History Recap / StarTrekPicardS3E03SeventeenSeconds

Seven has informed Captain Riker of the verterium gas leak. Captain Riker and his self-appointed [[NumberTwo Number One]], Admiral Picard, try to decide what to do with the information. They have already decided, at the top of the episode, that they need to get the ''Titan'' to safety, but they cannot agree ''how'': Picard wants to use the sabotage to lure the ''Shrike'' into a trap, while Riker would rather ScrewThisImOuttaHere, particularly since (as Shaw has been saying the whole time) the FragileSpeedster ''Titan'' would be [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight Bringing A Knife To A Gun Fight]]. The question is decided when the Changeling saboteur simply blows out a power conduit, disabling the warp drive. So Riker brings the ship around... only to find the ''Shrike'' waiting for him. And Vadic's thinking with portals: ''Titan''[='s=] barrage of photon torpedoes simply gets portal'd right back at them, smashing into the ship's engineering hull and disabling main power. The ''Shrike'' backs away, leaving the ''Titan'', HoistByTheirOwnPetard, to get sucked into the gravity well at the center of the nebula.

In the present day, Picard confronts Crusher, demanding to know what happened to their RelationshipRevolvingDoor. Beverly admits that, the exact day she dumped him for the fifth time, she got pregnant. ...And when she tried to reach out to him, he was the victim of an assassination attempt. After the third such attempt, she gave up. "All I knew is that if you're the son of Jean-Luc Picard, there's a target on your back. ... As a mother, your whole being is about [[MamaBear protecting your child]]. I thought I could protect mine. I didn't know if I could protect ''yours''." She also admits that she told Jack who his father was and encouraged him to reach out: he refused.

Shaw orders the ''Titan''-A deeper into the nebula; Vadic orders the pursuit with glacial calm. The nebula, in the grand tradition of ''Star Trek'' nebulae, dampens sensors, and the ''Titan'' is mostly able to find safety... but the ''Shrike'' seems to have some other way of finding her quarry. Shaw is injured and officially puts Riker in command. As Beverly and Dr. Ohk try to slow the internal bleeding, he grabs Jack Crusher and wonders, audibly and angrily, how the ''Shrike'' keeps tracking them. Meanwhile, Riker orders the ship out of the nebula, only to find the ''Shrike'' waiting for them... And, even worse, it has the Portal Phlebotinum that has driven the season, powered up to the point that ships can move through it. ''Titan''[='s=] attempts to escape simply result in her coming out where she started. Riker, frustrated, orders the ship ''back into'' the nebula, despite Science Officer T'Veen's warning of some sort of gravimetric object at its center. (She also mentions biological energy readings coming out of the nebula, which presumably [[ChekhovsGun will be important next episode]].)

In a {{flashback}}, Picard toasts the birth of Thaddeus Riker. Will is alternately excited and scared, claiming that the turbolift ride from the ''Titan''[='s=] bridge to sickbay were the longest [[TitleDrop seventeen seconds]] of his life. However, he's rousted from her celebration by an exhausted Deanna Troi: "I haven't brushed my hair in 72 hours and your son just vomited all over Engineering. Projectile vomit! Four feet in the air! They should study him for science." Will returns to fatherhood, after wishing Picard -- who, remember, is the LastOfHisKind, has no LoveInterest and no living blood relations -- possibly the most insensitive thing he could: "I hope one day you get to have this feeling too."

* AvengingTheVillain: Implied, or at least a possible example when Beverley mentionsa pair of Reman Assassins who tried to kill Picard during the Donatra Sector incident. [[Film/StarTrekNemesis Shinzon]] isn't outright mentioned, but given the timing of when this occurred, it's not hard to imagine they were gunning after the man who got their liberator killed and doomed the Remans to eternal Romulan slavery (or alternately, they were trying to sabotage the Supernova Evacuation).

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: When an incredulous Picard asks why Beverley never even ''asked'' if he'd resign from Starfleet to raise their son, Beverley cites this trope as her justification. She knows Jean-Luc well enough to feel he would ''never'' willingly hang up his uniform. Picard ''loves'' playing the part of Starfleet hero and saving the day too much to give it up. The irony, of course, is that this very trait of Picard's is literally the only reason she and Jack are still alive and didn't go down with the ''Eleos''.

* ItsAllMyFault: Tragically invoked as a minor plot point during Picard's reaction to Beverley's cutting ties with him (and the rest of the crew) after ''Nemesis''. Picard being Picard, he naturally blamed himself and he spent the next 20 years bitterly wondering what he'd done or said during their last days together to hurt Beverley enough that she would do this. It ''never'' occurred to Picard to consider that maybe this wasn't about what ''he'' had done, but what ''Beverley'' had done.

** Picard during his entire argument with Beverley in Sickbay.

* TraumaCongaLine:L This is one factor that motivated Beverley's decision not to tell Picard about their son. After losing her parents, Jack Sr. aboard the ''Stargazer'', and Wesley to the Travelers, Beverley couldn't bear the possibility of losing one more member of her family to danger.

