State of Flux

**** (4 stars out of 5)

Ensign Seska attempts to rekindle a romance with Chakotay over some mushroom soup. When he learns she's stolen the repast in what she brags about as a Maquis operation, he turns them all in (including himself), cancelling their replicator rations for two days as punishment. And ten points from Hufflepuff.

Of course, Seska is rather naughtier than that. They renamed the episode from the working title 'Seska' because of a little thing I like to call spoilers. Anyway, it's all about Seska. That poor Bajoran girl who fought Cardassians with the weird, Cardassian-like attitude and the Cardassian-like blood who's always holding a spoon up against her forehead and sighing wistfully has a secret...

When Voyager responds to a Kazon distress signal it is too late to save a ship of fools who botched the stolen plans for a food replicator so badly they wound up embedded inside walls.

Who would give Federation technology to jerks like Kazon Maje Cullah? Didn't we already cover technology sharing yesterday and exactly how everyone feels about it? How Janeway feels, how Tuvok feels, how Carey feels... hey, Chakotay, how does SESKA feel? A little scaly, you say?

Cullah plays the identity of Voyager's traitorous inside man close to his fuzzy Muppet vest, even poisoning his own goons rather than risk Janeway figuring it out too early.

"State of Flux" has great character moments for Chakotay, demonstrating the fierceness of his loyalty. And the traitor is very suitably chilling even if her identity could not have been more clear if she had worn a hat proclaiming her the Mayor of Obvious Corners here in Obvious County.