Synopsis: Ensign Tilly is taken into the mycelial network and the Discovery crew go in it to bring her back.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s later understanding of the collective unconscious, that it is something that humans are a part of and that connects all living things.
In “Saints of Imperfection” Ensign Sylvia Tilly is taken into the mycelial network by the alien life form that the Discovery crew has been calling May. May tells Tilly that her species is called the jahSepp. The jahSepp work in the mycelial network to break down matter much as insects do on Earth. May wants Tilly to kill a monster for her. Meanwhile, Commander Michael Burnham and Lt. Commander Paul Stamets devise a plan to rescue Tilly from the network. The plan involves Discovery jumping into the mycelial network and remaining there long enough to recover Tilly but not long enough for the jahSepp to break down the ship’s hull. When Burnham and Stamets enter the mycelial network they find Tilly, May, and Dr. Hugh Culber. Culber being the monster that the jahSepp want dead. Stamets reasons that it will be able to bring Culber back to life outside the mycelial network because mass is neither created or destroyed and that “the universe never lets anything go to waste” (Beyer & Barrett, 2019). Tilly, Burnham, Stamets, and Culber do return safely to Discovery, which then jumps out of the network.
In this episode, the mycelial network can be compared to how Jung described the collective unconscious in his later works. Originally, Jung thought that the collected unconscious was a part of each human’s psyche and its contents shared by all humans. But later in his life, he theorized that the collective unconscious was something that all human psyches were a part of as well as ever other part of the environment. Here, this can be compared to the mycelial network, something that connects us all, yet is invisible to our eyes.
Reference:
Beyer, K. (Writer), & Barrett, D. (Director). (2019, February 14). Saints of Imperfection (Season 2, Episode 5) [TV series episode]. In G. J. Berg, A. Harberts, H. Kadin, A. Kurtzman, O. Osunsami, E. Roddenberry, T. Roth, K. Siracusa, & J. Weber (Executive Producers), Star trek: Discovery. CBS All Access.
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