In the opening scene, crew on the Taelon mother ship detect two unidentified shuttles entering earth's air space, each piloted by a Taelon, one in violent pursuit of the other. One shuttle is destroyed, killing its occupant and the second shuttle crash lands, allowing the Taelon in it to escape. Da'an cannot be contacted; he has left the Embassy via a new portal in his office without revealing his destination, telling Liam that he will be away for three days. Liam is perplexed and thinks something is going on as he generally pilots Da'an's shuttle and is privy to all Da'an's movements. He asks Lili to see what she can find out.

Zo'or instructs Lili, Sandoval, Liam and a team of Volunteers to apprehend the escaped Taelon, using any and all means necessary including violence. He refuses to identify the escaped Taelon, stating that identification is a Taelon matter and that Liam must simply obey his orders. The escaped Taelon (in his original form) makes contact with two young boys and identifies himself as Be'lai. After shaking hands with one boy, he takes on the physical form normally worn by Taelons on earth, telling the boys that physical contact with human DNA is necessary in order for him to make the transformation. He tells the boys he is in danger and asks them to find him a hiding place; they take him to their secret *fort* and promise to tell no one. Liam asks Augur to throw Sandoval's pursuit team *off the track * until he can locate the missing Taelon and is joined by Julia and her Resistance cell in searching. When the two boys reveal Be'lai's hiding place, Liam takes Be'lai back to Resistance headquarters. Meanwhile, Zo'or enters the simulated environment where Da'an is undergoing the Ka'ar Paj ritual and informs Da'an that an unidentified shuttle has arrived on earth, piloted by Be'lai.

Liam tells Zo'or that he must speak directly with Da'an before undertaking any further action to apprehend the escaped Taelon. Zo'or states that he has spoken with Da'an, who is undergoing the Ka'ar Paj, a anachronistic Taelon ritual, the purpose of which is self-examination and renewal. The ritual is no longer performed by many Taelons, but Da'an is doing so in a simulated environment which will allow him to complete the ritual just as he would on the Taelon home world. Zo'or tells Liam that Da'an will see no one until he has completed the ritual.

At Resistance headquarters Be'lai is questioned by Liam and declares that he is a dissenting Taelon who has been assigned to another occupied planet. He claims he has come to earth to locate a resistance movement and to take members of it back with him to assist in the struggle against the Taelons there. He tells Liam that the Taelons have occupied hundreds of planets, but that humanity *represents the best hope for Taelon survival*. Be'lai also states that he is in grave danger from his own race and that he would rather die than be captured. Something in Be'lai's story does not ring true with Liam who demands proof of Be'lai's story. Be'lai tells Liam that proof may be found in the data banks of his crashed shuttle, which has been taken back to the mother ship for analysis. At the mother ship, Lili, who is examining Be'lai's damaged shuttle in the presence of Sandoval, down loads its data banks for Augur's analysis. Sandoval's behaviour indicates that he realizes what Lili is doing, but he says nothing.

Be'lai fears that his bond to the Commonality may be used to locate him and it is decided to temporarily sever his connection to the Commonality and substitute the harmonic of Mitch, one of Julia's cell colleagues who volunteers for the task. Mitch is placed in a *near death* state; he and Be'lai must be monitored to keep Mitch from dying and to prevent Be'lai from reverting to an Atavus. Be'lai tells Liam that it feels very strange to be cut off from the Commonality which unites all Taelons and speaks of Mitch's brave action, saying that *the nobility of the human species is known to all Taelons*. Liam asks Be'lai how Zo'or can act as he does as a member of the Commonality. Be'lai replies that at some level the Commonality are aware of Zo'or's aggression and that they must agree with what he is doing or his actions would not be possible. At this point, Liam tells Be'lai that he serves as agent to Da'an who is sympathetic to the cause of humanity and Be'lai is incredulous, stating that Da'an was the architect of the Taelon strategy for earth, and that it was Da'an who exiled him to the farthest reaches of the galaxy for his dissent.

Suddenly, the machinery controlling both Mitch and Be'lai's condition jams and explodes. Mitch goes into seizures and is forcibly removed from the apparatus by Julia; Be'lai regresses to an Atavus and enters the simulated Ka'ar Paj environment through the portal in Da'an's office, determined to kill Da'an. Discussions among Liam, Augur and Julia reveal that the machinery could only have been sabotaged by Be'lai himself to allow him to revert to Atavus form and kill Da'an. Liam pursues the Atavus through the portal; there is a struggle and the Atavus falls to his death after rejecting Liam's offer to save him and telling Liam that Da'an will ultimately betray him and all humanity. Da'an tells Liam that Be'lai knew him *in a different time*. When Liam inquires if Da'an will betray him; Da'an is silent and turns away.

In Resistance headquarters, Lily reveals that the new portal in Da'an's office was actually installed by Zo'or, not by Da'an himself to keep his movements secret. It appears that Be'lai's escape to earth and his attempt to discredit, then kill Da'an, were actually orchestrated by Zo'or himself. Liam suspects that the corroborating evidence in the data banks on Be'lai's shuttle was actually placed there by Zo'or. Although the other members of the Resistance no can longer trust Da'an, Liam decides to continue doing so.

In the final scene, Zo'or and Da'an are standing in the simulated environment where Da'an performed the Ka'ar Paj ritual. Da'an says that the Ka'ar Paj ritual reminds him of things as they once were on the home world. As their discussion continues, we learn that the glorious colours and glowing organisms within the simulated environment are modelled on the Taelon home world which has been destroyed by the Jaridians.

This episode contains a number of interesting scenes. In one of the earlier scenes, Zo'or asks Sandoval if earth's law enforcement authorities are cooperating with the search for the escaped Taelon and Sandoval replies that *despite recent negative press, there is cooperation at the very highest levels*. Zo'or's pleased and sinister reply is that *such cooperation will be useful when the Taelon strategy for Earth is finally implemented*. Sandoval does not reply, but for a moment his expression betrays the depth of his hostility. In the conversation between Liam and Be'lai at Resistance headquarters after Be'lai's connection to the Commonality has been severed, Liam says to Be'lai *man comes into this world alone and leaves it alone and spends his entire life trying to escape that condition*, or words to that effect. During the episode, Be'lai never addresses the issue of how he himself has managed to dissent with the Synod and continue to remain within the Commonality, which is interesting in the light of his comments about Zo'or's actions and the Commonality. In the final scene in which Zo'or and Da'an are conversing within the simulated Ka'ar Paj environment, Da'an tells Zo'or that it helps him to return to an earlier Taelon time. Zo'or replies that it helps him to visualize the Taelon home world as it is now and not as it once was. For a brief moment, the simulation dissolves and we are shown the Taelon home world as it is now, a desolate rocky landscape, devoid of life.