#does it count as character death if they're both technically dead already?

[dame-zoom-a-lot]

Prompt: Last Kiss | Word Count: 2685 | Rating: G | POV: Doug (unnamed freak) | Relationships: N/A | CW: Major Character Death (the dog) | Tags: kinda-famous corroded coffin, pet death and grief, THE DOG DIES, Dog fic

this is a prompt fill for @corrodedcoffinfest

ao3 link

Eowyn and the wonderful, incredible, no bad, very good day

Thank you @jo-harrington for betaing something so heavy D: THE DOG DIES OF OLD AGE THE DOG DIES MIND THE TAG This was actually the first fic I wrote for corrodedcoffinfest. I saw the 'last kiss' prompt and couldn't stop thinking about how I'm going to have my own last kiss on my dog some day (she's four and still alive and kicking. It's a looong ways off) If you want more stories about grief and moving on and making something better, check out Jo's Luminous Beings!

"We're devastated to share that Eowyn passed away peacefully after a long fight with cancer. She was a bottomless well of joy and mischief. We will miss her dearly."

Alicia, their new social media person, frets as Doug mouths over the words, once, twice, then out loud the third time. The draft post has several pictures of Eowyn in it. Eowyn running across the stage. Eowyn grinning in front of a bunch of amp cords she chewed up. Eowyn sleeping. Eowyn shaking mud off all over them. Eowyn joyful. Eowyn singing. Eowyn. Alive.

"What the fuck is this?" Doug breathes out. "She's not fucking dead. Where's Steve and Eddie?!"

"I thought the chemo was working?" Jeff asks more gently.

"Steve...got the additional biopsy results back yesterday," Alicia says to the floor, "the vet found a new spread. Much more aggressive this time. And he recommended—"

"So what? They're just going to give up?!" Doug yells, getting out of his chair. "If they already put her down without even talking to—"

"They haven't yet! This is just... Steve didn't think he'd be able to do anything after it actually happened so he asked me to draft something and run it by you guys," Alicia stammers, "But it sounded...pretty bad."

"What does Eddie think about all this? Why didn't he tell us?" Gareth demands.

"He...uh..." Alicia shifts uncomfortably, "I couldn't make out what he was saying during the call."

"So just fuck us then right? They couldn't even have the courtesy of telling us what's happening to our dog. No—"

"Well, technically, Eowyn belongs to—" Alicia starts.

"Fuck you!" Doug screams.

Alicia quivers and he feels a little bit bad. She isn't the person he's mad at. It's Steve and Eddie. Those fucking assholes. Who couldn't even be arsed to deliver the news in person so they could strategize. That vet has to be a fucking quack. He'd just seen her last week and she was...

Ok, she wasn't great. She hasn't been great for a while. But she still howled at the mailman and stole a bite of his burger.

She's only thirteen.

He's yelling. Gareth is yelling with him. They want to see her. They want to find a new vet. This is bullshit.

"Enough!" Jeff yells. Doug and Gareth both shut up and wheel around to glare at him.

"Alicia. I'm so sorry you had to deliver the news. Thank you for not just...texting us or something. That would have sucked for me," Jeff continues. He puts a hand out in Doug and Gareth's general direction, as if they're some unruly children he's had the misfortune of babysitting. "That post looks great. You can take the rest of the day off."

Alicia nods fervently then hurries out of the room. Jeff's disappointed silence hangs heavy over them.

"What?" Doug growls.

"This sucks. Doesn't mean you have to scream at people," Jeff accuses, "Alicia loved Eowyn as much as you did—"

"She has no fucking idea!" Gareth protests.

"—And no matter what we're feeling, Steve and Eddie are feeling it a hundred times worse. Alright? So don't fucking call them to yell at them about not trying a different vet or…" Jeff attempts to interrupt.

"Just because you're hunky dory with our dog dying doesn't mean you get to decide I'm fine too." Doug snaps.

Jeff flinches. His mouth goes tight. He shakes his head then stomps out.

"You can apologize later," Gareth sighs when Doug looks at him pleadingly.

"I'm not sorry," Doug lies. Gareth just pats him in the back.

