Synopsis: Captain Burnham is tasked with locating Cleveland Booker and Ruon Tarka to stop them from using their weapon to destroy the Dark Matter Anomaly.
This episode can be seen as various illustrations of James Hillman’s acorn theory—that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have inner daimons that have all the information we need to become who we were meant to be.
In “All In” after the Federation learns that Cleveland (Book) Booker and Ruon Tarka have stolen a spore drive prototype, Federation President Laira Rillak orders that they be stopped, but that the U.S.S. Discovery is to gather information on Unknown Species Ten-C. However, Fleet Admiral Charles Vance comes to Captain Michael Burnham and orders her to find a way to gather the information and find Booker and Tarka in the process, believing that she will find a way to do both. Because the weapon that Tarka created needs isolynium, Burnham believes she knows where Booker might go to find it, Haz Mazaro’s Karma Barge. As it turns out, Booker did go there, but Mazaro wants more latinum than Booker and Tarka have, so Booker makes a deal to find a cheater who has been causing Mazaro to lose money. Burnham takes Lt. Commander Joann Owosekun to the Karma Barge, but when they arrive they also do not have enough latinum to buy the isolynium and stellar charts from Mazaro. Owosekun has a plan to raise latinum quickly, to enter a fighting contest. She loses her first three bouts, but after she becomes a long shot to win, she wins the contest and Burnham wins enough latinum to pay Mazaro for the isolynium. Booker has also captured the cheater. Mazaro tells Burnham and Booker that they must play a game of Leonian poker for it. Burnham asks to inspect the isolynium. Booker wins the game and takes the isolynium, but Burnham, knowing she would not be able to defeat Booker at poker, placed a tracker on the isolynium. So she is able to locate where his ship is.
In this episode, several characters followed their gut instincts in order to achieve their goals. Vance knew that Burnham was the correct individual to look for Booker, and that she could do that while following Rillak’s orders at the same time. Burnham followed a hunch where Booker would go, and once she found him there, knowing that she will lose at the poker game, succeeded in locating Booker’s ship by placing a tracker on the isolynium. Booker knew that he had the skills to locate the cheater for Mazaro. Owosekun knew that she possessed the ability to win the fighting match, and how to win enough money to pay for the isolynium. These are all examples of individuals listening to their inner daimons, which have all the information that they needed to choose and follow a course of action. This is what Hillman envisioned in his acorn theory.
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