Lieutenant Paris is punished for committing murder by being forced to relive the murder from his victim's eyes. He watches as the victim returns home to his wife and dog and catches Paris kissing his wife, prompting Paris to stab him. Paris will be forced to relive the incident every 14 hours.
Kim returns to Voyager with news of what happened to Paris. He explains that he and Paris visited the planet of Banea for engineering help and met the engineer Tolen Ren, who also invented the Baneans' warships. Happy to assist them, Ren invited the pair to his home for dinner. There, sparks immediately flew between Paris and Ren's young wife Lidell. Kim urged Paris to exercise caution, but Paris ignored him. Later that night, Ren was murdered. The Baneans questioned Paris for hours, suspecting that he's an agent of their enemy, the Numiri, before being tried and sentenced. Upon hearing the story, Janeway decides to take Voyager to Banea to get to the bottom of this.
On Banea, Janeway meets Minister of Science Kray, who explains the procedure of implanting victims' memories using engrams. When she meets with Paris, he admits that he did flirt with Lidell, but he insists that she was already estranged from her husband, and nothing happened between them. He then has another recurrence of the memory, prompting him to lose consciousness. The Banean Doctor deduces that the engrams are damaging Paris's brain, so the Baneans allow Janeway to take Paris to sickbay. The Doctor explains that the implanted memories are degrading and will start to cause brain damage in only a short time. If the Baneans remove the engrams, however, they will likely default to lethal injection as an alternate punishment.
Tuvok decides to conduct an investigation himself. He arrives at Lidell's house and questions her about the night of the murder. She answers his questions smoothly and apologizes for her barking dog, who doesn't like strangers. Meanwhile, Voyager is suddenly attacked by the Numiri, but a trick from Chakotay saves the day. Tuvok returns to the ship and says that he needs to mind meld with Paris to investigate the crime itself. In spite of the potential danger to his own brain, Tuvok goes through with it and witnesses the crime, making a number of notes. Luckily, he suffers no damage and announces that he needs one thing to confirm his suspicions. Janeway tells the Baneans that she's sending Paris back on a shuttlecraft, which prompts the Numiri to attempt to abduct him, but Janeway is ready to beam him back aboard and reveals that the shuttle is loaded with explosives, so the Numiri relinquish it.
This was the proof Tuvok needed, so he has Janeway arrange a Summation Gathering. When everyone arrives, he notes that Paris is shorter in the memory of the murder than he really is. He also accuses Lidell of drugging Paris and notes that the killer knew where to strike on the victim to hit his heart. Finally, he also reveals that the implanted memory includes equations along the bottom of Paris's view, which he assumed were part of the procedure, but Tuvok has learned that they are equations from Tolen Ren's work. Therefore, he deduces that Tolen Ren was murdered by the doctor who implanted the engram as an agent of the Numiri, in cahoots with Lidell. The Numiri were to abduct Paris and steal the doctor's work through the implanted memories. When the doctor protests that he's never set foot in Lidell's home, Tuvok shows that Lidell's dog is already familiar with him. The two conspirators are led away. Afterward in the mess hall, Paris thanks Tuvok and tells him that he's gained a new friend.
This episode provides examples of:
- Action Prologue: The episode starts with Tom witnessing the murder through the victim's eyes.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: "Good can get very...boring."
- Another Man's Terror
- Attack Pattern Alpha: Evasive Pattern Beta 140 (Dual Attack Mode), which Janeway orders be followed by Attack Manoeuvre Kappa 010. Chakotay however recommends an Old Maquis Trick Used At Teluridian IV involving a Wounded Gazelle Gambit.
- Badass Boast:
- Ace Pilot Tom brags of how he slipped his shuttle past Numiri lines.
- Captain Janeway isn't impressed by the old Maquis trick Chakotay used to evade a couple of Starfleet runabouts. "You're lucky I wasn't commanding them." Chakotay calmly replies that he has plenty more.
- The Doctor says he knows more about Vulcan mind melds than Tuvok does.
- The Bait: Tom is sent down in a shuttle to see if the Numiri try to grab him. When they do, Tom and Harry are teleported out of there, and Janeway informs the Numiri captain that the shuttle is packed with explosives.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: A clue when the killer stabs his victim in the heart, which Tom Paris wouldn't know the position of.
- Call-Back: To Tom being in the New Zealand rehabilitation colony in the pilot episode.
- Caught in the Rain: Tom Paris and Lidell on their way back to her house.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The dog, whose reactions to friends vs. strangers help identify the real killer.
- The alien symbols seen in the victim POV.
- Continuity Nod: The Doctor struggles with a possible name, while Kes continues her medical studies under his tutelage.
- Dramatic Thunder: During the murder.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Tom is in jeopardy, so Captain Janeway grills Neelix on what they might encounter. At one point Neelix tries to crack a joke with Janeway, who just puts her hands on her hips and glares until he gets back to the subject.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Implied when the dog barks at Tom Paris, the soon-to-be-accused murderer. Turns out it's an Inverted Chekhov's Gun when the dog doesn't bark at the actual murderer.
