After the ship departs without further incident, Seska gifts Chakotay some contraband mushroom soup, but Chakotay is infuriated by her illegal activities and punishes all those involved. Janeway calls him back to the bridge, where he discovers that they've intercepted a Kazon distress call from another Kazon-Nistrim ship. They find and board it, where they discover the crew has been mysteriously merged into the metal bulkhead. One Kazon survivor barely clinging to life is beamed to sick bay. Whatever did this, it's now a blasted-out console and used nucleonic radiation, something only found in Federation technology. Tuvok theorizes that someone from Voyager leaked Federation technology to the Kazon. Suspicion immediately falls on Seska and Lieutenant Carey.
Torres comes up with a plan to safely retrieve the console, but it will take some time. Chakotay orders Seska to stay on the bridge. Though she accuses him of suspecting her, Chakotay insists that he's just trying to protect her from blame if something goes wrong. It becomes apparent that the pair are former lovers. When the Doctor requests blood samples to save the Kazon patient, Seska claims that she has a blood disease that prevents her from donating. Later, Seska beams aboard the Kazon ship to try getting the console her own way but burns herself and needs to be taken to sick bay. Tuvok suggests that she was actually trying to destroy evidence.
Janeway interrogates Carey but does not reach any conclusion. Afterward, another Kazon ship arrives to answer the distress call. The captain, Culluh, demands that Voyager leave the area. Janeway refuses until she has retrieved the console, but she does permit Culluh to visit his injured comrade. In sick bay, Culluh kills the patient before anyone can stop him, so Janeway kicks him back to his ship and threatens harsh retribution if he should try to stop her from retrieving the console.
The Doctor's blood analysis has revealed some some big news: Seska is actually a Cardassian spy. Meanwhile, Torres is finally able to beam the console aboard, decontaminate it, and identify it as a food replicator using bio-neural technology, revealing that it could only have come from Voyager. Chakotay confronts Seska with all this new information. She claims that her blood disease removes all traces of her Bajoran ancestry, while a bone marrow transplant from a Cardassian is what is supplying the Cardassian blood factors. Chakotay and Tuvok each tell their two suspects, Seska and Carey, about their plan to use security logs to find the culprit, but this is really just bait to get the perpetrator to expose themself.
Chakotay and Tuvok detect a data breach and see that Seska's authorization codes were used. This seems to point to Carey trying to frame Seska. However, Chakotay goes to Seska to accuse her of being the culprit, reasoning that she is clever enough to "frame" herself to put the suspicion on Carey. Further, they traced the origin of the security breach, and it came from Seska's own terminal. Lastly, the Doctor is summoned to testify that Seska's medical excuses for her unusual blood sample hold no water, something only a doctor with an encyclopedic database of Bajoran medicine would know. It was Seska all along!
She drops the act and says she did it all to save Chakotay, accusing Janeway of being too principled to get anything accomplished. Then she beams herself aboard the Kazon ship using a secret subroutine. Later, Chakotay laments being fooled by Seska, but Tuvok admits that he was fooled as well, so Chakotay shouldn't feel as bad.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Alien Blood: A non-visual version; Seska's blood doesn't have Bajoran blood factors.
- Artistic License – Biology: Everyone takes it as a universal fact when Neelix states that some fruit they find is deadly poisonous. No one considers that what is poisonous to one species could be perfectly palatable to another.
- Badass Boast: Maje Culluh threatens to fire on Voyager if their investigation team doesn't get off the damaged Kazon vessel. Janeway isn't impressed.Janeway: You know, I'm really easy to get along with most of the time. But I don't like bullies, and I don't like threats, and I don't like you, Culluh. You can try and stop us from getting to the truth, but I promise you, if you do, I will respond with all the "unique" technologies at my command. Janeway out.Tuvok: Their weapon systems are standing down. They do not appear to be posing a threat to us at this time.
- Beneath the Mask: Seska's mannerisms and way of speaking all change once she is exposed as a Cardassian spy.
- Call-Back:
- A motive for Carey is suggested, given that he was passed over for promotion by B'Elanna Torres in "Parallax".
- B'Elanna refusing to use Scotty Time is a call-back to the Trope Namer; Scotty from the Original Series admitted he doubled his repair estimates so he'd appear to be a miracle worker.
- Seska tells Chakotay to talk to his animal guide to allay his uncertainties.
- Cardassian Deep Cover Agents who have been surgically altered to appear to be other species have been depicted in Deep Space Nine.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Seska's initial transmission to the Kazon was done via a console in Engineering, which anyone could have used as it's so busy. She gives herself away when she's forced to use the console in Sickbay.
