‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Recap – ‘The Red Angel’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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When it comes to revealing the answers to all of our burning questions on a particular television series, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way happens when the series takes the time to build up all kinds of incredible mysteries throughout the season, only to reveal and solve everything when the season finale arrives, wrapping everything up in hurried and unsatisfying fashion. But the right way, is to take one’s time, and to properly address every issue that’s been introduced in order to give the audience a complete story, one that satisfies the fans through and through and leaves nothing on the table and thankfully, Star Trek: Discovery is making every effort to wrap up its vast amounts of mysteries in proper fashion.
 
Because over the past few weeks, the story has continually answered the various questions surrounding Spock, The Red Angel, and what might bring about the end of the galaxy as seen within Spock’s respective visions, and it’s been downright refreshing to enjoy that kind of care and resolution when it comes to this well woven story. But if there’s one element that the show has yet to address, it is true identity of The Red Angel itself, since the identity of the person wearing this time traveling suit has remained a mystery, until last night’s episode that is. For a tale that shared the namesake of this mysterious character finally revealed exactly who is behind the mask, in fascinating fashion of course.
 
In fact, the show made a point to throw a little misdirection our way when it comes to the true identity of this mysterious being, by having Ensign Tilly ‘reveal’ right out of the gate that data downloaded from the late Lieutenant Commander Airiam, featured a bio-neural scan of the Angel that matched Michael’s bio-neural signature. Which meant everyone immediately went along with the notion that the Angel has been Michael all along, and now that the crew knew that they were dealing with a future iteration of the Commander, it was decided that the time had come to confront Future Michael and work with her on figuring out a path to defeating Control and its plans to wipe out all life in the galaxy and that meant, a little teamwork between Starfleet and Section 31 was in order. 

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​Which actually brought about some solid character development. Because by working side by side, certain truths came to light, such as the fact that Burnham’s parents actually worked for Section 31, and Michael’s mother was the one responsible for designing the Angel’s suit and Section 31’s quest to master time travel, eventually led to the tragedy that Burnham experienced as a child, and discovering this, led to a quick but savage beatdown for Leland. But while Michael smacking Leland around doesn’t quite seem like growth, well that just served as the gateway to it. For while she stewed over this revelation, Spock took the time to visit her and console her and forgive her for her transgressions and this all-important moment between brother and sister, allowed for Michael to accept the fact that she’s not always at fault for everything bad that happens around her and that gave her a newfound confidence, which could not have come at a better time.
 
Because shortly after she and Spock made peace, they both came to realize that there was a solid way to capture the Angel after all. For this future Burnham appeared whenever there was potential danger surrounding Michael, which meant that if she put herself at risk, the chances were high that the Angel would appear. But it took far more risk to her person than Michael expected in order to draw the Angel out of temporal hiding, in fact, it took her death to finally get this mysterious creature to find her and save her and that’s when the misdirection in regard to the Angel finally came to an end. For in the closing moments of this episode, shortly after Section 31 and Stamets closed the resulting temporal rift and captured the Angel respectively, it was revealed that Michael Burnham’s mother, is the real Red Angel.
 
Which, of course is ironic in its own right because the grand reveal of this mysterious character brings about more questions when all is said and done. But that’s all right. Because I am fairly certain the series will address everything we’re now wondering about Michael’s mother, and if anything, one couldn’t ask for a more fitting character to be in the suit. After all, it makes total sense that a mother would transcend time and space to make sure that her daughter is protected from trouble and I’m looking forward to learning more about the suit and mother’s plight. But in the here and the now, this was a fascinating episode to say the least. One that saw Burnham finally embrace her flaws in order to move forward and one that saw Doctor Culber begin a long road back to humanity since he took steps to make peace with his re-birth in this story, and most importantly, more questions were answered and I am counting down the minutes to next week’s tale, where we will undoubtedly learn more about Burnham’s mother. Until then.

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