Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Episode 11 Review: Perpetual Infinity
Diana Keng
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As dramatic as the developments of Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Episode 11 were, there's a sense that it was only laying the groundwork for final three episodes of the season.
The fallout from the revelation that Burnham's mother, astrophysicist Gabrielle Burnham, has been attempting to save the universe in the Red Angel time-traveling suit was both emotional and frustrating.
Obviously, it was going to be emotional with Burnham believing her to be dead for twenty years and carrying around some sort of guilt over her desire to stay to watch a supernova.
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Through Burnham's entire trauma, Spock was unusually restrained compared to his interactions with her on previous episodes. The absence of snark was possibly the greatest sign that something significant had taken place.
You woke. That was sooner than expected.
Spock
It was frustrating because it muddled the point of the mousetrap which was to determine how the Red Angel and Control destroying all sentient life in the universe are related.
What should've been a strategic mission was bogged down by a huge load of sentimental baggage which, at least on the surface, Dr. Gabrielle Burnham had no interest in addressing.
As fantastic as it was to have Sonja Sohn back on my screen, she was literally caged in the role, spending her entire time in a containment field in the Section 31 facility on Essof IV.
There are some biological logistics that bother me about this plot device.
She was unconscious for more than five hours initially until Culber woke her up.
As it was established that no one could cross in or out of the containment field, who moved her onto the bed/chair she was resting on and inserted the breathing apparatus?
How did Culber wake her up if he couldn't enter the containment field?
Where in that containment field were the toilet facilities and did they feed her?
I have to admit I was kind of rooting for their plan to work at least in the sense that they are able to bring Dr. Burnham into their time-stream.
At the same time, I was trying to puzzle out how that would work. She's a time soldier who has spent twenty linear years (and who knows how many actual years) experiencing hundreds of different possible futures.
Related: Red Angel or Red Herring -- Was Star Trek: Discovery's Reveal Worth the Wait?
She's obviously jaded and tired and traumatized. How exactly is she supposed to reintegrate when she knows the potential outcomes for everyone on the ship? In Starfleet? In the Federation?
For someone who became as good a Vulcan as a human could be expected to be, Burnham's logic was totally M.I.A. for this mission.
Understandable, but a little disappointing in some ways. Even when she was making her scientifically-based suggestions for meeting with her mother, it was clearly emotionally-driven.
While her biological mother was trying her best to get back to her time-traveling mission, Mama Georgiou was the one alert to signs of Control's interference.
It's always fun watching Michelle Yeoh kick some butt.
I'm not one to feel bad for Leland's fate. He was a jerk a dozen times over and Control pegs him perfectly in its analysis of his behavior and motivations.
Leland: I am my own man.
Command: A man who has demonstrated with his every action a willingness to operate from several different truths simultaneously which has allowed you to make questionable moral decisions while avoiding the destructive power of human guilt. You believe in the ends more than the means.
It was a nice touch to have Control point out his ambiguous morality to him before injecting him with nanobots in what one can only hope was an extremely painful way to die.
One running trope on Star Trek: Discovery is that the dead don't stay dead.
Tyler, Georgiou, Culber, Leland. Respectively, they're too dumb, too stubborn, too unlucky, and too evil to die properly.
Even Burnham is told when she wakes up in sickbay that she was technically dead for over a minute from toxic asphyxiation.
Which might be why Airiam's death on Star Trek: Discovery Season 2 Episode 9 hit everyone so hard.
So, unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that Tyler's stabbing is going to be fatal. Especially since he was able to get himself to an escape pod.
He even points out to Georgiou in a clever bit of foreshadowing that he's died before.
Georgiou: What I'm about to tell you is the first real test of our relationship, Mr. Tyler. Betray me and I'll live long enough to hunt you down and kill you slowly. Understood?
Tyler: I've been killed before, Georgiou. You're just telling me I'll have time to enjoy the scenery.
Great. If Tyler's going to progress into Georgiou's sidekick in her Section 31 series, I have some (more) concerns about its watchability.
Not sure how happy I am with Georgiou's warm fuzzy side showing so much either.
We've seen her maternal feelings for Burnham manifest before but it's been more of a mother viper vibe, all fangs and smiles.
So when she and Gabrielle have their little chat, mother to mother, it really seemed that Dr. Burnham MUST have lived a million lives if she had that much faith in Georgiou's love for Michael.
Gabrielle: Are you here to kill me, Philippa?
Georgiou: Would I tell you if that were the case?
And, wow, talk about pounding the angel analogy into the ground, people. "Gabrielle," REALLY?
Did the showrunners forget that Lorca's first name was Gabriel? The archangel name thing came up last season with both him and Burnham sporting the biblical monikers.
But I guess naming her mother Uriel or Raphael would've been a little on the nose.
Anyhow, as you watch Star Trek: Discovery online, note that this plays out as more of a bridge episode in that there is really no closure for any of the plotlines.
Related: Short Treks -- A Rundown of Star Trek: Discovery's Mini-Missions
Burnham loses her mother again but now that she knows she's out there, she's vowed to find her.
Georgiou and the newly-ventilated Tyler are back on Discovery. To what end, I guess we'll find out soon.
Georgiou: So we've met.
Gabrielle: Most people say 'I'm pleased we met'
Georgiou: Most people are predictable.
Leland gets away on the Section 31 ship. (Gotta wonder what's going to happen to the crew left on board over there.)
Since he only got a portion of the Sphere's data and I don't think all of it was downloaded into the suit, I'm confused as to the effectiveness of that plan.
And the data siphoning was a bit of creative science-ing too.
Mind you, it was clever to bring the dark matter particles that gave Tilly all those problems earlier in the season back into the narrative. Even if they didn't get to use them.
I like science.
Spock
Who was your MVP this go-round?
Who gets benched?
What are the odds that Control injected Leland with the totality of its programming and if they manage to kill him off, it's all over for Control?
Diana Keng was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.
