A trio of Betazoids cause chaos on the Cerritos.
Tropes:
- Age Insecurity: The Betazoid women are very offended by the suggestion they might be old enough to have Zanthi fever.
- Ambiguously Bi: When one of the Betazoids, Cathiw, hits on Captain Freeman early on, she's easily flustered but points out she's Happily Married.
- Ambiguous Situation: T'Lyn and Bendii Syndrome. Previously, the condition was seen as analogous to Alzheimer's and was uncurable. While she suffers some of the symptoms of the disease, it is not exact (in the TNG episode "Sarek", Bendii Syndrome results in random emotional outbursts from Sarek and random aggression from crew members; the result in this episode is general debauchery), and T'Lyn questions that conclusion, as she is not of the usual age it's supposed to happen at. Mariner suggests that it could just be a quarter-life crisis she's suffering from, and with some discussion, T'Lyn is able to calm herself, and that alone stops the problem (Sarek required a mind meld with Picard to pass on the symptoms for a short time). The episode ends with no resolution to what this was, how this happened or if it will happen again. However, before the Betazoids leave they tell Freeman to let them know if T'Lyn needs help again, implying they can help her in the future.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: It would appear that all Betazoid diplomats are like Lwaxana Troi - entitled, vampish and more concerned with having a good time than actual diplomacy. Subverted in that this behaviour was an act, and the "diplomats" are actually undercover agents trying to extract information about the mysterious ship from different starship crews.
- Batman Gambit: In order to activate the Red Alert on the ship without the Betazoids stopping her, Freeman tricks Dolorex into letting her read her mind and lets her learn about Cathiw calling her a buzzkill, causing an argument between the Betazoids which allows Freeman the opportunity.
- Battle Strip: When dropping their cover, the Betazoid agents took off their dress skirts, revealing their Modesty Shorts underneath.
- Berserk Button: T'Lyn ends up pushing it with a group of crewmembers who are being effected by her Bendii Syndrome, after she again denies being best friends with Tendi and says she is merely being emotionally influenced. Rutherford shouts not to be mean to Tendi and when T'Lyn and Mariner run, Tendi tells the group to chase them and make T'Lyn be her friend.
- Briar Patching: Freeman implies having knowledge of sensitive intel and then quickly begs the Betazoids not to read her mind to learn it. When they do, she focuses on a catty remark that one of the Betazoids had made about another, triggering a quarrel between them.
- Call-Back:
- The Betazoids were last at Angel I, the titular planet from TNG's first season.
- T'Lyn attributes everyone's emotional instability to Zanthi fever at first, which Lwaxana Troi experienced in DS9: "Fascination".
- Mariner and T'Lyn speculate that T'Lyn's symptoms might be due to Bendii Syndrome, which Mariner notes also happened to Spock's father Sarek in TNG: "Sarek". Though T'Lyn notes that the disease usually affects elderly Vulcans and she's only in her sixties, Mariner hand-waves it as a quarter-life crisis thing and mentions how Boimler once grew a mustache at age 25 when he got too stressed out.
- Card-Carrying Villain: When the Cerritos narrowly avoids entering the Neutral Zone, a cloaked Romulan ship is revealed with the crew all disappointed the ship didn't enter and therefore they couldn't destroy it. The captain orders them to move to a different sector so they can lurk there instead.
- Character Exaggeration: Due to T'Lyn's emotional instability, most of the crew end up losing their inhibitions and become more like caricatures of themselves. Tendi is more obsessed with friendship, Mariner is obsessed with looking cool, and Ransom's libido kicks up a few degrees.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the beginning of the episode, Freeman hears Cathiw calling her colleague Dolorex "a sanctimonious buzzkill" behind her back after she tells her to stop flirting with the captain. After the Betazoids take control of the Cerritos, Freeman gets Dolorex to read her mind and hence discover this incident, starting an argument that allows Freeman to activate the Red Alert and warn the security officers.
- Continuity Nod: The puzzle in the security room depicts Malcolm Reed.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Boimler is disappointed the security department get together for slam poetry, charades and board games. However, after the Betazoid diplomats handily dispatch regular crew, when Shaxs and his team get involved, they handle the situation with calm efficiency. Shaxs explains to Boimler that they take a holistic approach to security and crew safety; constant high stress and combat exercises only go so far.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- The main plot focuses on T'Lyn, with her accidentally telepathically causing the crew to act out due to her stress over being kicked off her former ship and believing she has failed at being a Vulcan. After a talk with Mariner, T'Lyn decides to stop trying to get transferred back and stay on the Cerritos, under the guise that she wishes to further study the crew.
