{"id":5996,"date":"2016-11-28T13:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T21:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5996"},"modified":"2016-11-21T10:25:59","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T18:25:59","slug":"mark-watches-voyager-s04e12-mortal-coil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/11\/mark-watches-voyager-s04e12-mortal-coil\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Voyager’: S04E12 – Mortal Coil"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twelfth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>, STOP PUNCHING ME IN THE EMOTIONS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of death, grief, suicide.<\/b><\/p>\n

No, but seriously, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s astounding to me that this show can affect me so profoundly. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d argue that in many ways, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mortal Coil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the close relative of\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009dSacred Ground\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from last season.\u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve appreciated that\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0has dealt with religion and spirituality through Sisko and Kira, but here? Seventy years or so from home, these characters deal with faith in a much more visceral way than I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so\u00c2\u00a0fulfilling<\/i>.<\/p>\n

And if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been reading my reviews for a while now, then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not surprised that I related so much to Neelix\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story here. I have not gone through something similar to this, but a close friend of me\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i>. They were in a coma and medically brain dead for\u00c2\u00a0weeks<\/i>. When they suddenly regained consciousness, they confided in me that there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anything, that they experienced no afterlife, that it was just blackness and nothingness. Now, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not scientific evidence by any means, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interpret it as the kingpin of belief for me. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d given up in believing in an afterlife many, many years prior to this. Instead, it served as an inspiration of sorts. If there was nothing to come, then what I did\u00c2\u00a0now<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0mattered more than ever.<\/p>\n

(Surprise, I really liked the end of\u00c2\u00a0Angel,\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>too. SURPRISE.)<\/p>\n

What I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve described is far more attractive of an experience than what happens in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mortal Coil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because Neelix is the one to go through this crisis. I merely watched\u00c2\u00a0someone else<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have it. Ethan Phillips gives perhaps his best performance in\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s haunting, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of those things where the only way I know how to explain it is to compare it to a voyeurism of sorts. This felt so intimate and personal that I felt\u00c2\u00a0bad<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that I was watching it.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a credit to Bryan Fuller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script (OMG HIS EPISODES OF THIS SHOW ARE SO CONSISTENTLY GOOD, I SHOULD NOT BE SURPRISED), which exists in extremes. Neelix doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just have an existential crisis. He\u00c2\u00a0dies<\/i>. FOR OVER EIGHTEEN HOURS. He is revived in a controversial manner, one which suggests that he might be the first\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0main\u00c2\u00a0character\u00c2\u00a0to have AN ACTUAL CHRONIC ILLNESS. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got Borg nanoprobes within him, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the only thing keeping him from\u00c2\u00a0immediately<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0necrotizing. LIKE, THAT IS SOME HARDCORE SHIT, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. And Fuller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script commits to this: what does it mean to experience death? How does Neelix deal with this when he\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0realizes that the faith he once had is incompatible with his experience?<\/p>\n

No matter how much I may have related to this\u00c2\u00a0or<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0appreciated the fact that Neelix essentially chose to live without faith, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore how deeply heartbreaking this episode was. At times, it was subtle. We could tell something was wrong with Neelix from his facial expressions, from the way he moved around the ship, from his brief speech in the Mess Hall.\u00c2\u00a0Then, his outbursts and behavior become less subtle, which is not a criticism of the script. As Neelix contends with his deepening fears and disillusionment, he lashes out. He practically strikes Seven of Nine at one point; later, after his vision quest, he ignores and dismisses Chakotay, despite that he had agreed to consult him on what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen during the quest.<\/p>\n

AND HOW BRUTAL WAS THAT VISION QUEST. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a petty part of me that imagined it as a meta moment for non-Native characters: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO VISION QUESTS. (Seriously, we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually need them.) Everything he sees in it is a rejection of his faith. His sister tells him that he believed nothing but lies; the crew insists that life is without meaning. And how\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0someone supposed to react to that? Remember, for Neelix, life\u00c2\u00a0always<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0had meaning. That meaning was informed by the Great Forest, in part, and to have that taken away from him was traumatic! Thus, Wildman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter, Naomi, only serves to remind him of what was lost.<\/p>\n

His interpretation of the quest, while upsetting, made sense to me. He felt like he had no point left for living. Actually, it was probably a step beyond that: he believed he\u00c2\u00a0should<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have died, that bringing him back was\u00c2\u00a0wrong<\/i>. Thus, he designed a way to return himself to the nebula where he originally died so that he could finish the job. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here, though, that Fuller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s script does an amazing thing: Ensign Wilder reminds Neelix that he\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0have a purpose on the ship, one that Chakotay latches on to in order to convince Neelix to stay. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fascinating about that scene is that Chakotay is the character who still has his religious beliefs, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s begging Neelix to stay alive for a reason that is\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0religious, at least not in a strict sense.<\/p>\n

In essence, Neelix\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life has purpose because he has purpose on\u00c2\u00a0Voyager<\/i>. It might be to boost morale, to serve food, or to offer a young girl solace before sleep. But that purpose is real, and both Chakotay and Wildman remind Neelix of that. Neelix can live without his faith, and I saw that as the choice he made at the end of the episode.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mortal Coil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b>
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"