The crew explores an uninhabited alien planet, but find they aren't as alone as they thought.
Tropes:
- Abandon Ship: Janeway orders this when the vines compromise the Protostar. Gwyn initially resists, but realizes she can't recover the situation and complies.
- Admiring the Abomination: Zero can't help marveling at how the planet is trying to kill everyone, even as Dal is more desperate to escape.Zero: The maze, it's sealing us in! This planet is remarkable! It acts as one superorganism, luring and consuming its prey for nutrients.
Dal: You mean it wants to eat us!
Zero: Eat us? It shows us what we want by fabricating our desires onto its cilium. It's quite wondrous!
Dal: It's also trying to eat us. Hold on! - Armor Is Useless: Pog's environmental suit turns out to be ineffective against the superorganism's spores.
- Call-Back: Gwyn recalls Dal's line in the first episode about how they could have been friends when trying to guilt him about leaving her locked up.
- Captain's Log: Dal records his first log at Janeway's behest."Captain's Log, stardate...I don't know. Janeway thinks we're cadets. She told me to log whatever my crew has been up to, but there's not much to report. Since we almost flew directly into a dying star, Janeway thought it might be nice to teach us some basics on how to pilot a starship. And she taught us the wonders of autopilot. She also trained us how to plot a course to avoid anything that might try to hurt us... like our Diviner, who's probably not pleased we took his daughter. The more distance we put between us and Tars Lamora, the better. But, big picture — as long as our course is set to avoid any trouble, we shouldn't have any. Right?"
- Cardboard Prison: For the second consecutive episode, Gwyn escapes from the brig.
- Chekhov's Gun: The shuttle Gwyn tried to replicate in the previous episode, though non-functional and sporting a giant hole in the side from Rok tearing through it, serves as a makeshift escape pod when she's forced to abandon ship, since all the actual escape pods haven't been replaced.
- Cliffhanger: Gwyn’s escape attempt causes the crew to be separated from the ship, leaving them stranded with a dangerous lifeform while the Diviner is making his way towards their location.
- Crazy-Prepared: Gwyn is handcuffed on top of being left in the brig as an extra layer of precaution. It's not enough, however, as she's able to remotely command her weapon to free her.
- Downer Ending: The vines bring down the Protostar, seemingly stranding the crew on a hostile world. On top of that, Gwyn has alerted the Diviner to their location.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: In this case, the planet itself wants these kids dead and digested.
- Foreshadowing: Zero notes that the soil lacks any nutrients early on. If this is the case, what's keeping the plants alive?
- Idiot Ball: Dal takes his commbadge off for no reason when admiring the scenery, causing him to miss Janeway's warning that Gwyn is stealing the Protostar. For that matter, Janeway doesn't bother trying anyone else before Gwyn overrides her.
- Juggling Loaded Guns: Janeway passes out Type-1 phasers for the group, which all of them immediately start toying with. Jankom ends up shooting himself, but thankfully they default to the stun setting.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Janeway warns the crew to look out for each other, but barely has time to finish her sentence before Dal drives off in the rover and everyone else splits up.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Through its spores, the vines have the ability to read their victim's mind and present them with an illusion of their greatest desire.
- Man-Eating Plant: The soil on the planet is devoid of nutrients, so the vines survive by feeding on any animal life they can ensnare, having evolved to lure in prey with hallucinations and clever replicas.
- Mythology Gag:
- The planet is in the Hirogen star system, named after the hunter race in Star Trek: Voyager. Since that race had no known home system, the name is likely of no other significance.
- Murf chases a drone which has a similar design to an Exocomp, except it rolls instead of floating.
- No Biochemical Barriers: The spores work equally well on the non-corporeal Zero as they do on the biological crew.
- Only Sane Man: Dal has a very brief stint as this near the beginning of the episode. When the rest of the crew are excited by the idea of exploring an unknown planet, Dal says no because that would give the Diviner time to catch up with them. He's forced to go along with it because Janeway won't buy his excuse and he has to keep up the act of being cadets. As it turns out, not only is Dal more right than he knows, but there is also another very good reason for them not to go there.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Gwyn realizes the illusion of her father isn't real when it claims to be proud of her, something her father would never do.
- Override Command: Gwyn is able to bypass the security protocols on the Protostar and force Janeway to recognize her as captain, having been taught starship operations by her father.
- Pet the Dog: Gwyn saves Murf as she is forced to abandon the Protostar.
- Properly Paranoid: Pog insists on wearing a sealed environmental suit to the planet's surface, despite it having a breathable atmosphere. It does absolutely no good, since the spores apparently go right through it and we visibly see him smell things while wearing the supposedly-sealed suit, but at least he was right to be cautious.
- Slave to PR: Dal would rather avoid any stops to keep ahead of the Diviner, but he's forced to explore an uncharted M-class planet to keep up the ruse of being cadets, since Janeway doesn't know who the Diviner is and thus doesn't consider him a threat.
- Sleeper Starship: Jankom Pog mentions having been on a Tellarite sleeper ship, which is presumably how he got to the Delta Quadrant in the first place.
- Tempting Fate: "As long as our course is set to avoid any trouble, we shouldn't have any. Right?" Cue proximity alert.
- Toilet Humor: When the crew receive their tricorders.Zero: Interesting. Mine has already detected a gas sample.
Jankom: (laughs) Guilty.
Zero: (sighs) Ah, the joys of being non-corporeal. - What the Hell, Hero?: Gwyn's not quite in hero territory yet, but Dal still calls her out for crashing the Protostar and stranding them.
- What You Are in the Dark: Gwyn is about to Abandon Ship when she sees Murf huddled in the cargo bay, terrified and defenseless. After a moment of hesitation, she goes back to save him before launching the shuttle. Had she launched immediately instead, no one would have known she had the chance to save him.
- When Trees Attack: The vines on the planet are able to read the minds of prey and reproduce their greatest desires in order to capture and feed upon them. They're even strong enough to restrain the Protostar.
