The Infinity crew finally reaches the coordinates where they were expecting to find Chakotay, but they will make an unexpected encounter.
Tropes:
- Blatant Lies: Janeway's Fake Static on Jellico. She's not convincing and she's not trying to be, she's just employing an old cliché to give Jellico the metaphorical finger before going AWOL.
- Clock Roaches: The Loom are attracted to temporal paradoxes, and then consume anything they can find around them. This means that not only Gwyn, but also the entire timeline is now at risk.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Wesley has some trouble explaining things coherently, mostly because he's not only a time traveller but also aware of multiple timelines.
- Combat Tentacles: Almost the entire bodies of the Loom look like tentacles with glowing tips. they can twist their tentacles around for land travel to form arms and claws.
- Continuity Nod:
- The "safe place" where Wesley teleports the crew at the end of the episode is modelled after Gary Seven's flat. Earlier, when Jankom Pog asks to speak to "a supervisor", Wesley is confused, before realising he's not talking about the title used by Gary and similar operatives. The connection between the Supervisors and the Travellers was established when Wesley recruited Kore Soong.
- Wesley references the Mirror Universe and the "Narada incursion universe" note when giving examples of parallel universes. He also mentions Fluidic space (home of Species 8472), mycelial network (even though he notes they aren't supposed to know about that) and the temporal wars (also discussed in Discovery seasons 3-5)
- A massive one, given how long ago it was set up. When Wesley left Starfleet and joined The Traveler in "Journey's End", Beverley Crusher's big goodbye to him was to hand him a red woolen sweater to ensure he's always warm on his travels. He's wearing it for this appearance and all subsequent ones in this series.
- Fake Static: Janeway actually pulls one on Edward Jellico.
- First-Name Basis: Jellico calls Janeway "Kathryn" when he suggests she's letting her emotions cloud her judgment. Janeway starts calling him Edward in response and continues to do so even after he reverts to her surname.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The crew passes by giant statues of the Traveller's people, shortly before meeting Wesley, who was last seen working with them.
- Foreshadowing:
- Wesley references the Mirror Universe as one of the existing alternate universes. Five episodes later...
- He also mentions wanting to save the prime Universe because his Mum lives there, whilst still wearing the sweater she made for him. Guess who's making a cameo four episodes later?
- Fun with Homophones: When phasers have no effect on the Loom, Zero quips that they seem "unfazed".
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Jankom Pog says the whole thing has been "a wild targ chase" and later that Wesley is "one nebula short of a galaxy".
- Knew It All Along: Noum insists that he knew the kids were holograms the whole time. No-one seems convinced, but they have more pressing issues than questioning it.
- Literary Allusion Title: "Time, thou devourer of all things", from Ovid's The Metamorphoses.
- The Needs of the Many: Gwyn asks if their universe would be safe if she allowed herself to zap out of existence. Wesley replies that the problem is much bigger than that for it to be a solution.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Janeway's three rules for captaining a ship are "Keep your shirt tucked in," "Go down with the ship," and "Never abandon a member of your crew."
- Running Gag: Wesley seems to have developed something of an obsession with sweaters, to the point of explaining practically everything in terms of sweater-based metaphors.
- Shout-Out: Wesley's oddball behaviour, his Bizarchitecture base and some of his equipment are reminiscent of another famous time traveller's.
- Time Stand Still: The Loom attack by slowing down the time around them, meaning their victims are frozen in time and can be easily consumed. Gwyn's protective armband allows her to resist, and Wesley (who is immune due to his powers) has additional protective armbands in store.
- Wham Episode: The identity of the mysterious force that had been helping the characters since the beginning of the season is revealed as none other than Wesley Crusher.
