Recap / Star Trek: Picard S3E05 "Imposters"

Jack Crusher finds himself assailed by constant blood-spiderweb dreams and images of himself taking a phaser and blowing away everyone in sight. The dreams whisper, "Come home."

The Titan has made it back to Federation space and has dropped anchor to make some critical repairs. The four command staff — Picard, Shaw, Riker, and Seven — are still puzzling over how a Changeling imposter got onto the Titan before she left Spacedock. Not only does this imply The Conspiracy is way deeper than anyone thought, Starfleet is still using security checks left over from the Dominion War which are specifically designed to detect Changelings. Riker points out that Starfleet will also be expecting answers for Riker's and Picard's commandeering of the Titan and endangering of her crew. With that, Riker tells Captain Shaw that he has something to return to him and officially turns the chair back over. Shaw is still happy to be rid of them but asks if Seven would prefer to face the music with them re-instated — which she does — and grants her request. Then, in light of having become Fire-Forged Friends with them, he gives them some time alone together to get their "bullshit story" straight. Picard makes it clear that he'll take full responsibility for the debacle.

The USS Intrepid, NCC-79520, arrives, and a shuttle of Starfleet Intelligence officers comes over. It's Cmdr. Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes), back in Starfleet despite joining the Maquis 30 years ago. After surviving the Dominion war and the purge of the Maquis, she turned herself in to the Federation and served a prison sentence. She was subsequently recruited by Starfleet Intelligence due to her knowledge and tactics from both the Maquis and her own advanced Starfleet tactical training. She was put through an arduous training rehabilitation program and slowly worked her way back up the ranks. Picard, still stung by her betrayal, is angry that she is now representing Starfleet for his court-martial. He also notes that she is not wearing her Bajoran earring, for which he gave her special dispensation despite it being a dress code violation because it represented both her faith (important to Bajorans) and her family.

Worf's handler denies him and Raffi permission to access Daystrom Station. Raffi is furious and decides to simply break in herself— empirically speaking, it can be done, since Sneed's / T'Luco's group did it. Worf suggests they speak to Krinn, a Vulcan crime lord who worked with them, and the two venture out into M'Talas Prime to find him.

Beverly approaches Picard and requests permission to do an autopsy on the Changeling. She and Dr. Ohk investigate the Fake Sidney, which has retained its shape despite Changelings normally dissolving into goo on death. They encounter not only fake blood but fake organs, all of which hold their shape in the absence of conscious thought; the Changelings have evolved to the point where Starfleet's current TSA security protocols, which rely on the fact that Changeling flesh reverts (reverted to) to goo form if separated from the main body, are completely ineffective. She sends this knowledge to Picard, who uses it as an excuse to visit Sickbay and have a discussion about a private medical matter. However, this is thwarted when Ro pulls a phaser on him and directs him into the holodeck. At Ten Forward LA, the two have a heartfelt conversation about Ro's decision whether To Be Lawful or Good, and Picard's feelings of betrayal thereof... and, from the hurt, the confessions, the soul-baring, each learns that the other is not a Changeling. This is when Ro becomes a Conspiracy Theorist: she believes that Starfleet is compromised by Changelings at all levels, and has been consistently denied permission to open an investigation. (She won't even use the transporters for fear of a "Teleporter Accident".) She has had most of the Titan's crew beamed over to the Intrepid for debriefing: Picard can now commandeer the ship and run. As a parting gift, she gives him her Bajoran earring.

Raffi and Worf are captured by Krinn, who forces them to Duel to the Death. Raffi, to the Vulcan's surprise, wins. After having his mooks confirm the lack of pulse, he has Worf's body dragged off and announces that Raffi will join his crew. Raffi isn't interested, of course... And neither is Worf, who takes out the remaining mooks before giving a technobabble explanation about how he has mastered the art of controlling his heart rate. However, he was in fact stabbed, so the interrogation is a bit rushed. That said, Krinn knows when he's beaten: he invented some Phlebotinum that will allow them to break through Daystrom Station's security, and withholding it from his assailants would be illogical.

As Picard tries to argue with Shaw about going on the run, Ro's shuttle is sabotaged: her two Security Mooks set up a bomb, the same kind used to blow out the Titan's power conduits two episodes ago, and then beam back to the Titan. They shapeshift into Titan personnel and summon reinforcements to apprehend Jack Crusher. However, Jack taps into the blood-spiderweb dreams and unlocks his Superpowered Evil Side, taking the mooks in a four-on-one fight worthy of James Bond. Back up on the bridge, Picard suggests Ro turn around so that Seven can (try to) get a transporter lock, but Ro steers her shuttle towards the Intrepid's port warp nacelle; the explosion cripples the ship. Intrepid immediately orders Titan to surrender and prepare to be boarded, and Riker points out that they are about to be framed. Shaw, having no other choice, turns the ship and runs.

