Your "Point of Light" Primer

“Point of Light,” episode three of Star Trek: Discovery's second season, will stream tonight. To get you ready, StarTrek.com checks in with 6 Highlights from "New Eden,” last week's Jonathan Frakes-directed episode, and a preview of "Points of Light."

Committed Spock

Burnham plays for Captain Pike the audiofile Spock left behind, in which he describes his childhood nightmares and the fact that those visions are now returning again and again. Pike reveals to Burnham he’s aware of Spock’s whereabouts: “Your brother is in the psychiatric unit on Starbase 5.” Apparently, he had himself committed. Spock wanted no one to know, emphatically. However, current circumstances outweigh Spock’s right to privacy. Burnham does not inform Pike that she saw the Red Angel on the asteroid.

Let’s Jump

A second signal reveals itself, but it’s far away. The crew shares with their captain how they used the mycelial network and tardigrade DNA to soup-up the warp drive. “A tardigrade?” Pike asks, incredulously. Saru replies: “I suppose you had to be there.” If the Federation let Discovery use the spore drive to find the Klingons during the war, they’d certainly do so now. Stamets is reluctant to connect again – he tells Tilly he’s seen Hugh in the network, and that it was Hugh who saved the ship – but he agrees to reconnect. “Let’s jump,” Pike declares.

Divine Intervention?

Pike, Burnham and Saru struggle to wrap their heads around the possibilities surrounding the unidentifiable energy bursts and the presence of people on the pre-warp planet below, citing Shakespeare and Arthur C. Clarke, and engaging in conversations about the Prime Directive and divine intervention. It is, in a nutshell, classic Star Trek.

A Mono-Religion

The planet’s inhabitants don’t have very long to live, due to radioactive particles emanating from the planet’s rings, prompting Pike, Burnham and Owosekun to transport down to investigate and help… within reason (General Order 1). Meanwhile, Saru, Tilly (who’s haunted by what seems to be a ghost from her past) and the bridge crew attempt to solve assorted scientific riddles from aboard Discovery. Inside a church (how’d that get there?), the trio realize that the community cobbled together a religion based on the primary faiths of Earth. There’s no mistaking a Red Angel within the church’s stained-glass windows.

Mother, Do You Think They’ll Drop the Bomb?

Pike, Burnham and Owosekun meet the locals, including Mother (Sheila McCarthy), who accepts her group’s fate and thinks Earth and the human race were destroyed, and Jacob (Andrew Moodie), who believes Earth survived and mankind evolved. Pike is seriously injured when a phaser goes off on his chest, so Burnham and Owosekun carry him to the church and beam up, which they’re able to do thanks to Tilly, whose crazy, planet-sparing idea to harness the power of the asteroid on board the ship actually works. Mother and Jacob watch the trio vanish, a miracle Mother attributes to the Red Angel.

Flying Among the Stars

The day saved, Burnham finally reveals to Pike that on the asteroid she too saw the Red Angel, and she convinces the captain to forego General Order 1 in order to provide Jacob with the “context” he deserves and to secure a soldier’s helmet camera, which recorded the events in the church the day the people of New Eden were taken. Pike confirms to a relieved Jacob that he uses a transporter and flies “among the stars” on a ship, and reveals that Earth is part of a galactic federation “dedicated to peace, exploration and protecting places such as your planet.” As the two warmly men shake hands, Pike trades a power cell for the soldier’s broken camera, circa 2053. Moments later, the church glows bright with light and, back on Discovery, Pike views the footage from the soldier’s helmet-cam. Enter… the Red Angel.

Next on Discovery

In "Point of Light," the Discovery crew aims to learn more about the Seven Signals and Red Angel, while Burnham is determined to understand what happened to Spock. Meanwhile, L'Rell contends with the challenges of being Klingon High Chancellor.

Star Trek: Discovery streams exclusively on CBS All Access in the United States and is distributed concurrently by CBS Studios International on Netflix in 188 countries and in Canada on Bell Media’s Space Channel and OTT service Crave.