The second half of two part episodes are often troubled and while this one has a few issues it also works a lot better than many of them. The only problem in this episode is that it turns out pretty much exactly how you would expect. The only surprise for me was I forgot that they killed Suder off, but then again that is the only reasonable thing to do. Actually having him in his quarters for the rest of the series would have been an issue. Also I was so ready to be done with Seska and the fact that we also learn the baby isn't Chakotay's resolves that issue as well. I don't even care that Janeway broke the prime directive with the cave people they encountered. Who cares if you have been marooned on an unstable planet. I mean, sure, Kirk would have criticized her for not being willing to die rather than break the directive, but he also wouldn't have been willing to die himself.
We open right where we left off with the crew of Voyager marooned. Neelix finds some neat bones and sends a crewman into a cave to investigate where he is promptly killed by some sort of monster. We find Paris very much alive and killing Kazon with his shuttle on the way to get help from the Talaxians. Janeway tells everybody to stay out of the tunnels and orders them to start eating grubs if they can't find food soon. On the ship Seska walks into sickbay and activates the Doctor, well, he is already on but pretends to have been activated. She has him examine her baby which is fine, but also she learns not part human so therefore not Chakotay's son. After she leaves the Doctor has the computer report how many crew are on board and learns about Suder. The two meet up in sickbay and start planning, but Suder is very disturbed by the idea of killing.
To skip ahead a bit, the crew spend a long time trying to survive and eventually befriend a clan of local cave people. The Doctor hears from Paris and they come up with a plant to sabotage Voyager. Suder has to hide using a Maquis trick with Seska recognizes along with some sabotage so she goes to the Doctor and learns he has been lying. She destroys his holo-emitter but luckily he left instructions for Suder. Paris shows up with the Talaxians and they manages to hit Voyager while Suder slaughters everyone in engineering before getting shot in the back. But not before he manages to finish his sabotage. In the bridge weapons go down and when they switch to backups the panels all explode knocked them all out. Well, almost all, Seska makes her way to her son and dies with him in her arms. Paris flies the ship back and picks up the crew and they continue on their journey home.
Review: A fairly standard episode which didn't really do anything new but did manage to wrap up several loose ends from the previous seasons. I especially liked seeing Suder wrestle with his inner demons and in the end do the right thing even if it was hard for him
6 out of 10
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