Recap / Star Trek Voyager S 2 E 2 "Initiations"

"Who is this 'Nog' that you speak of?"

Alone in a shuttlecraft to perform a Native American ritual in memory of his father, Chakotay is attacked by a Kazon-Ogla ship manned by a teenager, Kar, who must kill an enemy to earn his Ogla name in a rite of passage. Chakotay manages to outfight the Kazon and hit the ship's engines. Before the ship can explode, he beams Kar into his own shuttle and subdues him. While returning to Voyager, Chakotay finds a Kazon ship and hails them, letting them know he has one of their own aboard. The ship begins tractoring the shuttlecraft in, in spite of Chakotay's efforts to escape. He's surprised that Kar seems equally worried about returning to his people.

Chakotay is taken prisoner by the Kazon, but so is Kar. The Kazon teen explains that he was supposed to kill his enemy or die trying. The leader of the Kazon, First Maje Razik, appears, and Kar tries to protest that his failure was not his fault. Razik forgives Kar, which distresses Kar even more for good cause. Kar is scheduled to be executed that night. After Kar is taken away, Razik explains to Chakotay that he is a prisoner because anyone in uniform entering Kazon-Olga space is an enemy to them. Meanwhile, on Voyager, the crew notice Chakotay's absence and begin tracking him down.

Razik brings Chakotay into a large gathering room, where he meets several Kazon children who are being indoctrinated into their warrior culture. Chakotay gives them a friendly greeting, hoping to give them a positive first impression of Starfleet, but when Razik asks which of them would like to kill Chakotay, they all instantly volunteer. Razik then has Kar brought in and insists that Chakotay be the one to execute him. Instead, Chakotay takes Razik hostage and demands his shuttlecraft. Kar gets the drop on Razik's second in command, Haliz, and joins him. They board Chakotay's shuttlecraft and crash land on a moon, Tarok, where the Kazon use for training. They camp out in some caves, and during the night, Kar contemplates killing Chakotay but does not go through with it.

After awakening, Chakotay confronts Kar on not killing him, and Kar admits that Chakotay is no longer his enemy. He explains that the Kazon-Olga hate men in uniform so much because they only recently freed themselves from slavery to the Trabe. However, Chakotay says that he's willing to allow Kar to temporarily kill him to earn his name once Voyager shows up and can revive him.

Voyager catches up to Chakotay's last known location and hails Razik's ship. He claims that he killed Chakotay, but Neelix correctly deduces that Razik did not do so and is unwilling to attack them so close to the Kazon training moon, forcing Razik to concede and allow the crew to beam down and search for Chakotay. On the moon's surface, Razik and a group of Kazon arrive, claiming to want to help. However, they quickly trick the crew into a forcefield trap and then run off to pursue Chakotay and Kar alone.

When Razik and company find the pair, Kar is holding Chakotay at phaserpoint. However, Kar then states that Chakotay is not his enemy; Razik is. He shoots and kills Razik, then surrenders to Haliz, proclaiming him the new First Maje. Haliz accepts Kar's actions and his Olga name: Jal Karden. Chakotay is allowed to leave, but the newly named Jal Karden tells him that he will kill him if he ever sees him again. Chakotay says he understands and beams away. Back on the ship, Chakotay performs his ritual asking for his father's spirit to watch over him and Karden.

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This episode provides examples of:

