Synopsis: Captain Lorca tasks Michael Burnham with finding a way to weaponize the alien creature found aboard the U.S.S. Glenn.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what is possible when the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of material from the unconscious into itself.
In “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not fo the Lamb’s Cry”Captain Gabriel Lorca orders Michael Burnham to use her xenobiological skills to find out how the alien creature that was found aboard the U.S.S. Glenn kills, and to weaponize it. Burnham starts working with the creature and discovers that it’s physiology is similar to a microscopic creature found on Earth, the tardigrade. Burnham tells Commander Ellen Landry that the tardigrade likely isn’t naturally hostile and seems to react to the spore drive that Lieutenant Paul Stamets is working to perfect. However, Landry, like Lorca, is interested only in weaponizing the tardigrade and decides to go in and try to cut off a piece for Burnham to study. However, when Landry lowers the force field, it attacks her. Later Burnham convinces Stamets that the Glenn was trying to use the tardigrade to navigate their spore drive. Stamets is able to connect the tardigrade to the spore drive and Discovery is able use it to travel to protect a mining colony that the Klingons are attacking and save it.
In this episode, Lorca, who cares only about weaponizing the tardigrade, can be compared to the conscious ego that believes that it is the only part of the psyche that matters. However, Burnham is able to look to the tardigrade as something other than a weapon, and sees it as a navigator for the spore drive. This can be seen as using her innate instincts, bits of material from her unconscious. Stamets, by listening to Burnham’s theories and putting them into action can be compared to a conscious ego that is able to acknowledge and integrate bits of unconscious material into itself, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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