History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E6DarkPage

Lwaxana recovers from her coma, holding hands with Deanna from their sickbay beds. Mister Homm had kept all of pictures of Kestra safe, in case she wanted to remember. Both mother and daughter become closer together over the loss of the older sister Deanna now knew of, and the celebration of her life.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Kestra, Lwaxana's first child, met a tragically early demise long before Deanna was ever born.

* PutOnABus: Lwaxana, or at least in the context of the ''Next Generation'' corner of the 24th Century. This episode is Lwaxana's final appearance on TNG (as she would not appear in the films). However, Lwaxana will ultimately make two more crossover appearances on ''Deep Space Nine'' before her character is ultimately retired.

* StepfordSmiler: Lwaxana in this episode, and by inference, ''all the other Lwaxana episodes prior''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tng_darkpage368.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Pretty much the saddest Lwaxana Troi episode ever.]]

Finally, Deanna sees the memory that Lwaxana had tried to repress and keep secret from Deanna: Unbeknownst to Deanna until now, she had an older sister named Kestra. One day, the Troi family was having a picnic with the family dog. The dog, anxious to go for a swim, slipped from Kestra's grasp. Kestra gave chase, the two falling into a lake and drowning. Lwaxana hadn't noticed until it was too late, and the guilt from having let her daughter die had been weighing her down in the years since. Deanna reassures Lwaxana that Kestra's tragic death was not her fault, and that Lwaxana owed it to Kestra to remember her and to celebrate her life. Deanna suggests Lwaxana talk with the memory of Kestra she had repressed. Lwaxana apologizes to Kestra and holds her in her arms one last time before letting her, and her guilt, go.

* {{Homage}}: As detailed under ShoutOut below, Kestra's death and its effects on her parents mirrors Johnny Keefer's demise in ''Film/TheMarryingKind''.

* DarkSecret: Lwaxana is revealed to have been hiding the existence of a deceased for nearly Deanna's entire life, having repressed the memory of Kestra's untimely death for so long.

* {{Homage}}: As detailed under ShoutOut below, Kestra's death homages Johnny Keefer's demise in ''Film/TheMarryingKind''.

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Most of the episode is one.

%% * DarkSecret: Lwaxana is revealed to have been hiding one for nearly Deanna's entire life.

%% * {{Homage}}: To ''Film/TheMarryingKind''.

%% * OutlivingOnesOffspring: Lwaxana.

%% * PosthumousCharacter: Ian Andrew Troi and Kestra Troi.

* StepfordSmiler: Lwaxana in this episode, and by inference ''all the other Lwaxana episodes prior''.

* DarkSecret: Lwaxana is revealed to have been hiding one for nearly Deanna's entire life.

* {{Homage}}: To ''Film/TheMarryingKind''.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Lwaxana.

* PosthumousCharacter: Ian Andrew Troi and Kestra Troi.

* AdultFear: Watching your child drown, and not being able to do a thing to save her, all because of an accident. Every parent's nightmare. Not to mention your mother falling into a coma and you have no idea what's wrong.

* UnPerson: Lwaxana had removed everything that could remind her of Kestra because she didn't want to relive the pain of her loss ever again. It's forever unclear exactly how Mr. Troi felt about this, although obviously he went along with it.

* CallBack: To the last episode, in fact. Data mentions his recent studies of dreams and their imagery, referring to the events of [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E5Phantasms "Phantasms"]].

* HeroicBSOD: Lwaxanna goes through this after the death of her first daughter, to the point of deleting all evidence of her existence (as seen in UnPerson below), including the seven years of her own diaries during that point in her life. In fact, Lwaxanna never truly got over the death, instead just burying it deeply into her metaconscious (basically the Betazed subconscious) mind.

Crusher's diagnosis is not good; Lwaxana has fallen into a coma, as though her brain had suddenly shut down, save for her Betazoid telepathic node, and with no indication as to a possible cause. Maques, however, has a clue; that her mind has a "dark place". He couldn't put the idea into words, since spoken language is a foreign concept to his race, but tries to communicate the idea to Deanna telepathically. The communicative methods between these aliens and Betazoids, however, makes it difficult to completely understand at first. Deanna, however, eventually comes to gain an understanding; there was something afflicting Lwaxana's metaconscious, a Betazoid psychic defense mechanism against trauma. There is no indication, however, as to the exact nature of what is affecting her metaconscious.

