Recap / Star Trek: Picard S1E08 "Broken Pieces"

The five "broken pieces" of Rios perform Percussive Maintenance on themselves.

Fourteen years ago, a bunch of Romulan women gather on Aia, the Grief World, at the center of an octonary star system — yes, a single solar system with eight stars in the center. Cdre. Oh, a half-Romulan half-Vulcan, is explaining to these women that they are about to experience the "Admonition" — a warning from the Precursors who lived here on Aia about the Robot War that wiped them out. "Some of you may Go Mad from the Revelation," she warns, and indeed some do: one woman blows her brains out with a disruptor, another smashes her forehead with a rock, a third tears at her face. Only one woman stands stock-still: Narissa. After picking up the only other survivor of the Admonition — her aunt Ramdha, the noted Romulan mythologist — she asks Oh what they need to do to stop The End of the World as We Know It. Oh replies that the answer is on the human planet called Mars, and the three Zhat Vash agents set out to make it so.

In the present, Narissa is talking to the comatose Ramdha aboard the Artifact. She reveals that Ramdha — or rather, her knowledge of the Admonition — was what caused the Borg to cut this cube off from the Collective in the first place. She then asks one of her Mooks if they have tracked down "the freak"; the mook replies that Elnor has been found in Director Hugh's office.

Elnor is indeed there, planning to face his Bolivian Army Ending. He fights hand-to-hand with the Romulan assailants until he's overpowered (and only because he was weakened by a flashbang), but help comes from an unexpected source: Seven of Nine, striding in with a phaser flashing. "Where's Hugh?" she asks, "What is happening on this Cube?", but all that Elnor can do is hug her in relief.

Picard and Soji beam up to La Sirena, and the ship sets course for Deep Space 12. Captain Rios has a clear reaction when Soji comes aboard. He consigns himself to his quarters and refuses to come out. Both he and Raffi are not quite happy to see Picard, since it was the latter's idea to bring Dr. Jurati aboard, and they believe that she killed Bruce Maddox. Now he's done it again, with an even more Mysterious Waif, and they're both a little skeptical. Raffi asks if Picard really knows Soji at all, and isn't exactly surprised when he can't answer.

Picard pages Adm. Clancy to tell her what he has discovered. He's triumphant that his hunches were right and calls on her to send a squadron of starships to rendezvous with him at DS12. He's so excited, in fact, that he won't let her get a word in edgewise— including the ones where she agrees with him, and will send the starships, but can't tell him because he won't stop talking. "Admiral Picard, with all due respect, and at long last, shut the fuck up!" She orders him to hide out at DS12 until The Cavalry arrives. Picard just gives a triumphant Fist Pump, glad that the galaxy is finally going his way.

Raffi goes to hunt down Rios and tell him that they were right about Jurati killing Maddox, but can't find him: Every time that she runs into him, it's actually one of the Emergency Whatever Holograms. We've met the Hospitality one (American accent), the Medical one (English accent), and the Tactical one (Spanish accent). We've also met the Emergency Navigational Hologram (Irish), "Enoch," whom Raffi meets for the first time (to her exasperation), and she later runs into "Ian," the Engineering one (Scottish accent). They all look like Rios because he selected the self-scan option, so they imprinted on his personality when he bought the ship, and all know some things about his personality and history. They refer to Soji as "Jana" and explain that Rios is perturbed by something that happened aboard the ibn Majid— you know, the super-secret cover-up that resulted in him washing out of Starfleet? All of this culminates in Raffi gathering all five members of the Standard Emergency Hologram suite, the five broken pieces of Rios' Back Story, to try to put them together. The Tactical holo puts forward the final detail: that ibn Majid Capt. Vandermeer Ate His Gun.

Picard and Soji share a meal, and they talk about Data. Picard admits — twenty years late — that he loved Data, but also mentions that Data's ability to express emotion was limited: something that the two of them had in common. Soji, looking at it from her father's point of view, comments that Data must have loved him too.

Aboard the Artifact, Seven and Elnor infiltrate the queencell. Seven has realized that the best way to retake the Artifact would be to found a micro-Collective right here within the Cube... with her as the Queen. Narissa, seeing this coming, orders the Borg drones that are still in stasis to be flushed out into space... but as she returns, smugly triumphant, from this task, a number of xBs overpower her. She barely escapes via emergency beam-out, and Seven returns to the work of restoring the Artifact to spaceworthy status.

