Synopsis: A member of the crew of the Enterprise is killed on an away team mission, and officers and an alien feeling responsible for the death, try to ease the pain of the orphan son she left behind.
In my last couple of blog posts I discussed the Senex archetype as described by James Hillman. In “The Bonding,” there is yet another variation on Hillman’s theory of this type of energy, the relationship between the Senex and the Puer archetypes.
Hillman describes the Senex, the powerful and wise old man archetype, as being in opposition to another archetype, the Puer, or eternal child. The eternal child holding energy that is youthful and questioning and rebellious against the constraints of society and the control of the Senex energy.
In this episode, there is a Senex-Puer relationship between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the young boy, Jeremy Aster, who has been orphaned after his mother dies unexpectedly on an away team mission that was led by the Klingon security officer, Lt. Worf. Picard, in his role of leader, performs his duty of informing the twelve-year-old boy of the death of his mother. He is accompanied by Counselor Deanna Troi, and in a real way after he has performed this initial duty, he distances himself from the boy, putting him in the care of Troi. On the other hand, Worf, who feels responsible for a death on a mission he was leading, wants to bond with the boy through a Klingon ritual, the R’uustai Bonding Ceremony.
Interestingly, where we see real movement in a Senex-Puer internal relationship is in the character of Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher and his relationship with Picard. When Wesley Crusher was much younger than Jeremy Aster, Picard was the one who was duty bound to tell him of his own father’s death, and Wesley Crusher is encouraged by both Troi and his mother, Dr. Beverly Crusher, to speak with Jeremy. Wesley Crusher does not feel up to it at first, as his feelings about his father’s death have been reactivated. However, Wesley Crusher does eventually speak to Jeremy Aster, with Picard in attendance, and tells Jeremy Aster how angry he had been with Picard when he told him about his father’s death, because he blamed Picard for it, as Picard was in charge of the mission that took his father’s life. This seems to open up Jeremy Aster’s ability to express his feelings and admit his anger toward Worf. The episode closes with Jeremy and Worf taking part in the Klingon Bonding Ceremony.
There is also a confrontation between Picard as a Senex figure, and an alien being from the planet, who comes to Jeremy Aster in the form of his dead mother, and therefore personifies the Great Mother archetype in this episode. She wants to take Jeremy to the planet and keep him with her and safe from harm, to compensate for his mother being killed. And while we do not know if the Great Mother energy in the alien listened to Picard’s Senex authority, Jeremy Aster, the Puer figure in relation to them, was able to escape the Great Mother energy, to unite with the Senex energy in the form of Worf.
Original post created 26 July 2021
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