An investigation by Dr. Crusher has discovered evidence that Jono has suffered multiple severe injuries over the last few years, and she believes that his captors brutalised him. They discover his real/previous identity as Jeremiah Rossa, the believed-dead grandson of a Starfleet Admiral. So as if this wasn’t a difficult enough situation, Picard now has to deal with pressure from his boss to not give away her miraculously-resurrected grandchild. He resolves to help Jono find his human side, and despite his protestations, Troi points out there he’s the only one there qualified to do it.

What follows is basically a montage of odd-couple type scenes where Picard stumbles over Jono listening to weird teenager music, or getting upset because Jono’s touching the priceless knick-knacks he keeps lying around his quarters. Although the two don’t get on, Jono has a grudging respect for Picard, and slowly rediscovers his lost humanity through the medium of collapsing and screaming, clutching his head as he remembers the Talarian attack that killed his parents so many years ago.

Unfortunately there’s only one therapist on board and Troi’s already used her strange administrative powers to defer responsibility onto Picard. Because hey, there’s nothing else he has to be doing (apparently).

Eventually a Talarian rescue ship arrives and Picard hands over the four Talarians they rescued (oh yeah, those guys) but insists Jono stays with them. The captain, Endar, reveals that he’s Jono’s adoptive father and explains that he took the child under Talarian custom after humans killed his son. Picard is confused by this moral ambiguity, and accuses Endar of injuring the boy. Endar explains that Jono wasn’t beaten, he’s just a bit rough on the old space-football pitch. Picard accepts this, but informs Endar that Jono will be reunited with his human grandmother.

Understandably, Endar is upset and threatens war with the Federation, then gives Picard an arbitrary amount of time to decide, so that the episode can proceed unhindered by plot logic. With this window of opportunity, Picard and Jono head off to play racquetball then follow it up with a banana split in to Ten-Forward – you know, normal human activities. Jono causes much hilarity when he covers Wesley in banana dessert, and then Riker has to explain “slapstick” to Starfleet’s most advanced robo-mind. It’s good that they’ve got time to laugh in the face of war.