Picard, alone, mourns his friend, which he so recently got back and recently lost. Riker comes to comfort him, and Picard shows him the earring... which Riker recognizes as an old bit of spycraft. It is encoded with all of Ro Laren's investigation... including, apparently, her cellphone number, as it (the earring) is hailed while Picard and Riker page through the data. When they answer the phone, it's Worf, trying to reach his handler.

Beverly questions Jack about his mental health. He doesn't elaborate on the blood-spiderweb dreams, and when asked how he knew his assailants were Changelings, he says he didn't... and killed them anyway. "I think there's something very wrong with me."

---

Tropes:

• Adaptive Ability: It's revealed that Changelings have found some way to maintain their solid forms even upon death, requiring significantly more proof than the blood tests of the past.
• All for Nothing: Invokved by Picard when Intrepid is about to fire on Titan and Shaw's indecisive. He furiously states that if they don't run now, then Ro will have died for nothing and many more will follow.
• Art Evolution: The fight choreography for Klingon melee weapons has become far more sophisticated than what we previously saw during earlier Next Generation-era episodes.
• Back for the Dead: Commander Ro returns after her last appearance in TNG: "Preemptive Strike", 29 years ago. Sadly, she doesn't survive the episode.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: When Raffi presses Worf on what he's sacrificed for the mission, Worf chucks his dagger into the metal floor in anger. Raffi complains about him putting holes in the floor every time he needs to make a point.
• Bookends: Ro's final scene on TNG's "Preemptive Strike" took place in a (Maquis) shuttle. Her final scene in the franchise here likewise takes place in a shuttle.
• Brick Joke: When Picard and Ro discuss Frontier Day, Picard brings up again that he was supposed to give a speech.
• Bullying a Dragon: Terry Matalas has stated that the shot of the now-crippled Intrepid menacingly rising to attack Titan was very much intended to invoke this trope.
  Matalas: I wanted it to feel like you somehow managed to get a lucky strike off into a dragon and now he’s really pissed. So we played with light, sound & music to make it as intimidating as possible.
• Call-Back:
  • Guinan's penchant for keeping loaded weapons behind Ten Forward's bar (as a security precaution). Even the Ten Forward simulation incorporates this quirk of the El-Aurian's— something Picard exploits to gain access to a phaser when confronting what he believes is a Changeling posing as Ro. This also isn't the first time Picard has exploited a Holodeck against a hostile foe.
  • Ro's friendship with Guinan during TNG also gets brought up during this scene. Picard acidly asks Ro if she remembers Guinan (though it's also a test to see if this is really Ro and not a Changeling).
  • Raffi has access to a mobile emitter, 29th century tech that Voyager picked up in "Future's End". Starfleet has clearly managed to duplicate the tech in the interim.
  • When citing their historic accolades for possible leniency with Starfleet, Shaw points out to Picard and Riker that they could also remember the times they dropped the Enterprise-D saucer section on a planet, threw out the Prime Directive to "snog a villager" on Ba'ku, or nearly wiped out humanity with a time paradox in the Devron system.
• Calling the Old Man Out: A non-familial variation with Ro and Picard (though, in his way, he became a surrogate father figure to her during TNG). Ro's reunion with her former Captain is icy and bitter for both of them, as she blasts Picard's flaws and her own old resentments that have festered for 30 years.
• Canon Immigrant: Aspects of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Relaunch are formally canonized with Ro (her surviving the Dominion War and the eradication of the Maquis, eventually being granted amnesty by Starfleet and rejoining the organization, etc.).
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Krinn is initially defiant when Raffi and Worf have him dead-to-rights, reasoning that his intel makes him too valuable to kill. Raffi points out that Worf is presently bleeding to death and tells him to factor that in, at which point he gets a lot more cooperative.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • As they talk in Ten Forward, Ro mentions that she has very little evidence and no support: "All I have are a pair of Intelligence assets on the ground that I trust." They are, of course, Worf, House of Martok, and Raffaela, House of Musiker.
