S4 E02: The Gift

Kes, altered by her experiences with species 8472, begins exhibiting new telekinetic skills. At first, these new talents are an unequivocal asset, particularly in the case of her ability to destroy a harmful Borg implant in Seven of Nine using only her mind. Meanwhile, Janeway attempts to assimilate Seven into the crew, tasking her with helping Torres remove the Borg alterations to the ship. Seven promptly uses her newfound freedom to attempt to signal the Borg collective, but Kes detects her and stops her from several decks away. Kes' powers now begin to spiral out of control, and matter around her begins to destabilize, threatening the ship. She rushes to a shuttle, so as not to endanger the rest of the crew, and evaporates - but in doing so, slingshots Voyager and reduces their travel time by ten years.

Kes gets an opportunity to give her goodbyes to he closest friends on the ship, and Janeway, in this episode. We get one last meditation session with Tuvok; she and the Doctor spend some quality time in the lab; she and Janeway get all weepy reminiscing about the two whole scenes they had together in three full seasons; and we also finally get some closure on her relationship with Neelix. It's a little late, but it is nice and Neelix behaves surprisingly maturely. If, somehow, I didn't know Kes was leaving, these scenes broadcast it pretty clearly. As a main character send-off (which doesn't happen that often in Trek), it is nice, but bittersweet because the writers are giving up one one of the characters that they've successfully convinced me to care about. She's not leaving because her departure would add something dramatic to the story, she's leaving because (and I quote Rick Berman) "It's just that the character [of Kes] wasn't working for us. And we tried on a number of occasions to make the character work, and it didn't seem to be working."

What do we get in return? Seven plays the cold-turkey drug addict, angstful with the loss of the collective consciousness. Everyone has their own bone to pick with her, but Janeway in particular relishes this new opportunity to lecture someone about how awesome humanity is - to someone who has been a Borg for the vast majority of her life. I did really like one of Seven's retorts: "You will not assimilate me!", comparing Janeway's attempts to force individuality on her as analagous to the Borg forcing the collective on others. You know what? I'm with her. She's separate now, and still wants to go back; contrast with Picard, or even the former Borg in Unity. Sure, they wanted the hive mind part back, but had no desire to return to the collective. Sure, keeping her from joining is the wise tactical decision, but to pretend that you can remain on a moral high horse while doing it is a bit delusional.

At the end of this episode, they put her in the spandex uniform for the first time, the form-fitting silver one with ridges that point down to her crotch. It is absolutely obscene. You guys gave starfleet uniforms to the Maquis on day one of this trip... would it be so hard to do the same for her (and, honestly, Neelix for that matter)? I can't even fathom what mind can say "oh, it's a family show, so we can't have gay people, but we can totally have this woman with a uniform that would leave more to the imagination if it were painted on." Seriously.

Watchability: 3/5

Bottom Line: The Kes send-off is nice, but if Seven doesn't turn out to be more than a sock-puppet for Janeway's lectures, I'm going to become very bitter very fast.