‘Star Trek: Discovery:’ Burnham is Visited by a Ghost from Her Past

Lauren Gallaway
TV Streaming
TV Streaming Star Trek Netflix

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery episode “Vaulted Ambition”. Proceed with caution.

During this week’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, Burnham came face to face with her fallen mentor, Captain Philippa Georgiou. In the mirror universe, Georgiou is Emperor of the ISS. Since Burnham was ultimately responsible for Georgiou’s death, she was rocked to her core to see her again. Paul Stamets also interacted with his own ghosts this week and we learned something CRAZY about one of the show’s main characters.. Let’s jump into the biggest moments from the episode “Vaulted Ambition”.

Georgiou Returns

Star Trek: Discovery

“Havent’ you ever been afraid of ghosts?” — What a perfect question for Burnham to ask Lorca, as they boarded Emperor Georgiou’s ship. Burnham was apprehenive about seeing Georgiou again, since the last time she saw her, she was being killed by T’Vuvma. Upon their reunion, Burnham explained the she had been traveling the universe looking for a rogue Captain Lorca. Georgiou saw right through Burnham’s lies and ordered her execution.

Burnham was able to avoid death, however, by telling Georgiou that she was from a parallel universe. “I know it well from the Defiant’s files.” Georgiou studied the Federation, like the mirror universe crew of the Enterprise before her. Georgiou also knew the Defiant arrived via Interphasic space, which made the crew go insane. Georgiou agreed to let Burnham and Lorca go if they gave up the schematics for the spore drive. A dangerous gambit that Burnham reluctantly agreed to.

Stamets’ Strange Journey

Star Trek: Discovery

While inside a spore drive-induced coma, prime timeline Stamets began to interact with his mirror universe self — his consciousness. Stamets quickly learned that there was something wrong inside the network, which is when he repeated the phrase “the enemy is here” again.

Stamets then began to see a ghost of his own, that of his fallen love, Doctor Culber. Mirror universe Stamets warned this Stamets not to follow the white rabbit and get lost in the spore network, but he did anyway. Stamets then engaged with Culber in their quarters and Culber explained that he was killed. Stamets and Culber got to spend a few tender moments together before Stamets said goodbye, for good. Culber also helped Stamets wake up from his coma, armed with the truth that the network must be saved. The irony here is that both versions of Stamets woke up, the prime timeline and the mirror universe versions.

Tyler’s Future

After Tyler’s apprehension, Saru asked L’Rell to help ease his suffering. She explained the surgical process by which Tyler’s DNA was grafted into Voq’s. She refused to help him until Saru showed her that he was engaging in self-harm. Saru then beamed Tyler into her cell and she admitted that she could reverse the process. It could be undone if it was done by her hand.

While this looked like a play into her sensitive side, it’s possible it could be part of her and Voq’s plans. While they could never have predicted that the Discovery would enter a mirror universe, they could have predicted that if Tyler was discovered, they would look to a Klingon for help.

Not the Real Lorca

Star Trek Discovery

The big bomb that was dropped during this episode was the fact that prime timeline Lorca, the one who pulled Burnham out of prison and onto the Discovery oh so many episodes ago, was actually his mirror universe self. Georgiou confirmed this fact to Burnham, just before he escaped from containment. Apparently one trait that everyone shares in the mirror universe is a sensitivity to light — remember Lorca’s weird medical condition?

The episode abruptly ended there — leaving us as shook as we were when we found out that Tyler was really Voq. So, if you found yourself not liking Lorca or felt that he wasn’t really an altruistic Starfleet captain, now you know why — because he wasn’t.

Star Trek: Discovery airs Sundays at 5:30PST/8:30EST on CBS All Access and globally on Netflix the following day.

Lauren Gallaway
TV editor at FANDOM. Creator of The Marvel Report. Journalist, Comic-Con reporter, Podcaster.