The Klingon Torres is Strapped to an Operating Table in the laboratory by Sulan, a Vidiian surgeon. He explains that he has turned Torres fully into a Klingon so that he can test her reaction to the Phage, the body-rotting disease that afflicts his whole species, in hopes of finding a cure. Indeed, her body manages to fight off the infection, and an overjoyed Sulan plans to perform more tests to develop a cure through her Klingon genes. Meanwhile, Paris and Durst are herded into a Vidiian slave camp. A Talaxian fellow prisoner explains that they'll be used as laborers until the Vidiians decide to harvest their organs. Paris and Durst immediately start plotting escape, but they're surprised to be joined by Torres, except this Torres is a fully human version. She's much more scared and frail than normal and has mixed emotions about finally being free of her Klingon blood.
The second away team finds the same kind of camouflaged forcefields that they encountered during their last run-in with the Vidiians. They set about shooting them down, but they're surprised by two armed Vidiians, so they beam away. On Voyager, the crew locates the Vidiian base and figures out a way to sneakily beam through their forcefields. Chakotay volunteers to get himself surgically altered to look like a Vidiian and infiltrate the base.
In the laboratory, the Klingon Torres notices that Sulan is showering her with a lot of praise and tries to seduce him in return for releasing her, but he doesn't fall for it, knowing that his appearance must disgust her. In the slave camp, guards arrive to take Durst away. Paris tries to go in his place, but they insist. Later, Sulan arrives at the lab wearing Durst's face, hoping that it would make Torres find him more attractive. Torres breaks free, beats up Sulan and escapes. In the slave camp, the Human Torres is too weak to work and gets escorted away to have her organs harvested, but her Klingon version rescues her and takes her into the caverns.
At camp, the two Torreses start bickering. The Klingon accuses the human of being too weak and ineffectual, while the human accuses the Klingon of being too reckless and stubborn to succeed. They'll need to work together to turn off the base's security shields so they can be rescued by Voyager. Meanwhile, the disguised Chakotay finds Paris and escorts him out of bondage. Torres arrives at Sulan's lab and hacks the shields, but she trips an alarm in the process. Sulan arrives with a phaser, but he can't risk killing the only Klingon in the Delta Quadrant, so he threatens to shoot the human Torres unless the Klingon stands down. Chakotay arrives just in time to force him to surrender. Just as they're about to leave, however, Sulan tries to shoot the human Torres, and the Klingon jumps in front of it just before they're all beamed away.
The Klingon's wounds are mortal, but she feels privileged to have died a warrior's death. She dies in the human Torres's arms. Later, the Doctor informs Torres that he'll need to restore her Klingon genes or else she'll die. She muses that her Klingon side is saving her life a second time. Before the surgery, she admits to Chakotay that she's more at peace with herself as a human but feels incomplete, since her Klingon side is a part of who she is.
This episode provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Sulan is clearly attracted to Klingon!Torres, but he's painfully aware that his appearance is disgusting.
- An Aesop: The things about yourself that you don't like are still a part of who you are.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: B'Elanna always wanted to get rid of her forehead ridges. Human!Torres notes the irony.
- Being Human Sucks: And in this case, being either solely Human or Klingon sucks.
- Big "NO!": Sulan when Klingon!Torres sacrifices herself.
- Blatant Lies: As the guards drag off Human!Torres for "organ processing".Human!Torres: Where are you taking me?Guard: For a shower and a hot meal!
- Brains and Brawn: Klingon!Torres is the brawn, Human!Torres is the brains.
- Call-Back: The crew realize that they're dealing with Vidiians after encountering the same camouflaged force fields they saw in "Phage."
- Cordon Bleugh Chef:
- Neelix decides to add spices to Tuvok's prized plomeek soup, prompting the annoyed Vulcan to note that this defeats the whole point of making people their favorite recipes from home. Though it does seem that apart from the extra spiciness, Neelix did generally get it right.
- After they escape the barracks, Klingon!Torres wakes Human!Torres up to try and get her to eat.
Klingon!Torres: Wake up, p'takh. Eat!Human!Torres: Wha—what is it?Klingon!Torres: Some rodent I killed.Human!Torres: ...No. Thanks.Klingon!Torres: I'm sorry I can't replicate you a souffle, but you need nourishment. I can't carry you all the way out of here. - Curly Hair Is Ugly: In contrast to Human!Torres jaw-length straightened hair, Klingon!Torres has shoulder-length, naturally curly locks, implied to be one more thing B'Elanna doesn't like about her Klingon heritage.
- Didn't Think This Through: Did Sulan really think that killing Durst and stealing his face would make Torres like him?
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Klingon!Torres dies on the transporter pad in her human version's arms.
- Disappeared Dad: B'Elanna reveals this as part of her Back Story, which is explained further in "Lineage".
- Do You Think I Can't Feel: Sulan tries to convince Torres that he really is a nice guy forced into doing awful things For the Greater Good.
- Dressing as the Enemy: It's a lot easier when the guards can change their faces.Guard: (suspicious) I've never seen you before.Chakotay: My face was just grafted.
