Original air date: November 20, 1989
The Enterprise arrives to help the crew of a Federation outpost, who have been attacked by an unknown assailant. Investigation reveals that the attackers were members of the Acamarian species and likely members of the Gatherers, a notorious group of outcasts turned nomadic pirates. Picard contacts the leader of the Acamarian government, Sovereign Marouk, and urges her government to reconcile with the Gatherers so they will stop rampaging around the galaxy. Marouk is unenthusiastic but agrees to give it a try. She comes aboard the Enterprise along with her delegation, including her personal cook, a young woman named Yuta.
On arrival at a Gatherer outpost, an away team beams down and gets immediately ambushed. The they beam away and then ambush the unsuspecting Gatherers in turn. With Picard's help, Marouk manages to convince their leader Brull to relay her offer of reconciliation to the Gatherer leader, Chorgan. To speed things up, Picard beams him onboard to meet with Chorgan personally. While this is going on, Yuta takes an interest in an elderly Gatherer. Announcing that she is "Yuta, of the clan Tralesta," she touches the Gatherer, who immediately falls over dead. The other Gatherers shrug off his death as being the result of his age, but Riker has Dr. Crusher beam down and do a quick autopsy; she finds that he died of a heart attack, but that something about it seems odd.
As the Enterprise travels to the rendezvous with Chorgan's ship, Brull's uncouth behavior grates on Wesley as he tries to make sense of the academic young cadet. At the same time, Crusher continues her investigation into the death. Riker, meanwhile, has a private dinner with Yuta, who seems oddly devoted to carrying out her "duty." Riker is able to work out that she probably isn't talking about her cooking, but she isn't very forthcoming with information. Meanwhile, Crusher discovers that the old Gatherer's heart attack was induced by some sort of genetically engineered virus. Further investigation reveals that the virus has likely been designed to target members of the Lornak clan of Acamarians.
Before they can work out anything else, the Enterprise arrives at the co-ordinates of Chorgan's ship. Unfortunately, Brull evidently forgot to call ahead, and the ship attacks the Enterprise, which is forced to disable it. Picard makes it clear that while he's here to facilitate negotiations, he's not going to put up with any crap, and he beams aboard with Marouk and her delegation, including Yuta. Riker and Crusher continue their investigation with Data's help and discover that the last death by the virus was caused 53 years ago. Examination of an old photograph reveals that the likely assailant was none other than Yuta, who appears to have not aged a day since then.
Negotiations between Marouk and Chorgan are stormy, but with Picard's help are gradually progressing. Just as Yuta goes to serve drinks, Riker beams aboard, with a phaser aimed at Yuta. He reveals the full story: 80 years ago, the Lornak and Tralesta clans all but wiped each other out in a massive war. Yuta was one of a small number of survivors on the Tralesta side and was genetically re-engineered to age slowly and carry a virus that would kill any Lornak clan member that she came into contact with. And wouldn't you know it, Chorgan is the last surviving member of the Lornak clan. Riker tries to talk Yuta down, but she refuses to be reasoned with, and Riker is forced to vaporize her. Chorgan is grateful, but it's of little consolation to Riker, who drowns his sorrows in Ten Forward as the episode ends.
This episode provides examples of:
- Aggressive Negotiations: In Picard's defense, Chorgan did fire first.
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Riker expresses an interest in Acamarian cuisine while flirting with Yuta, and seems to like the dish she makes for him pretty well.
- Alien Blood: Acamarian blood contains both iron and copper, giving it a kind of light brownish-red hue.
- Apologetic Attacker: Yuta apologizes to Riker for not being able to allow herself to let Chorgan live.
- Batman Gambit: Yuta took a position as the Sovereign's cook and food taster, banking on the fact that the Sovereign wanted peace with the Gatherers and would take her along, thus allowing Yuta to get at the last of the Lornaks.
- Bullying a Dragon: Chorgan somehow thinks that it's a good idea to open fire on a Galaxy-class starship on sight.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Riker is all smiles when Yuta pays a visit to his quarters one evening, until he realizes it was duty that brought her there, not her own desire.Riker: I told you, I prefer equals.
Yuta: Even in the matters of love?
Riker: Especially in matters of love. - Convenient Photograph: Riker and the crew use this trope and Enhance Button on a decades-old photo of a Gatherer's trial. They discover that the Girl of the Week was there because she's much older than she looks.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Enterprise only needs one phaser shot to disable Chorgan's ship after taking no damage from several volleys.
