Ashes To Ashes

	Tom reacts to hearing the name "Lyndsay Ballard," turning to look at Harry. Obviously, Tom knows who she is, and how close to Harry she was. (Unlike the audience.)
	Harry's supposedly in love with Lyndsay...but look at how far apart they are walking. There's almost room for another person between 'em. Compare this to the way Harry and Tom always walk, nearly joined at the hip.
	It was nice to see Harry so light-hearted and happy. He's usually so serious. Usually we only see this relaxed, teasing, playful side of him with Tom.
	Hey, I think she's looking at Harry's butt! (Who can blame her? ;-)
	Limp-wristed Harry! ;-)
	Tom checks out Harry's cute new outfit.
	Observe how Tom and Harry crowd each other's personal space, compared the polite distance supposed old friends Harry and Lyndsay observe. Geez. Tom and Harry are practically holding hands!
	Tom brings up a conversation he and Harry have been having since "Revulsion." At first, he was warning Harry off Seven. They had a similiar conversation again, in "Thirty Days," about Jenny Delaney. And again in "The Disease," about Tal. Now it's the "dearly departed" Tom doesn't want Harry dating. Yup. He's jealous, no doubt about it!
	This scene was just charming. The expressions on the boys' faces, the range of emotions, the warmth underlying it all...sigh. The best scene in the episode.
	Why do Harry's friends always wake him up in the middle of the night? (BTW, this is the first time we see Harry wearing the Starfleet-issue t-shirt that Tom always wears. Gee, maybe it is Tom's!) And why isn't Harry wearing the green pajamas we've seen before, in "Non Sequitur," "Favorite Son," and "Waking Moments"? Did Tom rip them off him one night or something?
	Harry says goodbye to Lyndsay.
	As usual, Harry ends up brooding in the mess hall.
	But this time, he's not allowed to stay there. "Own the day," Lyndsay liked to say, and Harry does, going to the holodeck with Mizoti to play a prank on Tuvok. (Hoo boy. What would Tom say about this? Holograms, Borg, the wrong twin, a girl from a xenophobic race, a cow...and now an 8-year-old girl? ;-) Seriously, this was a terrific scene. They established that Harry's great with kids in "Before and After," and it's good to see it again here. (Or maybe it's just that it's so nice to see someone other than Babysitter Barbie with the kids....)

Well, they did Christine earlier this season. This week, it's Pet Sematary. Harry Kim finds out they're never the same once they're dead. (Which is pretty ironic, when you think about it, since Harry Kim is always the same, no matter how many times he dies.)

I wasn't wild about the retro characterization here. We're supposed to believe that Harry has been close friends with Lindsay Ballard since their Academy days. Yet, he's never even mentioned her name before. If they had made it Jetal or Kaplan, it wouldn't seem quite so out of the blue.

Worse, we're told Harry's been in love with Lindsay since he met her. That he only gave up on pursuing her when they were both assigned to Voyager. Ahem. So what about Libby? Did he meet her on his way to the airport as he was leaving for DS9 or what?

One thing I did like about this episode - Lindsay Ballard seemed like Harry's type. In fact, she could be Tom Paris in drag: sloppy, irreverent, smart-mouthed, always late...but so charming she gets away with it. (Though not even Tom Paris dares to diss the Captain's pot roast. I wish the regular cast were allowed to have as much backbone as Lyndsay had. But they never will. The writers are too afraid of undermining Janeway's authority. Because she's just a girl, y'know.)

There were some nice moments between Harry and Lindsay. They did have a certain chemistry. We get Harry the neat freak again, folding Lindsay's clothes for her and teasing her about being a slob. That scene on her ship was very touching. She realizes that Lindsay is dead. Harry denies it, but by the tears in his eyes, we know he knows it's true.

Still, my favorite scenes were two that didn't involve Lyndsay. The first is that lovely scene in corridor with Tom and Harry. Those two are always gold together. And the second is the one at the end, with Harry in the mess hall with Mizoti.

In this episode, Lindsay had to accept that she was dead and let go, and so did Harry. When Ballard first died, Tuvok wanted to recycle her things. Harry wouldn't let him, even though Voyager doesn't have resources to spare. (Sometimes, anyway. :-) Instead, he insisted that they store her things away in boxes. Why? To give to her parents in 70 years? Maybe, but I think the real reason was that he couldn't let go of her. Now, he has let go of her. He gave away her hairbrush, because he accepts that Lindsay will never need it again. And that it would be wrong to cling to the past by clinging to her possessions as mementos. It was a nice, and surprisingly upbeat coda to the story. (And Harry's adorable in big brother mode!)

The B story was pretty lame, I have to say. I have a hard time believing that Seven would be quite that rigid at this point in her development.

I didn't dislike this episode, but something about it seemed a little odd. Perhaps because so much of the interaction in the episode involved guest characters. Harry with Lindsay, Seven with the Borglets. I'd have liked to see more of the regular cast.

Notes:

Did they or didn't they? I say they didn't. For one thing, Lyndsay was an alien, and Harry isn't supposed to boff her without permission from the Doc and the Captain. For another, she was still Kobali, even though she didn't look it. The Kobali don't reproduce sexually, so why would they need sexual organs? Harry probably got a rude surprise, if they went any further than kissing! (Jeez. And it's implied that whatever went on between him and Tal, it wasn't what humans would consider normal. "The birds and the bees would have been very confused." Harry may still be technically a virgin!)

Continuity alert: Paris has a hockey program, presumably inspired by the game he saw on TV in "Memorial." (And we find out that Harry hates the cold. Hmmm. So does Torres. Tom must have a hard time getting his friends to play with him in his skiing and hockey programs.)

Must have been Robbie's week off. Paris was hardly in this ep. I don't think he was even in Lindsay's dream, which featured just about everyone else.

I wonder how Harry knew about Tuvok's holoprogram, let alone had access to it? Tuvok is Chief of Security after all. I can't see Harry being able to hack into his programs without permission. Perhaps Tuvok gave Harry permission. Harry was willing to learn Vulcan meditation and kal-toh; perhaps Tuvok is trying to interest Harry in Vulcan music now.

All in all, I found this a solid though not outstanding episode. It was no "Timeless." It wasn't even a "Warhead." But it's not "Favorite Son," either.