For our review of the last episode of Star Trek: Discovery, click here.
Synopsis: Burnham goes to Vulcan in search of Spock, where she unearths surprising family secrets. In researching what is left of the Red Angel’s signal over Kaminar, Pike and Tyler end up in battle with time itself. Georgiou has a few tricks up her sleeve for Leland and Section 31. (CBS)
Writer: Ted Sullivan
Director: Marta Cunningham
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 44 mins
“Light and Shadows”starts off with Pike granted Burnham leave so she can travel to Vulcan and hopefully get more information concerning Spock. Meanwhile Discovery is analyzing a super dense mass that appeared. The ship begins to deal with a temporal loop and they start to see shadows of actions they previously performed. A shockwave erupts from the anomaly and the ship regains its systems. Pike decides he needs to survey the anomaly and will pilot the shuttle himself.
Pike and Tyler head out on the shuttle, but they begin to experience some temporal distortions. Pike hears screaming and turns to see himself shooting Tyler in the back of the shuttle. He ignores the shadows and sends the probe into the anomaly. It emits an energy shock that disrupts their communication with Discovery. With the Captain missing this is now a rescue mission. They know it is nearly impossible to locate a missing shuttle through time, but Stamets is immune to temporal distortion.
Pike and Tyler realize they are traveling through time and need to leave a breadcrumb for Discovery. Pike forces Tyler to release their plasma fuel, despite many objections. Tilly goes to Stamets with the situation which he sees as near impossible even for him. As Pike and Tyler start to become frustrated with each other, their newly upgraded probe bumps into the shuttle and wraps itself around them.
Lieutenant Rhys manages to find them thanks to the plasma Pike left behind. On the shuttle, the probe’s arms break through the shuttle and grab Tyler by the neck. Pike grabs his phaser and realizes this is the image he saw. He manages to shoot the probe, but it stabs through their control system. The only problem is that Stamets and Tilly are getting nowhere with a location. He realizes that the tardigrade DNA may help them. Stamets realizes the only way to save them is to beam him on board the shuttle so he can navigate back.
They break free of the anomaly, but the probe is hacking their data. To make matters worse they have run out of plasma and are slowly drifting back into the rift. They decide the best option is to initiate the shuttle’s self-destruct and beam back to Discovery. However, during this, the probe manages to upload a virus to Commander Airiam back on the bridge. The Discovery warps away before the anomaly implodes and breaks the ship into pieces. Pike pulls Tyler aside and thanks him for saving him on the shuttle. They discuss how the probe and Red Angel are both from the future and therefore both may end being hostile.
Meanwhile, Burnham arrives on Vulcan where she reminiscences about memories with Spock. She meets with Amanda and Sarek who refuse to give her any information to protect Spock from being tried for murder. She pleas with Amanda, but Burnham is told that Spock is not how she remembers him. She takes her to a hidden cave on Vulcan where it is revealed Spock is hiding, mumbling nonsense to himself. He’s reciting numbers, but Amanda hasn’t been able to decipher what they are. Burnham begs her to bring Spock to a hospital. She disagrees, but Sarek arrives and objects to her decision.
They discuss her brash decision making which turns into his disappointment with humanity. When Burnham reveals that Spock knew of the Seven Signals before everyone else, Sarek orders them to turn Spock over to Section 31. Georgiou praises Burnham for using her mother to get to Spock. Section 31 performs a procedure on Spock to see his memories. Unfortunately, she cannot stay on the classified ship so she embraces her unconscious brother. Suddenly, she realizes the numbers he was reciting were backwards and could lead to something.
On her way off the ship, Georgiou knows that Leland may end up killing Spock and lets Burnham attack her to free him. They fight and Burnham manages to knock her out and take Georgiou’s phaser. She grabs Spock and escapes on a shuttle. Leland berates Georgiou for letting her go, but she blackmails him with the information that he is responsible for the death of Burnham’s parents. The Section 31 ships search for the shuttle, but Burnham has stowed them on an asteroid. Burnham uses the computer to search for the number sequence 749148. It turns out to be the location of a planet called Talos IV.
Captain’s Log
- Who is the Red Angel and what is its directive?
- Is Hugh still Hugh?
- Will Spock have answers for Burnham?
- What do the red energy sources mean?
- How will the mycelial network play into the Red Angel mystery?
Overall, Light and Shadows was a decent episode. It isn’t the classic Trek stories that have reinvigorated this season, but it plays a pivotal role in the season’s overarching story. The Red Angel and its mysteries are slowly being uncovered with the potential connection to the temporal distortion that Discovery was thrown into. That and the appearance of Spock finally bring the next chapter of this tale. What that means for Discovery and their unique advantage to time travel scenarios is yet to be seen. Hopefully Spock snaps out of his illogical state and gives some answers.
Score: 8/10
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