Douwd Revealed — Rishon Dissolves
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Kevin, revealed as a Douwd, vanishes in a blinding light after Picard questions his true nature and intentions.
Picard orders the crew to let Kevin go, recognizing his immense power and conscience.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Confused and fiercely protective outwardly, then shocked and bereft as her ontological reality is stripped away — an immediate emotional collapse into absence.
Rishon materializes on the bridge startled and defensive; she challenges Picard to protect Kevin and insistently rejects his claim. When Picard demonstrates tactile proof and names her perfume, she experiences disbelief that collapses into vanishing — a literal dissolution at the moment her ontological status is explained.
- • Defend Kevin from perceived accusation and harm
- • Reinforce the reality of her own existence to herself and others
- • Her life and relationship with Kevin are real and worth defending
- • An officer of Starfleet (Picard) is mistaken or cruel in accusing Kevin
Calmly determined on the surface, morally conflicted internally — resolute to expose truth while deeply uneasy about the consequences of condemnation or mercy.
Picard arrives on the bridge, orders the beaming of Kevin and Rishon, leads the confrontation with calm authority, speaks the explanatory truth about the recreations, and then restrains violent action by ordering tracking rather than immediate capture.
- • Establish the factual nature of Kevin's actions and the ontological truth about Rishon and the house
- • Protect the Enterprise crew and ship while preserving Starfleet legal procedure
- • Avoid needlessly provoking a being of vast power; buy time for containment and investigation
- • Starfleet must uphold law and accountability even with near‑omnipotent actors
- • Kevin's recreations constitute moral harm even if they physically feel real
- • Measured, procedural responses are more likely to prevent further catastrophe than immediate violence
Clinically detached curiosity, interested in the logical and ontological implications without overt moral judgment.
Data participates as bridge officer, offers the analytic question about whether Kevin and Rishon will protest being beamed, listens during Picard's explanation, and records behavioral data — maintaining clinical curiosity throughout the moral drama.
- • Gather empirical observations about the beings and the recreations
- • Support command with logical, unemotional assessment to inform decisions
- • Empirical data and observation are necessary to understand anomalous phenomena
- • Emotional language should not cloud the acquisition of facts
Alert and defensive; impatience and fear regarding the danger Kevin might represent, masked by professional restraint.
Worf challenges the logic of watching a dead planet, reports the two life-forms, moves to physically obstruct Kevin's escape in the turbolift afterwards but is overruled by Picard; he remains tense and security-focused throughout.
- • Prevent Kevin from escaping or causing additional harm
- • Protect the ship and crew through decisive security action
- • A potentially dangerous being should be restrained immediately
- • Duty to crew safety overrides diplomatic or moral hesitation
Concerned and professionally focused; supportive of Picard but seeking clarity on tactical consequences.
Riker stands with Picard, acknowledges Picard's suspicions, voices tactical questions (whether Kevin will try to return), and supports Picard's restraint while remaining alert to operational risk.
- • Clarify immediate tactical risks (would Kevin attempt to return to Rana?)
- • Support Picard's command decision while preparing the crew to react
- • Command decisions must weigh both moral and tactical outcomes
- • Controlling movement and access is crucial when facing unknown powers
Excited and astonished at the sensor reading initially, then pragmatic and focused when the crisis escalates and tracking becomes necessary.
Geordi detects the reappearance of the green patch, calls Picard urgently, and later reports Kevin's turbolift location after the disappearance. His technical observations instigate the entire beaming and provide the first objective proof to the bridge.
- • Confirm and communicate the anomalous sensor data to command quickly
- • Provide accurate locations and telemetry to enable safe tactical decisions
- • Sensor data is trustworthy evidence that must guide command decisions
- • Rapid communication of anomalies prevents misunderstanding and danger
Stunned and alert — emotionally shaken by the moral horror revealed yet quickly returning to disciplined operational response.
The bridge crew collectively reacts to the revelation — executing Picard's orders, covering eyes during the blinding light, expressing stunned confusion, and following commands to track Kevin and avoid confronting him directly.
- • Follow Picard's orders to maintain ship safety
- • Track and monitor Kevin's movements while avoiding escalation
- • Chain of command must be obeyed in crisis
- • Maintaining distance from potent unknowns reduces immediate risk
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The brilliant burning light manifests suddenly on the bridge at Kevin's disappearance, functioning as the physical catalyst for his vanishing and the final, dramatic punctuation of the revelation — it forces eyes closed, elicits confusion, and enables escape without physical combat.
Transporter systems are authorized and used to beam Kevin and Rishon directly to the bridge, converting the distant illusion into an immediate, confrontable presence; the pad facilitates a forced encounter that collapses distance and forces moral reckoning.
The Main Viewer displays the resurrected green patch and the house, providing the bridge with the primary evidence that prompts Picard's orders and the subsequent beaming; it frames the visual irony of the destroyed world containing a perfect illusion.
The Rana IV house functions as the visual and emotional focal point that reappears on sensors; it is beamed as the excuse for summoning Kevin and Rishon and is revealed by Picard to be a manufactured recreation — tactile and convincing but not ontologically continuous with the destroyed colony.
The recreation of the warship, referenced by Picard earlier and present on sensors, functions as circumstantial evidence of Kevin's ability to fabricate large-scale, convincing phenomena and to threaten the Enterprise, heightening the stakes of the moral confrontation.
Rishon's perfume is explicitly referenced by Picard as sensory verification that the recreated Rishon possesses convincing olfactory detail — the perfume becomes evidence that the reproductions are experientially complete yet ontologically false.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Enterprise main bridge is the site of confrontation — a formal, public arena of command where Picard dismantles Kevin's illusions, where Rishon dissolves, and where Kevin vanishes in a blinding flash. The bridge makes the private horror of the colony into an institutional matter.
The aft turbolift becomes the escape conduit after Kevin vanishes; Geordi reports his location there and Worf moves to intercept, making the lift a literal hinge of judgement and departure as Picard intervenes to allow Kevin to leave under surveillance.
The Federation Colony on Rana IV is the moral origin of the event — the destroyed planet whose impossible green patch spawns the recreated house and people, making the colony both the site of mass death and the locus of Kevin's fabricated comforts.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Wesley's initial detection of the anomaly is echoed when Geordi detects its return."
"Wesley's initial detection of the anomaly is echoed when Geordi detects its return."
"Picard's initial investigation leads to the final confrontation."
"Picard's initial investigation leads to the final confrontation."
"The Uxbridges' refusal to leave mirrors Kevin's refusal to accept reality."
"The Uxbridges' refusal to leave mirrors Kevin's refusal to accept reality."
"The Uxbridges' refusal to leave mirrors Kevin's refusal to accept reality."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"GEORDI: Bridge to Captain Picard. You had better come see this."
"PICARD: I can touch you, Rishon. Hear your voice. Smell your perfume. In every respect you are a real person with your own mind and your own beliefs... but you do not exist."
"KEVIN: I am deeply sorry about the woman. I will help her. But I must know what you intend to do with me afterwards..."