Janeway, Neelix, Torres and Tuvok are in a marketplace undercover to purchase some much-needed tellerium to keep their warp engines running. However, goons from the local dictatorship, the Mokra Order, crash the deal. In the ensuing phaserfight, Tuvok and Torres are captured and Janeway is injured. Before Janeway can be taken captive, she's rescued by a local man, Caylem. Janeway wakes up in the home of Caylem, who delusionally mistakes her for his daughter.
Back safely on the ship, Neelix tells Chakotay of what happened. In spite of Neelix's warning that the Mokra are selfish and cruel, Chakotay decides to try diplomacy and takes the ship closer to the planet. He gets hailed by Augris, the Third Magristrate of the Mokra. Augris is suspicious and stand-offish but promises to look into Chakotay's missing crew.
Janeway learns from Caylem about the prison where her crew are likely held. Caylem agrees to help her, still believing that she's his daughter Ralkana, on the grounds that they can rescue his wife, Ralkana's mother. She leads them to a member of the local resistance, who almost gets arrested by Augris, but Caylem manages to distract everyone by putting on a performance of a simple-minded fool. Janeway gets the lowdown of the prison and arranges for the purchase of weapons, but the weapons dealer is wearing shiny military boots, so Janeway suspects a trap and ditches the meeting. Along the way, she learns that Caylem is shamed by the fact that his cowardice got his wife captured in the first place.
On the ship, Kim comes up with a solution to bypass the prison's shields, but the plan fails, and the Mokra give Chakotay two minutes to leave before they'll open fire. Paris volunteers to beam down for a last-ditch rescue mission. Meanwhile, Janeway infiltrates the prison by dressing as an escort and manages to knock the shields down, freeing Tuvok and Torres from their cells. Before the regrouped party can escape, Augris appears with goons and holds them at phaserpoint. He mocks Caylem with the fact that the man knows his wife and daughter are Dead All Along. In a rage, Caylem fights back, allowing the rest of the group to overpower the guards. Caylem and Augris both get mortally wounded, but before Caylem dies, Janeway tells him that she's his daughter and that both she and his wife are safe.
The group connects with Paris's rescue team, and they all return to the ship. Back on the bridge, a somber Janeway looks at the necklace that Caylem gave her.
This episode provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Caylem admires his 'daughter' knocking down a Mokra guard.
- The Alcatraz: The Mokra boast that no-one has escaped their prison, and finding a way in is a major part of the plot.
- The Atoner: Caylem has been driven insane by guilt. His wife was in the resistance, and Caylem was supposed to help her escape during a raid. He was too afraid to show up, and she was arrested while waiting for him.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: The Mokra torture Tuvok, but not B'Elanna.
- Blue Oni, Red Oni: B'Elanna and Tuvok in the same cell.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The prostitutes seen in the marketplace; Janeway poses as one to infiltrate the prison.
- Caylem takes a dagger off a dead guard, then later uses it to stab Augris.
- Cut Phone Lines: A Mokra mook removes Janeway's commbadge just before he's knocked out by Caylem.
- Death Equals Redemption: After Caylem is killed during the prison raid, Darod — who had earlier denounced him as a coward — promises to make sure everyone knows of his bravery.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Caylem dies being held by Janeway.
- Evil Wears Black: The Mokra Order, combined with Faceless Mooks.
- Feet-First Introduction: We get a shot of Hooker Janeway leading up from her pumps.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The guards in the tunnels are bored, so when Janeway comes along dressed as a prostitute, despite her being an offworlder they're willing to walk off into a dark area and get clobbered from behind by Caylem.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: As Augris points out, Voyager has become a 'disreputable' ship given its tendency to make enemies.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Janeway realises their resistance contact has been replaced by a Mokra agent when she sees his military boots.
- Infinite Supplies: Averted; Voyager has to buy from the resistance because their supply of telerium has run out.
