- The Discovery crew infiltrates Section 31's headquarters and suspicions arise that the crew may have a traitor in their midst. Meanwhile, Burnham tries to help Spock, but her efforts don't go as planned.
- Starfleet Admiral Katrina Cornwell secretly boards Discovery to interrogate Spock and brings video footage depicting Spock murdering the three doctors. But Spock maintains that he never murdered anyone. Brain scans reveal that he is telling the truth. Spock claims that he only used the Vulcan nerve pinch, which was not fatal. Spock says that he did not believe that the visions of the Red Angel were real, and hence went to the psychiatric facility. But when it was confirmed to him that the visions were simply future occurrences of events, it was proven that he was not delusional or mentally unstable, and hence decided to leave. Spock doesn't know why the Red Angel chose him for the visions. Spock also says that something or someone is going to end all sentient life in the future. And their mission is alter this course. Burnham says that she trusts Tyler and he would not have sabotaged the spore drive.
Cornwell says that Section 31, led by Admiral Patar (Tara Nicodemo) is not responding to her anymore. And her own access to section 31 is locked out. Patar is a known Vulcan logic extremist and the suspicion is on her for being on a hunt for Spock. Patar argued for decision making to be turned over to Control, the automated threat assessment program, used by Section 31. Till now, all Admirals fed data into Control, but the final decision resided with them.
Cornwell directs Discovery to Section 31 headquarters where Starfleet's Control artificial intelligence is kept. Cornwell suspects that Patar has Control being used to direct all decision making across Starfleet as per the whims of the Vulcan logic extremists. She and Pike decide to take the Discovery to section 31 HQ.
Spock tries to figure out why the Red Angel chose him and how he is supposed to prevent the oncoming catastrophe. Burnham tries to help and says that returning to logic will help Spock unlock the mystery of the visions. Spock dislikes the patronizing attitude and says that Burnham was out of touch for decades, she started the Klingon war with her impulsiveness and was responsible for the death of her parents. Yet, she wallows in self-importance and tries to believe that she can control the uncontrollable. Meanwhile Airiam continues to work under the instruction of an unknown entity. It is shown that she is sending the entire download of data from the Sphere somewhere.
Meanwhile the Discovery reaches section 31 HQ. There is no response to their hails and the HQ is surrounded by activated mines. Cornwell guides the Discovery through the mines, with shields lowered since the mines are attracted to them. Suddenly the mines are guided towards Discovery, and Pike is forced to raise shields. During the ensuing chaos, Airiam is again activated by the unknown entity and starts downloading the Sphere data. The mines stop attacking the Discovery once the data download is complete.
The Discovery is hailed by Admiral Patar who says that the orders to fire on Discovery came from Starfleet itself. Patar says that Discovery is ordered to surrender, hand over the fugitive Spock and await court martial. Pike and Cornwell decide to ignore Patar and go ahead with their plan to board the HQ to reset Control since they cannot detect any life signs on-board the HQ station. Burnham, Security Officer Nhan, and Airiam beam into the headquarters to find the personnel, including Section 31's leadership, dead after Control turned off life-support systems. Burnham finds Patar's body among the dead. She has been dead for 2 weeks.
Saru discovers that Section 31 faked the footage of Spock killing the doctors, and of Admiral Patar using holograms. Control is behind the forgery and has been directing Section 31 to pursue Spock. Tilly determines that Airiam has emptied her memory banks recently, and thus would have used that storage space to store something else. This seems to be the reason that Control allowed a landing party to beam over to the station.
Airiam is tasked with restoring Control to Starfleet's intended purpose, but the virus from the future she carries is actually Control itself and instead attempts to upload the Sphere's knowledge of all artificial intelligence from her memory storage into Control's database. This data will allow Control to evolve and being conscious, thereby allowing it to out-think and destroy all other sentient life in the Galaxy.
Airiam attacks Burnham and Nhan, when they try to stop her. Burnham manages to repel Airiam and traps into a chamber. Tilly is good friends with Airiam. She opens a channel to Airiam and reminds her that this is not who she is. She is a Starfleet officer and a great friend. Airiam regains control of herself and reveals that she has only uploaded 25% of the data needed by Control. Airiam asks to be ejected into space before Control gains the knowledge it wishes; Burnham hesitates, but Commander Nhan jettisons Airiam before it is too late. Airiam tells Burnham that she is the key and that she has to find Project Daedalus.
Airiam dies reliving her favorite memory from before she was technologically-augmented.
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