt. R.A. Bryce
Sara Mitich as Lt. Nilsson
Arista Arhin as Young Burnham
Stardate: Unknown
Synopsis
On Doctari Alpha in the year 2236, Dr. Gabrielle Burnham prepares a log entry on the status of the Daedalus Project. Meanwhile her ten-year-old daughter Michael gazes at a nearby star, Alpha Lupi, which is expected to go supernova within days. As Gabrielle discusses the energy that will be generated by the supernova with her husband Mike; energy which will be used to power the time crystal at the heart of the Daedalus suit, Michael comments on a light source she spotted through her telescope that appears to be coming in for a landing. Just then, their home begins to rattle as a Klingon Bird-of-Prey flies overhead and begins to land. Realizing the danger at hand, Mike instructs Gabrielle to hide Michael and to secure their lab while he prepares for the Klingon invasion that is sure to come.
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Gabrielle secures Michael in a closet and, as the doors close on her, Commander Michael Burnham suddenly awakens in the sickbay of the USS Discovery, recovering from toxic asphyxiation that she suffered on Essof IV. Burnham recalls seeing the Red Angel and thinking it was her mother, but dismissed the memory as she remains convinced that she herself was the Red Angel. Dr. Culber explains that biological similarities between mothers and daughters exist, as Georgiou confirms that the Red Angel was indeed her mother. Shocked at the news, Pike tells Burnham that her mother is being cared for at the facility on Essof IV. Burnham struggles to accept the fact that her mother is still alive, wondering now if her father also survived the attack by the Klingons all those years ago. Spock enters the sickbay with news that a data module from the Daedalus suit contained some 841 mission logs made by Gabrielle. Pike instructs Burnham to review the mission logs while they waited for her mother to regain consciousness.
Aboard the Section 31 ship, Leland is strapped to a chair while he is confronted by Control, who takes the holographic form of Burnham, Pike, Saru, and eventually Leland himself. Control, speaking of its agenda, remarks on how easy it was to simulate a Vulcan after it had killed Patar; but suggests it now needed an element of human nuance that would only be achievable by actual flesh. It required a face and a body to allow it more freedom to operate; and Leland would be that vessel. As Leland struggles against his restraints, several needles pierce his skull and inject him with nanites; Control now taking over his body.
Back on Discovery, Burnham reviews the mission logs from the Daedalus suit. One entry in particular reflects the Klingon raid on Doctari Alpha, and how Gabrielle put on the suit and activated it just as the Klingons barged into the lab. Now floating in space, Gabrielle checks the suit and realizes that she had traveled forward in time by 950 years. Through more mission logs, Gabrielle explains that each time she attempts to travel back in time, she is unable to stay permanently, as a time anchor pulls her back to where she had first arrived - 950 years in her future. Another log confirms that all life in the galaxy had been wiped out by Control, and that many primary Federation planets were all wastelands. Gabrielle surmises that she is totally alone.
On the bridge, there are growing reports of gravimetric instability centered around the Daedalus facility. Saru explains that since Gabrielle and her suit are tethered to a point in the future, time is attempting to pull her back; which is putting a strain on the containment field. Stamets suggests providing more power to sure up the containment field, but the crew realize that, eventually, there won’t be enough power to keep Gabrielle and the Daedalus suit from snapping away to the future. Knowing time is short, Pike sends Dr. Culber down to the planet to awaken their patient.
Meanwhile, back on the Section 31 ship, Leland/Control informs Georgiou and Tyler that the parameters of their mission had changed, and that he has suspicions as to the true identity of the person who emerged from the Daedalus suit, dismissing the possibility that it was, in fact, Burnham’s mother. Leland emphasizes that if Control obtained the data contained within the Sphere on artificial intelligence, it would achieve consciousness. To insure that would not happen, he instructs Tyler to covertly obtain the Sphere data. Despite his objections, and understanding that failure could lead to all life being destroyed if they failed to act, Tyler leaves without a word. A suspicious Georgiou, who is seeing Leland in a new light, looks on.
As Burnham continues to review her mother's logs, she learns that, despite her best efforts, Gabrielle cannot prevent Control from getting the Sphere's data. She even attempted to destroy the Sphere herself, but found it impossible. That is when she adjusted the gravitational binding of the Sphere which sent it on a trajectory that would cross Discovery's path. Her only hope was that the Sphere’s data would be safe with Discovery. At that moment, Spock enters Burnham’s quarters and informs her that Dr. Culber has just reported that her mother is regaining consciousness. As Burnham and Spock enter the bridge to join Pike, Culber reports that Gabrielle has regained consciousness, and wishes to talk to the captain, and only the captain. In Pike’s ready room, Burnham expresses her outrage at being excluded from talking with her mother. While Pike understands her position, he believes that they should follow Gabrielle's wishes, at least for now, in order to establish some level of trust. Pike orders Burnham to stay aboard where she could watch the feed of his meeting with her mother.
