Voyager takes on a crew of death-row prisoners that are being sent to their executions. Along the way, one of the prisoners named Iko suffers a head injury from one of the guards, and the Doctor uses Seven of Nine's nanoprobes to heal Iko's injury. However, it also causes him to develop a conscience for the crime he has committed and gains the sympathy of Seven as she and Captain Janeway help petition for the stay of his execution.
This episode provides examples of
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Tom says not to take the prisoners seriously because everyone in the New Zealand penal colony had all sorts of sob stories too, Neelix asks him how many people there were sentenced to death. Tom is noticeably unable to respond.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Joleg plays the part of the innocent man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and convicted on circumstantial evidence. He then arranges for his brother to attack Voyager and tries to kill warden Yediq.
- Buy Them Off: According to Joleg, wealthy criminals can make financial restitution to their victims to avoid being executed.Neelix: That doesn't seem fair.
Joleg: It's perfectly fair...unless you're destitute. - Character Development: Aside from Iko's Heel–Face Turn, there's also Yediq. He starts off contemptuous of all the prisoners and doesn't take Iko's brain defect seriously as a reason for his sociopathy. This changes, however, after Iko saves his life, and he's last seen genuinely sad that Iko will still be executed.
- Death Glare: Tom, impatient for Neelix to stop reading about the Nygean justice system, flippantly says that "maybe [Benkarans] commit more crimes." The look that B'Elanna and Neelix both give him is not one of approval.
- Death Row: The inmates on the prison transport.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Benkarans, who make up 80% of the Nygean prison population, serve as a stand-in for African-Americans within the US prison system.
- Downer Ending: Despite the Doctor's findings, the efforts of Seven of Nine, and even Yediq's change of heart, the family of Iko's victim ultimately rejects his appeal.
- Fake Defector: During the prison riot, Iko pretends to take the prisoners' side and demands to be the one to kill Yediq for the earlier beating. It's a ruse so that he can give Yediq a phaser to subdue the others.
- Foil: The two central prisoners, Iko and Joleg, contrast each other quite nicely. Iko is churlish and hostile prior to his operation, after which he genuinely feels guilt and remorse for what he's done. Joleg, on the other hand, initially seems to be polite and friendly up until he reveals his true colors during the riot.
- First Time Feeling: After receiving a treatment with Seven's nanoprobes, a previously undiagnosed brain condition that made Iko a sociopath is healed, making him feel guilt for his crimes for the first time. It makes him feel so sick to his stomach that he begs for the nanoprobes to be removed, even though that may kill him.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: The repentant prisoner Iko is ultimately denied a stay of execution.
- Hope Spot: After Iko's request for an appeal is initially rejected without even being considered, Yediq uses his influence once he's convinced that the Doctor's findings about Iko's physiological defect are genuine to get them to agree. It's ultimately All for Nothing, as the victim's family rejects the appeal anyway.
- Immune To Phasers: The Doctor shows off this feature when a phaser shot passes through him to strike at Iko.
- Karma Houdini: Seven of Nine says that it's unfair that one man had to pay for the price of killing another man with his life, while she herself goes without punishment after destroying thousands of lives through Borg assimilation. Captain Janeway tells Seven that losing twenty years of her life to the Borg is enough punishment for her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Iko's injuries are treated with Seven's nanoprobes, they inadvertently correct a congenital defect in his brain that had made him a sociopath. As a result, he suddenly feels overwhelming guilt over the crimes he committed.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Yediq and his goons deliver one to Iko after he obliquely threatens Yediq's children. Leads to a What the Hell, Hero? from Janeway.
- Playing Sick: Joleg tries to do this after the failed prison break, but it doesn't work.
- Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: Thanks to his newly-awakened conscience, Iko believes that he deserves to die for his crimes. During his appeal to the family of his victim, he admits that he can accept his own death if that's what they want. When he learns that his execution stands, he calmly accepts it.
- Prison Episode: An odd case in that Voyager itself is converted into a Prison Ship.
- Shoot the Hostage: Since the Doctor is a hologram, this doesn't hurt him, but it does slightly mess with his holo-matrix.
- The Sociopath: Joleg is outwardly friendly and sympathetic — and turns Neelix into an Unwitting Pawn to orchestrate a prison break and put Voyager in danger.
- These Hands Have Killed: A time-delayed variant, but...Iko: You say I've changed, but I look at these hands every day and I see them squeezing that man's throat and I hear the sounds he made. I'm disgusting.
- Think Nothing of It: After Neelix makes it clear to Yediq that Starfleet officers actually feed their prisoners.Joleg: Thanks for standing up to Yediq.
Neelix: Just doing my job.
Joleg: Still, it was kind. - Took a Level in Kindness: Iko, thanks to Seven's nanoprobes. He demonstrates this by giving his uneaten meal to another prisoner (one whom Iko apparently has a history of bullying and stealing his meals) after he has been healed.
- Wardens Are Evil: At first, Yediq seems like a straightforward example, only giving his prisoners one meal a day and beating Iko for stepping out of line. As detailed under Character Development above, though, he comes to change his ways when Iko saves him from the rioting prisoners and even regrets that the reformed criminal will still be executed.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Said by Joleg when he tries to convince Neelix that he had nothing to do with his brother's attack on Voyager. Neelix doesn't buy it for a second.