--------

Eddie's cul-de-sac is empty because the world is ending.

Well, Doug's world is ending.

He's not sure why he feels like this. He loves Eowyn. Obviously. Who wouldn't? But he's always been more of a virtual cat person, not a 'demon husky that needs to run 3 hours a day' kind of person. As much as he hates to admit it, he's more of the awkward boring uncle to Eowyn.

But he still thought he had enough of a connection with Eowyn that Steve and Eddie would have seen it fit to keep him in the loop. To ask for help. And that stings. But it doesn't hurt as much as the notion that they could have done something. Kept her alive for five more years. Maybe even more. If they just found a better vet.

Doug tiptoes even though he knows that Steve and Eddie are out doing something. Their spare key is exactly where he told them not to hide it under the stupid novelty gnome Wayne got for them a few years ago. The key works, and Doug quietly lets himself in, bracing himself in preparation for Eowyn to jump on him with all she's got.

Nothing.

Shit. Did Steve and Eddie take Eowyn with them? He should have checked when he asked Alicia for their schedule. Doug curses and searches the house just in case. Maybe this is a new game Eowyn's made up. She's always been three steps ahead of them. At least.

There's a pitiful whine from Eddie's bedroom. Doug scrambles over, nearly tripping over himself in the process. She can't die now, not when he's here to take her to the much better (or at least more expensive) specialist he found.

At first he doesn't recognize her.

It's Eowyn, laying on her side on her favorite bed. Her eyes are open, but vacant. Her tail wags slightly, so slightly Doug almost missed it. Her tongue flops out. Her fur looks scraggly. She's so still.

Doug's known Eowyn for years now. The way she never settled used to drive him up the wall. Even when she was laying down, she was keeping one eye open, vibrating, ready to jump up at a moment's notice so she could join the fun. The only times she'd be still was right after a long run or when she was asleep.

Past Doug was an idiot. This is so much worse.

"Hey old girl," Doug whispers, "you want to go zip zip zip?"

Eowyn's tail twitches and she whines.

"Yeah girl, let's go zip zip zip," Doug whispers. He was originally going to put her on leash and lead her to his car. But it doesn't look like Eowyn can walk. She only huffs a little bit when Doug squats down to gather her up in his arms.

"Good thing I spent all that time carrying amps around eh?" Doug babbles as he carries her out the door, into his car, "remember..." his voice wobbles, "remember when you tripped Gareth because you were weaving around his legs?"

Eowyn pants, mouth wide open as if she's laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, I know girl, he should have been more careful," Doug says. He plants a little kiss on her forehead before carefully lowering her down into the backseat. Eowyn groans, hopefully in comfort, as her head hits the ergonomic cushion he picked up on the way to her place.

It's a three hour drive to the specialist. Doug shoots a text telling the boys not to worry, that he's taking Eowyn to get a second opinion, after he gets a sufficient head start.

He's going to save her. The specialist will fix her then she'll live another fifteen years and he'll let her knock him over as much as she wants. Hell, he'll even go running with her in the snow, even though she likes to make these ear-piercing shrieks the entire time.

--------

He misses the shrieking.

Travelling with her used to be a whole thing. She had her own playlist that she liked to howl along to. Eddie and Jeff would sing along, with Gareth supplying the drumbeats. They only stopped when Steve started getting a migraine.

No, not used to be. Is. Not had. Has.

But Doug's been playing her song list on repeat and she's not making a peep.

"You want me to stop?" Doug yells over the music. Eowyn huffs, which he hopes means she doesn't want him to stop.

He should have read those books on dog body language or whatever that Steve had his nose glued to. He should have gone along to training sessions.

It's a really good thing that the specialist will fix her so that he'll have time to fix all that. He's going to be so keyed in and so observant she won't know what hit her. He'll figure out what treats she wants. He'll know when she's faking it or when she really needs to go pee. He'll tell the difference between an anxious pant and an excited one. He will.

Celine Dion warbles and Eowyn doesn't howl along.

"Near…far…" Doug starts in a quaver. He hates his singing voice, how weirdly high and unlike his normal voice it gets. His bass is consistent. Lovely. His voice is… not that. That's why he's always been happy to leave the actual singing to Jeff and Eddie.

