10 Star Trek Episodes That Paid Off WAY Later
9. Dark Page
The Next Generation's seventh season felt like something of a victory lap, as the show was coming to the end of its run. Star Trek: Generations was on the horizon, which gave the showrunners a chance to revisit some of the recurring characters, to give them a bit of closure. Lwaxana Troi, having been introduced back in the first season and popping up periodically, returns in what turned out to be her most heart-wrenching story.
For it is in this episode that the audience learns that Deanna Troi was not an only child. When she was a baby, the Trois went on a family picnic. While there, Kestra Troi, Lwaxana's firstborn, slipped into a pond and drowned. The event was blocked from her mind, though after years and much heavy telepathic activity, those walls came down and the truth was revealed.
Deanna was faced with the choice to resent her mother for keeping this information from her, or to accept this and attempt to move on. In Star Trek: Picard, Nepenthe shows the return of Deanna - and introduces the audience to her daughter, Kestra. We also learn that, like her mother, Deanna lost a child as well.
It is a bittersweet return for the character, but one heightened by the earlier revelations.