My question involves a huge spoiler for DSC season 2. Please stop reading if you haven’t seen DSC season 2.

spoiler

Micheal Burnham said that Klingons killed her parents. Her father was killed immediately, and her mother’s death took longer. Yet, in “Perpetual Infinity” (DSC s2e11), Gabrielle Burnham’s description of that moment is that she used the Red Angel suit to immediately escape from the Klingons, intending to return before the attack to get her family to safety. I’ve tried to reconcile the differences. I think it’s one of two things.

My head cannon: Micheal was a child suffering through a terrifying event, the attack by the Klingons. Her memory is impacted by time and trauma. I have doubts about the part where the Klingons sat down and ate the Burnham’s food, too. Another clouding over by young Micheal’s mind, reinforcing the horror of the moment for her. I’m inclined to think that those Klingons would be more about, “Oh, crap. Now we have to tell our bosses that we didn’t get the time crystal.” And less about chowing down.

In reality: It was too costly to redo the prior scene where Micheal describes the Klingons as taking longer to kill her mother, and have Micheal tone down the description of her mother’s death. So the discrepancy between Micheal’s memory of the attack, and Gabrielle’s description of what happened to her in that attack, is just glossed over.

How do you reconcile the difference between Micheal’s memory and Gabrielle’s description of that moment?