Pandora's Box (Episode 114)

As William Boone (Kevin Kilner) relaxed in his office, reading and listening to music, he heard a man's voice calling his name. He looked around for its source and saw a figure clad in a hospital gown across the lobby. It was Captain Lucas Johnson (Maurice Dean Wint), a soldier who had been the victim of a failed bio-engineering experiment by the Taelons. Although the Taelons had tried to hide this failure, Johnson had escaped with other soldiers who kidnapped Da'an (Leni Parker) and plotted to expose the Taelon experiments. Johnson had been gunned down during Da'an's rescue and Boone had believed him dead. (See episode #110, Live Free or Die) Boone asked Dr. Belman (Majel Barrett Roddenberry) to examine him to see if his CVI was responsible for the strange encounter with Johnson. She assured him it was not. Captain Lili Marquette (Lisa Howard) decided to help Boone and went to see Johnson's widow Maddy (Elle Downs). Maddy told Lili that although the Taelons sent her Johnson's ashes in an urn, she was positive they were someone else's remains. She was sure Johnson was still alive and that he communicated telepathically with their son Cal (Matthew Koller). Lili took the ashes to have them analyzed, and found indeed, they did not belong to Johnson. Meanwhile, Boone was called to Da'an's office, where he found out about a new Taelon experiment. The Taelon scientist Ne'eg (Janet Zenik) was supervising the "devolution" of the scientist Rho-ha (Kari Matchett). In an attempt to understand their human hosts, Ne'eg injected Rho-ha with human genetic material and then studied his transformation. Jonathan Doors (David Hemblen), immediately suspicious of this experiment to create a human/Taelon hybrid, suspected the Taelons of trying to engineer a cross-species of warriors. Doors contacted Major McIntyre (Nigel Bennett), who had been Johnson's commander and partner in kidnapping Da'an, to help investigate this latest Taelon maneuver.

In truth, Johnson lay in a coma and the Taelons were using his genetic material to perform their biological experiment with Rho-ha. Johnson continued to contact Boone telepathically, pleading for his help. When Boone visited Rho-ha, he saw Johnson's features ripple across the alien's face. Rho-ha also bore "the Shaqarava," ancient energy in the form of eye-shaped whorls on the palms, which the evolved Taelons no longer exhibit. Da'an had become concerned that the experiment may have pulled Rho-hah away from the Taelon group-conciousness, the Commonality, and awakened a primal evil. His fears are soon confirmed. Rho-ha took Boone and Agent Ron Sandoval (Von Flores) into the woods for some war games, where he used his new energy with dangerous force. Boone suspects that Rho-ha had filled the emptiness of the absence of the Commonality by making a telepathic connection to Johnson, whose DNA he carried As Boone predicted, Rho-ha sneaks into Johnson's hospital room wanting to see the human warrior with whom he had telepathicly linked, and who he sought to understand. McIntyre was there waiting for him, and Rho-ha used the Shaqarava to kill him. Rho-ha then left the hospital and made his way to Johnson's house, where he held Maddy and Cal Johnson hostage. Back at the hospital, Johnson suffered a seizure and was near death. Boone and Lili arrived at the house and attempted to capture Rho-ha. The alien attacked Lili and escaped into the woods, dragging Maddy and Cal with him. Boone pursued them, helped by the ghostly figure of Johnson. Boone fired his skrill at Rho-ha, allowing Maddy and Cal to escape back to the house. But Rho-ha overpowered Boone and was about to kill him with the Shaqarava. Back at the hospital, Johnson conveys his longing to die, and Da'an makes that possible. Johnson's death breaks Rho-ha's telepathic link and the alien is confused long enough for Boone to take him down with his skrill. Still violent and raging, Rho-ha is taken into permanent Taelon custody.