The Sketchpad Ultimatum
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Finn approaches Beverly, carrying his sketch pad, and initiates a conversation about her loyalty to Picard.
Finn threatens to kill Picard, catching Beverly off guard and escalating the tension.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Surface rage and menace masking wounded pride and insecurity; shifts to a quiet, wordless vulnerability at the end.
Finn walks up carrying a sketch pad, assumes a jealous posture, issues an explicit lethal threat toward Picard to intimidate Beverly, tries to perform control through fear, then—unable to articulate softer feeling—wordlessly offers the sketch pad and departs.
- • Intimidate Beverly to ensure compliance and test her loyalties.
- • Project strength to deter rescue or negotiation (use fear as leverage).
- • Signal seriousness of threat by invoking Picard's name, raising stakes.
- • Maintain authority within his movement by performing conviction.
- • Fear is an effective and necessary tool to control people and political outcomes.
- • Picard will not intervene on their behalf or will be immovable to their cause.
- • Showing emotion is weakness; violence justifies the end.
- • Beverly's proximity to Picard undermines their struggle unless neutralized.
Absent physically but present as a source of risk and moral contrast; implicitly endangered and a motivating concern for Beverly.
Not physically present in the cavern; Picard is invoked by both speakers as the threatened third party and as the moral foil to Finn's methods, functioning as the ideological and emotional stake of the exchange.
- • Protect Beverly and the Enterprise crew (inferred goal shaping actions of others).
- • Preserve diplomatic options and avoid unnecessary escalation (inferred).
- • Respect and dignity are leverage for negotiation (as argued by Beverly).
- • Violence undermines legitimate political aims (implied by Beverly's appeal).
Measured calm with underlying hurt; moves to defiant clarity as she refuses intimidation and reasserts moral authority.
Beverly is actively treating the wounded, remains outwardly calm while listening, responds to Finn by refusing to be cowed, appeals to Picard's character as an alternative, verbally dismantles Finn's fear-based control and regains moral power before opening the offered sketch pad and discovering portraits of herself.
- • Protect the wounded and maintain professional duty despite threat.
- • De-escalate the situation and appeal to Finn's better instincts where possible.
- • Expose the emptiness of intimidation to weaken Finn's control.
- • Gather information and preserve evidence (the sketch pad) that could inform rescue efforts.
- • Picard is a moral actor who treats people with respect and could be persuaded toward nonviolent resolution.
- • Fear-based coercion reveals moral bankruptcy and can be countered by truth and dignity.
- • Her ethical responsibility to patients outweighs personal safety.
- • Humanizing an opponent can undercut their ideological posture.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Koinonian Caverns function as the cramped, subterranean setting where the confrontation occurs: a makeshift clinic alcove lets Beverly treat wounded while providing Finn a controlled, intimate space to confront her. The cavern's isolation amplifies both threat and confession when he silently gives the sketch pad.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Finn's threat to kill Picard is later confirmed by Beverly to Picard, reinforcing the danger they're in."
"Finn's threat to kill Picard is later confirmed by Beverly to Picard, reinforcing the danger they're in."
Key Dialogue
"FINN: You're glad to see your captain..."
"FINN: I may have to kill him."
"BEVERLY: You've controlled me through fear... just like you've tried to control this whole continent."