History Recap / StarTrekDiscoveryS2E07LightAndShadows

Burnham returns to Vulcan to try and discover more information about Spock while ''Discovery'' remains at Kaminar to try and discover more about the Red Angel.

* AcePilot: Pike reveals one of his first assignments was as a test pilot, making him probably the best shuttle pilot on the ship.

* BadLiar: Amanda's attempt to lie about Spock's whereabouts falls flat with Burnham. As Burnham explains, since Amanda never lied to her when she was growing up, it's obvious she's doing so now.

* BlatantLies: Burnham packs a bag then asks Pike for leave in order to find Spock. Pike guesses that she's already packed, and Burnham says she never would without his permission.

* CameBackStrong: The probe fired into the anomaly disappears, winds up 500 years into the future, then comes back with sentience and a bunch of upgrades.

** Talos IV plays a major role both [[Recap/StarTrekS1E0TheCage in the past]] and [[Recap/StarTrekS1E11TheMenageriePartI in the future]] for both Spock and Pike.

* EurekaMoment: After Amanda discloses that Spock had some issues with a learning disability, and Leland compares that disability to dyslexia, Burnham realizes the numbers Spock constantly repeats should be read in reverse order.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Spock has been driven mad by whatever the Red Angel showed him. Pike and Burnham wonder whether he simply couldn't handle it or the Red Angel deliberately showed it to him to cause his madness.
* GoshDarnItToHeck: Tilly says something is "freakin' amazing". When Saru chides her, she says that she's working hard to follow his advice not to swear while on duty.
* {{Irony}}: The last time Amanda and Michael spoke, Amanda remarked that whatever Michael did to hurt Spock, the betrayal was the reason why the family could never be in the same place at the same time, and Michael couldn't even respect her foster parents enough to explain why until years later. Now, the entire family does indeed find themselves in the same room, but despite Amanda's actions rather than because of them: She hid Spock away in a shrine on Vulcan to keep him away from Michael and Sarek. Michael deduced it as a likely hiding spot, and Sarek followed Michael.

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Pike insists on personally piloting the shuttle to the anomaly, reasoning that as a former test pilot he's the most qualified. Tyler suggests the real reason he's doing it is to make up for not participating in the war, which Pike eventually admits is part of it.

* TheMole: The 500-years advanced probe downloads some kind of viral payload into Airiam which clearly has some kind of influence over her.

** Not the first time that a mechanical probe of human or Federation origin has come back with [[Recap/StarTrekS2E3TheChangeling with powers]] and/or [[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture new sentience]] (although, in-universe, it predates both examples).
** This episode establishes that Spock has a form of dyslexia from his Human heritage. A cut line from ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' had Gillian Taylor ask if Spock was dyslexic atop his other eccentricities after Kirk erroneously blamed "LDS" for them.

* NotSoAboveItAll: Burnham, who always tries to present the Vulcan ideal of being calm, collected, and rational, gleefully jumps at the chance to take out her frustration with Georgiou with a good, old-fashioned brawl.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: Pike initially sees a FlashForward of him shooting at Tyler. Later he realizes it was showing him shooting at a probe tentacle holding Tyler.

* PetTheDog: Mirror-Georgiou arranges for Burnham to rescue Spock from Section 31, revealing the device they intend to use on him is a memory extractor which will destroy his mind. Her stated reason for helping is because it will benefit both Burnham and herself, since it will make Leland look bad.

* PsychicStatic: The shrine Amanda hides Spock in is made of katra stone, which naturally disrupts Vulcan telepathy.

* SadisticChoice: Sarek tells Burnham now that she knows where Spock is, she has two choices: risk her career again by continuing to conceal a wanted man, or turn Spock over to Section 31.
* SingleBiomePlanet: For once, averted in regards to Vulcan. When Burnham arrives at Vulcan she does so in the middle of a rainstorm, and Sarek and Amanda's home is in a forested area. Although it was mentioned on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' that Vulcan had lush, forested parks, it was only ever previously seen on screen as a dry desert.

* TemporalParadox: The temporal rift cause ripples in time, such as Pike and the bridge crew seeing an "echo" of Pike's conversation with Tyler a few minutes earlier and Pike witnessing his own actions a few minutes into the future.

** When Mirror-Georgiou tells Leland he needs her to prevent Burnham from learning the truth:

** After realizing the numbers Spock has been repeating are backwards, Burnham orders the shuttle computer to search the numbers in reverse. It gets a set of coordinates. The location?

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Mirror-Georgiou arranges for Burnham to beat her in a fight to explain she was "overpowered" when Burnham escaped with Spock. Leland doesn't believe it for a second, but has no way of proving this, and to add injury to insult, Mirror-Georgiou blackmails him into compliance.

* MythologyGag: Not the first time that a mechanical probe of human or Federation origin has come back with [[Recap/StarTrekS2E3TheChangeling with powers]] and/or [[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture new sentience]] (although, in-universe, it predates both examples).

* CallBack: Saru recalls how Stamets is immune to temporal changes as a result of his tardigrade gene therapy, which they learned during [[Recap/StarTrekDiscoveryS1E07MagicToMakeTheSanestManGoMad Mudd's temporal shenanigans]].

* ShoutOut: The symbol on the monitors that appears when the probe downloads something into Airiam -- three solid circles arranged in a triangle -- looks suspiciously like the symbol of ComicBook/{{Superman}} villain ComicBook/{{Brainiac}}.

** Tilly mentioning that she's trying not to swear while on duty recalls her PrecisionFStrike from season one.