Synopsis: A competition between houses takes place on Orion, while on Targalus IX there is a conflict over the fall of a capitalist system.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of what Carl (C.G. Jung) called a cultural complex—a common wound felt by all members of a particular group or society.
In “Shades of Green,” D’Vana Tendi, her house, House Tendi, and the house of the blue Orions, House Azure, are summoned before the Orion Pirate Queen. She orders that a race to retrieve treasure take place to solve their dispute. Tendi destroyed the treasure so that neither team will be victorious. Meanwhile on Targalus IX, corporate elites take Lt. Bradward Boimler, Lt. Beckett Mariner, and the ensigns that they are in charge of hostage, in protest over the end of capitalism on their planet. However the capturers were more frightened of going to jail than of losing their assets, and flee when they believe that they may have caused harm to the Starfleet personnel.
In this episode, the animosity between House Tendi and House Azure, as well as that of the corporate elites for the new non-capitalist system, can be seen as examples of cultural complexes. One knows that one is in the throes of a psychic complex when one cannot help but respond in a certain way when triggered. A cultural complex is then when an entire group of people feel compelled to behave in a certain way. In the case of the Orion houses, the syndicate that they are a part of requires that the different houses be at odds with each other, there is no other way to be. Similarly, the corporate elites are used to being just what their name implies, and they cannot help but to try to retain their assets even in the face of the downfall of capitalism on their planet. However, when an individual or a culture acknowledge the existence of a complex, this is the first step toward healing the psyche wound that caused the complex in the first place.
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