Synopsis: Ensign Kim wakes up in a reality in which he is not on Voyager.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what James Hillman calls the acorn theory. The idea that just as within each acorn there is all the information it will need to become a tree, within each of us is an inner daimon that even before our birth has all the knowledge of what we will need in order to become who we are meant to be. This even includes setting up the obstacles that we need to perceive and accept our fate.
In “Non Sequitur” Ensign Harry Kim wakes up in a reality where he is not aboard Voyager, but instead is safely at home on Earth, next to a woman that he loves, and with a job at Starfleet which is about to earn him a promotion. Yet, he knows that this is not right. He knows he belongs on Voyager and cannot figure out how he got back to Earth until he speaks with an alien being posing as a human café owner, Cosimo. Cosimo tells Kim that his shuttle hit a timestream and the aliens who created it felt obliged to put him somewhere he would be safe and happy. But Kim is not happy here and instead asks Cosimo if there is a way to get back to Voyager. There is, although it is not easy or safe, but Kim manages to get back to the ship.
The internal knowledge that Kim has, that no matter how appealing the situation around him appears to be, that it is not where he should be, can be seen as a manifestation of his inner daimon. Kim’s drive to return to the reality where he knows he is meant to be, comes from listening to his inner daimon and heeding its calling. It can also be argued that just as Hillman theorized that the inner daimon even choses obstacles that we need in order to become who we are, that by Kim’s being diverted to this alternate reality, he will now be more effective on the Voyager, as he will have an inner sense that this is his destiny.
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