Synopsis: Commander Burnham and Adira Tal go to Trill to try to recover the memories of the Tal symbiont.
This episode can also be seen as an illustration of what James Hillman called the acorn theory.
In “Forget Me Not,” Doctor Hugh Culber suggests that a possible way for Adira Tal to access the memory of Admiral Senna Tal, one of the Tal symbiont’s prior hosts, is to go to Trill and ask the Trills for help. Discovery travels to Trill and when they arrive are greeted by Commissioner Vos, who is very happy to welcome a symbiont back to Trill. When Adira Tal and Commander Michael Burnham arrive on Trill, they are greeted by Vos, and introduced to Guardian Xi and Leader Pav. But when the Trills learn that the Tal symbiont has joined with a human, they find this to be an abomination and order Burnham and Adira Tal to leave. But then Xi comes to them and leads them to the sacred Caves of Mak’ala and Adira Tal goes through a process that allows her to recover the memories of the Tal symbiont. Meanwhile, on Discovery, Culber reports to Captain Saru that he is worried about the moral of the crew and tells him that they need to feel connected. Saru invites senior officers to a dinner in his ready room to acknowledge them and what they have gone through. But then differences in opinion leads to an argument which breaks up the party. Later Culber tells Saru that the crew needs to admit that they are not all right in order for them to heal. Adira Tal and Burnham return to Discovery with the coordinates that Senna Tal had for Starfleet.
In this episode, when Adira Tal is able to access the memories of all the prior hosts to the Tal symbiont, this can be compared to an individual who is listening to their own inner daimon. And as Hillman wrote, just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have an inner daimon that has all the information we need to become who we were meant to be. Here that information is what was needed for the entire crew to be able to continue their mission and locate Starfleet.
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