This episode is a great piece of evidence that in Trek, there are hardly any "throw away" gadgets or gimmicks. Already we are revisiting "I, Borg" and "Brothers" and in this finale, also season 6's "Suspicions".
Picard, Geordi and Troi are captured by Lore and Data - Data is NOT himself. His Ethical Subprogram, the one thing that makes him different than Lore, has been shut off. Crosus (Brian Cousins) shut it off in the last episode. In fact Crosus is Lore's number one Crony. Meanwhile, away teams are out on the surface, and Worf and Riker while trying to track Picard's whereabouts, find Hugh's secret lair- So we see that Hugh may have been the catalyst for this new state of Borg Individuality, but he did not exploit it - That in fact was Lore.
But "Captain Crusher" is on command of the Bridge - And is attacked by the huge Borg Monstrosity-Ship while the away teams are planet-side.
With about a minute to beam everyone up, they get all but about "47" crew-members who are on the planet before she is chased off by the huge Borg Non-Cube ship - She traverses the Trans-Warp Conduit and sends out a beacon, then goes back to try to get those 47 crewmen.
And this is where we meet Ensign Taitt (the gorgeous Alex Datcher) - Low Ensign on the Totem Pole, Crusher keeps her handy on the Bridge and this is good for her, and us as well. James Horan, who was the evil Jo'Bril in "Suspicions" shows up as "Lieutenant Barnaby" - And this is a mix for some great Bridge Interaction.
Down below, Data begins to torture Geordi, who had seen with his VISOR that Lore is in fact controlling him. Lore orders Data to take the VISOR away. Riker and Worf confront Hugh - Hugh gives us the history behind this change in the Borg, but he will not help Riker and he still blames The Enterprise and crew for what had happened to them. But he does show Riker how to get into the main complex.
Meanwhile Crusher goes back to the planet, on the opposite side of where the Borg "Winchester Mystery House in Space" is, and is able to beam up all but Riker and Worf and Picard's party - So, with nowhere to run heads for the SUN. Because she has a plan.
She uses the Metaphasic Shielding tech left over from "Suspicions" to enter the stars Corona, and stays there, while the Borg ship waits.
Picard with Geordi's help is able to reboot Data's Ethical Subroutine, it's a guess when and if it worked. In fact it works right away, while Riker, Worf and Hugh (who had changed his mind) get into the main Borg- Palais.
Ensign Taitt has a way to get the Sun to Flare Up - As Worf's brother Kurn had done with his warp drive in Redemption Part II - And is seen again in Deep Space Nine, Season 7, Episode 2, Worf uses the same technique to blow up some Jem'Hadar Shipyards. This is also where Ensign Taitt and Lt Barnaby have some great discussions.
Despite this treatment of The Borg, many of the other aspects of this episode were central for some of the best episodes of Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. And the Data/Lore storyline is finally given an ending. We are left with the impression, despite all he had done, Lore really did finally have love for Data. Data still cannot share this, but Lore had the emotion chip - And Data will not have it until "Generations". And my favourite part of this episode is as Lore is deactivated, his eyes cloud over and we can see the life going away.
So we see here that Lore, not having Data on hand to share the emotion chip with, was using it to influence The Borg, who were at least halfway "artificial" - It also explains why Lore had sent Crosus to get Data. Lore was trying to make The Borg as totally electronic as he was, we saw the destroyed Borg Drones he had experimented on.
And I think, this is a hard story to swallow, not because of the native change in the Borg, not that the Borg had been destroyed - We know from this episode that the rest of the Borg Collective had not been affected by Hugh. Some of this was explored in Voyager. But the juggling of Data/Lore/Borg and Metaphasic Shielding, perhaps was too much stuff for the average fan to digest. But as I revisit these two episodes, the more I enjoy them, the more connections I find in them. And I always loved the Lore episodes, where Brent Spiner plays against himself.
My Only Regret is that "Hugh" - Jonathan Del'Arco - Did not have a reunion with Geordi, there was simply no time for it, maybe something was filmed, but it was impossible to fit it in to this story. So I have to believe Geordi would not have left before talking to Hugh, and I imagine that the two had a discussion before parting- It's just Offscreen.