Dr. Jurati wakes up. Picard tells her that they are en route to Deep Space 12, where she will surrender to Starfleet for the murder of Bruce Maddox. She agrees. He asks why she did it, and Jurati explains the forced mind-meld that Oh performed on her, and the visions of the apocalypse that she received; a psychic block prevents her from speaking about the images in detail. This second-hand Admonition has given her a better understanding of the Zhat Vash methods: they believe that there's a "threshold" beyond which synthetic life should not be allowed to cross. Data, back in the day, did not cross that threshold, but a Ridiculously Human Robot like Soji officially meets their definition of an Apocalypse Maiden. It's Soji herself, entering the conversation, who gives the name: "Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer." However, despite her fear, Jurati's curiosity takes over, and she soon realizes that Soji does not deserve to be harmed.

Raffi enters Rios' quarters and gets him to open up about his classified experiences on the ibn Majid. Rios says that he used to pretend that Vandermeer was his father, calling him "Pops" in his head. Rios explains that while patrolling the Vayt sector, the ibn Majid picked up a small ship of unknown origin with two passengers, and alerted Starfleet of a first contact. They beamed the two beings aboard— the ambassador, Beautiful Flower, and his young aide, Jana. After dinner, Vandermeer slew them both: he had received a "black flag directive" straight from Starfleet Security, and if Vandermeer disobeyed, Starfleet would destroy the ibn Majid with all hands. After Vandermeer was Driven to Suicide, Rios helped with the cover-up. Six months later, Rios was discharged from Starfleet, officially for post-traumatic dysphoria. He shows her a drawing of Jana, who looks exactly like Soji; Raffi realizes that they were synths.

Soji brings Dr. Jurati out of sickbay, and the five crewmembers of the La Sirena sit down to assemble their puzzle pieces into a coherent story. Rios orders a cup of peppermint ice cream and a plate of French fries for Soji. Musiker explains what she has learned: Some two to three hundred thousand years earlier, eight suns were brought together by artificial means, with a planet in the center: Aia, the Grief World, placed in a location so blatantly artificial that nobody could miss it. The Romulans took the Admonition seriously, creating the Zhat Vash. When Noonian Soong started creating his androids, the Zhat Vash sent Oh, a half-Vulcan/half-Romulan, to be The Mole in Starfleet, and she eventually rose to head of Starfleet Security, all the while with one mandate: Stop the Federation's research on synthetic lifeforms. To that end, Oh engineered the attack on Mars, resulting in the Ban on A.I.. In 2390, the ibn Majid made contact with a pair of emissaries: Beautiful Flower and Jana. Soji knows of Jana, but wonders how; Rios replies that it was the same reason he knew that she liked to dip French fries in peppermint ice cream. They had come from the world that Maddox had fled to after the ban, which the Zhat Vash have been looking for ever since... a world, Soji realizes, she has just taught them to identify.

Soji storms onto the bridge and begins to hack La Sirena so that it will take them to her home planet. Fortunately, Rios had installed a fail-safe and uses it to stop her from doing so. However, where force didn't work, persuasion does: Soji formally requests that Captain Rios take her home, and he agrees. She plots a course that uses a Borg transwarp conduit to save time. She looks at Kestra's compass as the ship plunges in.

Behind them, unnoticed, Narek's snakehead fighter follows.

---

Tropes:

