Synopsis: Captain Burnham and Cleveland Booker go to a prison colony to evacuate a group of inmates in danger of being wiped out by the dangerous space anomaly, while on the U.S.S. Discovery Dr. Culber helps refugees deal with their feelings and the crew try to determine what species could have created the anomaly.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called inflation, when the conscious ego identifies too long or too deeply with the godlike quality of an archetype.
In “The Examples” the U.S.S. Discovery crew realizes that the large space anomaly is not a natural phenomenon. They also chart its path to the Radvek System, and the Discovery along with other vessels are dispatched to evacuate those in the path of its destruction. At Radvek V, Captain Michael Burnham learns that there are six individuals in a prison colony whom the Magistrate of Radvek V does not care to include in the evacuation. Burnham disagrees and goes there with Cleveland (Book) Booker to rescue them. When the prisoners would rather stay on the colony outside the prison gates rather than return to Discovery and be put in the brig, Burnham grants them asylum. Meanwhile, on Discovery Dr. Hugh Culber consults with a hologram of Dr. Kovich, who tells Culber that because he keeps asking himself why he was given a second chance at life he also feels that he needs to fulfill an obligation to save others. And in engineering, a visiting scientist, Ruon Tarka, takes an experiment to extremes almost killing everyone aboard Discovery.
In this episode, Burnham, Culber, and Tarka all believe that they must take responsibility for saving others. Burnham feels she must personally evacuate all the prisoners from Radvek V because Starfleet does not leave anyone behind, even though Starfleet regulations would likely indicate that her place would be on Discovery’s bridge, and that this task could be delegated to someone else. Culber takes his important work so seriously that he does not make space for down time for himself. Tarka is so sure of his abilities to solve the anomaly problem and that he is incapable of making an error that could cause harm to Discovery, that he goes to extremes to prove his hypothesis is correct. These can all be seen as examples of what Jung called inflation, or the identification with the godlike power of an archetype can look like in action. And while some inflation is necessary to make things happen, as in “The Examples,” when taken to the extreme the psyche becomes one-sided and unstable.
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