Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ro Laren
6. She Nearly Remained A Child For The Rest Of The Show
The sixth season episode of The Next Generation, Rascals, sees Captain Picard, Guinan, Keiko O'Brien, and Ro transformed into child versions of themselves. It's to do with a transporter and a shuttle and, honestly, don't worry about it.
The important thing, in this case, is that, by the episode's close, the audience doesn't actually see Ro return to her normal adult self. This was, apparently, a deliberate decision on the part of the writers. By this stage, despite the excitement that everyone had felt for Ro in the beginning, the character had hit something of a plateau.
Leaving her as a child, in the end, was something of a get-out-of-jail-free card, in that they would be able to simply explain away any future absence by saying she had simply elected not to return to adulthood, thus allowing her to enjoy the childhood she never got to have thanks to the Cardassians.
While this would have robbed the audience of the fantastic storylines that followed this episode, there is a certain romantic view here. In a way, this is as happy an ending as Ro could hope to have.