This is a cool episode. It's Sirtis' favorite for obvious reasons, but even though I complain a lot about Troi, I liked her an awful lot too and I was thrilled that they made her the focal point of this episode. It was originally supposed to be Beverly, but they felt that it worked better with an empath, and it wouldn't have been the same without Troi.
If it weren't for the preview trailer, this beginning would've been a fantastic surprise. It starts on a set of darkened crew quarters. You hear Troi's voice clearly calling for lights that don't come on. All you can see is her silhouette in the dark room. She begins to move around and sounds like she's in pain as she touches her head. She finally moves along and finds a button to turn on a light. The light is over a mirror where the first thing she sees is her face... her Romulan face. Not long after the Sub Commander N'Vek enters her quarters and starts to check her over and instruct her that is now Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar and she's to give new flight coordinates to the ship's Commander, Toreth. Disoriented, Troi tries to remember the chain of events that brought her here. She recalls being at a neuro-psychology seminar and being attacked with a hypospray. In a way it's kind of a funny joke. The character of Troi was in noticeably fewer episodes than the other main characters (about 10 less) and nobody ever seemed to mind her absence in those situations. I know it's because there's nothing for the character to do in those episodes and one could always assume she's holed up in her office working, but you don't really know that for sure. Once the opening log said she was off the ship, but perhaps it's always a seminar or a conference of some kind. And this time she gets roped into a dangerous little adventure. N'Vek tells her that the attack and surgical alteration was necessary since they didn't think she'd willingly participate. He is a part of Ambassador Spock's Unification movement between Romulus and Vulcan. This is the only follow up that story ever got besides a reference to it in one of the TNG movies. It's kind of a shame but, it worked out for the best continuing the Romulans' role as antagonists. He doesn't have time to give her more information than this but she believes him since she can sense he's being truthful. After making her memorize the new heading to the Kaleb sector that she is to give to Toreth, she's left to fend for herself very quickly. N'Vek introduces her to Toreth on the bridge. The actress that plays Toreth was a different Romulan Commander in the episode Contagion. She dismisses N'Vek and then gets very belligerent to Rakal wondering about the cargo that's been brought aboard her ship. Troi starts out being generally polite to Toreth, but has to learn fast that the Tal Shiar, the secret intelligence wing of the Romulan government, are bullies and she must adopt a more aggressive manner with Toreth, using threats and and a dominating attitude to make her submit to her orders. Starfleet Intelligence had been mentioned before to indicate that there was and agency in place for the Federation like the FBI or CIA, but this gives the audience a feel for a "secret police" that one would more commonly associate with Russia and other communist regimes and it was another idea that grew wings of its own as it spawned other intelligence agencies such as the Obsidian Order for the Cardassians, Section 31 which was also Federation but so off-the-grid secret that it was officially nonexistent, and the V'Shar for the Vulcans. Meanwhile on the Enterprise they're getting ready to transport a man over named Stephan DeSeve. He's a human that defected to the Romulan Empire years ago and is now turning himself in for treason. Normally Troi would be present for something like this but once again she's not on the bridge or available to any other main character and nobody misses her. Riker places DeSeve under arrest and he submissively endures the looks of disgust and Riker's orders that he change out of the Romulan uniform but insists on seeing Picard as soon as possible on a matter of urgency.
He gets to meet Picard shortly and relays a message from Spock regarding further "cowboy diplomacy" which makes Picard and the audience smile. He tells him that Spock wants him to rendezvous with a freighter in the Kaleb sector and bring its cargo back into Federation space. There's no word on what the cargo is except that it's very important to the future of the Romulans and the Federation. He then has to uncomfortably explain why he was returning after all these years; why Romulus had lost its appeal to him. Not entirely necessary to the episode, but it shows you that he's on the up and up and can be trusted. On the Romulan vessel, Troi is uncomfortable with the way everyone seems to be terrified of her as Rakal. But N'Vek soon gets her alone in the cargo bay to show her what they're transporting. It's the Vice Proconsul and his top two aides who have been put into stasis and stored in the containers that were brought aboard at the same time as her. Troi understands the significance of their defection and the seriousness of the mission. She is supposed to transport over to a freighter in the Kaleb sector which will take them all to Federation space. She's alarmed to learn that there was a Major Rakal but that she was killed so that she could take her place and can't imaging why they went to such trouble. He says that a Starfleet officer instead of another Romulan officer would ensure their success in case something was to go wrong, but he doesn't explain any further. She wants to lay low until it's time to put the plan into action but N'Vek also tells her that she's expected to dine with the senior officers. It's wonderful to watch her using that same arrogant attitude to cover for her ignorance of Romulan quisine and where she trained at. Every time she can't come up with the right answer she just continues to be condescending and annoyed with Toreth for asking. We see that Toreth's father was taken away in the middle of the night for speaking different ideas. N'Vek had warned her not to push Toreth too far, but she nearly does in implying that her father was clearly a traitor. But before it can escalate, they're interrupted by the bridge informing Toreth of an unidentified vessel approaching.