But he sees Eowyn's ear perk up through the mirror and that's enough for him to keep going.

"Where-ehhhhh-ver you—"

"Ow ow owwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

Eowyn howls. Weaker than her at her prime. But it's definitely a howl. Doug sings louder, careful not to overtake the star--Eowyn. Eowyn's tail starts thumping to the music. Red tongue pokes out of a smile as she yodels and yowls with him. The next hour and a half passes by in a flash, and Doug's ears are only slightly ringing when he gets out of the car.

---------

"Ah, I thought her name sounded familiar," the vet says, as she adjusts her glasses and looks at Eowyn, "I've seen her files recently."

"Err… is that… good?" Doug asks.

The vet lays down the chart. "I'm afraid not," she says gently, "it was familiar because her primary vet asked me for a second opinion yesterday."

"What?!"

"I did agree with his prognosis then..." she says regretfully, "but I didn't have her in person with me. I can do some more hands on examinations and tests now that she's here physically. But I'll need the owner's permission. And I'm not sure I can recommend putting her through even more tests when she got the full suite so recently."

"What... I am the owner," Doug stammers, face flushing.

The vet looks at him sharply. "As I said, I have seen this dog's file. And I believe that the owner's name was Steve, not Doug." She softens slightly. "My receptionist called the owners and they're on their way. Were on their way anyway."

---------

The sun shines bright. Cool breeze gently strokes Doug's face. The grass is soft under his butt. The tree they're sitting under provides the perfect amount of shade and none of that matters because his world is ending.

Eowyn is laying on her side, sniffing at the ground. Doug buries his hand in her scraggly tuft.

He feels kind of bad for the vet. He didn't mean to lose it so hard in her office.

Not that Eowyn seems to care how he's feeling. She's more interested inhaling the dirt. She whines and Doug's eyes follow where she's nosing to a pile of dried out rabbit poop just out of her reach.

"Eww, really?" Doug snorts.

Eowyn huffs and widens her eyes as if she's rolling them. She inches her neck towards the dung pile again, too drugged up or too tired to want to actually get up and bury her nose in the literal pile of shit.

"The things I do for love," Doug mutters. He sighs and reaches out to pull the pile right up to Eowyn's nose.

Eowyn immediately jams her nose right into it, eyes closed, loudly sniffing. Her tail starts to wag and the void in Doug's chest becomes… less void-y.

He looks around at the grass pasture behind the specialist's building. There's squirrels and geese and just like, a lot of critters in general. Fuck it. Eowyn's a poop connoisseur and he's got some time to kill before the boys get here to murder him.

-----------

She's a huge fan of goose poop. Regular bird poop? Not so much. But nothing beat that mysterious, sandy-textured something. He's so focused on finding that sandy textured thing again that he doesn't hear the boys coming.

He does notice the sudden boot right by his nose though.

"You… motherfucker," Eddie growls, towering over him.

"Shit! Fuck! Sorry," Doug stammers, scrambling back and attempting to get up. Eddie, Steve, Jeff, and Gareth are standing over him, all in varying degrees of unkemptness. Steve's hair is sticking out all over the place, probably because he was running his fingers through them non-stop. Eddie's eyes are wild, lips bared in a snarl. Gareth and Jeff look exhausted.

"Where's Eowyn?" Jeff demands.

Doug points to where she's laying, surrounded in little piles of the 'treasures' he found for her.

"Why do you have dirt all over you?" Gareth asks, nose wrinkled.

Doug flushes. "Erm. She wanted to... she likes the goose poop so. I thought. I thought..."

There's a long pause. "You were… digging up goose poop for her," Steve confirms quietly.

"Yeah."

They all look at Eowyn again, who perks up now that she's the center of attention. She sticks her nose into each of her piles, making a big show of sniffing. Eddie breathes out a laugh that's more of a whimper then beelines for her. The rest follow. Eowyn smiles wide, her tongue lolling out. She flops over to show her belly, when they all get to her, grunting with the effort.

