History Recap / StarTrekPicardS1E02MapsAndLegends

Admiral Clancy contacts Commodore Oh, an Asiatic-looking Vulcan who heads Starfleet Security. She mentions Picard's ramblings about the Romulan assassins that killed Dahj, and has Oh look into it. Oh immediately calls for a "Lt. Rizzo," a human woman who arrives as Oh is scrutinizing surveillance footage from the fight in which Dahj was killed -- and catching details that, apparently, someone forgot to scrub, like the reflection of disruptor fire off a metal pole. Oh informs Rizzo that Picard has information about clandestine Romulan operations on Earth. Oh also reports that Picard named Zhat Vash, and that he tried to get a ship to find Bruce Maddox, although she adds that Clancy didn't mention either of those points. (She refuses to answer how she knows.) She commends Rizzo for her passion, but reprimands her impatience -- a bad thing for a DeepCoverAgent to have. (Fun fact: Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcan species, and there is literally nothing that would prevent a Romulan from HidingInPlainSight as a Vulcan. In fact, it's happened several times before.) She wants Rizzo to stay on project -- even though their Romulan death squad screwed up by killing Dahj instead of capturing it -- and Rizzo claims that she already has an asset working with Soji as well.

Aboard the Borg Cube, Narek receives a holographic visitor: it's Rizzo, whom Narek makes fun of for having undergone cosmetic surgery to get rid of her pointy Romulan ears. He -- the asset Rizzo has assigned to Dahj's sister -- reports that he has made progress with establishing friendly contact with the other target, and that he's on top of the situation. (Rizzo smirks at the rumpled bed.) She informs him that if he hasn't gotten any results by the time she visits, she'll need to take over the operation herself.

* AbsenteeActor: Series regulars Evan Evagora and Creator/SantiagoCabrera don't appear in this episode.

* AbsenteeActor: Series regulars Evan Evagora and Creator/SantiagoCabrera don't appear in this episode.

* YouAreNumberSix: The "Nameless" Borg drone who undergoes the reclamation procedure has the numerical designation Patient 8923 stroke 3.

* YouAreNumberSix: The "Nameless" Borg drone who undergoes the reclamation procedure has the numerical desgination Patient 8923 stroke 3.

Admiral Clancy contacts Commodore Oh, an Asiatic-looking Vulcan who heads Starfleet Security. She mentions Picard's ramblings about the Romulan assassins that killed Dahj, and has Oh look into it. Oh immediately calls for a "Lt. Rizzo," a human woman who arrives as Oh is scrutinizing surveillance footage from the fight in which Dahj was killed -- and catching details that, apparently, someone forgot to scrub, like the reflection of disruptor fire off a metal pole. Oh informs Rizzo that Picard has information about clandestine Romulan operations on Earth. Oh also reports that Picard named Zhat Vash, and that he tried to get a ship to find Bruce Maddox, although she adds that Clancy didn't mention either of those points. (She refuses to answer how she knows.) She commends Rizzo for her passion, but reprimands her impatience -- a bad thing for a DeepCoverAgent to have. (Fun fact: Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcan species, and there is literally nothing that would prevent a Romulan from HidingInPlainSight as a Vulcan.) She wants Rizzo to stay on project -- even though their Romulan death squad screwed up by killing Dahj instead of capturing it -- and Rizzo claims that she already has an asset working with Soji as well.

At Chateau Picard, Laris reacts [[DramaticDrop poorly]] when Picard expresses his intention of going back into space. However, given Clancy's reaction, he still has no idea how he's going to do that. When Zhaban suggests PuttingTheBandBackTogether -- Riker, Worf, La Forge -- Picard declines. Instead, he contacts an old associate: Raffi Musiker. Of course, when he arrives at her house, she greets him with a phaser rifle, telling him to turn around and get back on his taxi. He agrees, mournfully mentioning that now no one will ever get to the bottom of a Romulan conspiracy on Earth... Raffi asks if the bottle of wine he brought is the '86.

** Picard asks Starfleet to return his flight status -- days after he brutally criticized them in a widely broadcast public interview on FNN, ''and'' fourteen years after his resignation while protesting official Starfleet policy. Unsurprisingly, Picard's request is denied, and he gets a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech [[ShutUpKirk on top of it]].

** Laris gets in on the fun earlier in the episode too, referring to the Zhat Vash in the most Irish way possible.
--->'''Laris''': Cheeky feckers!

** Picard asks Starfleet to return his flight status -- days after he brutally criticized them in a widely broadcast public interview on FNN, ''and'' fourteen years after his resignation while protesting official Starfleet policy. Unsurprisingly, Picard is denied, and gets a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech [[ShutUpKirk on top of it]].

* UhOhEyes: When the synthetics turn rogue.

* ItIsDehumanizing: Both Oh and Rizzo refer to Soji as an "it." Oh also calls her "the thing."

