Synopsis: Commander Burnham allows herself to be used as bait in a plan to capture the Red Angel.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of how sometimes the conscious ego can identify too closely with the god-like energy of an archetype to create a complex, here, the Puer or Puella Hero.
“The Red Angel” begins with the Memorial for Lt. Commander Airiam, the Starfleet officer that sacrificed her life to prevent Control from obtaining the information it wanted from the sphere archive. She died just after informing Commander Michael Burnham about Project Daedalus, When the Project Daedalus file is opened in it is a bio-signature for the Red Angel which matches Burnham. Lt. Spock comes to see her and Burnham tells him that she is uncomfortable, that logic and emotion have both failed her. Believing that she is the Red Angel, and responsible for the signals that are trying to save all sentient life in the universe, Burnham agrees to a plan to use herself as bait to capture the Red Angel. Captain Christopher Pike objects, stating that allowing her to do so is against his Starfleet oath. A Section 31 vessel approaches and the plan to capture the Red Angel will be a joint venture. Although Burnham nearly dies the mission is successful, but the Red Angel is revealed to be Burnham’s mother, Dr. Gabrielle Burnham, not Burnham herself.
In this episode, Airiam, Burnham, and Burnham’s mother all possess attributes attributed to the female puer/hero archetype as described by Sarah Jackson in her essay “Puer Women and Female Heroes.” In this essay Jackson delineates how those that have written about the hero archetype in the past have focused on how the hero archetype relates to males, even though James Hillman has described archetypes as transcending gender (2016, p. 87). Jackson’s essay details some of these traits: being orphaned, having a strong drive for justice, risk takers and adventurers that do what they do in order for the benefit of others, and coming from a place of woundedness (2016, p. 89). I would argue that in Star Trek: Discovery the character of Burnham is set up as a female hero, and further that the first three seasons, when she is in on the path to becoming the captain of the U.S.S. Discovery, can be compared to Homer’s Odyssey, in that like Odysseus, Burnham needs to learn how to behave in society, here Starfleet, before she can be reunited with her true destiny.
Reference:
Jackson, S. (2016). Puer women and female heroes. In J. H. Stroud & R. Sardello (Eds.), Conversing with James Hillman: Senex & puer (pp. 87-93). The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture Publications.
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