"I was going to stab you," Eddie mutters as he lightly massages Eowyn's waist with his palms. "But you did show her a good time. So I guess you're kind of forgiven."

"How did you know where we went?" Doug asks. "The vet said you were already on your way when she called?"

"I mean, she was constantly running away or getting stolen," Steve replies, scratching Eowyn behind her ears, "we've had a GPS collar on her for a while."

"Oh. I didn't know," Doug whispers.

"Lot you didn't know," Eddie says.

"Vet's on her way. Said we could do it here where she's comfortable," Gareth says. He twirls his drum sticks then beats them gently against the few hard surfaces he can find. Eowyn's ears twitch in the drum's direction.

"She said you made her very comfortable," Jeff says gently, "said she could see you from her window."

"I'm..." Doug stops, lost for words. Glad? Happy? Thankful? He doesn't think he could feel those things again for the rest of his life. Eowyn is here, sniffing her pile of gross treasures, panting happily as Gareth plays her a parting song. She's here but she's not here. And now the vet is on her way and they're out of time. He didn't know her collar had a GPS on it. He didn't she was on that much pain killers.

What else didn't he know? What's her favorite food? Her favorite trick? Is there a song on her playlist that she particularly likes? What did she think of them? What is she thinking now?

He'd had so much time.

A noise comes out of him that he didn't know he was capable of making. He sinks to Eowyn's stomach, still so soft and warm, despite the occasional hard tumors. He can vaguely feel the weight of the rest of the boys as they all pile around him—a beautiful, complicated, temporary tangle of humans and dog.

--------

He's not ready when he kisses Eowyn for the last time. But when the vet gently pokes her needle through Eowyn's ankle, he can see that she is.

"Good bye."

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Bryke was in the Podcasts Braving Element book fire, and one the most interesting in that conversation was Bryke say Kataang relationship in Book fire was their favorite and Basco he is vibing for Maiko, but he say the headband episode is technically filler, it means is not canon that episode? What you think?

"Filler" was an anime term, about episodes that existed solely to give the manga they were adapting extra time to get more content for them to adapt. The filler episodes are canon (to the anime versions at least), but they don't move the plot forward, so if you skip them you don't miss anything important.

Eventually the term stopped being used solely for anime - and some idiots started using it to mean "bad episode", but the actual meaning is still the same: the episode can be skipped without the audience being confused. Only now these episodes exist not to catch up with a source material (in Avatar's case there wasn't one in the first place since it was an original series, not an adaptation) but rather as a "breather" episode, that can be more light-hearted, or character-driven instead of plot-driven.

To give an Avatar exemple: "Tales of Ba Sing Se" is filler, but it's still canon. It does not, in any way, further the Dai Li plot the previous episode had established - but we get focus on the characters, their personalities, dynamics, and THE tear-jerker that is Iroh singing to both honor his son and express his grief over his death. We already knew Lu Ten was dead and Iroh was grieving, but this episode gives it further depth.

Even if "The Headband" was filler, it'd still be canon - and so would be the dance with Katara clearly being into Aang.

And I personally do NOT consider "The Headband" filler. It furthers the whole theme of the season and the series ("How do you rebuild a world consumed by war? Through kindness"), we (and more importantly, the protagonist) get a deeper look into the indoctrination the people of the Fire Nation are subjected to, and more importantly, it is the episode in which we are introduced to Combustion man - ya know, the assassin that will try to kill the Gaang? The secondary villain of half the season? The one that is Zuko's attempt to resolve the problem of "The Avatar is supposed to be dead" that the previous episode introduced? Aka it is connected both to the aftermath of the Ba Sing Se plot and the "Zuko goes from villain to ally of the good guys" plot?

You CAN'T skip this episode without being confused as to who the fuck is that guy chasing the Gaang and who sent him after them. You'd have to wait until his last appearance, in which Zuko confronts him, for you to realize what the villain's deal was, meaning that PLOT would only become coherent after it was basically resolved.

It furthers the plot, therefore it isn't filler. It's just not ALL about the plot. By that logic, nearly every episode of season one is filler. The Beach is filler. Well over half the fucking show is filler if we're only counting episodes that have BIG, plot-twisting events as "important" episodes. Bryke need to stop parroting fandom nonsense to gain points.