In a {{Flashback}}, a synth called f* reports for work on Mars. It has the same yellow-gold skin and gold eyes that Data did. Its human coworkers mock and befriend it in equal measure. Breaking from its dormancy, it disables the planetary shields and slays the humans. Was it hacked? Is it a rebel? The only witnesses who might know are dead. F8 then [[AteHisGun puts the cutting laser to its own head and fires]].

In a {{Flashback}}, F8, a synth, reports for work on Mars. It has the same yellow-gold skin and gold eyes that Data did. Its human coworkers mock and befriend it in equal measure. Breaking from its dormancy, it disables the planetary shields and slays the humans. Was it hacked? Is it a rebel? The only witnesses who might know are dead. F8 then [[AteHisGun puts the cutting laser to its own head]].

Picard is visited by his physician, Dr. Moritz Benayoun, who served with him on the ''Stargazer''. Picard is trying to get himself certified for active service, but Benayoun informs him he has an abnormality in his parietal lobe; it could cause any number of problems, but all of them end the same way. Having said that, Picard meets (and, in many cases, exceeds) all minimums for interstellar duty, and cleared. Unfortunately, Picard's next trip, to Starfleet HQ, ends even worse. He visits Adm. Kiersten Clancy, C&C of Starfleet, and requests to be reinstated with a ship and crew assigned to him, so that he can go save a RidiculouslyHumanRobot; in the event this causes too much interstellar furor, [[SmallNameBigEgo he is content to be demoted to Captain]]. Clancy yells him out of his office for "sheer [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] hubris" -- asking for favors after denouncing Starfleet ''on live broadcast''. She points out that Starfleet's decision to leave the Romulans to their fate was about TheNeedsOfTheMany: helping them was unpopular ''throughout'' the Federation, and a good fourteen species had [[WeAreStrugglingTogether threatened to secede]]. In Picard she sees not greatness but the ramblings of an old, done man. She sends him away, request denied.

Aboard the Borg Cube, Soji helps a new Trill intern suit up and walks her through the safety spiel: certain sections of the cube still have active Borg drones, and the reclamation crew wear badges (which turn green in the presence of trouble) to keep them safe. Having said that, the dangers are largely on a personal level: Soji and Narek are able to reassure the woman (Dr. Naáshala Kunamadéstifee, of Trill Polytech) that the Borg have essentially "cauterized" this cube away from the Collective. Narek then joins Soji as she and a Romulan doctor surgically remove Borg implants from a now-former drone. Though the doctor is dismissive of the drone, Soji speaks to the recovering former Romulan in its mother tongue: "You are free, my friend."

Admiral Clancy contacts Commodore Oh, an Asiatic-looking Vulcan who heads Starfleet Security. She mentions Picard's ramblings about the Romulan Hit Mooks that killed Dahj, and has Oh look into it. Oh immediately calls for a "Lt. Rizzo," a human woman who arrives as Oh is scrutinizing surveillance footage from the fight in which Dahj was killed -- and catching details that, apparently, someone forgot to scrub, like the reflection of disruptor fire off a metal pole. Oh informs Rizzo that Picard has information about clandestine Romulan operations on Earth. Oh also reports that Picard named Zhat Vash, and that he tried to get a ship to find Bruce Maddox, although she adds that Clancy didn't mention either of those points. (She refuses to answer how she knows.) She commends Rizzo for her passion, but reprimands her impatience -- a bad thing for a DeepCoverAgent to have. (Fun fact: Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcan species, and there is literally nothing that would prevent a Romulan from HidingInPlainSight as a Vulcan.) She wants Rizzo to stay on project -- even though their Romulan Hit Mooks screwed up by killing Dahj instead of capturing it -- and Rizzo claims that she already has an asset working with Soji as well.

At Chateau Picard, Laris reacts [[DramaticDrop poorly]] when Picard expresses his intention of going back into space. However, given Clancy's reaction, he still has no idea how he's going to do that. When Zhaban suggests PuttingTheBandBackTogether -- Riker, Worf, La Forge -- Picard declines. Instead, he contacts an old associate: Raffi Musiker. Of course, when he arrives at her house, she greets him with a phaser rifle, telling him to turn around and get back on his taxi. He agrees, mournfully mentioning that now no one will ever get to the bottom of the Mystery of the Romulan Hit Mooks... Raffi asks if the bottle of wine he brought is the '86.

Aboard the Borg Cube, Narek receives a holographic visitor: it's Rizzo, whom Narek makes fun of for having undergone cosmetic surgery to get rid of her pointy Romulan ears. He -- the asset Rizzo has assigned to Dahj's sister -- reports that he has made progress with establishing friendly contact with the other target, and that he's on top of the situation. (Rizzo smirks at the rumpled bed.) She informs him that if he hasn't gotten any results by the time she visits, she'll need to take over the approach herself.

