Plot Synopsis: Lwaxana Troi visits the Enterprise, but she’s preoccupied by a dark secret she has carried for years.
Plot A and B Analysis: The teaser isn’t all that informative of the plot. The Cairn, a race who only communicates telepathically is on the ship, and guess who is teaching them to verbally communicate? Lwaxana, who seems to have a little headache. Plot A is about Lwaxana’s secret, there is no plot B. The plot picks up with Lwaxana having another headache, then completely flipping out on Riker, yelling at him to stay away from her daughter. Crusher tells Lwaxana her telepathic ‘muscles’ are drained due to teaching the Cairn what they need to know to meet with the Federation, and to take a break from telepathy. Next thing you know, they’re in the arboretum, the blonde Cairn girl falls into a shallow pond and Lwaxana is unconscious. The Cairn say Lwaxana has a ‘dark place’ in her mind, which Deanna thinks is due to a past trauma that she’s hidden. Maques, the main Cairn, asks to act as a bridge, allowing Deanna into Lwaxana’s mind. Deanna tries working her way though Lwaxana’s defenses, but fails. After discovering a 7-year gap in her mother’s journals right after her marriage, she goes in her mother’s mind again. We discover the tragedy that her mother hasn’t been able to face for the past 30 years–the death of her first child.
Favorite Scenes: The scene where her long-deceased father wants to talk with Deanna and get to know her and she has to turn away is emotionally resonant, and a good scene. The most powerful scene in the episode is in the final 6-7 minutes, where we learn about the death of Lwaxana’s first child, Kestra. Any parent watching this scene will have a tough time not being emotionally affected.
Use of Cast/Characters: This is Marina Sirtis’s episode more than any other, though she does time with Majel Roddenberry. Marina does a good job with what she’s given, and there is some wonderfully nuanced acting she does in the last half of the episode. Beverly contributes, but it’s mostly to say there’s nothing much medically wrong with Lwaxana. Picard, Riker, Data, Worf, Geordi, all have just a few lines each and contribute very little. Picard does help in finding Lwaxana’s missing journal entries. Majel does a good job in this episode, and she is not really annoying at all, which is nice. Norman Large plays Marques, and does a fine job. Kirsten Dunst has a small but important part and does fine also.
Blu Ray Version: Pause at 28:24. Notice that ‘Hedril’ here has dark, Betazoid eyes. In this episode her eyes should be blue. This is a subtle clue that it’s not really her, but a hybrid representation of Kestra. If you watch the promo for this episode it makes it sound completely different than the tone of the episode itself, it’s pretty misleading. There are two deleted scenes. The first one takes place after Lwaxana tells Deanna how Kestra died, but it’s just one line. The second takes place right before the family photo at the end, with Lwaxana telling Deanna more about Kestra. This is more important, because we are told why all this happened–the strain of working with the Cairn drained her enough she wasn’t able to repress it anymore, and the fact that Hedril reminded her of Kestra pushed her over the dge. It’s implied in the episode, but it’s worth including IMO.
Nitpicks: Not really any nitpicks in this episode.
Overall Impression: I have a very different impression of this episode as a father of four than I did as an 18-year old. Back then I thought it was something of a failure as an episode, but watching it now it’s emotionally evocative. I don’t think it’s a bad one, it just doesn’t stand out with so many of the ‘good ones’. The emotional punch at the end really does a lot for this episode, and Majel Barrett gives one of her best performances on TNG. I can’t really rate it higher than 2.5 out of 5 stars, but I don’t dislike it anymore. Do yourself a favor after watching this episode–go spend some time with your kids.
Behind the Scenes/Trivia: This is Majel Barret’s sixth and final appearance on TNG as Lwaxana Troi. Previous to this episode she appeared on the DS9 episode Forsaken, and will appear in two more DS9 episodes (Fascination and The Muse), so if you can’t get enough of her check those out. This is one of Kirsten Dunst’s first acting roles, and it came just one year before she hit it big with Interview with the Vampire.
Evidently the only way to shoot scenes with the wolf was by split screen against a blue screen. I can’t imagine why nobody wanted to act with the wolf? This is the last of three episodes in which not one shot of the Enterprise bridge occurs. The others are Family and Liaisons. Remember the name Kestra when watching ST: Picard, because that is what Will and Deanna named their daughter in that series. This is also the only appearance of Deanna’s father, Ian Troi. Finally, Normal Large had previously played Romulan proconsul Neral in the Unification two-parter.
Missable/Unmissable? It’s missable, unless you want to watch the final appearance of Lwaxana on TNG. The next one is definitely missable.