As Pike beams down to the facility, the effects of the gravitational fluctuations are immediately felt as the pull on Gabrielle and her suit is becoming stronger. Stamets warns that the power reserves would soon run out and that she would be pulled into the future again. Realizing time is of the essence, Pike immediately introduces himself, however Gabrielle is already well aware of who he is. The two discuss Gabrielle’s mission and how her daughter, Michael, risked her own life to bring Gabrielle to them. Pike offers to help her complete the mission, and asks about the seven red burst signals. Gabrielle claims to know nothing about them, and tells Pike if he wants to help, he had to delete the Sphere archive, so that Control could not get ahold of the A.I. data, which could lead it to evolve to sentience.
While Saru protests against the idea of deleting the Sphere archive, comparing it to burning the Library of Alexandria or the Bibliotheca Corviniana, Burnham counters, reminding him that the information poses a clear and present danger. Tyler asks from a security perspective if Gabrielle had her own agenda, but Burnham stresses that her mother was known for her relentless pursuit of the facts, and if she believed deleting the archive was necessary, Burnham did not doubt that she was right. Pike agrees with Burnham, to which Saru reluctantly begins deleting the archive... but an error alert sounds as he attempts to do so. The data memory core was partitioning itself, reconfiguring its security directives into a new language matrix. It would appear that the Sphere's data was determined to survive; it would not allow itself to be destroyed.
Elsewhere, Spock reviews Gabrielle's mission logs, in which she explained her jump into his childhood to warn him about Michael dying in the forest. Gabrielle reflects how she hasn't been able to communicate with anyone else, and that only Spock’s human uniqueness and logic training gave him the psychological balance to comprehend her. As Burnham enters, and upon much reflection on what he just learned, Spock admits he had been wrong to judge her as being unfit to process her own emotions. Burnham tells Spock she needed to see her mother; Spock understands that there were questions beyond the scope of their mission that she needed answers to, and suggests they go together to ask the captain.
Heading to the transporter room, Pike concedes that with as little time as they had remaining, he was obligated to let Burnham try to reach her mother. Burnham believes either she knows more about the signals than she was letting on, or her lack of knowledge suggests they were a false flag by Control to mislead them. Beaming down into the facility, Burnham stands face to face with her mother. Gabrielle asks only if they deleted the Sphere archive; Michael explains that they couldn't, but they were finding a way. As Burnham tries to reconnect with her mother, Gabrielle coldly tells Michael that she had let her go a long time ago; she had watched Michael die a hundred times, and would watch her die a hundred more. The suit was her life now, her prison, and that she couldn't hope anymore for a proper relationship with her daughter.
In Discovery's engineering lab, Stamets estimates that the containment field holding Gabrielle and the Daedalus suit would fail in under an hour. Spock understands that Gabrielle has been trying to find a way to destroy the Sphere; and that perhaps there is a reason why she has failed thus far. Burnham speculates that instead of fighting against time, they should flow with it. They decide to transfer the Sphere archive into the suit, program a destination beyond Gabrielle's anchor point, and let the micro-wormhole take it away forever where Control will not be able to get access to the data. However as Gabrielle was also connected to the future, Stamets estimates it would require the energy levels of a supernova to sever her connection to the suit. However, there was another source of exotic energy aboard the ship: dark matter particles from the interstellar asteroid. If they infused a pattern enhancer with dark matter particles, they could lock onto Gabrielle and beam her into their space-time - permanently.
Leland, learning of the plan from Tyler, emphasizes that they could not allow it to happen. Georgiou suspicions grow as Leland continues to feel threatened by Gabrielle. When Georgiou asks about Tyler, Leland remarks that Tyler had limits, but Georgiou did not, before he hands her an amplifier to place on the Red Angel's suit. The device will steal the data transfer from Discovery and then self-destruct, killing Gabrielle and destroying the suit. He tells her to contact him as soon as the device is in place, so he could begin the upload. For now, she agrees.
In the Daedalus facility, Gabrielle notices her suit's visor activate. Just then, Georgiou arrives, disabling the security feed, and explains they were uploading the Sphere data to her suit, which they would then send into the far future. Gabrielle warns that the suit was DNA-strand encoded, and wouldn't allow just anyone to use it, in the event that Georgiou had ulterior motives. As they continue to speak, Georgiou's amplifier begins transmitting the Sphere data to Leland's ship.
