Synopsis: Captain Janeway and Voyager’s crew do battle with Equinox’s crew and Captain Ransom.
This episode can be seen as how the Logos-driven rational conscious ego will fight against the Eros-driven irrational unconscious material, and how the unconscious will fight back.
“Equinox, Part II” begins with Equinox having left Voyager behind, with Seven of Nine has been taken hostage. Seven encoded the piece of equipment that the Equinox crew took from Voyager so that it will not work on their ship. Meanwhile, on Voyager Captain Kathryn Janeway has a boarding party from Equinox into custody. Janeway tries to communicate with the aliens but is unsuccessful. Commander Chakotay confronts Janeway about her anger and seeking vengeance against Captain Rudy Ransom and the Equinox crew. Chakotay suggests that they contact the Ankari, because they are the ones who introduced Ransom and his crew to the aliens. Chakotay objects to Janeway wanting to torture one of the Equinox crew to retrieve information and is relieved of duties. An Ankari vessel helps Janeway communicate with the aliens, and Janeway agrees to give them Equinox in return for a cessation of hostilities. Lt. Commander Tuvok questions this order. Ransom meanwhile has had a vision and now wants to cooperate with Janeway and sacrifices himself and the ship. The rest of the Equinox crew come aboard Voyager but are stripped of rank. At the end of the episode The Doctor laments to Seven how awful it feels to know that anyone can alter his programming.
In this episode there are multiple illustrations of the conscious ego wanting to overpower the unconscious forces within it, and how the unconscious fights back to defend itself. Janeway who normally stands for rational Starfleet protocols, becomes inflated with righteousness, an unconscious drive, and seeks vengeance on Equinox for not living up to her expectations. When Chakotay, who conversely is embodying Starfleet protocol, objects, he is relieved of his duties. Janeway agreeing to sacrifice Equinox is again against Starfleet protocol, but Ransom, in agreeing to sacrifice himself, in the end reestablishes the values that Starfleet holds dear. When The Doctor tells Seven that it is awful to feel that his programming can be altered so easily, this statement can be analogized to how the conscious ego experiences bits of material from the unconscious. Yet when the bits of material are consciously acknowledged and integrated into itself, as opposed to being overwhelmed by them when they break through being suppressed, the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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