Seven is Not Herself. That's okay, though; she's just a bunch of other people instead.
A BIG side effect of being de-assimilated, and proximity to a Borg Vinculum, is the Collective's previous assimilation victims coming back to haunt Seven, and Voyager's crew as well...
This episode provides examples of
- Agent Scully: The Doctor calls a proven form of contact telepathy, which he's seen work "Vulcan mumbo-jumbo." Given that he's seen it go badly in "Meld" and "Blood Fever", his objections are presumably based on its unpredictability.
- Artifact of Doom: The Vinculum, the CPU of a Borg cube which erases individual thoughts and merges drones' minds with the Collective: bringing order to chaos. This one, separated from its destroyed Cube and infected with a virus from another assimilated species, 6339, is malfunctioning and sending errant commands to Seven's cortical implant, bringing out the assimilated victims: as Tuvok observes, bringing chaos to order.
- Assimilation Backfire: Invoked by Species 6339, who sent 13 of their number to be assimilated so that they could infect the Borg with the pathogen.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: In addition to shutting down the Vinculum, Tuvok must also perform this. It takes the form of dozens of souls separating Tuvok and Seven, including a Destination Defenestration, but they all vanish once the Vinculum is shut down.
- Big Sister Worship: Seven is initially irritated at Naomi following her around, until Naomi explains that she wants to learn from Seven's pursuit of perfection, which actually elicits a brief smile. Apparently Seven is not immune to flattery.
- Bilingual Dialogue: When Seven is channeling the son of K'vok:Seven: Do-raQ me'roch.note
B'Elanna: I beg your pardon? - Bite of Affection: The son of K'vok (in Seven's body)
hits on B'Elanna in the Klingon way, including a bite on the cheek. - Book Ends: To little Maryl, who played Kadis-kot (a form of Tic-Tac-Toe with colors?) with Naomi; at the end, aside from helping Naomi prepare to be 'Captain's Assistant' (a role Seven previously stated was non-existent), Seven herself requests to be taught how to play the game.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Inverted, according to "Ensign Stone", who describes her captain as a real hardass while the XO tells her not to take the hazing too personally.
- Continuity Nod:
- While channelling a Klingon Seven bites B'Elanna's cheek, just as B'Elanna bit Tom during "Blood Fever".
- To the Battle of Wolf 359, when Seven manifests a Mrs. Bergen, whose son was killed in the battle while she was assimilated. Ensign Stone's ship was also apparently assimilated given her comments during the episodes climax.
- The Doctor still has an innate distrust of Vulcan mind melds.
- The Hitler Cam is once again used to highlight the size difference between Seven and Naomi, as well as how a grown-up like Seven must look to a little girl like Naomi.
- A Vidiian (from seasons 1-2) is briefly visible among the crowd of personalities in Seven's mind. Presumably the Phage isn't a problem for the Borg, or they felt getting access to Vidiian medical knowledge was worth the trade-off.
- One of the personalities mentions her son was serving on the USS Melbourne, which was lost at the Battle of Wolf 359. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-part episode "The Best of Both Worlds", Riker got offered to command the Melbourne in Part I but turned it down, and Starfleet's Borg expert, Commander Shelby, specifically points out the destruction of the Melbourne in Part II.
- Deadpan Snarker: The Doctor, just before Tuvok Mind Melds with Seven: "With all of these new personalities floating around, it's a shame we can't find one for you."
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Well, as much as the Vinculum is 'alive,' because it adapts, has self-preservation instincts, etc., but B'Elanna finally manages to kill it.
- Driven to Suicide: The drones who experienced similar symptoms to Seven's when infected by the Vinculum's virus.
- Fictional Sport: Kadis-kot. It seems to be a combination of Connect Four and Reversi.
- Filching Food for Fun: Few take the mysterious thief helping themselves to a midnight snack seriously, except Neelix of course as he's in charge of the kitchen.
- Genki Girl: Seven, when Maryl emerges. It's still about as unsettling as seeing Tuvok or Spock emote, but When She Smiles...
- Gratuitous Latin: Vinculum is Latin for chain or bond.
- Hearing Voices: Seven experiences this just before new personalities emerge, and they reach truly cacophonous levels near the end as her condition gets worse.