• Abandon Ship: As soon as Seven activates the Artifact, the Romulans make a prompt exit via their newly-arrived fleet.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played with. The crapshoot here is not whether the AI tries to exterminate all life or not, it's whether that AI evolves. If it evolves, it draws the attention of something that can worry a civilization capable of stellar engineering, never mind the current Alpha Quadrant civilizations.
• Alien Blood: Green blood is visible when several Zhat Vash initiates tear open their own faces, bash their heads with rocks, or shoot themselves with a disruptor.
• Alien Sky: Aia's sky is orange, and there is a shot of two of its eight suns.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Narissa, who treats Elnor as a Category Traitor because of his affiliation with the Qowat Milat, doesn't even consider him to be a proper Romulan because she refers to him as a freak to one of her underlings.
• Ambiguous Situation: Queen!Seven declares that "Annika still has work to do," which could either be Seven speaking in the third person, or the micro-Collective releasing her deliberately for some purpose.
• Answer Cut: Narissa contacts her subordinate to inquire if he has found "the freak," and a Hard Cut promptly follows to clarify to the audience that their target is Elnor.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • When Raffi challenges Picard on how well he really knows Soji, he's unable to respond.
    Raffi: What is Soji really like? Hmm? Do you know? Does she?
    (Picard is silent)
    Raffi: Yeah, that's what I thought.
  • When Queen!Seven is done leading the xBs to overpower the Romulans, Elnor asks her if she plans to assimilate him. She replies that "Annika" still has work to do and disbands the Collective.
  • Soji demands to know if Jurati considers her to be a real person. We don't get to see Jurati's answer.
• Astronomic Zoom: There's a CGI sequence where the "camera" flies past the eight stars which comprise the octonary solar system before it focuses on Aia, the Grief World, and it continues to zoom in through the planet's atmosphere until we see the top of the heads of the Zhat Vash initiates who form a circle while standing around the Admonition.
• Ate His Gun:
  • One of the Zhat Vash shoots herself with a disruptor after experiencing the Admonition.
  • Rios' former captain, Alonzo Vandermeer, blew his own brains out after carrying out Starfleet's orders to assassinate two people.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Elnor can run, but he cannot hide on the Artifact; one of Narissa's underlings is keeping tabs on his position.
• Big Damn Heroes: Seven appears in the nick of time to rescue Elnor from the Romulans who are about to overpower him.
• Big "NO!": As a Borg Queen, Seven of Nine shouts a Voice of the Legion "NO!" when the unprocessed Borg are ejected into space. Not only did she lose thousands of drones, she could feel them die because her mind was connected to theirs.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Admiral Clancy has one for Picard that she had been itching to deliver to him for quite some time.
• Binary Suns: There's an octonary star system where eight stars are arranged in seven distinct orbits: four pairs of stars orbit each other, two pairs of those orbit each other in a larger radius, and those two pairs orbit each other in the largest radius. There's a habitable planet named Aia in the center of the main orbit. It was artificially constructed so that any spacefaring civilization would notice it and investigate, since the odds of such a system forming naturally would be infinitesimal.
• Blinded by the Light: Elnor is momentarily stunned by a flashbang grenade, which severely disorientates him, and he's noticeably slower when he confronts Narissa's minions in this episode than in his previous action scenes. His Super-Reflexes are his chief advantage in combat, so when they're Brought Down to Normal, he struggles because he's outnumbered and his foes are able to bind his hands.
• Broken Pedestal: Rios thought of Vandermeer as a father figure, right up until he turned out to be a murderer when he assassinated an ambassador and his aide in cold blood because Starfleet threatened to destroy their entire ship otherwise.
• Canon Immigrant: According to the non-canon Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, the first assignment for the newly-minted Ensign Picard was on the USS Reliant, a Miranda-class ship like the one that Khan hijacked and destroyed. In this episode, a conversation between Picard and Rios establishes that Picard once stood watch on a ship called Reliant.
• Classified Information: Enoch explains to Raffi that the octonary star system doesn't appear on modern Romulan star charts, but it was present in their ancient star maps. The general public has been led to believe that it's apocryphal, but it's actually a Zhat Vash cover-up to keep the location of the "Conclave of Eight" a secret.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: When Seven takes control of the Artifact, her eyes turn black and green, the Borg's team colors.
• Constantly Curious: Elnor is very curious about the queencell, but Seven of Nine doesn't have time to indulge in his queries.
