Synopsis: While traveling to try to locate Lt. Spock’s shuttle an immense sphere stops Discovery and impacts Commander Saru.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of projection and the dropping of that projection, which can be one step in the process of the rational conscious ego to acknowledging and integrating bits of unconscious material into itself.
“An Obol for Charon” begins with Number One from the U.S.S. Enterprise arriving on the U.S.S. Discovery with information about Lt. Spock for Captain Christopher Pike, which he shares with Commander Michael Burnham. Pike orders Discovery on an intercept course for Spock’s shuttle when an enormous and extremely powerful sphere pulls the vessel out of orbit and to it. The sphere effects not only Discovery’s systems but Commander Saru as well. It brings on the Vahar’ai, the way by which all Kelpiens are told they will die. Burnham and Saru working together come to understand that the sphere is not trying to harm Discovery, but trying to communicate with the ship before the sphere’s existence ends. The sphere transmits its 100,000 years of stored knowledge to Discovery and then before it explodes, pushes Discovery to safety. Meanwhile, Saru passes through Vahar’ai and learns that all he has been told about the inevitable death through it were lies. He feels stronger and less fearful than ever before.
In this episode, when Saru and Burnham are trying to figure out a way to extricate Discovery from the sphere’s powers, they first were thinking that it was trying to do them harm, especially when it brought on the death process for Saru. But when their perspective was altered they were able to understand the true intension of the sphere, not what they had projected upon it, and understand what the sphere wanted from them. This can be compared to what happens when an individual projects bits of unconscious material onto another. While this is occurring the other individual cannot be seen for who they are. But when the projection is dropped then the “other” can be. At the same time, when the projection is taken off the other, it is possible for the conscious ego to realize that it had been projected bits of its own psyche’s unconscious. When the ego realizes it, then the bits of material that had been projected can instead be integrated into itself to become stronger and the psyche more whole.
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