Another deep character study about Seven in which she has to deal with her own mortality. In Seven's words: she is damaged beyond repair and hope seems irrelevant.
The episode shows Seven's inner struggle and her big dilemma: Although she is no longer a Borg drone, she still strives for perfection - especially in herself. In addition, she is still unable to accept help from her friends and loved ones. Basically, she doesn't share her feelings with anyone and wants to solve every problem alone. Only when Icheb gives her no choice but to accept his help she reluctantly accepts it - even if, in her view, this is a sign of weakness and anything but perfection. In the end, however, she is grateful and moved to tears - without any malfunction of her ocular implant.
Seven also goes through all the phases of acceptance in processing her approaching death. At first she denies her deteriorating health and hides it from the doctor and Janeway. Then she shows anger. She accuses Janeway of being disappointed with her development and only trying to help her because she doesn't seem to have achieved what Janeway supposedly expected of her. When Janeway goes looking for a Borg replacement part and the doctor tries to implant it in holodeck simulations, Seven finds herself in a bargaining phase. She gains some hope. However, when it becomes clear that the procedure will not work, she falls into depression and refuses any further help and just wants to be alone. In the end, she accepts her approaching death and tries to get Icheb to stop clinging to her and go his own way - which he then does.
In any case, Star Trek seems to be pro-organ transplant. After Kes donated a lung to Neelix, Icheb has now donated his Borg cortical implant to Seven.