Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic
I am not a lawyer, but I do have access to Google. Through this access I learned that the legal term "ex post facto" means a law that has been applied retroactively. For example, if Tuesday they lower the speed limit on a road from 55 to 35, and have evidence that you were driving 55 on Monday, you are in the clear because our nation does not allow ex post facto laws, due to their unfair nature. None of this has anything to do with this episode whatsoever. This is a story about a person being framed for murder, and an unusual punishment method. I'm assuming they chose that title because it sounded vaguely legal-ish, and because Google hadn't been invented yet.
Tom and Kim land on a planet that is at war. We like the Banea (Bird People) in this one over the Numiri (Lizard People). Paris sneaks in under the radar of the Lizard People, and seeks help from a scientist for repairs to the shuttle. They hang out at the scientist's house, and the hot wife is annoyed but offers to serve them questionable meat. So thanks for that, I guess. It's really quite strange, first she feeds some to the dog as a test, because she says the dog wouldn't eat it if it were spoiled. Then she abruptly leaves dinner because she says the meat doesn't taste right. Why are we talking about this again? It seems like it's going to be something important, but it is not.
Anyway Paris is convicted of killing the scientist after getting caught with the hot (yet feathered) young wife. His punishment is to watch the murder from the victim's eyes every 14 hours for the rest of his life. Why 14 hours, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe the Berean days are 28 hours and so this is twice a day. Or maybe they have done the research and just know that 14 hours is the exact spacing that will most drive a person nuts. No idea, but 14 hours it is! Except Paris isn't reacting well to the alien technology, so the Bird People allow Voyager to take him just to provide him medical attention. Why in the world they would trust the unknown crew to house their prisoner, when they could easily just leave with him, I have no idea. Hey did you know that the medical beds in sick bay also serve as lie detectors? Neither did I! It seems like that could have come in handy in a number of circumstances prior to this.
This is the first episode where Tuvok, the mind-meld slut, gets his fingery-brain freak on. Mind melds used to be a sacred thing before Tuvok came into Trek canon, but this is the first of a long line of indiscriminate mind-melds that we will be seeing him perform. But everything checks out, Tuvok believes Paris is innocent.
Meanwhile the Lizard People, who were suspiciously welcoming of Voyager earlier, have now attacked, but are easily thwarted, using an old Maquis trick that fails to impress Janeway. Everything culminates in a dramatic scene on the planet where Tuvok, channeling Sherlock Holmes, pieces everything together. The guy in charge of implementing the bizarre punishment is a Lizard People spy, and encoded a message through Paris to the Lizard People, knowing that they would attack and acquire him, and then download the message, I guess? Furthermore, he was also the one banging the hot wife, and he was the one that murdered the husband in order to set this whole thing in motion. Tuvok's final proof? The guy is the right height and the dog knows him. After he is let go, Paris tells a dispassionate Tuvok that he has made a friend. Tuvok could care less.
"Ex Post Facto" is a Adequate episode of Trek. Really it's just a basic murder mystery whodunit spy story, which is fine. We knew that Paris was framed the whole time, but we didn't know why and the twist was revealed quite well in my opinion.
Published April 29, 2022
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