  Elnor: Is this where the Borg Queen lived?
  Seven: No.
  Elnor: But she used to visit sometimes?
  Seven: (irritated) I can explain or I can steal this Cube.
  (Elnor rolls his eyes in a "Fine, I'll shut up now" gesture)
• Continuity Nod:
  • The tracker that Jurati swallowed was made from viridium, the same substance as the tracker that Spock placed on Kirk's back to keep tabs on him prior to his arrest in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
  • Rios' captain once served under Marta Batanides, one of Picard's two best friends at the academy, and whom we meet in the TNG episode "Tapestry."
  • Enoch mentions that he lost his knowledge of Medusan astronavigation techniques.
• Contrived Coincidence: When Raffi recruited Captain Rios, he was just someone that she happened to know with a spaceship. But in this episode, it turns out that he had actually met Soji's siblings nine years ago, and the reason that he was kicked out of Starfleet was that their assassination was part of a Zhat Vash conspiracy. Yet Raffi knew nothing about any of this when she hired him, so it's just a huge coincidence.
• Converse with the Unconscious: Narissa speaks to a comatose Ramdha. She's hoping that the sound of her voice will awake her aunt so that the latter can join the Romulan fleet. Otherwise, Narissa will have to leave Ramdha behind on the Artifact.
  Narissa: Dr. Kabath says there's no medical reason for this, Auntie. I do believe you're malingering. You were never entirely sane to begin with, were you? It was folly, taking in Narek and me after our parents died. And sheer madness, submitting yourself for Admonishment. Though when you lost your mind, you certainly did it with panache. Breaking a Borg cube by the sheer force of your despair? The Collective picked the wrong Tal Shiar ship to assimilate that day. They ought to have picked mine. I'd have made a much better Borg than you. "Resistance is futile." Narek's located the synthetics' nest. I've dispatched ships. I'll be joining them as soon as I've shut down this house of horrors. If you wake up, you can come along. We have our work to do.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The Zhat Vash gathering around the Admonition brings to mind a witches coven, or a cult initiation ritual.
  • Raffi questioning the holograms is played like a group therapy session.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Seven of Nine explains to Elnor that becoming the Borg Queen — which would mean that she would have absolute power over the Artifact itself and all of its drones — is addictive, and she may not want to give up that power after she gets rid of the Romulans.
  Elnor: You can release them when we win.
  Seven: They won't want to be released, and I... I might not want to release them.
• Eldritch Abomination: Something is drawn to civilizations where AI develops past a certain point. Something so powerful that a civilization that can move stars around suffered a Curb-Stomp Battle and created an octonary star system just to warn future civilizations off repeating their mistake.
• Etiquette Nazi: Mister Hospitality has zero tolerance for Emmet's sloppy conduct. The former orders the latter to sit up straight on the couch, and after Emmet places his boots on the coffee table, Mr. Hospitality shoves his legs away.
  Mister Hospitality: (slams a book shut in Emmet's face) Sit. Up.
  Emmet: (mutters in Spanish)
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Narissa seems to be genuinely fond of Ramdha, a fellow Zhat Vash whom she addresses as "Auntie".
• Evil Wears Black: The Zhat Vash on Aia all wear black hooded robes.
• Eye Cam: We see Picard from Jurati's blurred perspective as her eyes flutter open when she rouses from a coma.
• Eye Colour Change: When Seven activates the queencell, her eyes first turn into Black Eyes of Evil, and then become Electronic Eyes as they begin glowing with green patterns.
• Failed a Spot Check: It takes nearly a minute for Raffi to figure out that she's talking to one of the holographic versions of Rios, despite his hair, dress, and demeanor being vastly different from the genuine article even when seen from the back.
• Famed In-Story: Narissa realizes from the SOS token that Elnor has summoned a Fenris Ranger, and there's only one person that could be coming to deal with trouble on a derelict Borg cube.
• Fearless Fool: Invoked by Centurion Tarent when Narissa asks if the Borg frighten him.
  Tarent: I'd be a fool if they didn't.
• First-Name Basis: Subverted; Admirals Clancy and Picard talk to each other on a first name basis, then go back to last names when the discussion becomes heated.
• Flashback: A flashback to fourteen years ago shows Oh inducting new members into the Zhat Vash, giving context to the insane Romulans that she showed to Jurati through a mind meld.
• Fling a Light into the Future: Aia, the Grief World, is home to a device called the Admonition containing the memories of a long dead civilization which was laid waste by androids. The civilization felt that this message was of such importance that they artificially created an octonary star system just so that other spacefaring civilizations would find it.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: As the members of the Zhat Vash are exposed to the Admonition, they see images such as a robotic face briefly flashing into Data's face, the same images that Oh showed Jurati, and various random things like dead animals and a fetus.