• A Day in the Limelight: A Chakotay episode.
• A Real Man Is a Killer / Rite of Passage: Kar must kill an enemy to take on a full Kazon-Ogla name.
• Artistic License – Religion: The pakra ritual is entirely fictional, being more akin to Asian ancestor worship. They did get right the fact that a proper vision quest requires isolation, unlike what was shown in "The Cloud".
• Attack Pattern Alpha: Evasive Pattern Theta-2.
• Battle Trophy: Trophies adorn the walls of the Kazon vessel. Kar even proudly shows off a trophy that belonged to his dead brother, killed by another Kazon to earn his name.
• Booby Trap: "A proton beam. They're hidden everywhere, along with biomagnetic traps and disruptor snares."
• Book Ends: Chakotay performing the pakra. At the end of the episode, he prays for Kar as well.
• Child Soldier: Kazon children fight as soon as they're old enough to defend their siblings.
• Come with Me If You Want to Live: After taking Razik as a Human Shield, Chakotay offers Kar a chance to come with him. Figuring he can't get any more disgraced than he is now, Kar does so.
• Commander Crash: Chakotay loses his first shuttle. It won't be the last.
• Commercial Break Cliffhanger: The shuttle is Coming in Hot and they're too far away from the surface for safe transport. Chakotay and Kar transport anyway, and survive thanks to a combination of Exact Words and Plot Armor.
• Continuity Nod: After last episode's demonstration of Voyager's surface landing ability, it's pointed out that the moon's surface is too fragile to take its weight this time.
• Conveniently Close Planet: There's an M Class moon nearby, which unfortunately is a Kazon Death Course.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Chakotay's shuttle takes multiple hits from Kar's ship with no effect, then destroys it with one shot.
• Cut Phone Lines
  • The battle with Kar knocks out communications on Chakotay's shuttle, so he can't call Voyager. Chakotay has a Not So Stoic moment at this news.
  • The 'radiothermic interference' prevents Voyager from warning the away team that Razik is about to pay a visit.
• Deadly Training Area: The Kazon train their young warriors on planets rigged with booby traps.
• Death Is Cheap: So Kar will earn his name, Chakotay tells Kar to shoot him, then Voyager will beam him up so he can be revived. Kar decides to Take a Third Option.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Chakotay tries to reason with the Kazon, but his Thou Shalt Not Kill values don't sit well with their A Real Man Is a Killer values.
• Disappointed in You: Kar just gasps a Little "No" when Razik says he forgives him.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Neelix has to Verbal Backspace after calling Janeway sir...ma'am...captain!
• Enemy Mine: Kar and Chakotay, eventually becoming Fire Forged Friends.
• Fate Worse than Death: Kar pleads with Chakotay to kill him, rather than face disgrace. "Because there are worse things than being killed by your enemy."
• Fingore: If Kar is captured by another clan after becoming an outcast, they cut off a finger. And there's more clans than he has fingers because their number changes every day.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Trabe are discussed, and Razik suggests Janeway form an alliance with the Kazon.
  • Neelix is annoyed he wasn't given a chance to take part in Voyager's holodeck defense simulation. His desire to be in Security is a Running Gag in later seasons.
• Get Out!: After being accepted back into the Kazon-Ogla, Karden formally tells Chakotay and the other Voyager crewmembers to get the hell out of their territory. No one argues.
• I Come in Peace
  • Chakotay tries to show the Kazon children he's not a threat. However when Razik offers them the opportunity to kill Chakotay, they all reach for the weapon he's offering.
  • Razik offers to help the away team find Chakotay. They're suspicious, but fall into a trap anyway.
• I Owe You My Life: Despite being an Ungrateful Bastard for most of the episode, Kar refuses to kill Chakotay when he has the chance.
• Ironic Echo: "In battle, there are no second chances."
• It's the Only Way: After a Commercial Break Cliffhanger, Chakotay and Kar wake up on the surface of the moon.
  Chakotay: The computer said that transport wasn't recommended. It didn't say it was impossible.
• Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand:
  • Kar points his weapon at Chakotay while he's asleep, but can't pull the trigger. The next day Chakotay reveals he was awake the whole time.
  Chakotay: You think I'm going to get much sleep around an Ogla warrior who's threatened to kill me? Why didn't you go through with it?
  • After Kar kills Razik, he drops the weapon and offers his life or loyalty to Haliz. First Maje Haliz accepts his loyalty.
• Klingon Promotion: Invoked by Kar when he kills Razik, making Haliz the First Maje.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Janeway assures Neelix that his meals are getting to be...(eats something and reconsiders) almost certainly a highlight of every day.
• Long List: Janeway interrupts Neelix when he starts listing his many roles on Voyager.
• Lotus Position: Chakotay performing the pakra ritual on the floor of the shuttle. Good thing it's not a Levitating Lotus Position, because he's hit by a Screen Shake.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Janeway and Tuvok go on the away mission, leaving...Tom and Neelix in charge? In fairness, they do quite well.
• Make an Example of Them: To demonstrate to the other Kazon children what happens to those who fail to kill their enemies, Razik hands Chakotay a weapon and tells him to shoot Kar.
