6.01 equinox (part 2)

Voyager is able to fend off the aliens by sending a deflector pulse, but it will only last a short time. While Chakotay wants to try communicating with them, Janeway is much more interested in tracking down the Equinox and Captain Ransom. They clash so much that Janeway sends Chakotay to the brig. She is really losing it; she threatens a member of the Equinox crew and almost kills him by allowing the aliens to invade the cargo bay he is being held in. She promises the aliens that she will hand over the Equinox to them, in return for getting them to break off attacks; this is also definitely against Starfleet regulations, but when Tuvok protests, she threatens to throw him in the brig, too. Meanwhile, the Equinox has gotten some distance away but not too far, as Seven, who is now their prisoner, had encoded the plasma injectors. She refuses to give up the code, so Ransom activates Voyager’s EMH, who has traded places with his, and disables his ethical subroutines, and gets him to begin the operation. It will damage Seven’s brain, but this new version of the doctor doesn’t care. Voyager continues to track the Equinox down and is winning the war. Ransom, meanwhile, has had his holographic dreams invaded by the image of Seven, he has an epiphany of sorts – and decides partly because of his decision to harm Seven, which he really regrets, that he would like to surrender to Janeway. However, his second in command mutinies and continues the fight. Ransom is able to disable the Equinox, and most of the crew is beamed over to Voyager and captured, leaving just Ransom and his second and some officers loyal to the mutiny. The mutineers are killed by the aliens, and Ransom, regretting his decisions, stays on the ship and pilots it to a safe distance before it explodes – and he with it.

In the end, Janeway apologizes to Chakotay and mentions that he had grounds for his own little mutiny, and wonders why he didn’t do it. "The thought crossed my mind," he says, "but that would have been going over the edge." Chakotay has been the strong one, adhering to Starfleet principles, while Janeway slipped – badly – in her obsession with punishment.

Nit: These aliens are easily placated. They ask that the Equinox be handed over. At the end, they are willing to settle for the Equinox blowing up and about half its crew being killed. For the other half, they are willing to allow Janeway to punish them as she sees fit (slack punishment, as they are demoted to crewmen).