In a {{Flashback}}, a Synth reports for work on Mars. It has the same yellow-gold skin and gold eyes that Data did. Its human coworkers mock and befriend it in equal measure. Breaking from its dormancy, it disables the planetary shields and slays the humans. Was it hacked? Is it a rebel? The only witnesses who might know are dead. It then [[AteHisGun puts the cutting laser to its own head]].

** An InUniverse example: Commodore Oh pauses a doctored recording of Picard erasing traces of the fight from the previous episode, and asks Rizzo if she sees the glare of disruptor fire reflected on a nearby lamppost.

* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: Defied; Zhaban suggests that Picard reunite the old ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Enterprise]]'' command crew for his mission, but Picard refuses. He knows [[UndyingLoyalty they would all join if asked]], but after Data's sacrifice he doesn't want to put them in danger again.

** Despite the loss of their homeworld, the Romulan Empire still exists, after a fashion, just reorganised into the Romulan Free States; while the loss of Romulus was a devastating blow, offworld installations and colonies allowed the Romulans to survive, albeit in a diminished state.
** Picard turns up at Starfleet Headquarters, and the man at the desk -- being a much younger officer -- doesn't recognise him.

-->'''Picard''': The Federation does not get to decide if a species lives or dies.
-->'''Clancy''': Yes, we do. We absolutely do. Thousands of other species depend upon us for unity. For cohesion. We didn't have enough ships left. We had to make choices.

* SecretCircleOfSecrets: Laris points out that the term SecretPolice has little meaning in a society that practises compulsive secrecy. Turns out there's an organisation called the Zhat Vash that's so secret, even former Tal Shiar operatives like Zhaban dismiss it as a fairy tale.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Rizzo and Narek all exchange not-so-subtle threats and insults when working together. Picard on the other hand has rejected the idea of recruiting FireForgedFriends and deliberately seeks out those whom he doesn't get along with for a mission that hasn't been authorised by Starfleet.

* UnusualEars: Played for laughs when Narek mocks his sister's MagicPlasticSurgery that's given her those ridiculous round ears.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: Soji, much to Narek's surprise, refers to the inert Borg Cube as "beautiful", although Soji clarifies that she considers ''active'' Borg Cubes to be as horrifying as anyone else (rightly) would.

* AncientConspiracy: The Zhat Vash is a Secret Society within the SecretPolice that is the Tal Shiar, having been engaged in covert operations inside and outside the Romulan Star Empire for literally thousands of years.

* BloodlessCarnage: Averted. The weapon the synth uses in the flashback (likely some sort of cutting tool) burns big, messy holes in whatever it hits compared to a phaser.

** In "The Measure of a Man", Guinan warned Picard that TheFederation might create an army of "disposable people". Well, they did just that -- and [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters lost control of their creations]].

** Dr. Moritz Benayoun, whom Picard consults on his fitness to rejoin Starfleet, served with him when he commanded USS ''Stargazer''.

** The Romulan scientist maintaining that "Nameless" is itself a name recalls Odo from ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine DS9]]'', in that his name was a contraction of ''odo'ital'', which was the Cardassian word for "nothing", as that was the rough translation of the Bajoran labelling that called him an "unknown sample" after he was first discovered[[note]]as he basically was a cupful of goo at the time, which the local scientists could not identify, before he developed the skills to mimic solid form[[/note]].
*** This doubles as a call back to Diane Duane's Rihannsu novels as well, which are not canon but do establish the importance of names in Romulan culture.

* DontAskJustRun: Workers at the Romulan reclamation site, actually a dormant Borg cube, wear grey hexagonal badges, which are implied to have anti-assimilation properties. As the Romulan overseer warns, if the badge turns green, it is heavily advised to flee the area immediately.
* DoNotGoGentle: Being told that he might have a medical condition that could lead to dementia only fuels Picard's determination.

* FacialHorror: During an autopsy, we get a [[SarcasmMode lovely]] look at a dead Borg drone having their ocular implant removed, exposing the raw, red flesh beneath, with [[EyeScream more tech where the drone's eye used to be]].

* ItIsDehumanizing: Both Oh and Narissa refer to Soji as "it". Oh also calls her "the thing".

* LackOfEmpathy: One of the Romulan doctors examining dead Borg drones callously dubs one subject of unknown species "Nameless", to Soji's disdain; as far as Soji is concerned, not knowing a species' name doesn't mean they should pretend they don't have one. The Romulan doctor replies that "Nameless ''is'' a name."

** Picard finds Jurati reading Creator/IsaacAsimov, and says he just doesn't "get" science fiction.

--> '''Laris:''' No one but the Tal Shiar could ever protect you against the Tal Shiar.\\

--> '''Laris:''' ''[[BigWhat What?]]'' Have you gone mad? Is it dementia?\\