• Godzilla Threshold: Seven could form the Borg on the Artifact into a micro-Collective controlled by her, but is reluctant to do so because the feeling of the Collective would be intoxicating to both them and her. When the Romulans start killing them, however, she has no choice but to do so in order to protect them. The unprocessed Borg are vented into space just as she establishes the link, but the surviving xBs rally and overpower the remaining Romulans just as their fleet arrives to gather them for the assault on the android homeworld.
• Gone Mad from the Revelation: Of the Zhat Vash recruits that we see witnessing the Admonition, only Narissa and Ramdha survive, the others going mad and committing suicide.
• Go Through Me: When Raffi aims a phaser pistol at Soji, Picard stands in between them and declares, "Now you put that away or be prepared to use it on me." Not wanting to risk shooting at her former captain, Raffi then lowers her firearm.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Rios sings the Spanish children's song "Arroz con leche (Rice with milk)" to regain control of his ship after Soji hacks it. He later makes it clear to her that "Sirena's my goddamn ship, hija (daughter)."
• Guns Akimbo: Narissa exterminates the xBs by shooting them with two disruptors, borrowing one off a minion and then returning it after it malfunctions during the subsequent massacre.
• History Repeats: Androids destroyed an unnamed long lost civilization, and the Zhat Vash learned (or at least believe) from their memories left behind that any civilization that develops synthetic life will ultimately meet the same end. Picard and Rios discuss this, with Picard insisting that the future isn't set in stone.
• Internal Homage: Soji taking over La Sirena and (almost) locking Rios out recalls Data commandeering the Enterprise-D many years earlier.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The crew finds out about Jurati being The Mole for Oh.
  • The crew also puts together the pieces of Oh's status as Mole in Charge within Starfleet Security on behalf of the Zhat Vash.
• Karmic Death: Centurion Tarent, who came up with the idea to kill the Borg in stasis by blowing them out into space, gets his neck snapped by the xBs.
• Manchild: Invoked by Narissa when she learns that Elnor has a new ally on the Artifact.
  Narissa: The boy has a confederate.
• Matriarchy: The Zhat Vash is led by women, and it would seem that only women are allowed contact with the Admonition. Their foremothers were the first ones to visit the octonary star system, which indicates that the precursor of the Zhat Vash was also matriarchal.
• Me's a Crowd: Raffi's "group therapy session" on the holodeck with the five emergency holograms, who are all modeled after Rios.
• Misery Builds Character: Oh invokes the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" variation when she addresses the Zhat Vash initiates.
  Oh: What you are about to experience will drive some of you mad, but those of you who endure will be stronger.
• Mythology Gag: Rios' engineering hologram has a Scottish accent.
• Mood Whiplash: Amid all the philosophy and heavy drama, there's also the comedy of Raffi running into Rios' holo-doppelgangers, culminating in the "absurd spectacle" of all five gathered together.
• Nailed to the Wagon: Raffi wants to order burgundy from the replicator, but she recently locked herself out of its alcholic options.
  Raffi: Burgundy. (replicator beeps, nothing happens) Red wine. (replicator beeps, nothing happens)
  EHH: (materializing) What is the nature of your hospitality emergency?
  Raffi: I need a glass of red wine.
  EHH: You disabled alcohol services from your quarters two days ago.
  Raffi: Reinstate it. Override.
  EHH: You locked yourself out of override and... (consulting PADD) meta-override.
• Neck Snap: Centurion Tarent has his neck snapped by the xBs once Seven rallies them.
• Nerves of Steel: Narissa is shown the horrors in the Admonition and barely reacts beyond a tear, compared to all the others going mad and/or killing themselves.
• No Sense of Personal Space:
  • Elnor has met Seven of Nine only once, and when he sees her again, he hugs her tightly and buries his head against her shoulder. He's so grateful to be in the presence of a friendly face again after being trapped alone on the Artifact for days and struggling to avoid being captured by the Romulans, not to mention that he's upset over Hugh's death. Seven is a bit uncomfortable with the sudden close contact, but she recognizes that Elnor is very sensitive and is in need of emotional support, so she tolerates it.
  • The hospitality hologram whispers to Raffi by getting closer and closer to her face until she falls backwards on the bed.
• No Time to Explain: Seven of Nine's priority is to gain control of the Artifact, so she quickly puts an end to Elnor's Constantly Curious questions about the queencell.
  Seven: I can explain or I can steal this Cube.
• Obligatory Earpiece Touch: Narissa does this when she demands an update from her subordinate about the whereabouts of "the freak" (i.e. Elnor).