As for Dante Basco being all excited about Maiko despite being a big zutara fan, that does not surprise me. He has ALWAYS said he liked their romance, and that Mai is the kind of girl he'd try getting with in real life.

Once again, the epic "power struggle" between Zutara fans and the evil dark lords Bryan and Mike is only in the fandom's weird minds. They weren't always kind to shippers, but the simple fact that they're so chill with Dante, and lots of other people, including writersn who went on his podcast and said everything from "I don't really care for Zutara, but I think could have worked" to "It's one of my OTPs" shows that this "Bryke VS Zutara" war is VERY one-sided and exists solely because people can't accept that, no, the writers are not throwing away their entire plan just to please you.

[besanii]

"i’ve   been   searching   for   you   in   everyone" + wangxian for the angst prompts, please!

There’s a man who comes to the shop at the same time every day, orders the same drink (pu-er with chrysanthemum) and sits at the same table in the corner beneath the staircase. Sometimes he’ll be reading a book, a battered old thing that must be centuries old from its worn pages and its worn butterfly binding. Sometimes he would unwrap the guqin he carries on his back and lays it out on the table, idle fingers plucking a half-forgotten melody. Other times he’d just sit there quietly, lost in thought, for hours and hours while the world moves around him.

He’s seen people like him before. He’s watched them all: lost souls still tethered to the world, searching for something that had been denied them in life and they now seek in death. They wander the earth day after day, year after year, century upon century, until they can no longer remember the reason they linger. And then they come here, to this little shop of his stuck between life and death, and he ushers them back into the cycle of reincarnation.

Some of them hang around for a while before they leave, holding onto that tiny flicker of hope that they might suddenly remember what they’ve been searching for so that they can move on in peace. Sometimes they do; he watches the joy blossom across their faces as they take the broth he offers them, and they pass on with a contented sigh. Others are not so lucky; he watches the light fade from their eyes, and they drown the void inside them with the contents of his offered bowl.

It’s not his job to question. He doesn’t get involved. He greets them with a smile, hands them their drink, and sees them through the door.

But there is something about this man that feels…familiar. The sight of him tugs at the recesses of his mind, a niggling little thing that feels like a memory but evades him like a shadow, always just out of reach. Something about him makes his heart clench painfully in a way he has not felt for centuries, screaming WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG, over and over again, until he turns away from those piercing amber eyes.

He’s not sure what finally tips him over the edge.

The next time the man comes into his shop and walks up to the counter, he’s waiting for him with a bowl already on the counter and a smile plastered on his face. The man frowns.

“I did not order this,” he says.

“Rules of the house,” he lies. “You’ve been here for centuries. It’s time.”

The man shakes his head.

“No, I am still looking for someone.” The determination in his voice stirs something akin to admiration—or perhaps pity—in his chest. “I know they will come, sooner or later. I will wait.”

“What if they’ve already gone ahead without you?” he asks. “Then the last few centuries would have been for nothing.”

Doubt creeps into that perfectly sculpted face and he feels a sharp pain in his own heart at the sight.

“Then I will wait here until his next life is over,” he says. “However long it takes. I will wait.”

“They won’t remember you,” he warns him. “They never do.”

“I will remember them,” he replies, as if it is so simple. “That is enough.”

He’s seen more than enough people like him over the centuries to know better.

“But you don’t,” he tells him quietly. “You don’t remember them. Not completely. Not enough to recognise them.”

The man looks stricken, his already pale face turns ashen, his lips pressed together in a thin, trembling line as he stares at him across the counter, horror dawning in those amber eyes.

“No,” he says harshly, slamming one shaking fist on the counter. “That’s not true. I remember. I remember his laugh—the red ribbon in his hair—the colour of his eyes. The night we first met, he sat on the roof with two jugs of wine—I confronted him about it, and he said—he said—”

“'Emperor’s Smile,'” he continues for him in a whisper, the words drawing themselves out from the hazy depths of his past. The man’s head shoots up to look at him, eyes wide. "’If I give you one, can you pretend—’”

“'—you didn’t see me?'” they finish together. He draws in a shuddering breath. “Wei Ying.”