- Irony: Augris notes that he's been searching for Janeway, when all he had to do was wait in the prison for her to turn up.
- Interrogated for Nothing: The Mokra Order, paranoid xenophobes that they are, assume Voyager's crew are supplying weapons to the resistance, and torture a captive Tuvok to the point that even he can't restrain himself from screaming, demanding that he or Torres reveal the names of their contacts. Since the only dealings they had with the resistance was buying tellerium from them (and the person they bought it from likely never revealed his name), they have no such information to give them, but the Mokra aren't willing to accept that answer.
- La Résistance: The Alsaurian resistance are fighting the oppressive Mokra Order.
- Let Them Die Happy: Janeway tells a dying Caylem that she is his daughter, his wife has been rescued, and they both forgive him.
- Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Averted; the command circuits for the door are protected by a forcefield, so B'Elanna can't gadget her way out.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Paris takes charge of the rescue 30 seconds before Voyager would need his piloting skills to get away from Mokra space and those 85 phased ion cannons.
- Make an Example of Them:Augris: I must say I'm impressed, Caylem. You never made it this far before. (to Janeway) Every so often he goes on one of his missions to rescue his wife. She's been dead for twelve years.Caylem: Lies! Lies! Lies!Augris: Sometimes he gets all the way up to the front gate. We send him on his way and allow him to serve as a reminder of just how futile it is to challenge us. I thought you'd learnt that lesson when you lost your daughter. She made it as far as the tunnels before she was shot.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The UPN trailer emphasized the violence, torture and Janeway dressing as a prostitute to suggest that she was going to give her body to save her crew.
- No OSHA Compliance: The prison cell has overhead pipes and a ladder that any inmate could use to hang themselves. Maybe the Mokra don't care, but these prisoners are still being interrogated.
- No-Sell: Harry Kim works out a way past the detection grid and Chakotay is ready to charge down for a Big Damn Heroes. The moment they start, a precision blast from the surface knocks out their main deflector dish, and Augris orders them to get away from their planet or be destroyed by the 85 phased ion cannons targeted at Voyager.
- Not So Stoic: B'Elanna hears Tuvok screaming under Cold-Blooded Torture.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Not that Caylem isn't already insane for real, but when resistance member Darod is cornered by Mokra soldiers, Caylem distracts them by playing the part of a harmless Cloudcuckoolander who is looking for his hat, bringing laughter from the surrounding crowd.
- Pressure Point: The Vulcan nerve pinch strikes again.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Janeway whenever she feels sympathy to Caylem.
- Replacement Goldfish: Caylem confuses Janeway with his missing daughter, Ralkana.
- The Reveal: Caylem's wife and daughter have been Dead All Along.
- Revealing Hug: When Janeway realises Caylem is insane. She gives a more genuine hug later, after he confesses his role in her 'mother's' capture.
- Reverse Polarity: The ever-handy deflector dish is used to Techno Babble a way past the Mokra detection grid. Subverted when it's a No-Sell.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: When Janeway tries to get the resistance to help her free her people, their leader points out that if that were possible, his priority would be to rescue his own people. He only agrees to provide weapons in exchange for payment.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The last two guards beat a retreat after their boss is killed.
- Show Some Leg: Janeway posing as a hooker! She does it literally too thanks to a Sexy Slit Dress.
- Smug Snake: Augris, so very much. He takes obvious pleasure in gloating about how futile it is to oppose the Mokra, and in particular taunting Caylem about getting his wife and daughter killed. This leads to an enraged Caylem stabbing him to death.
- Taking the Bullet: Caylem for Janeway.
- Tragic Keepsake: Ralkana's necklace.
- We Need a Distraction
- When Augris is about to take away the resistance leader for questioning, Caylem plays up his lunatic image to provide a distraction.
- Janeway overloads a security panel to disrupt the shields, knowing that Voyager will be waiting in orbit.
- You Monster!: Caylem says "Monster!" on first seeing Augris.
