History Recap / StarTrekPicardS3E08Surrender

** It's subtle, but Vadic executing T'Veen as part of her BlofeldPloy. Vadic specifically selects and kills someone who's ''not'' a Senior Officer (Seven and Shaw) or a junior crew member (Esmar or Mura). She chooses someone in-between -- someone of mid-level rank and, more importantly, ''age''. Why she does this will become clearer next episode.

** When Worf rescues Riker and Troi he takes a moment to express his fondness for Troi and how she was an inspiration for his new Zen Warrior mantra, which Riker is clearly annoyed over. This is a reminder that Worf and Troi did date, and married in AlternateTimelines, in the seventh season.

Vadic's flash-frozen body [[LiterallyShatteredLives crumbles]] on impact with the ''Shrike'', and the ''Titan'' finishes the ship off with photon torpedoes before heading back towards Federation space. One major threat has been dealt with, but there are still bunches of Changelings within Starfleet's ranks, Frontier Day is mere hours away, the ''Titan'' is desperately understaffed and still believed to have gone rogue, and nobody knows what the Changelings plan to ''do'' (the research thqt Raffi brought in from the ''Shrike'' has yet to be evaluated). Still, with the core crew of the NCC-1701-D/E -- Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Data, Beverly Crusher, Geordi La Forge, Worf, and Deanna Troi -- assembled again for the first time in 20 years, Starfleet has a fighting chance.

** ContinuousDecompression: Even with a near-instantaneous evacuation of the Bridge atmosphere from the viewscreen being opened, Vadic and that one Mook should've never been sucked out that violently.

** Enforced between Will and Deanna, as Deanna using her empathic power to keep Will's grief in check instead of talking through it with him only harmed their relationship. Deanna even lampshades it after admitting that's what she was doing:

* WhamShot: Downplayed, but Data sitting down at the ''Titan''-A conference table. For the very first time since ''Nemesis'' twenty years earlier, the entire TNG crew is reunited. Riker even lampshades it in-universe.[[note]]If you really wanna get technical and heartwarming, one of the trophies Data shows off is that of his memory of Tasha Yar, making her first appearance in a ''Star Trek'' series since "All Good Things", meaning the entire Season One bridge crew was on screen at one point or another this episode.[[/note]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: As part of the FusionDance, Data can finally use contractions now. And while he thankfully didn't pick up Lore's MisanthropeSupreme tendencies, his first BadassBoast after waking up definitely had some of Lore's {{Jerkass}} peeking through.

** Deanna has been using her long-established telepathic bond with Will to tamp down his grief over Thad's death (and her own given her empathic abilities meant she gets to feel her entire family's emotions). But this realistically was only ever a stopgap solution and now the cracks are showing. This neatly explains in-universe why Will and Deanna are only ''now'' having martial problems when they had previously been shown to be in decent shape back during [[Recap/StarTrekPicardS1E07Nepenthe "Nepenthe"]].

** It's subtle, but Vadic executing T'Veen as part of her BlofeldPloy. Vadic specifically selects and kills someone who's ''not'' a Senior Officer (Seven and Shaw) or a junior crew member (Esemar or Mrua). She chooses someone in-between -- someone of mid-level rank and, more importantly, ''age''. *Why* will become clearer next episode.

** Vadic executing T'Veen to assure Jack she's not bluffing. Vadic specifically selects someone who's ''not'' a Senior Officer (Seven and Shaw) or a junior crew member (Esemar or Mrua). She chooses someone in-between, someone of mid-level rank and, more importantly, ''age''. *Why* will become clearer after

** Of course, this becomes PlayedForLaughs after they reconcile, as they both admitted ''they hated living on Nepenthe''. They originally went there for Thaddeus, and it's implied that each only stayed because it's what they thought the other wanted. As it turns out, both wanted to return to a more-civilized, less-idyllic setting.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Data surrendering his memories of playing poker with the ''Enterprise'' colleagues to Lore. During TNG, Data learned the art of bluffing your opponent from Riker during their poker games. So, it's a subtle clue that Data is doing the same with Lore now.

* BigDamnHeroes: Data coming to the rescue of the ''Titan''-A after defeating Lore definitely counts.
-->'''Picard:''' Data, we need your help. The ship is in troub--\\

* FaceDeathWithDignity: For all his flaws, Lore does not resist once Data's gambit succeeds, and appears almost relieved as he dissolves.