History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E18Allegiance

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Esoqq is the most violent of the four captives, and is even willing to kill and eat the other captives if he begins to get hungry, but he is nonetheless perturbed that somebody would imprison a child like like Cadet Haro.

* LesCollaborateurs: Kova Thol is from a race of cowards who are happy to be slaves to whoever invade them in order to survive--his planet has been invaded and conquered ''six times''. Likewise, Thol himself will switch allegiances at the drop of a hat to support whoever he thinks is in control of the situation.

'''Picard:''' Captivity ''is'' an injury, regardless of how it's justified. And now that you've had a taste of captivity, perhaps you'll reconsider the morality of inflicting it upon others. In any event, we now know of your race and we know how to imprison you. Bear that in mind. ''[{{beat}}]'' Now get off my ship.

[floatboxright:Series: ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''\\
Episode: Season 3, Episode 18\\
Title: "Allegiance"\\
Previous: "Sins of the Father"\\
Next: "Captain's Holiday"\\
Recapper: Tropers/{{Premonition45}}]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The traitor has "two-faces"--as a Bolian, "Cadet Haro" has an anatomical ridge dividing her face in half.

[floatboxright:Series: Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration\\

Title: Allegiance\\
Previous: Sins of the Father\\
Next: Captain's Holiday\\

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The reason everyone was abducted was because their captors are intensely curious about the concept of leadership and authority because they are all exactly alike and communicate telepathically, thus they had never encountered the idea of one being having authority over others before. But it's clear, [[LaserGuidedKarma when Picard gives them a taste of their own medicine]], that he doesn't entirely buy their alleged BlueAndOrangeMorality, and maybe they're just jerks.
* BluffTheImpostor: Picard [[CallBack brings up the incident on Mintaka III from "Who Watches the Watchers"]], and when Haro responds he then mentions an outbreak of plague on Cor Caroli V that she expresses familiarity with. Later, he exposes "Haro" as an imposter because while it was possible (though unlikely) for her to be familiar with Mintaka III, the plague on Cor Caroli V was classified by Starfleet and no mere cadet would be aware of it.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The traitor has [[spoiler: two-faces.]]

* LesCollaborateurs: Kova Thol is from a race of cowards who are happy to be slaves to whoever invade them in order to survive. Likewise, Thol himself will switch allegiances at the drop of a hat to support whoever he thinks is in control of the situation.

* TheMutiny: The ''Enterprise'' crew relieve the fake Picard from his command when he gives them a senseless order to destroy the ship.
* OutOfCharacterAlert: While Picard's doppelgänger doesn't act quite right, the senior staff still goes along with it, figuring it must be some sort of secret mission or test. However, they realize something is very wrong when Picard comes down to Ten Forward, orders ales for everyone, and gives a toast and a song, something the normally very reserved Captain would never do.
** Other alerts include him attending the officers' poker game for the first time, taking his physical ahead of schedule, hitting on Crusher, and telling Troi to watch out for signs of distrust. He basically gets caught because he's ''too'' interested in fitting in.

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Esoqq's homeworld Chalna takes the Klingon's love of combat and strength UpToEleven, though apparently not quite to the psychotic extent of the Jem'Hadar, the warrior slave race of the Dominion. His society is basically a lawless dog-eat-dog world where the strongest rule by killing all their enemies.

-->'''Alien 1:''' We were merely curious. We meant no harm.
-->'''Alien 2:''' We did not, after all, injure you in any way.
-->'''Picard:''' Captivity ''is'' an injury, regardless of how it's justified. And now that you've had a taste of captivity, perhaps you'll reconsider the morality of inflicting it upon others. (''{{beat}}'') Now get off my ship.
* TheSocialDarwinist: DeconstructedTrope with Esoqq's world, which seems to [[PlanetOfHats run entirely off this concept]]. The result of a society composed solely of warriors who constantly kill their weaker competitors is a violent anarchy. No one recognizes any sort of authority or group interest, with the only de facto rule being MightMakesRight.
* SuicideMission: The fake Picard tests the obedience of the ''Enterprise'' crew to its commander by ordering them to fly into the center of a Pulsar star, which would destroy the ship. Subverted when the bridge crew mutinys because the captain refuses to tell them why the mission is so essential to make their lives forfeit.

