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Star Trek: Discovery Stars Dissect Burnham and Sarek's Complex Relationship

The pair confront a haunting memory from their past in "Lethe."
Posted on Oct 27, 2017 | 08:30am

Warning: SPOILERS from Episode 6, Season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery follow...

By now, Star Trek: Discovery fans know that Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is a woman constantly torn between her Vulcan upbringing and her human nature—that is, logic and emotion.

STREAM: Episode 6, Season 1 Of Star Trek: Discovery On CBS All Access

As a result, Burnham's relationship with her Vulcan father figure, Sarek (James Frain), has been tenuous at best, despite the human's need to seek his approval. But in "Lethe," the latest episode of the series, Burnham's internal struggle came to the fore, as Burnham "entered" Sarek's mind across the vastness of space.



"When Sarek gets into trouble on his own mission and is near death, he ends up reaching out to Burnham and yanking her into his mind, via sort of this long-distance mind-meld," Executive Producer Aaron Harberts explains in a new video (which you can watch above) detailing the crucial event in Episode 6. "It's there that she sees that his dying thoughts are circling this catastrophic incident where she feels that she let him down."

The "catastrophic incident" in question is the moment Burnham learned she wasn't accepted into the Vulcan Expeditionary Group.



Sonequa adds, "There's a lot of betrayal in that moment, because I had spent all my life becoming as Vulcan as I could—and had succeeded, in my opinion. It was to my shock and despair when Sarek decided I wouldn't be able to continue on with the Vulcan way of life."

READ: How To Watch Star Trek: Discovery On CBS All Access

Stream the entire first season of Star Trek: Discovery, exclusively on CBS All Access.