- Cycle of Revenge: Marouk explains how, in Acamar's past, loyalty to one's clan was absolute, and the slightest injury to one member resulted in violent retaliation that could start a decades-long bloody feud.
- Death Glare: Brull gets one from Picard for mocking Wesley.
- Determinator: Yuta's so determined to get to Chorgan that she stands up to two stun blasts from Riker's phaser before he's forced to disintegrate her. This may at least partly be due to her enhancements.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": Riker prefers that Yuta be on First-Name Basis with him, saying, "I'm not your commander."
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: A non-villainous example— Riker pleads with Yuta to not try to kill Chorgan so he won't have to kill her first.
- Due to the Dead: Marouk is disgusted at the Gatherers for not respecting this when Volnath dies.Marouk: Have you no respect for the dead?
Brull: What's there to respect about a corpse? - Dull Surprise: The director opted to film Picard, Marouk, and Chorgan sitting behind Yuta as she's vaporized, but didn't realize that the special effects would require the three to just sit there, not reacting at all to her death.
- Enhance Button: The Enterprise computer is able to "magnify" a small portion of a Convenient Photograph and maintain crystal-clear detail. That would be possible on an extremely high-resolution image. However, the computer is also able to "extrapolate" the rest of a face that is only 20% visible, leading to an exact duplicate of the real person's appearance.
- Facial Markings: The Acamarians have these. It's unclear if they're natural or not, but different characters have different markings. They don't appear to indicate clans.
- Family Extermination: A century earlier, the planet Acamar was caught up in an endless series of blood feuds between rival clans, one of which, the Tralesta, was nearly completely destroyed by another clan, the Lornak. The handful of survivors agreed to turn one of their own into a biologically immortal assassin so that she could hunt down every single Lornak no matter how long it took. By the time the episode takes place, the few other remaining Tralesta are all long dead; only the assassin, a mild-mannered "young" woman named Yuta, remains. While she's long since grown weary of the killing and death, the process that made her stop aging also seems to have locked in the state of grief and pain over losing her clan, and she's very close to completing her mission. As she puts it to the penultimate Lornak, "I am the last of my line, but my clan will outlive yours!". Her chemistry with Riker is almost enough to convince her to give up on the vendetta, but not quite, and he is forced to vaporize her before she can finish off the last survivor (an important political leader engaged in peace talks).
- Feuding Families: One century ago, the planet Acamar had blood feuds between clans, among them the Tralesta-Lornak war, and the vendetta is still going.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Brull describes himself this way.Brull: You don't like me, do you?
Wesley: I didn't say that!
Brull: No problem! I have many friends who don't like me! - Get Out!: Brull, Marouk, and Picard dismiss their entourages so they can negotiate in private. Troi explains that Brull did not want to look weak in front of his men.
- Hidden Depths: Wesley is surprised that Brull is tired of engaging in piracy and wants a better life for his sons.
- Historical Longevity Joke: An Acamarian version.Marouk: You people haven't changed in a hundred years!
Brull: You should know. You were there! - If I Do Not Return: Brull starts to give these instructions to one of his mooks, but is interrupted with the news of Volnath's death.
- If You Die, I Call Your Stuff: Apparently a tradition among the Gatherers, exercised after Volnoth dies.Brull: You found him?
Temarek: Yes, and there are no other members of the Lornak clan here, so I claim his possessions.
Brull: Granted. - I Need a Freaking Drink: After a heated round of negotiating with Marouk, Chorgan is more than ready to have a glass of brandy. Which, considering that Yuta is the person serving it, nearly costs him his life.
- I Owe You My Life: Chorgan declares himself in Riker's debt. Not that it ever comes up again, although the implication seems to be that the incident took enough wind out of his sails that he'll be more open to negotiations.
- If I Wanted You Dead...: Chorgan accuses Brull of betraying him to the Federation so they could find and destroy him; Picard points out that if he wanted to destroy Chorgan's ship, he would have already done so.Chorgan: Brull, you traitor! You have led them here to destroy me!
Picard: Chorgan, if I had wanted you destroyed, you would not be talking to me now. - Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Brull is brash and violent, but he's open to negotiating with Marouk because he wants a better life for his children. He takes a shine to Wesley because he has a son about the same age.
- Kill the Cutie: Riker has to do this to Yuta at the end. Though in this case, the "cutie" had done more than a little killing of her own.
