War breaks out at the Binary Stars; Georgiou is killed aboard T'Kuvma's ship, Burnham kills T'Kuvma, and she is sentenced to life in prison.
T'Kuvma wins over most of the assembled Klingon leaders, and the Klingons attack the Starfleet ships that have come to support the Shenzhou. Admiral Anderson destroys his own ship to take a cloaked Klingon vessel with it, and the surviving Starfleet forces are badly beaten.
Held in the brig, Burnham escapes with telepathic guidance from Sarek and persuades Georgiou to capture T'Kuvma rather than kill him, so he cannot become a martyr. The two beam onto his flagship, where T'Kuvma kills Georgiou and Burnham shoots him dead. Voq vows to carry on T'Kuvma's cause. Burnham is tried, stripped of her rank and sentenced to life imprisonment. The episode was directed by Adam Kane from a teleplay by Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts.