- The Control Voice: Who among us does not think he knows evil when he sees it? But are such distinctions really so black and white or is morality simply a matter of perspective?
A spaceship finds a pod containing a ruthless warlord from the past.
- The Control Voice: Powerful ideas do not die with those who gave them birth, so long as the seeds of those ideas are planted in their followers.
Abatropes:
- Character Narrator: This episode features narration from Gwen Hutchinson explaining the manner in which the North American Corporation has controlled the lives of its shareholders, previously called citizens, since its foundation in 2102.
- Electronic Speech Impediment: The computer of the interplanetary hauling vehicle Pequod suffers from one periodically.
- Explosive Decompression: Curtis Sandoval explodes within a second of being jettisoned from the interplanetary hauling vehicle Pequod.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Played with from an In-Universe perspective. Virgil Nygard was a religious fanatic who had a commune above the Columbia River in 2142. The official history of the North American Corporation, otherwise known as the Company, states that Nygard started a war against it and butchered one million people in the process. When he is found in stasis by the crew of the interplanetary hauling vehicle Pequod in 2298, he claims that the Company turned people against him as they wanted access to the mineral deposits on the commune's property. Nygard admits that he and his followers did kill people but only to defend themselves. The death count was allegedly closer to 10,000 and most of the dead were Nygard's own followers. However, the possibility is raised that Nygard is lying and that the Company's version of history is the correct one. No definite answers are given, other than the fact that the Company lied about having him executed.
- MegaCorp: The United States became the North American Corporation, otherwise known as the Company and Noramco, in 2102. American citizens became shareholders but they effectively lost all of their rights, becoming nothing more than commodities to the Company.
- Offstage Villainy: Used for ambiguity factor when a genocidal warlord is unfrozen from a hypersleep pod. He claims to be innocent of the crimes he's accused of all while acting Obviously Evil. Since his purported human sacrifices and mass murder is all in his backstory, the crew of the ship that found him wonder if the MegaCorp they work for (and seized the land that belonged to the warlord's followers) actually did frame him, which is left unanswered.
- Oppressive States of America: The former United States has been ruled by the North American Corporation since 2102. Its population, known as shareholders, live their lives in service to the Company.
- The Political Officer: Gordon Knight is assigned to the interplanetary hauling vehicle Pequod as the North American Corporation's representative, serving the same function as a political officer.
- Precision F-Strike: One of five episodes to feature the word "fuck".
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The crew of a ship in deep space discovers a hypersleep pod containing the body of a famous mass murdering warlord. He's let out and quickly begins to manipulate the people on the ship into killing each other.
- The Stoner: Curtis Sandoval, the medical officer of the interplanetary hauling vehicle Pequod, is a major stoner who uses drugs to escape reality as he hates his life and his job. He likes to call himself "Dr. Feelgood."
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Curtis Sandoval is jettisoned from the waste disposal system of the interplanetary hauling vehicle Pequod by Virgil Nygard.
- Whole-Plot Reference: This episode is one to the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Space Seed".
- Written by the Winners: Virgil Nygard claims that the North American Corporation vilified him by severely exaggerating the number of people that he killed. It is never made clear whether he is telling the truth.
