Sheer nonsense, you say? Well, at age 9, dying Doctor Kes (retired) is married to Tom Paris, mother of medic Lynnis (age 4), mother-in-law of Harry Kim, and grandmother of Andrew (big kid for six months). It's a flash forward extravaganza!
The EMH (now with holo-hair!) is calling himself Dr. van Gogh (the Doc does love his suicidal geniuses, but he still has both ears). Dr. van Gogh has devised a revolutionary treatment called a bio-temporal chamber. It will somehow reverse entropy, buying Kes another year of life. (Even though he builds one in the present, this miracle machine is just thrown in the cupboard somewhere, totally ignored.)
Our Ocampan octagenarian is seeing snippets of her own future in reverse order. She's probably accustomed to backward things: Ocampas are born from their mother's upper backs, toes first. As in the old Ocampa nursery pod rhyme: Mitral Sack, Mother's Back, Never, EVER leave through a crack.
In this alternate future, battling the Krenim during the so-called "Year of Hell" claimed the lives of Captain Janeway, B'Elanna, and Jim Carrey. Sorry, I meant Joe Carrey. Ace Ventura's safe.
Captain Chakotay and First Officer Tuvok finally let Neelix become a yellow Redshirt. Maybe it was impossible to refuse him with so many of the crew dead. By that point they must have had barely qualified five year olds pulling all the levers that make the nacelles go up and down.
"Before and After" is well done. I'm going to miss Jennifer Lien. I know she's going to go on to do some fine voice work as Agent L on my beloved Men In Black cartoon, but Kes was an underused character who deserved better, as we shall see when this season is over, and beyond.
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