After destroying Control, the crew assembles for Airiam's memorial service. Tilly investigates the bioneural signature of the Red Angel from Airiam's files and comes to the conclusion that it's Michael Burnham. Since every appearance of the Red Angel opens a micro wormhole that also allows the future AI to infect someone or something in the present, as it happened with Airiam, the crew decides to set up a trap. Captain Leland has to admit that Section 31 is responsible for the creation of the time travel suit in the Project Daedalus 20 years ago. At that time the Federation was in a temporal arms race with the Klingons. Leland also tells Burnham that her parents were working on the project, and that the suit contained a time crystal stolen from a Klingon black market, which was the reason for them to raid the outpost and kill her parents. Spock discovers a pattern of the appearances of the Red Angel, which happen whenever Burnham is in danger. The future Burnham has to save her because of the grandfather paradox. So Michael Burnham agrees to be exposed to the deadly atmosphere of Essof IV, the former test site for Project Daedalus, as a bait for the Red Angel. The planet is rich on deuterium, which is used to power the necessary stasis field. As she is about to suffocate, Pike orders to stop it, but Spock raises his phaser and insists on carrying on. The Red Angel eventually appears to resuscitate Burnham, and can be confined in a coordinated effort of the equipment installed on the outpost on Essof IV, and the Section 31 ship from where the collapse of the wormhole is initiated. When Michael regains consciousness again, she recognizes that not she herself is the Red Angel, but her mother!

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