Synopsis: Ensigns Mariner and Tendi go on a special mission for Dr. T’Ana, while on Cerritos, Ensign Boimler is excited by a visit that Lt. Paris is making to the ship.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of what James Hillman called the acorn theory.
In “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris” Dr. T’Ana asks Ensign D’Vana Tendi to go on a special away mission to retrieve a family heirloom. Tendi asks Ensign Beckett Mariner to go with her. Meanwhile, on the U.S.S. Cerritos, Ensign Bradward Boimler is excited about a visit by Lt. Tom Paris to the vessel. On the away mission, Mariner and Tendi open up the crate that holds the heirloom and end up breaking it. Tendi remembers that one of her cousins, D’Onni may be able to help them repair the heirloom. When they arrive at the Orion Pirate Outpost, D’Onni calls Tendi Mistress of the Winter Constellations, and Tendi has to explain to Mariner how she gave up the title to join Starfleet. Meanwhile, on Cerritos, Boimler is facing many obstacles in his efforts to meet Paris. When D’Onni is unable to repair the heirloom, Mariner has an idea to ram the shuttlecraft that Tendi and she took on the mission into Cerritos so that it will look like the heirloom was broken in a crash. That plan is foiled and when Mariner and Tendi present T’Ana with the broken heirloom she does not care. What she really wanted was the crate.
In this episode, Tendi, T’Ana, Mariner, and Boimler can all be seen, in different ways, as acting in ways that are inherent to them. Tendi exposes to Mariner that she gave up the title of Mistress of the Winter Constellations to join Starfleet. T’Ana gives into the instinctive need for the comfort that the heirloom crate gives her. Mariner continues to act in ways that are not in line with Starfleet regulations. Boimler follows his heart through Jeffries tubes and catwalks in order to meet Paris whom he greatly admires. All these action can be seen as these individuals listening to their inner daimon. Hillman wrote that just as an acorn has everything inside it to become an oak tree, we all have inner daimons inside us that have all the information we need to become who we are meant to be. This is his acorn theory.
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