• Oh, Crap!: Narissa knows that she's in deep trouble when she realizes that a dozen or so xBs are about to attack her.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: When the Zhat Vash initiates prepare to face the Admonition, chanting in a mysterious language (possibly Romulan) can be heard. On the soundtrack, the music is called "Tal Shiar Admonisher".
• One Degree of Separation:
  • Rios and Picard discuss their Starfleet careers, and it turns out that they were only two degrees of separation apart: Rios' old captain, Captain Vandermeer, served under Picard's old Academy classmate Marta Batanides, who introduced them once.
  • Everyone on board is connected to the Synths in one way or another. There's Picard's friendship with Data, whose DNA is in Soji and the other synths. Jurati's work helped lead to their creation. Rios himself had met two of Soji's siblings nine years ago. Raffi found evidence of a conspiracy directly linked to the Synths. Even Elnor is not only linked via Picard, but became a refugee and an orphan as a direct result of the Zhat Vash's actions.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: The chamber where Elnor's Fight Scene takes place has Unnaturally Blue Lighting, but the hallway leading to it has orange illumination. Depending on where the actors are standing, they may be bathed in both blue and orange light.
• Overcrank: When Elnor is hit by a flashbang grenade, his reaction is played out slowly to emphasize how much it destabilizes him, and to make it easier for viewers to notice that he drops the Fenris Rangers SOS tag.
• Override Command:
  • When Soji tries to hijack La Sirena to fly it to her homeworld, Rios recites "Arroz con leche", a Spanish lullaby, that completely locks out the helm and returns control of the remaining systems to him.
  • Averted when Raffi decides that I Need a Freaking Drink. Turns out that she's not only cut off her access to the replicator's alcohol menu, but also her ability to override that cut-off.
• Palm on Cheek Pose: Enoch performs this gesture after Raffi kisses him on the forehead. He's just so delighted and amazed that someone likes him enough to display affection towards him in this fashion.
• Pardon My Klingon: Narissa utters a panicked "Qezh" just before she's mauled by a group of xBs. It's the root word of "qezhtihn," which was used as an insult against Picard in "The End Is the Beginning."
• Parental Substitute:
  • Ramdha took care of her niece and nephew Narissa and Narek after their parents died.
  • Rios mentions that he secretly thought of Vandermeer as a father, and came close to calling him "Pops" several times. He suffered a Broken Pedestal when Vandermeer committed murder, then guilt when his What the Hell, Hero? speech caused his surrogate father to commit suicide.
  • According to Jeri Ryan in this interview, Seven of Nine is beginning to treat Elnor like a son figure in this episode.
    Ryan: She, I think, feels so protective of Evan [Evagora]'s character, Elnor, who's sort of her young protégé, and I think she kind of views him as a surrogate son since she lost Icheb.
• Playing Sick: Narissa suspects that Ramdha is somehow faking her coma.
  Narissa: Dr. Kabath says there's no medical reason for this, Auntie. I do believe you're malingering.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • Fleet Admiral Clancy does the honours again:
    Clancy: Admiral Picard, with all due respect — and at long last — shut the fuck up.
  • Rios describes the aftermath of when Vandermeer Ate His Gun after carrying out a "black flag directive."
    Rios: I let the whole fleet know that Alonzo Vandermeer had killed himself for no fucking reason at all.
  • Jurati apologizes to the crew.
    Jurati: I'm sorry I had to fucking ruin it.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Once she realizes that Seven is on the Cube, Narissa orders the wholesale slaughter of the xBs before Seven can control them. She's right to worry, too, as Seven comes within a hair's breadth of turning thousands of drones against the Romulans before Narissa has them vented into space.
  • Rios points out to Picard that it only took five minutes for one synthetic lifeform to hack his ship, so perhaps a whole planet of them is indeed to be feared.
• Proud Beauty: It's hinted that Mister Hospitality is vain because he views himself as a "better-groomed" version of Rios, and he runs his hand through his hair a couple of times to illustrate this.
• The Reveal: The secret of the Zhat Vash is the knowledge of a past civilization that was destroyed when it created artificial life. They believe that any species which does the same will meet that end, and they will do anything to stop it.
• Sadistic Choice: Rios' CO Vandermeer is given a "black flag directive" by Starfleet Security (from Commodore Oh herself) to kill the Ambassador, Beautiful Flower, and his aide, Jana. If he refused, the ibn Majid would be destroyed with all hands.
• Sarcasm Mode: A suspicious Raffi "cheerfully" greets Soji after the latter beams aboard La Sirena.
  Raffi: Soji, I'm sorry, but your new best friend Jean-Luc already brought us one adorable little homicidal double agent.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Narissa and the rest of the Romulans crewing the Artifact flee as soon as they can once Seven and the rest of the ex-Borg establish control.
