Synopsis: The Prodigy crew enlist the aid of a humpback whale in order to communicate with Murf.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the unconscious has different ways of making itself known compared to the conscious ego.
In “Observer’s Paradox,” after the Infinity crew returns safely to Voyager, they are questioned by Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway. They all tell her that they received a message to save Gwyndala (Gwyn) from an unknown source. Murf, who is a Mellanoid slime worm, seems to be the one who made direct contact with the sender of the message, but none of the humanoid crew can understand his language. Murf creates a spiral on the floor, but it has no meaning to the others. Instead the Infinity crew enlists the aid of Gillian, a humpback whale in Cetacean Ops, to translate. Gillian is able to indicate to Gwyn that the temporal stabilizer on her armband holds the key. Gwyn briefly goes into a different spacial plane and understands that the spiral is a map to where Chakotay and Protostar are located.
In this episode, the message from an unknown source can be analogized to how the unconscious operates in the human psyche. Unlike the conscious ego, the unconscious sends messages that are not necessarily logical or rational, it communicates through instincts, emotions, and gut reactions. Yet when the ego acknowledges these bits of unconscious material and integrates it into itself, it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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