3x10 The Defector

[8.7/10] One of the things that makes Star Trek so compelling, in almost all of its forms, is that it often comes down to a series of judgment calls. Do you trust this supposed Romulan defector who may just be a spy? Should we fly into the Neutral Zone to follow-up on his claims despite the risk that it could be a trap? Would you give up your whole life as you know it in order to protect a future for your children and grandchildren?

These are heavy questions without easy answers. Part of the fun of TNG and its successors is that it has a Jeopardy-like quality to it in these moments. There’s the intrigue of seeing how the people on screen will handle these situations and whether they’ll figure out the correct response. But there’s also the sense of playing along at home, trying to reason through how you yourself would approach each scenario, and measuring yourself against what ends up working and what strategies fall apart.

“The Deserters” may very well be the peak of this sort of episode, providing any sort of engrossing conundrums that engage the audience on the level of politics but also psychology. The intergalactic chess matches of diplomacy have long been one of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s strong suits. Watching Picard and his officers weighing the chance to stop a Romulan invasion against the risk of Romulan subterfuge baiting them into a trap has the spark that comes from the show’s Cold War-inspired backdrop.

It adds considerable stakes to the decision of whether to trust a Romulan officer seeking asylum who claims to have crossed lines in order to prevent a war that would have devastating results to both sides of the conflict. If he’s telling the truth, the Enterprise has to act quickly to stop a Romulan invasion force from getting the jump on Starfleet. If he’s lying, he could be luring the ship into a provocation that would give the Romulans cover for going to war and blaming it on the Federation. There’s no easy way to choose, and the potential costs are high on both sides of the ledger.

But it isn’t just a high-minded, practical question. It’s a personal one too. The episode interrogates the right process for making these decisions, the individual toll of weighing the pluses and minuses before acting, for Data, for Picard, and for eventually unveiled Admiral Jarok.

For Data, the question is almost academic. He has one of those “What is it to be human, Geordi?” moments in the episode, where analyzing whether to truth Jarok or not comes down not just to raw facts, but also “your gut.” Data’s puzzlement at the concept and terminology is amusing, and his attempts to stare down Jarok to see what, if anything, his guy tells him, is almost adorable.

But the quest also suggests something profound about human decision-making. Most of us don’t have the full picture or all the information when making choices, even and especially big choices. So what we lack in terms of data, we have to fill in with instinct and intuition, heuristics based on past experience that may or may not be right in a particular situation, but which we nevertheless have to rely on in order to fill in those gaps in our understanding of the immediate concern. Using Data as the lens through which to explore that idea isn’t novel, but it’s roundly effective here.

The same goes for Picard’s own difficult calls in this one. Writer Ronald D. Moore shows his hand with the Henry V scene that opens the episode, framing the captain as a leader taking those under his command into a perilous situation and having to consider whether his cause is just, his direction is wise, and how his crew feels when leading them into such danger. It’s what makes Picard Star Trek’s best captain -- not just his shrewd decision-making in tense and portentous moments like these, but the way he always balances it against the needs and value of the people who have to follow him wherever those decisions lead.

That decision comes down to whether or not to trust this supposed Romulan defector who still seems to be hiding something, and it must be said, James Sloyan makes a star turn as Admiral Jarok, who proves himself one of the show’s greatest guest characters. It comes down to his expertly-tuned motivation and characterization.

Jarok doesn’t like the Federation. He calls them exploiters and cowards. He’s not doing this because he’s suddenly found a love for his Earth-bound adversaries. He’s doing it because he wants to avert disaster for both sides and Romulan leadership won’t listen to him. This is a last resort, a desperate move to try to preserve a peace necessary to protect children on all sides of the conflict, at great personal cost. Jarok loves Romulus, loves his children, loves his people, but feels duty-bound to give them all up and submit himself to the enemy in order to provide for a world in which all of those things can still persist.

It is noble and, ironically, humanizing. What makes the audience trust Jarok is the same thing that helps Picard do the same -- we come to see him as a person, we understand what he’s lost by doing this, in a way that feels consistent with his Romulan upbringing. He’s not trying to betray his people; he’s trying to save them, and that’s something both we and the Starfleet officers can relate to, brokering candor and at least some trust on both sides.

But that’s the brutal irony of “The Defector”. It’s all for naught. The central question of whether or not we can trust Jarok ends up being a moot point. He is telling the truth, not trying to bait the Enterprise or otherwise put it in harms way. But his superiors were, feeding him false information with the expectation that he would put it in the wrong hands and provide them an excuse for revenge on the Federation after previous encounters. Jarok, and by extension, Picard have been played.

That situation is only remediated by Picard having a back-up plan, having contacted Klingon allies in the sector who show up in a wonderfully rousing Big Damn Heroes moment right when Commander Tomalak is trying to twist the screws. It’s a great tribute to Picard’s decision-making, both in his ability to get Jarok to come clean (with an assist from Data), and in his preparations for possible confrontation that show him making bold choices but ones with creative safety nets in case things go sideways.

The result is a series of great scenes and performances. Data and Jarok meditating on the beauty of Romulus that the latter will never lay eyes on again grazes profundity. Jarok and Picard’s one-on-one has intensity and sincerity out the wazoo as we understand the depths of Picard’s persuasiveness and Jarok’s rationale for doing all of this. And the stand-off between Picard and Tomalak is tense, fraught, and ultimately thrilling. Great writing, stellar acting, and a mystery box with an earned twist and satisfying resolution -- a rarity.

But the result is also a man taking a noble stand and losing everything, only to realize that it was all for nothing. Jarok taking his presaged suicide pill is sad, because he sacrificed so much in order to try to prevent catastrophe between two contentious sides only to unwittingly be used to help bring it about, saved only by some crafty planning from the man who talked him into giving up even more info.

In the end, Jarok couldn’t trust his own people, to shy away from the brink of war, to see him as an earnest objector rather than a disloyal liability, and to give him the truth. Who knows if we would make the same choice in his position, in Picard’s position, in Data’s position. We don’t have to face a lifetime of estrangement from all we know and love, with the reason for that loss rendered false and moot as a final indignity. Those life-altering stakes make these types of dilemmas compelling for those watching at home, and hollowing to the well-meaning folks who nevertheless make the wrong choice.