Deanna decides to gain a better understanding of what is happening by communicating with her comatose mother through telepathy. Lwaxana's subconcious cries out to Deanna for help, but nothing else. That evening, Maques enters the sickbay, claiming to attempt to help Lwaxana, explaining via telepathy to Deanna that Lwaxana has retreated into her metaconscious. He had tried to reach out to Lwaxana telepathically, but he couldn't understand the images he saw. Deanna believes Maques can help bridge her and Lwaxana's psyches to attempt to find out what is causing Lwaxana's state; a risky proposal, but one Deanna is willing to attempt.

Deanna asks Hedril if she had any idea as to if Lwaxana was thinking of her. Hedril confides that she believes Lwaxana to be upset with her, but no one knows why. Lwaxana never discussed Hedril, so her connection to her ailment remains unclear, although it is believed she may represent the dark secret she was keeping. Deanna decides to look through Lwaxana's logs and personal effects to get a better idea, but cannot find any clues: the only thing that would seem to give Lwaxana any grief or misery was Deanna's remaining single. She couldn't find any clues from Mister Homm or her friends. When Picard takes a look through Lwaxana's personal logs, however, he finds something odd; there is a seven-year gap in her logs between a year after Lwaxana married Deanna's father to shortly after Deanna's birth. The logs in that time frame had been deleted -- by Lwaxana herself!

Deanna re-enters Lwaxana's metaconscious in order to get to the bottom of the mystery of what is killing her mother. Once again, she encounters the wolf and Hedril...although Hedril doesn't seem to recognize that name. Deanna follows the image of Hedril into a memory that resembles the garden on the ''Enterprise'' and sees an image of another girl in the pond's reflection. Lwaxana continues to resist Deanna's attempt to help, refusing to answer her questions. Deanna continues to probe Lwaxana, encouraging her and promising to help her...

Finally, Deanna sees the memory that Lwaxana had tried to repress and keep secret from Deanna: unbeknownst to Deanna until now, she had an older sister named Kestra. One day, the Troi family was having a picnic with the family dog. The dog, anxious to go for a swim, slipped from Kestra's grasp. Kestra gave chase, the two falling into a lake and drowning. Lwaxana hadn't noticed until it was too late, and the guilt from having let her daughter die had been weighing her down in the years since. Deanna reassures Lwaxana that Kestra's tragic death was not her fault, and that Lwaxana owed it to Kestra to remember her and to celebrate her life. Deanna suggests Lwaxana talk with the memory of Kestra she had repressed. Lwaxana apologizes to Kestra and holds her in her arms one last time before letting her, and her guilt, go.

* UnPerson: Lwaxana had removed everything that could remind her of Kestra, because she didn't want to relive the pain of her loss ever again. It's forever unclear exactly how Mr. Troi felt about this, although obviously he went along with it.

Deanna asks Hedril if she had any idea as to if Lwaxana was thinking of her. Hedril confides that she believes Lwaxana to be upset with her, but no one knows why. Lwaxana never discussed Hedril, so her connection to her ailment remains unclear, although it is believed she may represent the dark secret she was keeping. Deanna decides to look through Lwaxana's logs and personal effects to get a better idea, but cannot find any clues: the only thing that would seem to give Lwaxana any grief or misery was Deanna's remaining single. She couldn't find any clues from Mister Homm or her friends. When Picard takes a look through Lwaxana's personal logs, however, he finds something odd; there is a seven-year gap in her logs between a year after Lwaxana married Deanna's father to shortly after Deanna's birth. The logs in that time frame had been deleted!

Deanna asks Hedril if she had any idea as to if Lwaxana was thinking of her. Hedril confides that she believes Lwaxana to be upset with her, but no one knows why. Lwaxana never discussed Hedril, so her connection to her ailment remains unclear, although it is believed she may represent the dark secret she was keeping. Deanna decides to look through Lwaxana's logs and personal effects to get a better idea, but cannot find any clues: the only thing that would seem to give Lwaxana any grief or misery was Deanna's remaining single. She couldn't find any clues from Mister Homm or her friends. When Picard takes a look through Lwaxana's personal logs, however, he finds something odd; there is a seven-year gap in her logs between a year after Lwaxana married Deanna's father and after he had died. The logs in that time frame had been deleted!

* PoorCommunicationKills: Maques catches on to Lwaxana's RepressedMemories pretty quickly, but his explanation of what he saw in her mind is so vague that Troi believes he's talking about the concept of shielding certain thoughts for privacy's sake (this isn't helped by the language barriers; he's not used to conveying things through words in general). After she falls into a coma, he uses his race's brand of telepathy to convey his meaning and she gains a better understanding of the issue.