- The Doctor was complaining in "Time and Again" of the confusion created by the loss of the Chief Medical Officer and how no one had informed him of the Maquis crewmembers. This explains how Seska was able to dodge her medical checkup.
- Chekhov's Gunman: First Maje Culluh of the Kazon-Nistrim will become a recurring villain till the end of Season 2, working in league with Seska.
- Clarke's Third Law: Janeway is amazed that the stolen technology turns out to be an ordinary food replicator.
- Clear My Name: Played with but ultimately subverted, as Seska really is guilty.
- Clockwork Prediction: Seska figures Neelix will find out about the stolen supplies about…(cue an angry Neelix on the comm)
- Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: Seska has a ready explanation for not having any Bajoran blood factors: She had Orkett's disease as a child in the labour camps but was saved by a bone-marrow transplant from a sympathetic Cardassian, who of course isn't there to confirm this. But the Doctor had already ruled out Seska's story before she mentioned it. He states that the complete medical text on Orkett's disease is in his database, and this explanation doesn't match the anomalies.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The Running Gag of Neelix mixing human food with the nutritious but awful-tasting leola root starts here.
- Crazy-Prepared: When Seska is caught red-handed, her response is to beam straight off the ship to a nearby Kazon vessel using a single security-locked command code, having prepared her escape well in advance.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: An attempt to build a food replicator causes an explosion and the crew of the Kazon vessel gets melded halfway into the bulkheads. Talk about a Vengeful Vending Machine!
- Early-Installment Weirdness: When the crew first detect the Kazon ship in orbit, Tuvok identifies it as Kazon-Nistrim based on the silhouette of its hull design, not any distinctive colors or markings. It would later be revealed that the Kazon neither designed nor built their own ships — they stole them from the Trabe — so there's no way the design specs could be specific to any one sect.
- Feed the Mole: Seska and Carey are told that Tuvok is trying to find out where the stolen replicator came from. Actually, he already knows and is monitoring the computer inventory to see if anyone tampers with the evidence.
- Flock of Wolves: When the suggestion is raised that Seska is a Double Agent, Chakotay bemoans that, with Tuvok having been an undercover agent of the Federation, and Seska working for the Cardassians, no one seems to have been working for him.Chakotay: (to Tuvok) You were working for her* . Seska was working for them* . Was anyone on board that ship working for me?
- Foreshadowing: Tuvok suggests that the stolen technology could have come from another Starfleet vessel brought to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker. Although Janeway says there aren't any disappearances that she knows of, and his hypothesis is wrong, they do encounter such a vessel in "Equinox".
- Forgot About His Powers: Considering how much information you can get out of a tricorder reading, you'd think the Federation would just use those to check for toxins in newly-discovered fruits instead of relying on the word of Neelix.
- Frame-Up: Seska frames herself to make it look like Carey is doing so. But Chakotay isn't fooled, having tracked the hack back to a Sickbay console.
- Get Out!: Off-screen — Neelix throws Seska out of the kitchen after an argument over putting leola root in Chakotay's mushroom soup.
- He's Dead, Jim: The Kazon patient gets murdered by his fellows.
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: Seska 'forgot' to go for a routine medical examination upon joining Voyager's crew.
- Idiot Ball: Seska betting it all on her alliance with the Kazon was a pretty terrible decision if her end goal actually was to return home quicker. They are at best a localised power of relatively primitive and politically fractured warmongers whose territory is in the exact opposite direction of where she wants to go. They are also a Ferengi-level patriarchy that actively hates women. If things didn't work out how she hoped the most she could ever have hoped for out of the rest of her life was to be Culluh's wife. A much better play in retrospect would have been to cut her losses when the net was starting to tighten and tried again with another candidate once the heat died down.
- Ironic Echo:
- Seska describes her theft from the food locker as "strictly a Maquis operation". Later Chakotay says re her skillful attempt to frame Carey, "I'd almost say it was a Maquis operation, if I didn't already know you were a Cardassian."
- Culluh suggests that Janeway wouldn't be so bold if she didn't have her unique Federation technology to back her up. Later Janeway uses the threat of her unique technology to get Culluh to back down.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After Seska escapes to the nearest Kazon vessel, Janeway orders a tractor beam locked on to prevent a Hyperspeed Escape. Then she's informed that two more Kazon vessels are on their way. Rather than take their chances against three warships, Janeway elects to leave instead of fighting.