He closes his eyes as Lan Wangji’s fingers graze over his cheeks and trace the line of his jaw—just a whisper of a touch, but it ignites little fires under his skin. His heart starts to beat just that little bit faster, the ground beneath him a little less solid as the memories come rushing back all at once. It’s him. It’s him. It’s him.

How had he forgotten?

“Lan Zhan.” The fingers press more firmly against his skin until he opens his eyes. “Lan Zhan.”

Lan Wangji is crying. 

“Wei Ying,” he rasps. “It’s you.”

“It’s me,” he agrees. He’s not entirely sure he believes it. “I’m here.”

“All these years…” Lan Wangji’s eyes roam his face, drinking in the sight of him hungrily, as if committing him to memory. “I looked for you everyone. I’ve been searching for you, in everyone I meet, every face I see. I followed every trace of you I could find. And this whole time—this whole time, you’ve been—”

“Here,” Wei Wuxian finishes with a sad smile. “I’ve been here the whole time. Watching.”

Lan Wangji exhales slowly. “You forgot.”

“…I did.” A twinge of guilt. “I’m sorry.”

“No, not it’s not your fault,” Lan Wangji says, shaking his head. “I’m sorry I took so long.”

Wei Wuxian laughs wetly and reaches up to cover the hand resting on his cheek with his own.

“I knew you’d find me eventually,” he tells him. “Now we can both leave.”

They look down at the bowl on the counter. Lan Wangji frowns.

“It’s too soon,” he says, almost protesting. “I only just found you again.”

“Don’t be silly, Lan Zhan,” Wei Wuxian chides. He turns to press a kiss to his palm. “I’m coming with you.”

Lan Wangji’s breath hitches, his eyes hopeful. “Coming with me?”

Wei Wuxian nods. “We’ll go together. Everything will be fine.”

“Together,” Lan Wangji breathes. “As long as it’s with Wei Ying, everything will be fine.”

He takes the bowl from Wei Wuxian’s hand when he offers it to him again, and brings it to his lips. Wei Wuxian smiles at him encouragingly as he drinks the broth in two large swallows. His eyes never once leave his.

“Everything will be fine,” Wei Wuxian whispers as Lan Wangji sets the bowl on the table. He forces himself to smile. “Are you ready?”

Lan Wangji nods. The void has returned, all traces of recognition gone from his eyes, leaving him blank and expressionless once more. Wei Wuxian gestures to the door on his right, where a bridge materialises from the shadows.

“This way please,” he says.

He watches Lan Wangji turn to the bridge, his steps never once faltering as he walks towards it. He watches as he pauses for a brief moment at the head of the bridge, and his breath catches in his throat—but Lan Wangji keeps on walking, over the bridge, and out of sight.

He looks down at the empty bowl on the counter.

It’s not his job to question. He doesn’t get involved. He greets them with a smile, hands them their drink, and sees them through the door.

He doesn’t get to choose.

He doesn’t get to leave.

He wipes away the tears with the back of his hand, and clears the bowl from the counter.

[Read on AO3]

// buy me a ko-fi //

[thegreaterlink]

Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S3E24 "Transfigurations"

THE PREMISE

The Enterprise beams up the badly injured occupant of a crashed ship in an unknown star system. When the survivor (Mark LaMura) awakens a few days later, he has no memory of who he is or how he got there, so they decide to name him "John Doe." Over time he recuperates and he begins to emit strange energy bursts with the ability to heal injuries.

MY REVIEW

This is my least favourite kind of episode to review. It's like eating a slice of dry toast - there's nothing inherently wrong with it, but the experience is so overwhelmingly blah that you're not really enjoying yourself either. Even with a bad episode I can have fun shitting on it.

Let’s just get this one out of the way so I can talk about “The Best of Both Worlds,” okay?

The mystery surrounding the nature of John Doe (I'll call him JD for short) is decently set up early on when Dr Crusher establishes a neural link between him and Geordi to stabilise his nervous system. Suddenly Geordi is more relaxed and charismatic, even managing to go out with Christy Henshaw, the girl he was chasing after shortly before he resorted to making out with a hologram.

