Synopsis: Retired Admiral Picard devises a plan to find Bruce Maddox.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what it looks like when the conscious ego, believing that it is correct, acts without acknowledging bits of unconscious material.
In “The End is the Beginning” Retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard asks a former crewmember and ally of his, Former Lt. Commander Raffi Musiker, for help in locating a spaceship and a captain to take him on his mission. Musiker, whom Picard has not contacted in the fourteen years since he resigned his commission and she was let go from Starfleet, is initially very upset with Picard, having felt abandoned by him. Meanwhile, on the Borg Artifact, Dr. Soji Asha asks to meet with a former Borg, or xB, Romulan woman, Ramdha, who is being held in a psychiatric facility. Asha asks for the audience with Ramdha because of Ramdha’s knowledge of Romulan mythology as Asha believes that by understanding Romulan mythology she will be able to communicate in a more healing way with the Romulans who have been affected by their assimilation by the Borg. However, Asha’s visit to Ramdha provokes Ramdha into a rage when she identifies Asha as The Destroyer.
In this episode, Picard feels that he can just show up at Musiker’s doorstep and that she will do his bidding. Similarly, Asha wants to interview a Romulan woman who is in deep psychological despair, but does not think what her visit with Ramdha will do to her. Both the actions of Picard and Asha can be compared to that of the conscious ego when it is oblivious to the needs or wants of the unconscious, and the negative effects that the ego’s actions can have on the psyche or others. This can be dangerous, but it is also a very common way of being in our current culture.
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