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(More customer reviews)Recently promoted Lieutenant Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), who was once the scourge of Starfleet and was once in a Federation prison has redeemed herself as an asset to both the Federation and to Picard, who as adopted her as one of his foster lost causes. In a previous episode, Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) befriended the hostile ex-con and helped Ro to confide in Picard in preventing an all-out war with the Bajorans and the Cardassians.
Redeemed and recommended by Picard, Ro attends a special forces type training - Starfleet's answer to the Navy Seals and is promoted and graduates with honors in a training regimen that sees 50% wash-out the first week.
The Federation is trying to balance their delicate treaty with Cardassia with the rights of Federation citizens who have been displaced by the greedy "spoon-heads" who take over one territory after another.
Cardassians must breed like rabbits, since they have this incredible need to colonize one planet after another - I mean, a planet! How many babies do they whelp at a time?
These displaced Federation citizens have different view points - some flee and some stay and fight and have joined a rebel alliance called The Maquis. The Maquis have evolved from mere mercenaries with a heart to a formidable force - with their own space craft and weapons, attacking Cardassians and endangering the alliance between them and the Federation.
Ro is asked to infiltrate the Maquis so that they can be controlled (and arrested, if need be) with minimal loss of life. Ro has the perfect credentials - a tarnished Starfleet record, and a victim of the Cardassian occupation of her homeworld. As a child during the occupation, she was forced to watch as Cardassians tortured her father to death.
Up until now, the angry Ro has seeked a father figure to stand in the gap made by the horrific loss of her own father. It's obvious that Picard fills that role - as her greatest desire is to validate the confidence he has in her.
She successfully infiltrates the Maquis and makes fast friends with the Bajorans in the group. An older man in the group quickly takes to her and bonds to her like an adopted granddaughter. It is only a matter of time that in the daily contact she has with this kind man who shares her hatred for Cardassians, that at least some of the father-figure image she has put on Picard has been transferred to this older Bajoran who clearly more resembles her beloved father than the bald, human captain. He even makes Hasperaat - a favorite dish of her father's.
Ro is torn, as she sees how these rebels must live and have rightfully decided to stop falling back but to stand up for themselves - how can she betray these people who already seem more to her like family than anyone she has ever known?
When she meets back with Picard, he senses her inner struggle. At that point, they should have switched gears. They should have re-evaluated sending such a scarred person into such a delicate situation. In any other scenario, it's doubtful that Ro would be capable of failing Picard, but in this instance, she must betray her own - people that consider her to be a valued ally and friend, to save the lives of the Cardassians that have caused millions of Bajorans decades of hardship and heartache.
In the presence of Picard, she is strengthened in her resolve to carry out her orders, no matter how difficult - but without his fatherly gaze upon her, her heart sways in the other direction as she is surrounded by her rebel friends. Picard visits her in a cafe sometime later and it is clear that her thoughts are elsewhere. Picard is less than sympathetic, explaining that she could face court martial if she does not fulfill her obligations. This is kinda like threatening someone on death row that you're going to add more years to their sentence if they try to escape. The greys vanish and soon there is only black and white. Picard sends Riker, altered to look Bajoran, to go with Ro to be a reminder of her obligation, but the damage is done.
Forbes is such a fantastic actress in this role, you can see the inner conflict in her eyes, the wounded child, the warrior and the heartbreak of hurting Picard. Though she never says it outloud, she knows she will be a pariah to her people if she succeeds in her mission, never to be truly loved by one of her own again. If she switches sides, there is no second chance - she's already had one. She will throw her respected career out the window and face persuit and cloak-and-dagger living for the rest of her life - but she will be surrounded by her people, united in a single cause.
The Federation could have sent other Bajorans or even a non-Bajoran altered to appear Bajoran, but they were too eager to see Ro's qualifications - her tarnished record, her validating status as a warcrimes victim and her special forces tactical training - and they never looked at the vulnerable person they were sending. Picard and Riker see the error of their ways all too late and grieve for the lost comrade that they will likely only encounter again in battle. A terrific episode.
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Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 176: Preemptive Strike (1987)
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