As for JD, he makes miraculous progress, regenerating all of his organs within 36 hours of his arrival. The romance continues when Dr Crusher claims to have some kind of spiritual connection to him, though it doesn't go any further than that. It's unexpected to say the least, but at least it's not the strangest romance she'll ever have.

One might say it doesn't even hold a candle to it...

You all know it's coming. It's only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, JD gets tidbits of character development, such as remembering that he was fleeing from his home planet with others of his species. He asks Picard not to take him back there, at least not yet.

He also gives some vague exposition about how he's on some kind of journey which is somehow connected to the mutation in his body. Cool.

Sometime later, after spending nearly two months on board (this episode takes place over a strangely long time period) JD's strange energy emissions (remember those?) increase to the point where he's worried that they could hurt those around him - which would make more sense if we'd seen him bonding with anyone other than Dr Crusher - and he tries to flee the ship, accidentally injuring Worf in the process.

These yellow shirts are really getting the short end of the stick when it comes to deaths, aren't they?

No, of course Worf isn't dead. Well, he is for a few seconds, but JD brings him back. So it technically still counts.

Picard naturally wants an explanation, but JD (and probably the writers) just repeats what we already know. Thrilling.

Now, for the past few hours, the Enterprise has been followed by another ship which now hails them. They're of the same species as JD - called the Zalkonians, which sounds like it's from a bad episode of Doctor Who - and inform Picard that JD is actually a dangerous criminal who needs to be turned over immediately, but refuse to elaborate further... for some reason.

When Picard tries to negotiate, the Zalkonian captain concludes that JD has corrupted the crew, and somehow creates a field that drains the oxygen from the Enterprise in a matter of seconds, an incredibly deadly weapon which I'm willing to bet we'll never see again.

Hold on, let me check something.

Well, that's longer than I expected. We learned something today.

JD is of course unaffected, and by touching a panel he somehow spreads his power across the ship and restores the oxygen supply. Now, I've put up with a lot of treknobabble bullshit over the past three seasons, but there's bullshit and then there's horseshit. It's a very important difference.

Dr Crusher and JD head to the bridge, transporting the Zalkonian captain over to the Enterprise so they don't have to build another set. Although the captain (whose name is apparently Sunad, played by Charles Dennis) continues to insist that JD is a danger to society, JD finally explains the truth, because he's conveniently regained his memory now:

Basically the Zalkonians are about to undergo a massive evolutionary change, but the government was afraid of something they couldn't understand or control, they called the changes "evil" and had anyone showing such changes executed.

It's obvious that Star Trek has always been political, but after watching an episode like this, I can safely say that it's never been subtle with its commentary either. Fortunately it's not exactly targeted towards anything specific, so it gets a pass.

Plus my favourite episode of the last season and its debate about human rights can be applied to all kinds of issues, so it's not like I have any right to complain.

Anyhoo, JD fled with three of his friends to let the changes run their course, but he was the only survivor when the Enterprise crew found him. What an interesting reveal that the writers definitely had in mind when they started writing the script.

Suddenly the metamorphosis enters its final stage, and JD evolves into a morph suit with a glowing filter over it. Or maybe he's about to defuse. Who knows?

JD sounds (and before they ran out of money, was probably supposed to look) like a biblically-accurate angel as he tells Sunad not to be afraid, and that there's nothing stopping him from telling the other Zalkonians the truth about what's happening to them. Picard expresses his gratitude to JD (who is never given a proper name, so I can keep calling him that) for letting him witness the birth of a new species, JD bids goodbye to Dr Crusher and flies off into space. He must go now, for his planet needs him.

So the guy dressed all in white is persecuted for his beliefs, is thought to be dead but actually undergoes a change into a higher life form which ends with him ascending upwards to spread the good word?

Well, I've got egg on my face.

Overall, it's a nice little story with a likable guest star, but it isn't really anything to write home about. Though I admit it isn't quite as forgettable as I implied at the beginning.

6/10 - It's okay.