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| Kes explores her dark side. |
THE PLOT
The remains of the Ocampa Caretaker begin giving off signs of life, a response to a similar lifeform nearby. Remembering that the dying Caretaker had spoken of a mate, Janeway realizes that they are close to that second life form. She sees a chance to make contact with a being that could send them home, and uses the readings to bring Voyager to an array very similar to the Caretaker's.
This Array is also home to Ocampa, but the beings here are very different from Kes' people. Tanis (Gary Graham), the Ocampan leader, makes contact and agrees to lead them to the point in space where they can meet Suspiria - the name of the Caretaker's mate. But his apparent benevolence masks a hidden agenda. He is intrigued by Kes, and begins working with her to develop her mental powers, all as part of a plan to tempt her away from Voyager. As for the meeting? Suspiria believes that the Voyager crew killed the Caretaker, and the meeting is a ruse designed to take revenge!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Janeway: Excited by the prospect of making contact with Suspiria, but cautious enough to accept Tuvok's advice to prepare countermeasures against the entity. She encourages Kes to be cautious in her dealings with Tanis, but does not try to stop her from having personal contact or chide her for her excitement. Her quiet support is a striking contrast to Tanis' intense overtures.
Kes: The show opens with Kes exploring her mental powers with Tuvok, who reprimands her lack of emotional control when she so much as giggles. In fairness to Tuvok, Kes does show a lack of self-discipline at several points. She is late to her duties in Sick Bay after her lesson, something that the Doctor observes has become a pattern. Like a teen, she gets absorbed in one activity and loses track of her other obligations. And like a teen, she is easy prey for a confident, smooth-talking older man like Tanis. Kes revels in Tanis' attentions, revels in the destructiveness of the exercise he takes her through in the aeroponics bay. But she retains loyalty to the Voyager crew at all times. She is devastated when a test of her skills harms Tuvok, and it is her loyalty which lets her see Tanis for what he is by the end.
Tuvok: Learning Curve appears to have taught Tuvok nothing, as he still is unable to take emotion into account when dealing with others. He chides Kes for her "emotional outbursts" when she giggles at the inanities in Neelix's mind, and again when she talks of being both excited and afraid at dealing with Tanis. Still, he shows her quite a bit of genuine support. After the accident, he directly states that he wants to remain her teacher. At the end, when Kes just wants to bury the darkness she glimpsed in herself when she burned the plants, Tuvok calmly but earnestly tells her that she shouldn't "fear (her) negative thoughts. They are part of you... To pretend (the darkness) does not exist is to create an opportunity for it to escape."
Neelix: Seeing another man taking an interest in Kes, I braced myself for another round of Neelix being insufferably jealous. Thankfully, the writers seem to have learned their lesson. Neelix is wary of Tanis, and with good reason. But other than watching (discreetly, for Neelix) Tanis' interactions with her, he doesn't make a spectacle of himself. He even expresses pride in Kes and states that if she chooses to stay with Ocampa on Suspiria's array, he will stay with her. For all that, when Tuvok says that it is hardly surprising that Kes can read Neelix's thoughts, I half-expected him to add that everyone can tell what Neelix is thinking - It's not like there's much of a filter between brain and mouth.
Tanis: Gary Graham is genuinely creepy as Tanis, the Svengali-like Ocampan who takes an interest in Kes. There is something of the sexual predator in his dealings with her. He offers this much younger girl the lure of new experiences beyond her imagination, all under his practiced and experience guidance. He tries to separate her from her support system, first promising that he can do more to develop her gifts than they can, then casting her as a threat to them. He encourages her to embrace sensation and abandon morality. Healing or killing are equally irrelevant, Tanis tells her, urging her to just "bring the fire." He is very cold, however, and his manipulations don't take into account Kes' loyalty to her friends. Much like Tuvok, he just can't take emotion into account, which proves to be his undoing.
THOUGHTS
Another good episode, which makes three Voyager episodes in a row that I've enjoyed. After a dreadful start, the season appears to be on the upswing.
One detail that I liked a lot, and one which has potential for future episodes, is Tanis's revelation that Voyager is regarded as "a ship of death," that most of the Delta Quadrant believes that she has attacked other races and that she destroyed the Caretaker. It is possible that this reputation is exaggerated. This is what Suspiria believes, after all, so Tanis may simply be echoing her. Still, Janeway hasn't exactly cultivated a lot of positive interactions with other races. I think The 37's represents the only time Janeway has left a planet on entirely good terms with its inhabitants. It also is a revelation that has a lot of potential to be used in future episodes.
The contact with Suspiria initially appears to be the episode's main plot. This doesn't last long, though. The Kes/Tanis scenes quickly claim the episode's focus, turning what at first appeared to be a big arc episode into a character episode. This is to the good, as the scenes between Jennifer Lien and Gary Graham are the episode's strongest, I'd say some of the best character scenes we've seen in the series to date. "Character writer" is not usually something I'd list among Brannon Braga's strengths, but his script provides terrific character material for both Kes and Tuvok, and solid supporting roles for Janeway and Neelix, all while keeping everybody entirely in-character.
The direction by Cliff Bole makes these scenes as strong visually as they are in terms of writing and performance. There's a steadily growing sensuality in the two characters' interactions, which simmers in the "tea cup" scene before coming to full boil in the scene in the aeroponics bay. When Kes "brings the fire," her expressions as the flames envelop her and her body language as she collapses afterward are intense and even sexual, making more explicit Tanis' predatory vibe.
In contrast, the Suspiria plot seems to exist entirely to set up future episodes. It takes most of the episode for Voyager to make contact with Suspiria. This provides a reasonable, if rushed, horror climax, but Janeway's interactions with Suspiria are perfunctory. She releases Suspiria far too quickly, and the entity delivers only one line and then disappears thereafter. Janeway remains determined to find her again, which will hopefully result in a more memorable interaction down the road. But within the context of this episode, the contact with Suspiria is a "B" plot, competently-handled but mainly a distraction from the excellent character material surrounding it.
This being Voyager, it all ends with a reset, as we are told that Kes hasn't retained any of the powers she explored with Tanis. Why did she lose them all? No explanation given, save that the writers would then need to deal with them. But even with this and other minor annoyances, the episode remains strongly above-average for Voyager.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
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