- Honest John's Dealership: DaiMon Torrot, the Ferengi trader.
- Hope Spot: It seems like choking out the Vinculum with a Techno Babble is going to work, but like all Borg technology, it adapts, and Seven's own neural pathways are totally submerged in favor of the potentially hundreds of others.
- I Am X, Son of Y:
- The son of K'vok!
- "Naomi Wildman, subunit of Ensign Samantha Wildman. State your intentions."
- Incredibly Obvious Tail: Naomi tailing Seven through the corridors of Voyager. Seven soon tires of her behavior and confronts her directly.
- Innocent Inaccurate: Naomi's back! She's a bit nonplussed by Seven becoming Maryl, but she recovers quickly.
- Irony: The Borg Vinculum is designed to replace individual thoughts with the Hive Mind; as Janeway says, "It brings order to chaos." The malfunctioning Vinculum, however, is screwing up Seven's mind with multiple personalities; as Tuvok says, "bringing chaos to order."
- I Want My Mommy!: Seven shouts this while channeling Maryl, a terrified little girl on a Borg cube.
- Jabba Table Manners: Seven while channeling the son of K'vok.
- Jerkass: Species 6339, who want to use the Vinculum to continue to infect Borg with the virus they created, with symptoms similar to Seven's, which is... somewhat justified, but they refuse to let our heroes shut it down in order to save Seven and continue attacking even as the Mind Meld goes on.
- Known Only by Their Borg Designation: Species 6339.
- Kubrick Stare: As shown above, Seven does this when the Son of K'vok emerges.
- Large Ham: Happens when a few of Seven's other personalities emerge, most notably the son of K'Vok and DaiMon Torrot.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Maryl tells Naomi that she has twelve brothers (nine older, three younger).
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: The Klingon (presumably the son of K'vok) seen as a reflection when Seven is stealing from the kitchen. Similarly, the reflection of a little girl in Naomi's Kadis-kot board.
- Mood Whiplash: Seven herself goes through this, shifting from an angry Klingon to a scared little girl, then to a logical Vulcan, and so forth.
- Noodle Incident: The Ferengi are given the designation Species 180 by the Borg. Since the designations are assumed to be in order of their encounter with the Borg Collective, note this implies that the Borg had contact with the Ferengi centuries earlier through an unknown incident.
- Oh, Crap!: When Seven suddenly discovers she has the equivalent of dissociative identity disorder.
- The Oner: The scene between the EMH and Seven in the regeneration chambers, where they listen to the personal logs Seven recorded as two of the various personas taking over her mind, runs over two minutes in length.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Everybody gets alarmed at how the typically stoic Seven is suddenly exhibiting emotional personalities. Naomi in particular finds it strange that Seven is suddenly open to playing games with her when she's possessed by a 6-year-old's personality... but she still has fun with her, all the same.
- Say My Name: "SEVEN!" "TUVOK!" "SEVEN!" "TUVOK!" "SEVEN!" "TUVOK!" "SEVEN!" "TUVOK!"
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The second B'Elanna shuts down the Viniculum, Janeway hails Species 6339 to tell them they can have it back. When they only respond with more weapons fire, she orders Chakotay to transport it into space, then tells Tom to book it out of there at Warp 9.
- Smells Sexy: Seven of Nine does this to B'Elanna when she is possessed by the personality of a Klingon male.
- Split Personality: Sometimes coming on SO fast it's shocking. The Doctor notes that it's gotten so bad Seven can't even complete a full sentence before another personality manifests.
- The Spock: Subaltern Lorot of Vulcan High Command.
- Suddenly Shouting: Seven (as Son of K'vok) trying to get it on with B'Elanna. "Your blood is SWEET!!!"
- Surrounded by Idiots: Seven regards it as perfectly natural that Naomi should regard her as a role model, saying many of Voyager's crew should follow her example.
- Tron Lines: Species 6339's uniforms have this particular element.
- Understatement: When 12 new personalities including a Bolian manicurist and a Krenim scientist manifest in an hour, and her brain is in danger of utter collapse, and Janeway is so exhausted keeping up with all the personalities, she snarks to Chakotay that "Seven's having a tough time of it."
- World of Ham: Seven's mind. And not the fun kind, either.