- Eye Remember: Only the evidence has been tampered with.
- Fanservice: Lidell slinks about in gauzy dresses with thong underwear.
- Femme Fatale Spy: Tolen Ren's wife, Lidell. She and her accomplice were smuggling important information about Tolen Ren's research to an alien race through the implanted memories of her husband's murder.
- Geeky Turn-On: Lidell complains that the last time her husband was 'aroused' was when he got excited by a solar eclipse.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Paris catches the Femme Fatale Lidell smoking and chides her for it.
- Gratuitous Latin: The title of the episode means "after the fact" in Latin.
- Gunboat Diplomacy: Not wanting to get involved in the Numiri/Banea conflict, Janeway sent in Tom and Harry with a shuttle. When Tom is arrested and Harry sent back half-dead, she takes in Voyager to show she means business. When the Numiri don't send an equal force to meet it, Neelix finds it rather odd.
- Hates Small Talk: Tuvok eats alone because he dislikes "short talk."
- Impending Doom P.O.V.: What Tom is forced to watch.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: The real murderer posing as Tom Paris in the recreated memory is the same height as Tolen Ren's wife, while Tom Paris in real life is actually half a head taller.
- Infinite Supplies: Averted; Janeway forces the Numiri to give back their shuttle or get blown up with it.
- In Medias Res: The episode starts with Paris's punishment, and we learn what led up to that moment through the tales of Paris and Kim.
- Ironic Echo:
- "This isn't the way it happened."
- "What are you looking at?"
- I Owe You My Life: Tom Paris to Tuvok when he's cleared of the murder charge.
- Just a Machine: The EMH is surprised at the idea that he should choose his own name.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Under Banean law, a convicted murderer must relive his victim's terror every 14 hours for the rest of his life.
- Lie Detector: Tuvok orders an autonomic response analysis for Tom Paris, that convinces him that Tom is telling the truth.
- Locked Out of the Loop: When Tuvok says he's going to do a Mind Meld, Neelix repeatedly asks what he's talking about.
- Make the Dog Testify: Tuvok uses a dog as a rebuttal witness in defense of Tom.
- May–December Romance: Tolen Ren and his wife.
- Mind Meld: Tuvok melds with Tom during his victim replay, and picks up several vital clues.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Doctor thinks of Spock
as a possible name. Might cause confusion with a famous Vulcan diplomat, however. - When Tuvok proposes a mind meld, Neelix sputters in confusion over one of the most well-known tropes in Trek canon.
- The Doctor thinks of Spock
- No Name Given: The Banean doctor, who is the actual murderer, is never named.
- Noir Episode: Tom Paris makes a recording of the events that led up to his incarceration, a la a toned-down Double Indemnity. The episode plays up his murky past as an ex-con, his recitation of How We Got Here sounds a lot like a Private Eye Monologue, and he gets framed by a vampy Femme Fatale.
- The Oldest Tricks in the Book: Janeway jibes Chakotay that his Maquis trick is well known. Chakotay replies; "Out here in the Delta Quadrant, every old trick is new again." How exactly Chakotay would know which tricks are or aren't new to beings in the Delta Quadrant is unclear.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Neelix notes that the Numiri are less hostile to Voyager than they are to other outsiders. Turns out to be Foreshadowing that they want Voyager to come.
- Parrot Expo-WHAT?: Neelix's response to hearing the term "mind meld" for the first time:"A-A what? Wha-What did he say? A mind what?
- Private Eye Monologue: Given a nod when Tom gets a bit lyrical narrating a flashback scene.PARIS [OC]: I came out of the other room, looked over and saw her in the atrium. Her eyes were a million kilometres away, staring at stars I'd just flown by the day before.
- Race Against the Clock: To further add jeopardy, Tom's brain is incompatible with Banean technology and engrams, so he will suffer permanent brain damage if the punishment continues. They could use this to appeal, but it's likely Tom will just be executed, which was the previous form of punishment.
- Recycled Premise: Just like the TNG episode "A Matter of Perspective," this episode features a crew member who is falsely accused of murdering a scientist after seducing his younger wife, and a recreation of the murder is used to discover the real killer.
- Shout-Out: The usage of Tolen Ren's dog as a key to solving the mystery is a reference to the famous Sherlock Holmes case "The Adventure of Silver Blaze", and it is even used in precisely the same manner it was in the Conan Doyle story: the dog does not bark or act aggressive because the suspect in question was not a stranger.
- Slipping a Mickey: Tolen Ren's wife put a little something in Tom Paris' drink to put him to sleep, only to later find himself taken into custody for murder.
- Stock Footage: The matte painting depicting Banea is a reuse of the matte painting from the first season TNG episode "Angel One".
- Summation Gathering: Tuvok gathers everyone at the Ren house to explain how Tom was framed and who did it (the Numiri doctor).
- This Cannot Be!: Tom's reaction in the teaser, especially since what he's seeing doesn't match what happened.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Tom gasps in pain after seeing himself stabbed in the victim's POV.
