Dark Page ( episode ) Lwaxana Troi visits the " Enterprise " , but she ' s preoccupied by a dark secret she has carried for years . Summary . Teaser . Lwaxana Troi returns to the , this time as the teacher of an alien race learning to speak , the Cairn . Their native form of communication is telepathy , but they want to learn spoken language in order to interact with other races and to join with the . Lwaxana comes aboard with Maques and his daughter Hedril . Hedril is a young child and is Lwaxana ' s star pupil . The crew begins to notice that Lwaxana doesn ' t seem to be her normal flamboyant self . She ' s quiet and almost reserved , even her clothing seems subdued compared to usual . She perks up when talking to Worf and Commander Riker , explaining the telepaths can ' t read their minds , only other telepaths . Then Deanna walks in , and she quickly has her meet Maques and leaves with Hedril . After introductions , he says Lwaxana told him Deanna needs a husband , and he , coincidentally , needs a wife . Act One . Lwaxana finds Deanna the next day , and pushes to know what she thought of Maques . Of course , Deanna doesn ' t appreciate it , and , in an awkward encounter with another officer in the turbolift , tells her to stop . Then , Lwaxana is visibly hurt , but brushes it off as part of her work with the Cairn . However , she then worries aloud about losing Deanna , which worries her , but she has her appointments so she goes . There , in her office , she finds Maques . He apologizes for his forwardness the previous day , but also relates that he senses some dark part of Lwaxana that she is keeping hidden . Troi asks Maques if he has asked her about it , but he tells her that Lwaxana told him it is private , the Cairn not understanding the concept of privacy . Relieved , Deanna says this is normal for them . Deanna talks about how strange her mother has been with Riker in Ten Forward . Suddenly , Lwaxana enters and has a very emotional outburst toward him , yelling at him to leave her daughter alone and that with him out of the way , Deanna would have been married by now . Troi attempts to figure out what ' s going on , and has her mother examined in sickbay . Dr . Crusher determines that the chemical psilosynine , used in telepathy , is sapped – Lwaxana must refrain from telepathy and must rest until it can regenerate . Lwaxana is embarrassed by her outburst and asks Troi to pass on her apologies to Riker . Deanna volunteers to help Maques and Hedril , but it is clear that Lwaxana is better suited to the task . Deanna suggests using verbal communication , so the Cairn can have more experience using words . Lwaxana still uses her telepathy occasionally , and , after she sees Hedril trip and falls into a pond in the ship ' s arboretum , falls into a coma . Act Two . Dr . Crusher cannot figure out what is causing the coma , as the telepathy - chemical depletion would not cause it . Neural activity has completely shut down , except for the paracortex in which activity is much larger than normal . Since she had just communicated with Maques before the coma , they go to talk to him . There , he tries to explain , but he doesn ' t have the words . He decides to use telepathy , and Deanna is bombarded with images . She needs to go sort it out . In Crusher ' s office , she explains that , what she thought Maques was describing as private thoughts , was really something in her metaconscious mind . It ' s possible she underwent some kind of trauma that it couldn ' t handle , and has long - term effects from it . Crusher wants to wait for the subneural scans to be analyzed before continuing . In the meantime , Troi tries to communicate with Lwaxana during the night . She hears her call out to help her , but cannot say more . Deciding to sleep in sickbay , she notices Maques come in , and is staring at Lwaxana . Act Three . In the observation lounge , Picard asks Maques what he ' s doing . He is again unable to explain verbally , so he tells Deanna telepathically . He was accessing images from her to try to understand what happened , but he doesn ' t recognize the objects in the images . He believes her psyche is collapsing , forcing her to retreat into her metaconscious . Crusher suggests that , if they try to access those images , they could at least understand whether she experienced a trauma . Maques believes he can act as a bridge to help Deanna access the images . Despite the unknown risk , Deanna wants to try , and Picard approves . With Dr . Crusher monitoring Deanna ' s condition closely and Maques prepared to break the link if anything happens , Deanna enters her mother ' s thoughts . She has to fight Lwaxana ' s desire and defenses to keep her secret . Deanna encounters several obstacles , including having an illusory Captain Picard order her to leave , a wolf chasing her through a corridor and another delay tactic in the form of her own deceased father . He begs her to stay with and talk with him but she must continue her investigation . Reluctantly and with tears in her eyes , she leaves him . Finally , in the corridor , she sees Maques ' young daughter , Hedril , but with dark eyes and Human ears . She wonders what she is doing in her mother ' s