- Boimler's subplot gives the security team a focus. We see that Security doesn't just focus on protecting their bodies and the ship, but also preparing their minds from any threats. They even get a rare Big Damn Heroes moment, stopping the Betazoid envoys.
- Diplomatic Cover Spy: The three Betazoid envoys are actually intelligence agents using their powers across different ships to search for clues about the attacks on random ships.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: As previously shown in "Wej Duj", T'Lyn was functionally a prodigy on a Vulcan science ship, but her disregard of the chain of command, acting on hunches and emotional outbursts, is what got her sent to Starfleet in an exchange program. While she bonds with the Cerritos crew, she does harbor resentment for the reassignment, which contributes to the problems of the episode. By the end, T'Lyn in consoled by Mariner that any issues she feels have been exhibited by such Vulcans as Sarek, and she shouldn't be ashamed of it. T'Lyn initially hopes that her latest report would get her back on the Vulcan ship, but decides she doesn't need that validation.
- Enmity with an Object: Migleemo spends the entire Hate Plague destroying the replicator in the bar for getting his order wrong.
- A Father to His Men: Expanding on Shaxs becoming Boimler's "bridge buddy," he sees the Lt. JG stressing out and brings him to the security team to see what they do on their off hours. While Boimler was off-put by the board games and charades, Shaxs reveals this was also intended as a lesson on a balanced work/social life. You need to relax because perpetual stress may make you less effective in emergency situations.
- Foreshadowing: T'Lyn initially believes Zanthi fever to be the cause of the emotional instability, but the Betazoids, beneath their mask of calmness, are secretly freaking out as much as everyone else and break character when Freeman refuses to allow them to leave. This hints they aren't behind it, because they wouldn't be acting so irrational if they were driving everyone else to do the same.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Shaxs only names "The Invasion" among his Bajoran tarot deck, the other cards Shaxs had drawn for Boimler are rapidly shown and include "Ten of Orbs" (with a layout identical to traditional Rider-Waite deck's Ten of Pentacles), "Celestial Temple", "The Boryha", "Derna", and "The Emissary", the latter seemingly depicting Benjamin Sisko.
- Funny Background Event: While Migleemo is getting frustrated with the replicator, in the background, Ensign Gary is picking a fight with Ensign Livik, which devolves into a Wimp Fight.
- Furry Reminder: Dr. Migleemo requests a meal from the replicator that emulates regurgitated food and is frustrated that it barely tastes like the meals that his mother used to puke into his mouth.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: The three Betazoids behave like this despite being diplomats, much to T'Lyn's irritation. Subverted when it turns out that they only behave like this to hide their status as spies. Parodied at the end when Mariner orders herself a piña colada and T'Lyn a glass of room temperature water.
- Hate Plague: T'Lyn's stress causes everyone to become more emotionally volatile, leading to irritability and paranoia, though not universally so.
- I Choose to Stay: Rather than send in the report in the hopes of being transferred back, T'Lyn decides to stay on the Cerritos after Mariner convinces her that her captain punting her off the ship for a minor character flaw was illogical when her actions saved the ship.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Boimler is hijacked to participate in an exercise with the security team, initially hoping it was combat training but finds them doing a rather mundane game night. He then realizes they are in the armoury and when a red alert is sounded weapon racks open up and they go to work. Shaxs explains they do low-stress activities so they can remain calm in crisis situations, they don't spend all their free time training to phaser people.
- Internal Reveal:
- The Betazoids hand Freeman a PADD with a blurry image of the mysterious ship.
- T'Lyn tells Mariner about the circumstances behind her transfer.
- I Want My Mommy!: A variation happens with Mariner. Rather than being the one in danger, her mother Freeman is. Since Mariner is being affected by T'Lyn's psychic influences to her emotions, she dramatically declares that they have to save her mommy.
- Jerkass Realization: Boimler is bored by the activities that Shaxs and the rest of Security participate in, wanting to see some action and kick ass instead of goofing off. Once they go to Red Alert, though, and he sees them all handle the situation, he realizes that he was being a jerk and apologizes. Shaxs forgives him, since Rutherford told him how Boimler was putting a lot of pressure on himself, and Security also means keeping the crew safe mentally as well as from any physical threats.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Shaxs and his security team spend their downtime playing board games in the armory, which disappointed Boimler hoping they were always doing weapons drills and CQC training. But when an emergency actually happens, the team handily takes care of the crisis with calm efficiency.
- Karma Houdini: The Romulans, judging by distance that they decloaked from the Cerritos, were WITHIN the Neutral Zone themselves and as such having their ship there lurking, without good reason, means they have committed an act of war against the United Federation of Planets.