As Georgiou prepares to leave, Gabrielle asks her to make a promise to take care of Michael. Georgiou counters, suggesting that perhaps Gabrielle would find a way to do so herself, but Gabrielle replies she couldn't as long as the A.I. existed, as it considered her an "unacceptable risk to the larger mission" - the exact same words Leland spoke to Georgiou earlier. As realization of Leland’s true persona dawns on her, Burnham and Stamets beam in behind her. After Georgiou leaves, Gabrielle asks Michael why she didn't tell her she was downloading the Sphere data to the suit, admitting to the brilliance of the plan. Michael informs her of their plan to use the modified transporter to beam her permanently into the present while the suit is sent ahead in time. Gabrielle refuses, saying if the plan fails, Control wins, and no one would be able to stop it. Michael is adamant that it will not fail, because she refuses to lose her mother again. Listening in, Georgiou contacts Tyler on a secure channel and asks how much data has been transferred to the ship. Tyler reports the data transfer is at 22%, and deduces that she is calling about Leland.
As Stamets retrofits the transporter pattern enhancers with dark matter, Michael and Gabrielle talk, where the elder Burnham reveals that she has been watching Michael her entire life. She remembered the white dress Michael had worn when she graduated from the Vulcan Science Academy, and when she beamed aboard the USS Shenzhou with Sarek. She was there - through all those moments, and many more. Seeing her daughter, Gabrielle admits she gave her strength and resolve, reminding her of what she was fighting to save.
In the shadows of the complex, Georgiou makes her move and deactivates the amplifier, halting the data transfer to the Section 31 ship and Leland. She then instructs Tyler to find Leland and see how he reacts. Tyler enters Leland's ready room, finding his face deformed and his eyes completely black. Stunned, Tyler reaches for a phaser but Leland/Control is faster, hurtling him through a glass panel, then using a large shard of it to stab Tyler in the gut. Aboard Discovery, Tilly reports that Stamets is ready to begin the transport, when Bryce receives a priority call from the Section 31 ship. It’s Tyler, who although is grievously wounded, is able to speak Leland's name before he collapses. In the facility below, Leland/Control beams down, carrying several phasers, shooting down the Discovery crewmen and taking another hostage, before firing into the facility's control room. Burnham and Nhan exchange fire with Leland/Control, who reactivates the amplifier. Spock arrives on the bridge to warn that the Section 31 ship was diverting the data transfer, and had obtained 37% thus far. Tilly reports that gravity was fluctuating wildly, and the field would not remain up for much longer.
Leland/Control draws a rifle and fires through the containment field, destroying the time crystal in the Red Angel's suit. As Leland/Control lines up another shot, Georgiou disarms him, and engages him in a furious melee. Meanwhile, Saru reports he cannot stop the data transfer, and Spock indicates the transfer rate is increasing, with nearly half the sphere data having already been transmitted. Burnham asks if they could still beam her mother out, but Stamets replies that Leland/Control destroyed the control room. Gabrielle tells them the only way forward now was to destroy the containment field; without the suit, Control could not get the data. But if they do that, Gabrielle would be yanked back, and she wouldn't have the suit this time. Meanwhile, despite Nhan providing fire support, Leland/Control is gaining the upper hand over Georgiou. Gabrielle tells Michael she has to let her go; it would be the only way each of them had to survive. Michael promises she would find her, and both express their love for one another. Burnham, Stamets, and Nhan fire on the power discs, and the containment field falls. A wormhole opens in the facility's ceiling, taking first the Red Angel's suit, and then its wearer. Burnham contacts Discovery and tells them to beam them up. Pike orders Rhys to fire a spread of photon torpedoes, which completely destroys the Essof facility. However, Owosekun reports she detected a transporter signal from the facility to the Section 31 ship - Leland/Control had escaped. Pike orders a pursuit course, but Detmer reports the ship has masked its warp signature. Owosekun then detects an escape pod, one lifesign - identified as Ash Tyler.
In her quarters, Burnham watches one of her mother's mission logs. At that moment, Spock enters, reporting that Leland/Control received 54% of the Sphere's data. Burnham remains distraught over the fact that everything they tried to stop Control had failed. And now with no suit, no time crystal, Control would always be one step ahead of them. Spock believes that what was past no longer existed, and what happened next had not yet been written. What they did then and there had the power to determine the future - instinct and logic together would be the way to defeat Control. As he speaks, he sets up a three-dimensional chess board, and remarks that the board was Burnham's. Burnham sits across from Spock, and contemplates her first move.
TrailerEpisode Posters
Posters courtesy of Laz Marquez and J.J. Lendl
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