* VillainousLegacy: There's a subtle, if ironic (depending on your definition of villainous) acknowledgment of the events of Season Two and the late Q's legacy during the Sickbay Argument. Beverley quotes how Picard always stated he never wanted a family (out of fear of becoming Maurice) as part of her justification for not telling him about Jack. 20 years earlier, Picard easily would've agreed to her. But thanks to Q's final actions and gift (which Picard references without specifically mentioning the entity), he knows now he could never have become just like Maurice and his fear was baseless.

** Picard's side of his argument with Beverley in Sickbay in a nutshell. He doesn't outright dispute Beverly's points about why she didn't tell him about Jack, but he's understandably upset that she made the choice for him.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Beverley condemns Picar's ChronicHeroSyndrone as one of her reasons for not telling him about Jack. But she also had no qualms about exploiting it to try and save her and Jack from Vadic (though to be fair, the Crushers ''were'' desperate and it was their last throw of the dice).

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: When an incredulous Picard asks why Beverley never considered just ''asking'' if he'd resign from Starfleet to raise their son, Beverley cites this trope as her reason. She knows Jean-Luc well enough to feel he would ''never'' willingly hang up his uniform. Picard ''loves'' playing the part of Starfleet hero and saving the day too much to give it up.

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Played for Black Comedy with Riker when an understandably angry and exhausted Deanna (who's looking after the newborn Thad while her husband and former Captain are out drinking) calls Ten Forward.

* AvengingTheVillain: Implied during Beverley's mention of a pair of Reman Assassins who tried to kill Picard during the Donatra Sector incident. [[Film/StarTrekNemesis Shinzon]] isn't outright mentioned, but given the timing of when this occurred, it's not hard to imagine they were gunning after the man who got their liberator killed and doomed the Remans to eternal Romulan slavery (or alternately, they were trying to sabotage the Supernova Evacuation).

* WhatTheHellHero: Picard's side of his argument with Beverley in Sickbay in a nutshell. He doesn't outright dispute Beverly's points about why she didn't tell him about Jack, but he's understandably upset that she made the choice for him.

* XanatosGambit: The ''Shrike'''s pursuit of the ''Titan''. If they can catch up with them on the first leg of the chase, great. If they can't, that's okay too, because Vadic has a mole aboard who can sabotage key systems and lay a trail of breadcrumbs for the ''Shrike'' to follow.

* AvengingTheVillain: Implied during Beverley's mention of a pair of Reman Assassins who tried to kill Picard during the Donatra Sector incident. [[Film/StarTrekNemesis Shinzon]] isn't outright mentioned, but given the timing of when this occurred, it's not hard ot imagine they were gunning after the man who got their liberator killed and doomed them to Romulan slavery (or alternately, they were trying to sabotage the Supernova Evacuation).

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: When an incredulous Picard asks why Beverley never considered just ''asking'' if he'd resign from Starfleet, Beverley cites this trope. She knows Jean-Lic well enough to feel he would ''never'' willingly retire from. Picard ''loves'' playing the part of Starfleet hero and saving the day too much to give it up.

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Crusher cites this as one reason she didn't tell Picard about Jack.
Beverley knows Jean-Lic well enough to know he would ''never'' willingly retire from Starfleet. Picard ''loves'' playing the Starfleet hero too much.

* WhatTheHellHero: Picard's side of his argument with Beverley in Sickbay in a nutshell.

** Picard during his entire argument with Beverley in sickbay.

* TranquilFury: Picard during his entire argument with Beverley in sickbay.

** After he is injured, Shaw instructs the computer to transfer command of the ''Titan'' to Captain Riker, largely using the same phrasing that Picard and Jellico did in the Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E10ChainOfCommand Chain of Command]]."

* ContinuityNod: Worf is working out to the aria ''Vallon sonore'' from the Hector Berlioz opera ''Les Troyens'', the same aria Picard was listening to in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''.

* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: Downplayed example. While Worf's intel on the rogue Founders comes directly from Odo, the Constable doesn't actually appear nor is he directly involved in the investigation. The real-life explanation for this of course is because Creator/ReneAuberjonois died in late 2019. In-universe, there are multiple potential explanations for Odo's absence (ex. trying to hold the Great Link together on his end to prevent more defections, knowing inserting himself into Starfleet's investigation will only make things worse, etc.).
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The Dominion's surrender at the Battle of Cardassia did not go over well with the Great Link on their side of the Bajoran Wormhole. Thousands of years of insularity and xenophobia runs deep and isn't just shaken off overnight. So it's completely realistic that there would be Founders who were extremist even by Changeling standards, who would absolutely refuse to honor the Female Founder's sacrifice and reject the Treaty of Bajor. While it's not explicitly stated, it's also not hard to imagine that Odo's goals of internal reformation didn't help or met with resistance (or very possibly helped trigger this schism; after all, Odo ''did'' bring with him the knowledge that rogue Federation elements had engineered the morphogenic plague that almost wiped out the Link).

* TitleDrop: "Seventeen seconds" is the amount of time it took Riker to travel from the Bridge to Sickbay when Thaddeus was being born, which he describes as "the longest seventeen seconds of my life."

* ProudPapaPassesOutTheCigars: in the flashback, Troi sarcastically asks if Riker is busy doing this.