* YouWereTryingTooHard: The Picard doppelganger does everything he can to fit in and ingratiate himself with the crew. This makes the crew very uneasy, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness as the real Picard is rather detached and standoffish.]]

* OutOfCharacterAlert: While Picard's doppelgänger doesn't act quite right, the senior staff still goes along with it. However, they realize something is very wrong when Picard comes down to Ten Forward, orders ales for everyone, and gives a toast and a song, something the normally very reserved Captain would never do.

* HandSignals: Picard uses a subtle hand gesture to start a chain of orders relayed solely by hand signal and eye contact to imprison the aliens.

[floatboxright:Series: Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration\\

* BluffTheImpostor: Picard [[CallBack brings up the incident on Mintaka III from "Who Watches the Watchers"]], which is later used to incriminate cadet Mitena Haro as an impostor, because it's much too recent for a cadet to be familiar with.

* MoralMyopia: The aliens claim to have had no idea that what they were doing might have been wrong by the standards of other races, but they seem to understand the situation enough that it was more about not caring what anyone else thought, rather than honestly thinking it through and believing it to be ok.

* SuicideMission: The fake Picard tests the obedience of the ''Enterprise'' crew to its commander by ordering them to fly into the center of a Pulsar star, which would destroy the ship. Subverted when the bridge crew mutinees because the captain refuses to tell them why the mission is so essential to make their lives forfeit.

* BluffTheImpostor: Picard [[CallBack brings up the incident on Mintaka III from "Who Watches the Watchers"]], which is later used to incriminate [[spoiler:cadet Mitena Haro as an impostor]], because it's much too recent for [[spoiler:a cadet]] to be familiar with.

* ProperlyParanoid: Thol suspects that one of them might be one of their abductors. [[spoiler: He's right. Cadet Mitena Haro is one of the abductors.]]

* UnwittingTestSubject: The plot is driven by the characters' lack of knowledge of what the purpose of their imprisonment is, which turns out to [[spoiler: be because they're part of an experiment]].
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: It is very apparent that without Picard, the other captives would have killed each other sooner or later, due to their extremely different attitudes and personalities.

* BluffTheImpostor: Picard [[CallBack brings up the incident on Mintaka III from "Who Watches the Watchers"]], which is later used to incriminate [[spoiler:cadet Mitena Haro]] as an impostor, because it's much too recent for [[spoiler:a cadet]] to be familiar with.

* ProperlyParanoid: Thol suspects that one of them might be one of their abductors. He's right. [[spoiler:Cadet Mitena Haro is one of the abductors.]]

* DirtyCoward: Kova Thol is from a race of cowards who are happy to be slaves to whoever invade them in order to survive. Likewise, Thol himself will switch allegiances at the drop of a hat to support whoever he thinks is in control of the situation.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The reason everyone was abducted was because their captors are intensely curious about the concept of leadership and authority because they are all exactly alike and communicate telepathically, thus they had never encountered the idea of one being having authority over others before.

* ProperlyParanoid: Thol suspects that one of them might be one of their abductors. He turns out to be right. [[spoiler:Cadet Mitena Haro is one of the abductors.]]

* ProperlyParanoid: Thol suspects that one of them might be one of their abductors. He turns out to be right. [[spoiler:Cadet Mitena Haro is one of them.]]

* BluffTheImpostor: Picard brings up the incident on Mintaka III from "Who Watches the Watchers", which is later used to incriminate [[spoiler:cadet Mitena Haro]] as an impostor, because it's much too recent for [[spoiler:a cadet]] to be familiar with.

-->'''Picard:''' Captivity ''is'' an injury, regardless of how it's justified. And now that you've had a taste of captivity, perhaps you'll reconsider the morality of inflicting it upon others. (''{{beat}}'') Now get off my ship.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The reason everyone was abducted was because their captors are all alike, and hence have no concept of direct leadership.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The main crew is surprised by "Picard"'s behavior.

-->'''Alien:''' We did not, after all, injure you in any way.

* BluffTheImpostor: Picard brings up the incident on Mintaka III from "Who Watches the Watchers", which is later used to incriminate [[spoiler:cadet Mitena Haro]] as an impostor.