Captain's Blog: What is Project Daedalus? Who is the Red Angel? Who gets punched? Who finally kisses? All the drama and all the spoilers as Discovery sets a trap that totally works but not in the way you expect... "The Red Angel" Let's cut to the chase: This whole season has been about the "Red Angel" and Michael Burnham is the main character. It doesn't take a sub-reddit fan theory to guess they might be connected. This week, all the Captains, Admirals, Mirror Universe Empresses and main characters with contractual speaking lines have an exposition powwow in the ready room and decide - SPOILER ALERT - the Red Angel is Michael Burnham... From the Future! How do they know? Because the virus-infected-but-now-dead Computer-Head girl, Airiam from last week, had info or something hidden in her half-robot brain that vaguely matched Burnham's genetics or whatever and everyone says, "Yeah, ok, sure". Then with very little effort, space-spy Leland blurts out all his secrets and admits he had Burnham's parents enrolled in Section 31 as wannabe time travelers on Project Daedalus, in a Time-Cold-War with the Klingons who really killed her parents because they had a Time Crystal (no comment). She punches Leland but kisses Tyler and she's back to being buds with her bro, Spock. Sheesh. So I guess it's all on the table now! All about Burnham. I thought Airiam's dying words to Burnham would simmer for a while ("It's all about you! Look for Project Daedalus!") but nope. After teasing things out a little tediously for much of the season, the writers have shifted directions. Now they're spilling all their beans faster than Twitter can retweet it. So, Burnham is the time traveler, but cyber-squids and evil-AI keep following her through her time-wormholes, threatening greater galactic danger, which she as time-traveler, is on a mission to avert. Which came first? I don't freaking know. But despite her probably good intentions, there is a greater threat and Project Daedalus holds the key to catching Future-Burnham before Skynet--Er! I mean some other really bad artificial intelligence that's definitely not Skynet--can corrupt Section 31 and destroy all life in the galaxy. Spock is right. When Burnham seems understandably incredulous at the new theory, he says what the internet has been thinking all along: "Of course it's you, you arrogant meddler!" But he phrases it more like, "You fit the emotional profile" of someone who has to solve every problem. Which is exactly what she couldn't do last week--she couldn't save Airiam, but file that under lesson unlearned, apparently. What's great about this is it effectively addresses some of Burnham's biggest criticisms online (she's a know-it-all Mary-Sue with no flaws who never makes mistakes) and embraces that as her flaw. Her overconfidence and meddling "caused" the Klingon war last season and now her future meddling will also backfire. I don't know if these criticisms are entirely fair, but they're not baseless either. Her character has always been defined by her Vulcan training and extreme intelligence, but these are not uncommon traits in Star Trek lore. Many of our favorite characters were super-smart polymaths who could solve whatever problem presented itself that week. But it continues this season's trend to add some extra complexity to her character without undermining or changing who she's always been. I like this new depth. I like it a lot. It reminds me of when the Mission Impossible movies started to acknowledge that Ethan Hunt is as crazy as Tom Cruise and just wrote it into the story (Rogue Nation). By putting these words in Spock's mouth, the quintessential representation of old Trek, they give validity to the old fans who thought her depiction was too perfect, and then in the same stroke redeem it. It makes her biggest shortcoming into an asset. You could rewatch Season 1 and see how this was in her character all along, it's just coming into focus now. So they set a trap. If the Red Angel is Burnham then just use Burnham as bait and like, mostly kill her to lure the Red Angel. It's saved her before, after all. It has to again! There are flaws in this logic. 1) This is a gross simplification of the previous times the Red Angel appeared to her or how it "saved" her. 2) Wouldn't she remember in the future that she was complicit in setting a trap for herself and either call the admitted bluff or find some other way to save herself? 3) Or even better, if she remembers they were so desperate to stop her, why doesn't she just go to them then (now?) and explain herself? 4) If Burnham knows the time traveling is accidentally letting the cyber-squids through, why doesn't Future-Burnham know this? 5) Isn't the only reason they know the galaxy is at risk because the Red Angel showed Spock on purpose? 6) So, part of the plan is to resuscitate her if it gets dicey, and she knows it! I kept waiting for a twist, like "We won't let her die, but she doesn't need to know that" or the classic, "Fake a malfunction, so she believes she might really die by 'accident,'" but nope. They try to pull the plug as soon as she starts gasping for air, and I honestly can't blame them. She screams in total agony almost immediately after losing air pressure, and that degree of overacting is kinda hard to watch. Sonequa Martin-Green handles some amazing dramatic moments throughout Seasons 1 and 2, including in this episode (usually opposite Ethan Peck's Spock) but she's also guilty of occasional flourishes that come off a little silly, like this one. Nonetheless... Spock whips out his pew-pew'er and won't let anyone save her (now that's a job for a sibling if ever there was one. Also Nahn apparently could've handled it, after killing Airiam last week, no prob). Everyone gasps when they think she's dead and they're gonna have to film a second funeral scene (I mean, wasn't that the plan, though?) BUT! The Red Angel arrives just after it seems too late, saves Burnham with red lasers, gets caught in the trap all according to plan afterall, and -- gasp! -- It's not Burnham! It's..."Mom?" Dun-dun-dah! Conclusion: Sheesh, what an episode. Some people loved it but I say it was a mixed bag. High highs, for sure. But also a few awkward weaknesses. Good revelations and backstory. Good pacing, too, but lots of talking. So much of the dialogue was exposition. Despite the scream scene, Sonequa Martin-Green and Ethan Peck are killing it on acting, especially together, and their sibling dynamic never ceases to operate on multiple levels. Great charisma between those two. Empress Georgiou, however, normally so snakelike and evil, seemed way out of character, worrying about Burnham's safety like a mother, like the Prime-Georgiou who mentored her all those years and not the alternate-universe Hitler-analog she's supposed to be. Felt wrong. Anyway, the twist was great with Burnham's real mom at the end and it opens the door to endless possibilities. It also makes Burnham feel like an appropriate choice for lead character again which I thought was needed. I didn't see the twist coming at all, but only because the writing was so sloppy in its handling of the time-travel mumbo-jumbo that it confused my suspension of disbelieve. Captain's Blog Supplemental:
Did the entire crew need to give their own eulogy or was this open mic night? While Culber takes some time off to sort out his PTSD, he's apparently moonlighting as a male model for GQ Magazine. Check out that jacket! What was the deal with that whole "Pansexual" confrontation between Stammets, Georgiou and Culber? Tilly is right: "What just happened?!" LGBT-friendly or not, it felt randomly incongruous and irrelevant to the larger episode. Time Crystals?! TIME CRYSTALS?! C'mon! UPDATE: Huh...Time crystals are a real life scientific phenomena, look it up! Is Leland dead now? Is he gonna be a cyborg? What was that all about anyway? I just want one episode near the end of the season where someone, Burnham, her mom, whoever, gets in that Angel suit and jumps around through time so we can see all the previous appearances from the other perspective. Please and Thankyou!
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