It's the freighter that N'Vek is waiting for. Troi takes charge on the
bridge ordering that the vessel be hailed. The captain of the ship tells
Toreth that they'll be taking the cargo off their ship. He says they've
made this arrangement with Major Rakal. Toreth isn't happy and Troi is
nervous. She can sense that he's lying and quietly tells N'Vek that. He then destroy's the ship without warning. When Toreth asks him why he tells her that Major Rakal ordered it. Troi has to behave like she was confident in that decision and can only defend it by claiming her right to do it because she outranks Toreth. When the Enterprise gets to the Kaleb sector they are the only ship there and Picard asks DeSeve what's going on. He claims to be certain of his information despite Worf's skepticism. Picard wants to keep him on hand on the bridge while they check things out. Troi then argues with N'Vek about his decision to destroy the freighter. He finally explains why they chose a Starfleet officer to assume Rakal's identity. Plan B is for them to go to a Starfleet base about two days away. They'll have to pass through Federation space Troi will be able to give them the correct codes to pass through a gravatic sensor net. Troi isn't convinced and even the audience can see that this plan is a very weak one, but Troi can't think of anything else so she goes to Toreth. She keeps up her bluff by saying that she ordered the freighter destroyed because she recognized the pilot as a federation spy. She then gives Toreth the new heading and the Commander points out how tactically dangerous this is, but Troi makes due by pulling rank again, which is starting to wear a little thin with Toreth. However, before they can go anywhere the Enterprise shows up and starts examining the debris left by the freighter ship.
Toreth seems almost impressed by the fact that the freighter captain appeared to indeed be a Federation spy. Troi wants to stay close to the Enterprise and orders Toreth to halt until they can determine what their intentions are, but Toreth ignores her and begins to move to a safe distance so they can go to warp. She conveys to N'Vek that she needs to speak privately to him and asks him if they can find away to allow the Enterprise to track them. N'Vek insists upon the plan to go to the Starfleet base, but Troi is now fed up with the whole situation. She takes charge and threatens to have N'Vek exposed as a traitor if he doesn't cooperate. He thinks of a way they can make the ship traceable by misaligning some engineering equipment to cause a magnetic distortion to eminate from their cloaking device. There's some technical gobblety gook in this part that continues to build on ideas regarding the cloaking device from the episode The Next Phase and other techno-babble they work into a later episode regarding the Romulan warp core. There's a lot more too this episode besides wanting to get Troi into Romulan makeup and it's little things like this that make episodes like this so good. At any rate with DeSeve's advice the Enterprise can now follow the Warbird. Toreth notices and decides to fly directly at the Enterprise to see if they are really tracking them. If the Enterprise moves, she'll know that they can track them and intends to destroy them. With 90 seconds to impact, the Enterprise moves and Toreth orders the cloak to drop and that they commence to firing, but Troi takes over and orders that she be removed threatening the families of anyone that disobeys her. N'Vek puts Toreth under guard and Troi takes the Commander's chair and begins explaining to Toreth as if she was a student that the Federation values peace above everything. She calmly explains that she will use diplomacy to get them to drop their shields and then fire upon them. They uncloak and Troi hails the Enterprise. Everyone is shocked to see her on the view screen. Before anyone can react she introduces herself as Major Rakal. Picard inquires about the freighter that had been destroyed. She assures him that it was a mistake made by the former commander of the vessel, that she was in charge now and suggests that they discuss it. Picard offers to lower his shields to beam her aboard.
They don't know what will happen, but Picard orders that they keep a lock on her no matter what. As soon as their shields are down she orders that the forward disruptors be fired. It's obvious that they aren't firing at the same intensity as they were with the freighter. And as they are being fired, the Romulan defectors are transported directly from the containers to the bridge of the Enterprise to hide the transport. DeSeve identifies them and they realize that this must have been what they were supposed to receive from the freighter vessel. But Toreth isn't fooled for long. She can tell that no damage was done and finds out quickly that a transport has taken place. She declares that Rakal and N'Vek are both traitors. N'Vek points his disruptor at Toreth, but a loyal Romulan kills him. Toreth then disarms Troi and begins to express delight in finding out who she really is. If Troi is frightened, she doesn't betray it. She stands there cool as you please and even looking a little cocky. So delightfully different for Troi!
The Warbird has to drop its shields to cloak before it goes to warp. Geordi manages to transport her back just before the cloak is complete. She is breathless when she assures him that she's alright. Later after she has her own face back she makes note of N'Vek's sacrifice for both her and the Vice Proconsul.
Excellent episode. Well written and executed. Troi gets another great moment in the spotlight like she did in Disaster and she gets to earn her spurs once more as a real officer. I always like stories in which supporting characters are thrust out of their normal places into positions of greater responsibility. Very satisfying for me. Four and a half stars.
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