• Shout-Out: During his briefing with Clancy, Picard cites Don Quixote after Clancy admits that he was right.
  Picard: And now the windmills have turned out to be giants.
• Shown Their Work: The existence of an octonary star system is said to be next to impossible to exist naturally; the most ever seen has been seven, in a septonary system. In real life, humanity knows of two septonary systems, AR Cassiopaiae and Nu Scorpii (which is named in the episode), but we've never found an octonary system, and it is indeed highly unlikely to happen since systems with multiple stars in them tend to break apart into smaller systems.
• Sickly Green Glow: The Admonition, which has a pale green glow, is dangerous because almost everyone who touches it goes insane, and most will be Driven to Suicide.
• Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Picard's discussion with Rios while en route to the Transwarp Conduit terminus, ending it with the comment that fear is ultimately the "Great Destroyer."
• Single Tear: This is Narissa's reaction to the Admonition, combined with quiet horror at the things that it showed her.
• Some Kind Of Forcefield: When Soji hijacks his ship, Rios goes to stop her, but he's blocked by a forcefield that she has erected around the Bridge.
• Stunned Silence: Rios is so stunned when Soji beams aboard La Sirena that he doesn't even hear Picard's voice.
• Teleportation Rescue: Although the scene cuts away in the middle, it's evident that Narissa is saved from being mauled by xBs by a timely beam-out.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: The Romulans vent the compartments containing the unprocessed Borg before Seven can turn them to her side.
• Tongue-Tied: Oh placed a psychic block in Jurati's mind to keep her from communicating the specifics of what Oh showed her. She is able to provide a summary, however.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The memories in the Admonition are so terrible that the assimilated Ramdha, having been exposed to the memories, caused the Borg Cube to be severed from the Collective.
• Unusual User Interface: The neural interface in the queencell works by jabbing cables into Seven's spine.
• Villain Has a Point: After seeing what Soji can do, Rios wonders if the Romulans have good reason to fear synths.
  Rios: It took her all of five minutes to hack my ship, Picard, and now, maybe there's a whole planet of them. Raffi said the Romulans called her "the Destroyer". What if they're right?
  Picard: They may be right about what happened 200,000 years ago. The past is written, but the future is left for us to write, and we have powerful tools, Rios: openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy, and fear, and fear is the great destroyer, Rios.
• Voice of the Legion: When Seven becomes the Artifact's Queen, she begins to talk like this. And as the unprocessed Borg begin to activate as drones, they echo her words:
  Queen!Seven: WE ARE BORG.
• We Help the Helpless: Invoked by Elnor as the reason why he remained on the Artifact instead of escaping with Picard and Soji.
  Seven: Why didn't you go with them?
  Elnor: Picard released me, and I found a cause more lost than his.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Zhat Vash have the reasonable goal of protecting life from extinction based on what they discovered from the Admonition. Their methodology leaves something to be desired.
• Wham Shot:
  • When Captain Rios opens a box and looks at a drawing, the paper is translucent enough to show a figure that looks exactly like Soji.
  • The final shot of the episode is a cloaked ship following La Sirena into the transwarp conduit— possibly Narek reacquiring them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Absolutely no mention is made of the researchers and medical staff from other species and governments during the whole takeover of the cube.
• With All Due Respect:
  Adm. Clancy: Admiral Picard, with all due respect, and at long last, shut the fuck up!
• With My Hands Tied: Elnor has a clever method to free his bound hands and disarm an assailant. When a female guard attempts to stab him with his own sword, he moves in such a way that not only does she end up slicing the zip ties which were keeping him restrained, but he also knocks the tan qalanq out of her grasp so she can't attack him with it again. He then proceeds to strike her and another soldier until they fall unconscious.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Picard keeps talking over Clancy, trying to convince her to send him a squadron that she's already planning to send. She finally tells him to "shut the fuck up" so she can confirm that she will help.
• You Fool!: Raffi says this to Picard because he's far too trusting of strangers, which includes Jurati, who turned out to be a Zhat Vash mole.
  Raffi: I'm talking about how big a fool you really are.
• Zerg Rush: Under Seven's direction, the xBs swarm Narissa and overpower her through force of numbers, even though Narissa manages to kill at least a dozen of them before they can fully restrain her. She survives only because she's teleported elsewhere.

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