• Moving the Goalposts: Chakotay says that if he knew this was territory claimed by the Kazon-Ogla, he would have avoided it. Razik says their territorial claims change every day.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Chakotay refuses to let Kar blow up with his ship, but Kar isn't grateful because he is now disgraced for being taken alive. Then when it appears Kar was killed in battle, Kar complains because they were 'killed' while running away. Even Chakotay loses his temper at this point.
• No Kill Like Over Kill: Razik threatens to activate the Self-Destruct Mechanism on all the weapons in the Death Course, killing everyone on the moon's surface. However Neelix realises he's bluffing, because the cost of replacing all those weapons would bankrupt the Kazon-Ogla, weakening them against their enemies.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  Kar: I should respect you because you wear that uniform?
  Chakotay: Your name, my uniform. Not much difference. We both have to earn them.
  Kar: You're saying that my name and your uniform mean the same thing, but you're wrong.
  Chakotay: Why? What's so different about us, aside from the fact that I keep saving your life and you keep threatening to kill me?
• Not So Stoic: Chakotay loses his temper several times as Kar's attitude and opposing values rub against his.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: A possible explanation for Chakotay's Not So Stoic behavior.
  • Chakotay snaps at Kar that land isn't worth fighting for, which is an odd statement for an ex-Maquis guerrilla. His reaction makes more sense after we discover in "Tattoo" that as a teenager Chakotay rejected his father's ideals of a spiritual connection to the land, and joined Starfleet instead. His father was later killed defending their land against the Cardassians.
  • Kar calling Chakotay 'Federation', and forcing him to constantly defend their values, would also remind Chakotay of how he deserted from Starfleet over the Federation's decision not to defend the Maquis colonies.
  • Chakotay offers Kar a place on Voyager, which Kar rejects because he will just end up dying far from home. Cue Reaction Shot from Chakotay.
• Old-School Dogfighting: Chakotay takes out Kar's ship by looping over the top of it.
• Only One Name: The second name has to be earned the hard way.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Razik gives Voyager permission to leave their territory without trouble if they do so right away. Neelix points out how unusual such reasonableness is for the Kazon, and this would only happen if Chakotay was Not Quite Dead.
• Phlebotinum Breakdown: Voyager can't just scan the moon and beam Chakotay up because of radiothermic interference from the concealed weaponry in the Death Course. Of course the transport/communication problems are sorted out in time to beam everyone up at the end.
• Plot Hole: Chakotay doesn't have his medicine bundle when he beams down to the moon, yet it's shown to be intact at the end of the episode. Perhaps it was retrieved along with the wreckage of the shuttle?
• Proud Warrior Race: The Kazon-Ogla, though it's largely deconstructed. Chakotay makes no secret of the fact that the Kazons' method of raising young men disgusts him, in a way that has rarely if ever been aimed at, say, the Klingons.
• Reaction Shot: On Janeway every time she thinks Chakotay's shuttle might have been destroyed.
• Red Alert: Chakotay orders Voyager to be ready for a Code White resuscitation.
• Rite-of-Passage Name Change: Every Kazon has to go through an initiation to earn their name. Once Kar proves himself, he declares himself Jal Karden.
• Rule of Threes: After Kar stops Chakotay from walking into a Booby Trap, Chakotay says "Well, it looks like you just saved my life. Twice more and we'll be even." Kar forgoes two further opportunities to kill Chakotay.
• Say My Name
  Kar: You won't stop me from earning my name, Federation.
  Chakotay: Not 'Federation'. Chakotay! That's my name!
  Kar: Did you have to earn it?
  Chakotay: No, not exactly.
  Kar: Then your name means nothing.
  Chakotay: My name was a gift, from my tribe. I cherish it, every day of my life!
  • At the end of the episode Chakotay uses Kar's new name, Karden, in his prayer.
• Scenery Porn: The out-of-control shuttle spinning towards the moon that's orbiting a gas giant.
• Schmuck Bait: Haliz insists they go one way. Tuvok insists they go another way. Razik agrees with Tuvok, saying Haliz is trying to misdirect them. The away team proceed in a single group and all get trapped under the same forcefield. Razik rightly shows his contempt.
• Science-Fiction Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Just how much of that moon was covered by booby traps anyway?
• Shoot Your Mate: Played straight for once when Razik gives Chakotay a phaser to shoot Kar in exchange for his life. The weapon must work, because Chakotay uses it to take Razik hostage and free Kar instead. Razik was trying to demonstrate that an enemy you don't kill will kill you instead, so it makes sense he'd give Chakotay a working phaser.
• Space "X": "He'd rather die than run like a Calogan dog with you, Federation."
• The Spartan Way: "For the Kazon, live ammunition is a very effective teaching tool."
• Standard Female Grab Area: Gender-Inverted Trope when Razik hauls the disgraced Kar around like this.
• Took a Level in Badass: Neelix faces down the Kazon-Ogla and wants in on tactical training. This is Character Development from last year when Starfleet's Bold Explorer recklessness only exasperated him.
• Unwanted Rescue: Kar is not pleased to be alive.
• Vision Quest: Chakotay borrows a shuttle so he can perform a Native American ritual to commemorate his father that requires solitude.
• Worldbuilding: We get more insight into the Kazon than just Gangbangers IN SPACE!
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Chakotay's explanation of why he didn't let 13 year-old Kar die. Averted with Razik (see Make an Example of Them).
• You Have Failed Me: Razik to Kar after he fails his Rite of Passage.