- Mellow Fellow: When we meet Kayshon and the rest of Security, they are this, happily into charades, puzzles, slam poetry and tarot card readings. Boimler doesn't see the point in all of this, believing they should be combat-ready at all times. However, when they go to Red Alert, Boimler reverts to being panicky while Shaxs, Kayshon and the others immediately switch to fighting mode. They are able to subdue the feral T'Ana and take back the ship with ease, showing that being calm is being prepared.
- Mythology Gag:
- The map for the Romulan Neutral Zone is the same as the one used in Star Trek: The Original Series. The map still lists Romulus' moon as "Romii" instead of "Remus".
- T'Lyn's running style is similar to the one Spock uses in Star Trek Into Darkness.
- My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Weaponized by one of the Betazoids, who distracts Ensign Castro and another of the bridge crew by revealing their mutual attraction after mentally scanning them.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Cathew hits on Ransom, who immediately reciprocates, and she turns him down because she prefers hard to get. She then goes for Captain Freeman, who is Happily Married.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Migleemo does this when he returns to normal and sees he destroyed the replicator in the bar.
- No True Scotsman: T'Lyn believes that her empathic outburst, and her inability to remain completely calm, stoic, and logical, show that she's "not Vulcan enough" and "not a true Vulcan". Mariner counters that T'Lyn's distant attitude, her ability to neck pinch, and her ability to project her stressful feelings onto others proves that she's "Vulcan as a motherf**ker".
- Never mind the fact that T'Lyn is biologically and physiologically a Vulcan, follows Vulcan cultural practices, suppresses her emotions like most Vulcans, and served on a Vulcan starship. "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck..."
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The Betazoid "diplomats" act like sorority girls on a bender to hide the fact that they're actually deep-cover spies and dangerously competent in a fight.
- Older Than They Look: Though it's no secret that Vulcans can live for a longer amount of time than humans, T'Lyn reveals that despite her looking as young as Mariner and the others, she's actually 62 years old, with Mariner even commenting about how great she looks for her age. This keeps in step with the fact that Subcommander T'Pol of Star Trek: Enterprise was also in her early 60s, but appeared to be the same age as a 25-to-35 year old human.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Dr. Migleemo, a bona fide Nice Guy, curses at a replicator and then phasers it to smithereens.
- Poor Communication Kills: Shaxs doesn't explain the purpose of what he wants to do with Boimler, so Boimler expects that he'll be doing advanced security training and that it'll be action-packed, which is a big part of why their approach of relaxing with slam poetry and board games doesn't work on him.
- Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Dolorex employs this when reading Freeman's mind.
- Psychic Block Defense: Security goes through a lot of mental training so they're unaffected by telepathic attacks, letting them shrug off T'Lyn's projections. One of the Security members is able to prevent her mind from being read thanks to the slam poetry sessions she goes through.
- Pun-Based Title: The episode title is a play on the phrase "pathological fallacies".
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: T'Ana's eyes turn slightly bloodshot when her urge to hunt kicks in.
- Red Herring: It seems that the Betazoid guests are intentionally causing the Cerritos crew's erratic behavior, since they are seemingly unaffected and seem to be planning something. When apprehended, they also immediately decide to go on the offensive. In reality, however, they're just as affected as everyone else and are really intelligence agents attempting to track down the mysterious ship stalking the quadrants. They only acted in self-defense when they thought their mission was threatened.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: The Caitians used to hunt Betazoids, and T'Ana has to shrug off the urge to do so in their presence. When the Hate Plague hits, she goes almost completely feral and begins hunting the trio throughout the ship.
- Shout-Out: Kayshon's running cycle once the security team swings into action resembles that of the infamous "Naruto run" (leaning forward, arms stretched back).
- Sophisticated as Hell: After Mariner's You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech (see below), T'Lyn relaxes, stands up, and says, "I suppose, by the transitive property, I too must be Vulcan as a motherf*cker."
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: T'Lyn's anxious desire to contact her former captain so she can return to her ship is what causes the crew of the Cerritos to flip out.
- Wax On, Wax Off: The recreational activities Shaxs has Boimler participate in seem pointless to him, because he expects Security to be all action. Then the Red Alert hits and it's shown that they promote mental wellness, such that even the Betazoids can't read their thoughts. Shaxs lampshades after the fact that fighting all the time isn't very helpful, so he takes a holistic approach to the job.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When T'Lyn explains to Mariner how she was kicked off her old ship for following her instincts instead of logic and not being Vulcan enough, and feels this situation only proves it, Mariner tells her how her old captain was a jerk who gave her a Disproportionate Retribution for what was at worst a minor character flaw, and her Bendii Syndrome proves she is plenty Vulcan since even Spock's father Sarek had it and he was "Vulcan as a motherf**ker". T'Lyn sees the logic in her argument.
