Two decades after Seven of Nine's four seasons as a series regular on Star Trek: Voyager, Seven of Nine's complete Star Trek story came full circle in Star Trek: Picard. The true depths of Seven's trauma at the hands of the Borg finally came to light, thanks to Picard's willingness to look at the dark side of Seven of Nine's backstory. Each of these episodes adds another piece to the picture of Seven of Nine as a complex character who overcame the Borg's cruel conditioning, learned compassion, and eventually became Captain of the USS Enterprise.
8"The Gift"
Star Trek: Voyager Season 4, Episode 2
Seven of Nine debuted in Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episode 1, "Scorpion, Part 2", but the follow-up episode, "The Gift", does a far better job of sitting with Seven as a character right after she's been severed from the Borg Collective. Here, Seven wants to return to the Borg, because it's the only life she's known, but her body is physically rejecting the Borg implants, so it's not possible. Pacing in Voyager's brig like a caged animal, Seven covers fear with anger, hostility, and a vitriolic promise that she'll kill Captain Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) USS Voyager crew.
As Jennifer Lien's last episode as Kes, "The Gift" refers to Kes' gift of sending the USS Voyager 10,000 lightyears closer to home and out of Borg space, but the title can also easily refer to Janeway's gift of compassion to Seven of Nine.
Instead of retaliation, however, Seven of Nine's threats are met with compassion and kindness. After Janeway finds out that the drone in Voyager's brig was a human girl named Annika Hansen, Janeway has absolute faith that Seven of Nine's humanity is still in there, buried beneath the implants and exosuit. Seven of Nine doesn't want to see herself as human, but "The Gift" proves that Seven's resistance is futile: she will be liberated.
7"The Omega Directive"
Star Trek: Voyager Season 4, Episode 21
In "The Omega Directive", Seven of Nine speaks of the Borg as a culture with their own values, instead of just being a mindless force of nature. The infinitely destructive Omega Molecule must be destroyed, according to Starfleet's Omega Directive, but Seven of Nine argues that the Borg tried to synthesize Omega because it was so perfect. Viewing the Omega Molecule itself is the closest thing Seven has to a religious experience, because the Borg practically deified perfection as something to strive for.
6"Infinite Regress"
Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episode 7
In "Infinite Regress", Seven of Nine starts to exhibit unusual behavior when the personalities of people that Seven assimilated as a drone start to emerge and take over Seven's body. Jeri Ryan's acting skills are on full display as Seven embodies a variety of people, like a young child eager to play with Naomi Wildman (Scarlett Pomers), a Klingon warrior, and an elderly Ferengi. But in the moments where Seven of Nine is herself again, she's terrified, uncertain, and doesn't understand what's happening to her.
"Infinite Regress" marks the start of Seven of Nine's unlikely friendship with Naomi Wildman.
5"Dark Frontier"
Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episodes 15 & 16
The two-part Star Trek: Voyager episode "Dark Frontier" marks an important turning point for Seven of Nine, when she actively reclaims her humanity and leaves the Borg behind for good. While researching how to pull off a Borg Cube heist, the Hansens' recovered journals trigger Seven's memories of being captured and assimilated as a child. In flashbacks, we get to see the backstory that Seven had repressed, as she comes to resent her parents' failure to keep her safe, and grieves the life she never lived.
Alternately fascinated and disgusted by Seven's humanity, the Borg Queen twists the truth like a narcissistic parent.
4"Someone to Watch Over Me"
Star Trek: Voyager Season 5, Episode 22
If there's any Star Trek: Voyager episode that paints Seven of Nine as an autistic-coded character, it's "Someone to Watch Over Me". In an effort to remedy Seven's difficulty with social interaction, Seven of Nine tries to learn about dating. The Doctor becomes Seven's guide through a series of lessons, which Seven awkwardly carries out with all the seemingly cold efficiency of her Borg upbringing. It's not that Seven's cold, exactly; it's just that human mating rituals are inefficient and confusing to her.
3"Imperfection"
Star Trek: Voyager Season 7, Episode 2
By Star Trek: Voyager season 7, Seven of Nine is fully integrated into the USS Voyager crew, along with Icheb (Manu Intiraymi), one of Seven's Borg children. Seven's malfunctioning cortical node spells certain death, because in the Collective, drones with broken cortical nodes are dismantled. Therefore, Seven considers her broken node a personal failing, and she pushes her closest friends —Icheb, Janeway, and the Doctor— away. Seven refuses to let them see her as imperfect, while she contemplates her own death.
Seven of Nine already knows that B'Elanna Torres doesn't like her, so it's paradoxically easier for Seven to be vulnerable around B'Elanna, who briefly becomes a kindred spirit—both have trouble fitting in, don't like authority, and mask their fear with anger.
2"Stardust City Rag"
Star Trek: Picard Season 1, Episode 5
Twenty years of Seven of Nine's life after Star Trek: Voyager are expertly written into "Stardust City Rag", starting with the fact that Seven joined the vigilante Fenris Rangers. Seven's past is intertwined with the charismatic criminal Bjayzl (Necar Zadegan), who used Seven to get to Icheb (Casey King), harvested Icheb's Borg implants and left him to die. Bjayzl was likely one of the first people Seven trusted after Voyager, and that broken trust hardened Seven against ever trying again. This Seven is vengeful and violent, claiming that hope is for idealists like Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.
Seven of Nine: "Did you honestly feel you had reclaimed your humanity?"
Admiral Picard: "Yes."
Seven of Nine: "All of it?"
Admiral Picard: "No. ... But we're working on it, aren't we?"
Seven of Nine: "Every damn day of my life."
"Stardust City Rag" shows who Seven of Nine is when left to her own devices in Star Trek: Picard's darker, practically claustrophobic version of Trek's galaxy. Without any of her Voyager friends, Seven is jaded and beaten down — but not broken. Being a Fenris Ranger is "hopeless and pointless and exhausting, and the only thing worse would be giving up," because fighting against injustice and brutality is how Seven proves her own humanity to herself. It's hard and terrible, but if Seven has the power to help even one person, she will.
1"The Last Generation"
Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10
Plenty of important character-defining moments for Seven of Nine are sprinkled throughout Star Trek: Picard — but "The Last Generation" gives Seven of Nine her crowning glory. Star Trek: Picard helped Seven see that she did not need to be perfect, since she defied protocol to do the right thing for the sheer sake of it being the right thing. By Star Trek: Picard season 3, Seven no longer needed to atone for her Borg past, but still struggled with believing that she was where she truly belonged, not least because of Captain Liam Shaw's (Todd Stashwick) prejudice.
Even after Commander Seven of Nine led the USS Titan-A's charge against the Changeling and Borg Alliance, inspiring anyone uninfected to take up arms, Seven still believed she needed to resign from Starfleet. It took Shaw's posthumous recommendation, and Captain Tuvok's (Tim Russ) refusal to accept Seven's resignation, for Seven of Nine to understand that she really was worthy—as an individual, a Starfleet officer, and a starship Captain. Every struggle in Star Trek: Voyager led to Captain Seven of Nine taking command of the USS Enterprise-G in Star Trek: PIcard ... and hopefully, Star Trek: Legacy.
