Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Episode 11: Perpetual Infinity Review

For our review of the last episode of Star Trek: Discovery, click here.

Synopsis: Burnham receives the reunion she’s been longing for, but it doesn’t go quite as she imagined. Georgiou and Tyler sense a disturbing change in Leland. (CBS)

Writers: Alan McElroy & Brandon Schultz

Director: Maja Vrvilo

Rating: TV-MA

Running Time: 60mins

“Perpetual Infinity”starts off with a flashback to Burnham’s parents testing the time crystal. They are a big happy family until Burnham notices a light landing on the surface. Her father hopes to hold off the Klingons while Burnham is placed in a closet for her safety. She awakes in med bay believing the vision of her mom was a dream, but Pike and Georgiou break the truth to her. She wants to rush downstairs and has a ton of question, but they want to keep her there until she’s stable. Spock arrives with a journal log found on the Red Angel and Burnham instantly grabs it.

On Section 31’s ship, Leland is captured by Control who changes its holographic form as it talks about assuming control of his body. The AI injects smaller robots into his neck as they infect his bloodstream and take over. Leland returns to the bridge and changes their orders believing that Gabriel Burnham is a Trojan horse. While Georgiou and Tyler disagree, Leland orders them to spy on Discovery to learn more about the situation for their own purposes.

Burnham watches her mother’s journal to see what happened the night of the attack. Gabriel manages to jump into the Red Angel and time travel away before she is killed. She sees that her mother saw a destroyed Earth and believes that the destruction of the universe is inevitable. Burnham listens to her mom’s logs about trying to find her daughter and survive as a time fugitive. Gabriel is on a mission to destroy Control, but it always finds a way. She pushed the sphere into Discovery’s past hoping that they can protect the data.

Meanwhile, the forces of the universe are unhappy that Discovery is holding Gabriel Burnham hostage. It wants to fight back with Newton’s 3rd law. So they need to work fast to get answers from her. With Gabriel awake, she requests an audience with the Captain alone. Burnham pleads her case to come down and speak with her mom, but Pike believes it best if she stays on board.

On the surface, Gabriel questions Pike’s choice to put Burnham’s life in peril. He wants to know what the signals mean, but she knows nothing about them. She pleads with him to delete the sphere archive, but he seems hesitant and that causes her to stop their conversation. Saru doesn’t want to destroy the data, but during the discussion Tyler turns on his recorder. They decide that deleting the archive is the best option, but the sphere as a living breathing organism fights back and sets up firewalls. This won’t be as easy as it seems.

Spock finds Gabriel’s logs concerning him and sees why she picked him. This causes Spock to apologize for his behaviour towards Burnham. All she is concerned about is speaking to her mother and Spock hopes to help plead her case. Tyler calls Leland and tells him that he won’t go through with their plan and Leland agrees for now. Meanwhile, Burnham is given her moment with her mother.

She beams down to the surface and Gabriel wants to know if they deleted the information. Burnham says they are working to find a solution, but just wants to talk to her mom. Gabriel says that normal conversation is unimportant and that time ravages everything. They discuss isolation, family values and Gabriel just wants to get out. She gave up on family to focus on the bigger picture while she’s stuck in this time prison.

The crew figures out that they can potentially send the sphere into the future away from control while tethering Gabriel into their time-space. Perpetual infinity. They get started on this, but there are forces working against them. Leland wants Gabriel gone and manipulates Georgiou into stealing the sphere’s data and destroying the Red Angel. Georgiou has a conversation with Gabriel about self-sacrifice and protecting those they love. She admires the Red Angel suit and questions Gabriel’s desertion of her family. In this conversation, she notices that Gabriel says something that Leland said to her earlier.

Stamets and Burnham beam to the surface and reveal their plan. Gabriel doesn’t want to send the suit with no pilot in case Control finds it. Before they can finish their plan, Gabriel gets sentimental with Burnham and plays on her heart strings. Meanwhile, Georgiou calls Tyler on a private line to discuss Leland’s suspicious nature. She turns off the data transfer and tells Tyler to follow Leland to see how he reacts. He enters Leland’s quarters where he sees his face being shifted by the AI. He attacks Tyler and stabs him in the stomach. Tyler manages to send a warning to Discovery about Leland’s betrayal.

He beams down to the surface and takes out many of the Discovery crew leaving  Burnham and Nhan the sole resistance. He shoots a large beam through the protection field that hits the Red Angel suit. Georgiou comes out of nowhere and starts to fight Leland while Discovery tries to stop the data transfer. Stamets believes their only solution is to send the suit immediately. The crew destroys the containment field and release the suit so it can be ripped back into the future along with Gabriel.

Discovery beams the crew back up and blows up the facility in the hope that it kills Leland. Unfortunately, he is beamed on board his ship and with their cloaking abilities they are able to hide their trail. They detect an escape pod enroute to Discovery containing Tyler. Burnham feels hopeless about the situation after losing her mom. However, Spock comes to her side and tells her that they decide their own fate.

Captain’s Log

• Will Burnham’s mom return?
• Can Control be stopped?
• Is Leland technically still alive?
• What do the red energy sources mean?
• How will the mycelial network play into the Red Angel mystery?

Overall, Perpetual Infinity was a decent episode. The development of the Red Angel and her involvement in Control’s attempt to destroy the universe has caused more information to come to light. The crew has a hard time trusting outsiders and who can blame them when A.I. can assume control of any organism including human flesh. It’s up to Discovery to save the universe from total annihilation. The question that remains is how does Discovery fit into the canon with the invention of time travel, Klingon wars and two universe-saving missions? Seems like there is more than meets the eye for the adventures of this Starfleet vessel.

Score: 8/10

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