Where did image #9 originate? I'm afraid to do my own research, because that's some phantom of the opera level shit and I want to wipe it away from my visual memory.
Pike ruminates about the future that lays ahead of him, but has been informed of in the first episode of Strange New Worlds. It's a callback to the TOS pilot "The Cage". He's made aware of his fate during season 2 of DISCO.
These things are usually a string of discordant events that eventually get lumped together. A particular moment is often cited. The assassination of Sir Francis Drake Archduke Franz Ferdinand for WWI is the most well known. What do you think instigates the start?