Really? If they don't absolutely melt peoples minds with so many things happening at once in an episode, they do really strange writing conceptualizations that really hurt you're head.
I was so confused at the start with the NetFlix logo, as they flashed back to the original Star Trek Pilot the Menagerie. Now, the Menagerie was an excellent episode from TOS, and its interesting that they showed the original Nimoy Spoke walking around shouting and having a big smile on his face, and I guess that we aree going to see a less emotionally stable Spock.
Now I'm going to say this. Just because you can as a writer shouldn't mean that you shouldn't. When you get overly reliant on things like time travel and telepathy you tend to eventually frustrate fans because as a writer you become addicted to being able to fix things in ludicrous ways.
So this episode had three different things happening at the same time.
The return to Talus IV and this episode being a sequel/prequel to the Menagerie where Pike suddenly remembers his time on that planet with Vina, but doesn't remember his eventual return as a wheel chair rolling invalid.
The interactions with Spock and finding out that it was likely section 31 that murders those doctors, at the same time we find out that Spock doesn't like Michael because she was a big meany to him and said mean things when she was trying to protect him from Vulcan Extremists, which was actually a nod to the series Enterprise (2 I say 2 fan services in one episode)
The Red Angel. We now know that she's human, sad has advanced tech and showed Spock the end of the galaxy and she's trying to change the time line. (BTW I swear to god if its Michael in that suit, I'm officially done as she will become the greatest Mary Sue in history.
Oh and the whole Tyler/Paul/Stammets things where Paul isn't himself, isn't interested in returning to his old life and is or isn't angry at being murdered.
Oh and the section 31 story line where they villanously try to kidnap Spock and Burnham, because they want Spock's memories of the future because they're evil, meanwhile George is trying to over throw her Captain while sipping coffee and telling people how busy she is (oh ha ha ha).
There's way too much happening in any one episode to keep track of and because of this the over arching stories are just becoming incoherent.
Oh and I forgot that the Cyborg has been assimilated by the Probe
Look Anson Mount is great in the role of Pike, and its almost sad that they had to show us Jeffrey Hunters wooden Pike. But he's great.
On the other hand outside of Stamets, Saru and Pike the rest of the actors on this show are slowly becoming pretty uninteresting because of content burnout.
So some spare thoughts
So with Vina in the original series episode explains that the Talosians put her back together without knowing what Human's were supposed to look like. Tonight she basically said when she showed her form that this was what she looked like after the crash. What a terrible shift from a really interesting character and alien developing piece of writing in the original series to something that really made the Talosian's look like a cookie cutter plot device.
Seriously they're going to write a sequel/prequel of the Menagerie and in the original the Talosians feel pain when they are confronted with strong emotions, they made it a huge thing in the original series. Now they almost slurp up those negative emotions like junkies. Come on man, just stop.
So was Spock the family dog as a child Because throughout that whole sequence where Michael was calling him mean names I had that image of someone running away and saying mean angry things to the family dog so it wouldn't follow.
The whole, you were a big meany so I became logical. Come on man.