mind when suddenly Lwaxana appears and screams at her to leave . Troi awakens in sickbay , frightened and unable to understand what she had just experienced . Act Four . In a meeting in the observation lounge , Maques brings Hedril so Troi can talk with her . Hedril does not know what she would represent , but presumes that it is somehow her fault that Lwaxana is sick , because she knows that for some reason she makes Lwaxana sad . After the two Cairn leave , Crusher states she believes that Lwaxana ' s current condition most likely had been precipitated by a traumatic event . Data speculates , given his recent experience with dream - like imagery , the different people inside Lwaxana ' s mind may represent different aspects of her . Deanna agrees , surmising that Hedril may represent a fragile part of her mother ' s psyche . Troi has Mr . Homn on Betazed transmit a copy of Lwaxana ' s personal journals to find clues as to what the traumatic event was that she experienced . Picard and Troi look through it and find that seven years of personal entries had been deleted for some reason . It starts about a year after her parents were married and ends a few months after Deanna ' s birth . Troi finds this odd , since Lwaxana keeps such diligent entries in her journals . Act Five . Going back inside her mother ' s mind to get answers to these new questions , Troi finds her mother in a recreation of the arboretum doubling as Lake El ' nar on Betazed . Lwaxana tearfully tries to get Deanna to leave her mind . She tries as much as she can to not disclose the painful secret she has kept for so long . She finally relents and shows Deanna that the Trois had an older daughter named Kestra , represented by a Betazoid version of Hedril , and had recently become a big sister a few months earlier due to Deanna ' s birth . One tragic day during a family outing at Lake El ' nar , Kestra wanted to go play by the water . Her parents told her to stay with them as they were going to eat soon , but while they became distracted with the teething Deanna , the family dog got away from Kestra and she went after him . She ended up in the lake and drowned . The Trois , and Lwaxana particularly , were devastated by the loss . Troi is stunned to learn that she had a sister , her mother ' s " precious one . " She realizes this was the genesis of her mother ' s term " little one " for her : she was the little one of the two sisters . Lwaxana ( who had looked away for a few seconds as the infant Deanna was crying ) blamed herself . After confessing to Deanna , her daughter asks her to summon Kestra to say goodbye to her and a true version of Kestra appears . Kestra and Lwaxana share a tearful goodbye and Lwaxana awakens from her coma , holding hands with Deanna . Later on , mother and daughter look at an image of Ian holding Deanna and with Kestra at his side on a PADD . It is from a picture that Homn had saved in case one day Lwaxana wanted to remember her . Lwaxana can recall the day she took the photograph . Deanna and Lwaxana then have a heartfelt talk about Kestra . Memorable quotes . " " I don ' t know what they ' d have done without me . First , I had to learn how they communicate – it was an absolutely exhausting process – " " " " I ' m sure it was . " " " " Quite different from Betazed telepathy . We transmit words , but the Cairn . . . it ' s . . . er . . . images . . . er . . . floods of them , all at the same time – it ' s overwhelming ! " " " " I can imagine . " " " " Actually , it ' s a very efficient way of communication . If two Cairn were having this conversation , it would have been over minutes ago ! " " " " Really ? ! " " " " Of course , they realize that they ' ll want to communicate verbally if they join the Federation . Oh ! do me a favor ! Introduce yourself to one of them . Engage them in conversation – they need the practice . " " " " I ' d be happy to ! " " " " Now , I am " warning " you , stay away from my daughter ! " " " " You ' re coming with me . " " " " Aren ' t you going to mingle , Mr . Woof ? " " " " I do not care for telepaths . They make me . . . uneasy . " " " " Don ' t worry . The Cairn couldn ' t read your thoughts even if they wanted to . Your brain isn ' t sophisticated enough . " " " " Every morning , she woke up with . . . with a smile . " " " " Isn ' t it better to remember her like that ? I just found out I had a sister I never knew . " " " " I have to go now . " " " " I know . I know . " " " " I wish you could have known her , Deanna . I wish you two could have grown up together . " " " " Tell me about her . I want to know everything . " " Links and references . References . arboretum ; Betazed ; Betazoid ; Cairn ; counselor ' s office ; dog ; " Down in the Valley " ; dream ; Earth ; Federation ; Federation Council ; Folnar jewel plant ; Folnar III ; gemstone ; heaven ; Homn ; Human ; Klingon ; Lake El ' nar ; metaconscious ; ; painting ; Papa ; paracortex ; poetry ; psilosynine ; pupil ; rose ; sub - neural scan ; teething ring ; telepathy ; Ten Forward ; VISOR ; vocal enhancer ; widower Other references . Lwaxana Troi ' s journal : Belman ; ; ; Grax ' s girlfriend ; Janaran Sanctuary ; Lake Cataria ; Lilith ; uttaberry ; uttaberry pie ; Xelo