  • When Worf and Raffi return to M'talas Prime in search of Krinn, a mobile holo-emitter is visible on her arm, though it's not immediately obvious. When Krinn arrives, though, he spots it immediately and shoots it, disabling the hologram, while one of his henchmen captures the real Raffi, who was aiming a gun at his head from a nearby vantage point.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Ro Laren, someone Picard hasn't seen in 30 years, conveniently returns as a Starfleet Intelligence representative (let alone reinstated despite her treason during the Maquis crisis) just as the Titan has uncovered evidence of a Changeling infiltration? Picard justifiably calls bullshit and thinks she's a Changeling (especially after Beverly's autopsy reveals their new shapeshifting abilities). However, their confrontation in the Ten Forward simulation ultimately makes Picard realize this really is Ro and not a Changeling. Given her investigation, Ro's decision to confront Picard personally likely isn't a coincidence, either, being someone she could confirm isn't a Changeling through personal experience (and she's right).
  • Under Beverlys' request not to alert Starfleet, Picard and Riker quietly caught a ride on the Titan hoping to piggyback to get close enough to her location. During the battle with the Shrike it's revealed that the Titan had a Mole operating under Vadics' orders, which seemed absurd given how random the conflict came about. This episode reveals the Changeling infiltration is throughout Starfleet and is not just a handful of minions, while maybe not on every ship there was likely to be one close enough to cause trouble.
• Continuity Nod:
  • According to Worf's research, the late Sneed's associates include FCA Liquidator Brunt, Morn, Thadiun Okona, and Larell.
  • The display indicating that Intrepid is raising shields uses the same outline of dots graphic from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, albeit with much better graphics that transition into a rendering of the shield bubble.
• Court-martialed: Picard, Riker, and Seven are facing a prospective one over the events of the preceding episodes, though this is the least of their problems once the depth of the Changeling infiltration becomes apparent.
• Crazy-Prepared: Downplayed, but Picard's had a conversation rehearsed and ready to go for 30 years in the event his and Ro's paths ever crossed again, and even learned Bajoran just to get his point across. While it's not outright stated, it's also obvious Ro's done the same and rehearsed her side of this potential conversation over the years.
• Death by Irony: A variation with Ro. She survived the Dominion's purge of the Maquis, only to still end up getting killed by the Dominion (albeit rogue Founders) decades later. Adding to the irony, Ro — a Starfleet officer who infiltrated the Maquis (i.e. a Federation Renegade Splinter Faction) and ended up defecting — is killed by another Renegade Splinter Faction that's infiltrated Starfleet.
• Death Glare: Picard has an icy one on his face upon seeing Ro Laren again for the first time after her betrayal 30 years ago.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Because they were surrounded and outgunned, Worf allows Raffi to stab him when pitted against each other by Krinn and uses his meditation techniques to slow his heart rate for Faking the Dead. When dragged off screen he was able to overwhelm the now split up Krinn security and return with the upper hand, though struggling from the original injury.
• Easily Forgiven: Defied. Picard is outraged that not only has Ro Laren become reinstated into Starfleet after betraying him and joining the Maquis, but is now interrogating him for treason.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Among the past incidents that Shaw cites against Picard and Riker, he mentions the anti-time anomaly in the Devron system from "All Good Things..." supposedly "nearly [wiping] out all of humanity" — except the anomaly never even came to be or have any effects in the first place because Picard and his crew passed Q's self-contained test, and the only reason anyone knows about it at all or in any detail would be from Picard's own reports after the fact, as Q left him as the only one who remembered the branching timeline(s) involved.
  • Shaw also cites Picard romancing Anij on the Ba'ku planet in Insurrection as "throwing the Prime Directive out the window", but as Admiral Dougherty (though corrupt) pointed out in that movie, the Prime Directive didn't apply to the Ba'ku as they had formerly long been a space-faring species and retained knowledge of all that technology, even if they chose not to use it.
  • Furthermore, Shaw lists the Enterprise-D primary hull crash-landing on Veridian III in Generations as another strike against them, but Riker and those still aboard were following established emergency procedures in the circumstances, and they crash-landed on an uninhabited planet, as it was instead Veridian IV that had the (unseen) pre-warp civilization. Admittedly, though, they did manage the Epic Fail of losing the Enterprise-D, a top-of-the-line Starfleet vessel, to an old and obsolete model of Klingon Bird-of-Prey.
• Evil Evolves: The renegade Founders have somehow modified their genetics or refined their shapeshifting in the interim since the Dominion War. They can now accurately mimic organs, bleed convincingly, and hold their shape to such an extent that even dead they have to be dissected to return to gelatinous form. Even Starfleet's full-body imaging scanners, developed after the Dominion War to expose Changelings, can't detect them.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Beverly's autopsy of "Sidney LaForge" documents the differences in this dead Changeling compared to previous deaths on Deep Space Nine... and she slowly realizes all of Starfleet's Dominion War-era blood tests and other Changeling detection methods are now completely useless.
