The big showdown between Janeway and the Borg queen has begun. Who will prevail in the end?
In this episode we once again learn a lot about Seven's past. For example, that she had an online friend who was something like a virtual lover for years. And that there is a place, Unimatrix Zero (something like the Metaverse, only without the big glasses), where a small number of special Borg drones come together in a virtual powwow during their regeneration cycles and interact with each other as individuals, separated from the hive and hidden from Borg FSB. However, why this dream world is just a rather lame jungle in which you will have seen everything after the fifth transcendence remains a mystery.
But following the old communism tradition, the Borg queen is not at all pleased with the fact that some of her mindless drones live out their individuality and even think for themselves. And now the collective is even being infiltrated by Western Starfleet propaganda! The enemy of every collective community and every collective species is the individuality within the uniform mass. Just as a worker bee is supposed to collect honey and not write poems, a Borg drone has to subordinate itself to the collective and thus to the Tsaritsa. Anyone who disobeys will be dismantled.
Janeway, Tuvok and Torres sneak not at all inconspicuously onto a Borg cube to load a virus into the systems that will enable the special Unimatrix Zero drones to offer resistance - even if resistance is otherwise futile. For this mission they bring bulky phaser rifles, which are useless after just two shots as the Borg shields naturally adapt. Despite the fact that this behavior has long been known, no one on a Starfleet ship seems to have thought of perhaps trying ballistic weapons against the Borg. Or grenades, flamethrowers, gas or, if necessary, simple spears. A few well-aimed stabs should disable any Borg drone. That would at least be more effective than a haymaker from Janeway. And it wouldn't hurt to strap thick metal protection around your neck in addition to wearing standard armored military combat gear. Could at least make the injection of nano probes more difficult.