Synopsis: Michael Burnham is brought to the U.S.S. Discovery by Captain Lorca to serve aboard the ship and aid him in his mission to win the war with the Klingon Empire.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of James Hillman’s acorn theory, that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, humans have an inner daimon, that has all the information we need to become who we are meant to be.
In “Context is for Kings”six months after her court martial, Michael Burnham is aboard a shuttle taking her and a group of prisoners to work at a prison colony. Suddenly, there is some sort of malfunction and the U.S.S. Discovery scoops up the shuttle. Once aboard Discovery, Burnham is escorted to see Captain Gabriel Lorca. Lorca has been given broad authority by Starfleet to do whatever he feels necessary to win the war against the Klingon Empire. Lorca wants Burnham, and her expertise, to aid him in his mission. Burnham is tasked with aiding Lieutenant Paul Stamets in Engineering and again when Stamets takes a team aboard the U.S.S. Glenn to determine what led to its incapacitation.
In this episode, when Burnham is brought aboard Discovery, it is because Lorca wanted her expertise to aid him in winning the war against the Klingons. Lorca himself has been described as a war monger, by Stamets, who is a true scientist. The characters of Burnham, Lorca, and Stamets all can be seen as illustrations of individuals who have listened to their inner daimons, and have become who they were meant to be using the skills and aptitudes that they were born with. This is in line with Hillman’s acorn theory, which posits that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have all the information inside us to become who we were meant to be – if we listen to it.
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