Much like last seaon's Rise this episode tries really hard to make us like Neelix and think about how sad we would be if he left. The problem is all it really does is point out how annoying he is and why they would be better off without him. The parts with Ensign Wildman were nice, but they would have felt more meaningful if they hadn't just shown up out of the blue for this episode. Pointing out how terrible his food is over and over again really only shows that they haven't really done much positive with the character other than have him be comic relief. Especially since the episode begins with him being killed because his advice on handling proto-matter turned out to be terrible.
We open with Neelix in the mess hall with Seven objecting that his food is inedible. He is called away to help Wildman with her daughter, it seems Neelix can convince the girl there are no monsters in her room. Next he gets called to help with a mission to gather protomatter. He goes on a shuttle but his exact specification for how to beam a sample of protomatter are so bad that an energy discharge kills him. In sickbay Seven isn't satisfied and injects him with nanoprobes which bring him back to life. Things seem ok but Neelix realizes he didn't meet his ancestors and dead family members while dead and has a crisis of faith. It only gets worse when Chakotay takes him on a vision quest and his dead sister tells him everything he has believed is a lie. He tries to kill himself by beaming into space but Chakotay and Wildman manage to talk him down.
Review: I don't mean to take the topic of suicide lightly, but wow this episode really didn't work for me. It really just felt like a cry for help from the writers desperate to make me care about Neelix.
3 out of 10
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