Synopsis: Infinity, Voyager, and their crews are attacked by Looms, a species of beings able to manipulate time itself.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called the collective unconscious.
“The Devourer of All Things, Part II” begins with the Infinity crew and Wesley Crusher finding themselves in an apartment on Earth circa 1968. Crusher tells the Infinity crew that Looms not only devour those they consume, but also manipulate time to erase their existence from the memory of everyone that they ever had contact with. Then they are discovered by and attacked by Looms, but escape to the planet where the Infinity crew found Crusher. Meanwhile, Voyager has traveled to the last known coordinates of Infinity and find the planet, which Commander Tysess, Ensign Middleton, and Ensign Maj’El beam down to explore. The Looms attack and Middleton is erased from existence. Tysess returns to Voyager, but Maj’El stays behind to continue the search for the Infinity crew. Voyager comes under attack by Looms. Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway takes a shuttlecraft to fire on the Looms, but then crash lands on the planet. The Infinity crew, Crusher, and Janeway meet. Crusher tells them that the Infinity crew and Maj’El must remain together and sends them to the place in time they need to go to find the Protostar and Captain Chakotay.
In this episode, the time—here meaning the record of all existence, that Looms are able to manipulate, can be compared to what Jung called the collective unconscious—the shared unconscious repository of humanity’s ancestral heritage and possibilities (Jung, 1931/1969, p. 152 [CW 8, para. 321]). In his early writings, Jung perceived the collective unconscious as unconscious material that all humans had inside their psyches (1921/1971 p. 485 [CW 6, para. 842]), but later he came to understand it as being something that connected all humans, similar to the underground rhizome network of the plant world (1954/1967, p. 90 [CW 13, para. 120]). The latter definition is what can be seen to be represented here by the multiple timelines that Crusher is able to travel among.
References:
Jung, C. G. (1967). The visions of Zosimos (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 13. Alchemical studies (pp. 57-108). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1954) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850990.57
Jung, C. G. (1969). The structure of the psyche (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 8. Structure and dynamics of the psyche (2nd ed., pp. 139-158). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1931) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850952.139
Jung, C. G. (1971). The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 6. Psychological types (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (H. Read et al., Eds.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850860
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