- Dude, Not Funny!: The Talaxian prisoner jokes about how the Vidiians can take away your heart "in a heartbeat". Neither Paris nor Durst find it amusing.
- Face-Revealing Turn: Human!Torres, and Durst-Face Sulan both reveal their faces this way.
- Facial Horror: Sulan stealing Durst's face and grafting it to his. Did he really think B'Elanna would find that attractive??
- Fainting: When Human!Torres meets her Klingon version, she passes out, as much from fatigue as disbelief. The Klingon just lets her counterpart fall onto her shoulder and carries her off.
- Fantastic Racism: Torres relates encountering it: "I grew up on a colony on Kessik Four. My mother and I were the only Klingons there, and that was a time when relations between the Homeworld and the Federation weren't too cordial. Nobody ever said anything, but we were different and I didn't like that feeling. Then my father left when I was five years old. One day he was there and the next he wasn't. I cried myself to sleep every night for months. Of course I never told anybody. And then I finally decided that he'd left because I look like a Klingon. And so I tried to look human."
- The Grotesque: As in their prior appearance, the Vidiians are all in various stages of decay.
- Hates Being Touched: Human!Torres flinches when Tom tries to comfort her by cupping her face.
- Implied Death Threat: When Klingon!Torres refuses to answer Sulan's questions, he notes to himself, "Perhaps I was in error to leave your consciousness and memory intact." This gets her talking.
- Insufficiently Advanced Alien: Despite being able to completely seperate B'Elanna's Klingon and Human DNA then generate a fully Klingon body, the Vidiians can't just take tissue samples from B'Elanna and clone them: Sulan can only take samples of Klingon DNA and try to graft them into the Vidiian genome.
- Lima Syndrome: Sulan developes feelings for Klingon!Torres throughout the episode, in part over how impressed he is over her genetics.
- Literal Split Personality: B'Elanna has two sides of herself expressed through her human and Klingon selves.
- The Load: Human!Torres is this, according to her Klingon half."If I hadn't come along, were you just going to waste away in that prison camp until they killed you for your body parts? Were you too frightened to act?"
- Magic Plastic Surgery: Not only does the Vidiian scientist graft Durst's face onto himself, but the Doctor cosmetically alters Chakotay to make him look like a Vidiian guard.
- Mauve Shirt: Durst received a speaking role in the previous episode to give more impact to his death in this episode. He has the dubious distinction of being Voyager's first crewman to die after they arrived in the Delta Quadrant.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: As a full-blooded Klingon, Torres instantly favors Klingon cultural values and even speaks in the cadence of a Klingon.
- Misapplied Phlebotinum: The Vidiians are shown to have the technology to create fully sentient duplicates of Torres. This kind of tech should allow them to create all the organs they need rather than harvest from other species.
- Mobile Maze: Harry Kim is surprised to find the tunnels the Away Team were exploring have shifted position since he scanned them two days ago.
- Neck Lift: Klingon!Torres does this to Sulan when she breaks out of her restraints.
- Out Of The Shadows Reveal: Done for Klingon!Torres in the teaser.
- Playing with Syringes
- Prim and Proper Bun: After a flirtation with a French twist hairdo over the past couple of episodes, Captain Janeway has reverted back to the Bun of Steel.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The two Torreses end up arguing over which side of themselves they find more annoying.
- The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction: Torres tries to tempt Sulan into freeing her by talking of the "legendary" voracious sexual appetites of Klingon women. Sulan doesn't fall for it, as he knows full well he's The Grotesque, but is very tempted to do so. In fact, it backfires, as instead of freeing his captive, he tries to make himself more attractive to her by cutting off Durst's face and wearing it.
- Some Kind Of Forcefield: Surrounding the prison. Harry works out a way to beam Chakotay through microfissures in the field.
- So Proud of You: Despite their earlier feuding — reflecting the ongoing internal battle they had (and will continue to have in the future) as a single individual — Klingon!Torres' Last Words to her human counterpart end up being this."You showed true courage. It makes my death an honorable one."
- Status Quo Is God: B'Elanna goes back to being a Half-Human Hybrid when she finds out that her human self cannot live without her Klingon DNA. However, her final speech indicates that although she acknowledges that her Klingon side is a necessary part of her, she's still not at peace with it, preventing future episodes dealing with it from becoming Aesop Amnesia.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: Klingon!Torres is strapped down for good reason.
- Take Me Instead: As the superior officer, Tom Paris demands to go in Durst's place when he's taken away by the guards. They don't listen.
- Taking the Bullet: Sulan draws a hidden weapon to shoot Human!Torres when she lowers the forcefield, only for Klingon!Torres to jump in front of the beam. Cue Big "NO!" from Sulan.
- Trail of Bread Crumbs: Harry suggests a hi-tech version with subspace transponders so the next Away Team won't get lost in the Mobile Maze.
- Trouble Entendre: Taken for "organ processing".
- We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: The Vidiian use their captives as slave labour as they're too weak from the phage to work. When the captives become too weak to work, they're sent to Organ Processing.
- You Look Familiar: In-Universe; this is what happens when someone steals the face from a Mauve Shirt.