- Manipulative Bitch: In the first few minutes Seska saves Chakotay from the Kazon (I Owe You My Life), brings him mushroom stew (Tastes Like Friendship), flirts with him (Femme Fatale Spy) then when he refuses her, jokes about being interested in Harry Kim (Operation: Jealousy).
- Metaphorically True:Chakotay: Can I ask you to be honest with me, Lieutenant?
Tuvok: As a Vulcan, I am at all times honest, Commander.
Chakotay: That's not exactly true. You lied to me when you passed yourself off as a Maquis to get on my crew.
Tuvok: I was honest to my own convictions within the defined parameters of my mission. - The Mole: Seska is a Cardassian spy sent to infiltrate the Maquis.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Chakotay is enjoying his soup and laughing over Seska's antics with Neelix, until she reveals that they stole the mushrooms from the kitchen.
- Seska creepily shifts from Chakotay's dewy-eyed and wrongfully accused Maquis ex-lover, to a ruthless Cardassian spy within a single Motive Rant.
- Most Common Card Game: Or second-most common — Chakotay and Tuvok play a few hands of gin while on stakeout.
- Motive Rant: Before beaming off the ship, Seska tells Janeway and Chakotay exactly what she thinks of them.Seska: I did it for you. I did it for this crew. We are alone here, at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens, because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation captain. A Federation captain who destroyed our only chance to get home. Federation rules. Federation nobility. Federation compassion? Do you understand, if this had been a Cardassian ship, we would be home now. We must begin to forge alliances. To survive, we must have powerful friends. The Kazon-Nistrim were willing to be our protectors in return for some minor technology.Janeway: Minor technology that could change the balance of power in this quadrant.Seska Change it in our favor! That is all that matters at this point. Building a base of power in this quadrant. You are a fool, Captain. (to Chakotay) And you're a fool to follow her. I can't imagine how I ever loved you. Computer, Command XJL.
- New Old Flame: Seska has appeared in previous episodes, but this is the first mention that she was a former lover of Chakotay.
- Oh, My Gods!: Seska exclaims "Thank the Prophets!" after nearly shooting Chakotay, as per the Bajoran belief system.
- Poison Ring: Culluh uses one for the Sickbed Slaying.
- Red Herring: Lt. Carey as the other suspect.
- Revealing Cover-Up: Seska gets injured trying to retrieve (or likely destroy) the replicator. The Doctor runs a full blood scan and discovers that she is Cardassian. Later her attempt to frame Carey as The Mole only exposes her.
- Scotty Time: Defied; B'Elanna tells Janeway she won't be ready to retrieve the stolen technology before tomorrow. Janeway says she wants it done by the end of the day and starts to walk off, this being how the conversation would end in any other Trek series. B'Elanna however stops her. "No, Captain. When I say tomorrow, I mean tomorrow. I don't exaggerate. Tomorrow is the best I can do." The next day when B'Elanna's team beam over to the Kazon vessel, Janeway calls to tell them to hurry up, and is surprised to find they've already completed the job quickly and efficiently.
- Sequential Symptom Syndrome: Neelix demonstrates the terrible effects of eating Kaylos fruit with Large Ham body language.Neelix: First your windpipe sweeells, and just when you think you're going to die of suffocation OWW! You get a sharp pain in your knees (points at Carey's knees) which begins to work its way right up to—Chakotay: I think we get the picture.
- Serious Business: When Chakotay realizes Seska and several other Maquis stole the mushrooms for his stew, he docks them two days of replicator rations, including himself (for eating the stew).
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The Doctor works so hard to save the Kazon's life — just for Culluh to kill him.
- Shout-Out: To Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
- Sickbed Slaying: Culluh murdered the injured Kazon patient aboard Voyager, most likely because He Knows Too Much. All Janeway can do is throw Culluh off the ship.
- Stealth in Space: Tom Paris realizes there's a Kazon vessel in orbit that is screened from their sensors (due to information provided by The Mole) when he sees an Invisibility Flicker with his Mark One Eyeball.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Justified for once; as a Cardassian agent, Seska is very good at working her way around Voyager's computers.
- Villain Has a Point: Janeway has already grappled with her conflicting imperatives of getting her crew home and staying true to Federation principles, so when Seska calls her out on it, it's nothing that Janeway hasn't said before.
- Wham Line:Doctor: My suspicion is that Seska was born Cardassian.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The last thing we see of Carey is when he's confined to quarters for the duration of the investigation.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Although her injuries are genuine, Seska doesn't hesitate to play on them to get Chakotay's sympathy.
- Your Favorite: Seska brings Chakotay mushroom soup.
- The X of Y
