See that was a fantastic really well done written and acted episode.
Why? . . . because it was focused
Why? . . . because characters that have been ignored or used like furniture got to tell a story
why? . . . .because frankly the chemistry between Pike and Admiral Cornwell is fracking fantastic
Spoiler!
Realistically the premise of the episode was two fold, all folded nicely into one.
The plot of section 31 to not only capture Spock and drain his brain, and frame him for murder was revealed not to be a plot by section 31, but by Control, Star Fleets command and control system. At some point it has gained sentience and its hinted that its the very thing that destroys all life in the galaxy.
In order to gain sentience its after the sphere data on AI, and it basically draws the Discovery into a trap at section 31 headquarters.
We also know that Airiam has been corrupted by this AI. The shame of it is, they revealed what felt like a really great backstory for Airiam who was a normal pretty happily married girl who crashed the day after her wedding and was rebuilt as an augmented cyborg. I would have loved to see them develop her character more so that we could have had more empathy for her character.
Anyways, she's been corrupted and her mission is to get to control to deliver all of the sphere's AI data at Section 31 headquarters and Michael is forced to kill her. Like I said this was a good emotional scene, but could have been incredible if they had developed her as a character.
We also got a lot more from Detmer which was nice to see. Again, one of my grudge points was she was too easy in forgiving Michael which seemed like lazy writing all along.
We also saw Spock struggling to figure out why the Red Angel choose him and we saw his emotional side during a chess game with Michael.
Again the chemistry between Mount and Jayne Brooks and I chuckled when Pike asked her what kind of shyteshow she was getting them into.
Overall this season there have been two really good episodes, and I'm convinced that they worked because they didn't try to jam a lot of non intersecting stories into one episode instead we got actually character and plot development that worked.
This is really what I've been wanting to see from the start of the show.
Even Tilly who annoys me made sense in this episode and it was touching to see her send Airiam the memory of her walk on the beech before she died, it made me see Tilly as more then the fidgity annoying girl that they've had her playing.