• False Flag Operation: The Changelings engineer the destruction of Ro's shuttle both to kill a major threat to their conspiracy and to manufacture a casus belli to fire on (and possibly destroy) the now "hostile" Titan-A. The only Spanner in the Works is that they didn't anticipate that Ro would do a kamikaze run on one of Intrepid's warp nacelles, preventing the ship from pursuing.
• Faking the Dead: Worf allows Raffi to stab him during their Forced Prize Fight and slows his heartbeat to fake his death. After ambushing Krinn, he then admits he's bleeding pretty badly and will need medical attention to avoid actually being dead.
• Family of Choice: A theme of this episode. Krinn and Sneed were not brothers by blood, but they had a brother's bond. Ro is not Picard's daughter, but they had a daughter/father bond.
• Fatal Flaw: Worf cites impulsiveness, stubbornness, and shortsightedness as Raffi's. Raffi (non-verbally as part of a sneak attack) cites Worf's nobility and inability to shut up as his.
• First-Name Basis: After reconciling with Picard, Ro begins calling him Jean-Luc.
• Flat "What": This is Raffi's reaction to Starfleet Intelligence unexpectedly denying them permission to access Daystrom Station.
• Forced Prize Fight: Krinn forces Raffi and Worf to fight to the death, or he'll kill them both.
• Frame-Up: After Ro's shuttle destroys one of the Intrepid's nacelles, they demand the Titan surrender. Riker spells out for Shaw that they're being framed for what happened and have to run.
• Fugitive Arc: By episode's end, the Titan is forced to go on the run to evade the Changeling conspiracy and a compromised Starfleet.
• Heroic BSoD: Picard enters it after Ro's death. He's forced to snap out of it once the Intrepid prepares to attack Titan. Riker also gets hit with it and while he holds it together better than Picard, you can hear his grief and fury over Ro's death in his voice while explaining the Frame-Up to Shaw.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Rather than attempt to save herself and potentially fail, Ro rams her shuttle into the Intrepid's nacelle, both it and the bomb ensuring the Intrepid won't be pursuing the Titan.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Seven forces Jack to dress as Starfleet, so he won't stick out like a sore thumb in civilian clothes.
• Hope Spot:
  • Worf requested access to Daystrom Station following "Seventeen Seconds" and he and Raffi are eager to continue the investigation into the true purpose of the Changelings' Kansas City Shuffle. However, Starfleet Intelligence unexpectedly denies their request.
  • The arrival of the Intrepid is one for Shaw. Despite working with Riker and Picard to survive Vadic and the Shrike, he's all but gleeful to not only be rid of them, but to also see them hit with a prospective court martial for endangering the Titan and her crew. It doesn't last, as the revelation of the Changeling conspiracy and the frame-up against the Titan mean Shaw has no choice but to stick it out with Picard and Riker.
• How Did You Know? I Didn't: Beverly asks Jack how he knew the four officers were Changelings. Horrified, he admits he didn't, having killed them on instinct.
• Hyperspeed Escape: The Titan manages to warp out moments before its nacelles get redecorated by two torpedoes from the Intrepid.
• Insane Troll Logic: Krinn wouldn't be the first Vulcan to invoke "logic" to justify whatever he wants it to, but "There can be no utopia without crime, ergo an organized criminal enterprise is logical," really takes the cake.
• Internal Reveal: Having been cut off from the larger Federation during the last four episodes, Picard finally learns of the Changeling attack on the Recruitment Center.
• Knighting: Shaw does a faux version of this when he asks Seven if she'd like to be reinstated prior to her court-martial, using a chopping motion on each shoulder to confirm she's been returned to duty.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Krinn is reluctant to give in to Worf and Raffi's demands, even with his mooks dead, but when Raffi points out that Worf is slowly bleeding to death and they won't risk letting him go, he realizes cooperation is the logical choice.
• Last-Name Basis: Even though the Enterprise-D crew is largely on a first-name basis throughout this season — and Riker even addresses Shaw as "Liam" at one point — Ro Laren is continually addressed as "Ro."^note Remember that Bajoran names list the surname first.
• Leitmotif: Jerry Goldsmith's "Klingon Theme" again plays as Worf's during his sparring match with Raffi.
• Mexican Standoff: Picard and Ro both wind up in one during the Ten Forward simulation confrontation, as each character believes the other's a Changeling.