- Large Ham: Brull and Chorgan, likely to provide a contrast against the more "civilized" Enterprise crew. Marouk can also turn into this while arguing with the Gatherers.Chorgan: I don't CARE what the others have!
Marouk: You only care about what you can TAKE! - Last-Second Chance: Riker tries to persuade Yuta to give up her quest for vengeance, saying that the wars are over and she doesn't have to kill any more, but Yuta says she has no choice. Even after hitting her with stun beams twice and pleading one last time, she still tries to kill Chorgan.
- Layman's Terms: While scanning the Gatherers' planet, Data detects "several small areas of thermal radiation and carbon dioxide emissions, indicative of combustion." Translation?Wesley: Campfires, Data.
Data: Is that not what I said? - Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Troi seems to have no problem making herself scarce so that Riker can put the moves on Yuta.
- Moment Killer: A tender moment between Riker and Yuta is interrupted by a Red Alert and phaser fire.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Riker is devastated after killing Yuta.
- No Biochemical Barriers: Riker eats Acamarian food without any problems.
- "Not So Different" Remark:
- Learning more about Acamarian history, Picard notes how Acamar's violent past is not too unlike that of Earth.
- Used again by Picard during the talks between Marouk and Chorgan, as he points out that the two are more alike than they care to admit.Picard: You know, it is remarkable how very much alike the two of you actually are.
Chorgan: That's ridiculous.
Marouk: Really, Captain.
Picard: No, I'm quite serious. You are both able negotiators, strong leaders.
Brull: We don't obey weak leaders.
Chorgan: We have nothing in common at all. We haven't agreed to anything.
Picard: You're wrong, Chorgan. We've agreed to have some brandy together.
- Older Than They Look: Thanks to genetic modification, Yuta is at the very least close to a century in age, but looks like she's barely out of high school.
- Poisonous Person: Yuta is a very specific variation; she's harmless to the vast majority of people, but any Lornak clansman who touches her will die in literally seconds.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Acamarians used to be wracked with clan rivalries and violence. According to Marouk, they're no longer proud of it.
- Revenge Before Reason: This is almost the Acamarians' hat. Marouk explains that for centuries, loyalty to one's clan was the most important consideration, and "the slightest injury to one member demanded violent retaliation." Vengeance would then be passed down through generations. In the episode, Yuta throws her life away for revenge.
- Reverse Whodunnit: The audience knows that Yuta is the killer from the start, but is still privy to the crew's attempts at solving the murder.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Sovereign Marouk personally accompanies the Enterprise on the mission to offer the Gatherers amnesty, on a moment's notice and only taking a couple of servants.
- Shipper on Deck: Marouk encourages Yuta to spend time with Riker, noticing their obvious mutual interest.
- Smoke Out: Subverted. After being ambushed, Riker, Data and Geordi use their phasers to vaporize some nearby metal and create a smokescreen while Riker calls for a beamout. When their attackers climb down they are ambushed in turn since the "beamout" was a ruse.Worf: Your ambushes would be more successful if you bathed more often!
- Space Pirates: The Gatherers, though they steal to survive rather than just because they're greedy jerks.
- Techno Babble: Wesley hits Brull with some, probably out of irritation for being disturbed while he's working.Brull: What are you doing?
Wesley: Homework.
Brull: What is this?
Wesley: Math.
Brull: I can see that, but what does it mean?
Wesley: This is the local Euclidean metrization of a k-fold contravariant Riemannian tensor field.
Brull: You any good at it? - There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Subverted, because Riker has to use a "vaporize" setting to stop Yuta, as stun shots aren't stopping her, and even a shot that would have been lethal to anyone else doesn't slow her down for long.
- Touch of Death: Yuta has been engineered to kill members of the Lornak family simply by touching them, which is why Riker has to resort to vaporizing her to save Chorgan's life.
- Troll: Chorgan comes across this way during the negotiations, making unreasonable demands for concessions just for the hell of it.
- Tyke-Bomb: It's not clear by how much Yuta's aging was slowed or what age she was when it happened (though she's quite young), but she was basically altered and indoctrinated into a Lornak-killing machine.
- Was Just Leaving: Deanna excuses herself so that Riker and Yuta can have some private time.
- With Due Respect: Marouk asking Brull to let her talk to Chorgan herself, rather than just letting Brull be an intermediary.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Yuta doesn't come across as an evil person by any means, just someone who is literally unable to want anything other than to kill all the remaining Lornaks.