• Mistaken for Betrayal: Finally after the events of "Preemptive Strike" over 29 years ago, Ro and Picard get a chance to hash out who betrayed whom. They both come to accept that they didn't truly betray each other, and they finally reconcile.
• Never My Fault: Ro still feels that she made the right choice defecting to the Maquis thirty years ago — though deep down, and despite her anger and resentments towards Picard, she does still regret betraying him.
• Nightmare Sequence: The episode opens on Jack dreaming about murdering the bridge crew. Esmar, the last survivor, claims to know who he is before red cracks and vines begin growing on the walls, floors, and them.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat:
  • Starfleet unexpectedly denies Worf's request to visit Daystrom Station, and Worf gathers from his handler's order to "find another way" that she is also being stonewalled. It later turns out that the Changelings, having infiltrated leadership, are likely responsible for covering up the scope of the Changeling threat.
  • Picard asks why Ro didn't go to someone in Starfleet beyond reproach like Admiral Janeway. Ro answers that every time she tried, she was blocked off, not even able to get a message onto Janeway's call list, which convinced her someone was making sure her suspicions didn't go far.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Jack dreams of himself murdering the bridge crew in a command uniform, and wakes with a phaser in his hand. He is understandably horrified when Seven forces him to wear an identical uniform as a disguise.
  • What starts as a moment of silence for Ro's sacrifice becomes a herald of terror as the Intrepid begins to right itself and raises shields, now bent on disabling or destroying the Titan for Ro's murder.
• Old Master: Worf again has very much become this in the decades since Nemesis.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • When Riker and Picard are facing court martial, Shaw is almost gleeful in pointing out their history:
    Riker: You know, we have saved the galaxy more than a few times.
    Picard: And hopefully they'll remember.
    Shaw: Or they might remember that time someone hot-dropped the saucer section of the Enterprise-D on a planet, or that time that someone threw the Prime Directive out the window so they could snog a villager on Ba'ku, or the time you boys nearly wiped out all of humanity by creating a time paradox in the Devron system. Basically, when it comes to rescues from danger, you two have a real "chicken or egg" thing happening.
    Picard: Those were the days...
  • Picard is still nursing a grudge over Ro's betrayal thirty years later, unaware of her being brought to justice in the interim.
• Palm Bloodletting: Ro slits her palm so that her blood can prove to Picard that she's not a Changeling. This, however, comes shortly before Beverly covertly informs him that the new Changelings can pass blood tests, meaning that Ro proved nothing.
• Paranoia Fuel: In-universe example. The renegade Founders are back to their old Dominion infiltration/subterfuge tricks — and this time, Starfleet's Dominion War-era detection methods are completely useless. Anyone could be a Changeling, and nothing short of butchering them can definitively prove it. Ro in particular has seen better days and been run ragged by her own paranoia over the infiltration.
• Pet the Dog: Though it's done with plenty of sarcasm, Shaw excuses himself from the conference room so Picard, Riker and Seven can "get [their] bullshit story straight".
• Properly Paranoid: Ro has taken multiple precautions to protect herself from the Changeling infiltration (such as traveling by shuttlecraft to avoid a transporter "accident"). Unfortunately for her, it's ultimately not paranoid enough and the Changelings still take her out, though not before she can pull a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Rank Up: After returning to Starfleet, Ro Laren has now advanced to the rank of Commander.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Having survived the Dominion's purge of the Maquis, Ro did time in a Federation prison before being recruited by Starfleet Intelligence. It's justified, as Ro was a graduate of Advanced Tactical Training. Combine that with skills she picked up while with the Maquis and she's still a valuable asset for tradecraft operations.
• Redemption Equals Death: While Ro still firmly believes her decision to join the Maquis was the right one, she does reconcile with Picard. Just before her death, he tells her he finally sees that she never betrayed him as a person or her beliefs in doing the right thing. Her final act is to save his life and everyone else on the Titan.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • Jack's eyes glow red after his nightmare, and again when he imagines the transporter scrambling a bunch of people.
  • Done symbolically with the Intrepid, which has four glowing red spots from the phaser arrays being charged as it slowly levels out to face the Titan. Her torpedo tube also begins glowing red just before she opens fire.
• The Reveal:
  • The renegade Founders have somehow refined or altered their shapeshifting in the interim since leaving the Great Link. Either way, every single detection method and blood test Starfleet developed during Deep Space Nine is now completely and utterly useless for unmasking Dominion infiltrators. This is why the Changeling in the previous episode didn't revert when killed (as was previously the case during such deaths on DS9).
  • Ro Laren is (until her death) Worf's handler. She survived the Dominion's purge of the Maquis on Deep Space Nine and served a Federation prison sentence before being recruited and reinstated by Starfleet Intelligence.
• Sadistic Choice: Shaw's in his own no-win scenario by the episode's climax when Intrepid prepares to fire on Titan. If he surrenders to Intrepid, the Changelings onboard will kill everyone with knowledge of the conspiracy and Ro will have died for nothing (to say nothing of the crewmen injured trying to stop Vadic from capturing Jack). If they exchange fire with Intrepid, they risk injuring or killing the majority of the Titan crew who were already transferred over before Ro's shuttle was destroyed. If they run, the remaining Titan crew will become fugitives. Shaw ultimately and grudgingly has to accept the third option.
• Sequel Episode: To TNG's "Preemptive Strike", finally following up on Ro Laren's ultimate fate and the long-awaited reckoning between her and Picard over her betrayal.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • Picard turns off the Holodeck safety protocols by finding a control panel behind the bar and clicking "Off". Previously, this safety feature (when it wasn't arbitrarily disabled by a Holodeck Malfunction) required at the very least voice authorization from a ranking officer, though Picard admittedly qualifies for the latter even if he isn't an officer of the Titan specifically.
  • Blood tests to root out Changelings was not just demonstrating they can bleed, but sampling the blood with a hypospray or dropping the blood on to the table because once separated from the main form it would revert to the liquid form. That said, the episode does establish previous Changeling detection methods have become obsolete.
• Starfish Language: The Changelings communicate with each other using clicks, just as Vadic's crew did.
• Something Only They Would Say: Picard and Ro are equally suspicious of each other, but when they pour their hearts out over Ro defecting to the Maquis, each knows that the other is the genuine article.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Picard, Riker, and Seven are all facing a prospective court martial over the events of the preceding four episodes. After all, Picard and Riker did commit fraud by falsely presenting themselves as part of a surprise inspection, and almost got the Titan-A destroyed (on top of the crew casualties from Vadic's attack) in the pursuit of their own goals, however well-intentioned they may have been. Seven was also an accessory to this fraud, running interference against Shaw and giving them access to a Titan shuttle. Picard even lampshaded to Riker back in "The Next Generation" that this was a likely outcome for both of them if they got caught.
    • Similarly, while Shaw had to work with Riker and Picard to survive the Shrike crisis — and has mellowed out a little — he still doesn't particularly like either man. Shaw also (rightly) holds them responsible for the entire Vadic debacle and for endangering his ship and crew. So, while he does give them and Seven a chance to "get [their] bullshit stories straight", Shaw is understandably relieved, if not joyful, to be rid of both of them and to see them facing the music (at least until everything goes sideways again).
  • Even with the end of the Dominion War, the Federation still has an uneasy peace with the Gamma Quadrant. So Starfleet has remained vigilant against a repeat of the Changelings' infiltration campaign during the Federation-Dominion Cold War years. The detection methods developed during Deep Space Nine have been refined with the lessons from the War and the advances in technology and bio-science in the decades since the Battle of Cardassia. Unfortunately, much like with the Romulans and the cloaking devices/detection technological arms race, the Founders have also kept up and evolved to match Starfleet's efforts.
• Switch to English: Inverted when Picard switches to Bajoran during his argument with Ro.
  Picard: When you first came on the Enterprise, your Bajoran earring violated the uniform dress code.
  Ro: We've been through all of this.
  Picard: Yes, but you claimed it represented the family you'd lost. And I allowed it only to realize it was for your ego. Dabaldor rut gahar sahay ut see-grem faren. (An ego that would lead to you betray me.)
  Ro: Your Bajoran has improved.
  Picard: Oh, I have been rehearsing this conversation for 30 years.
• Sworn Brothers: Krinn says that Sneed was his brother, as they had a blood oath.
• Taking the Heat: With him, Riker, and Seven facing a prospective court martial, Picard is prepared to take the brunt of the blame to protect them.
• Teleporter Accident:
  • Ro is now intentionally traveling by shuttlecraft to avoid getting killed by a Changeling-engineered transporter "accident".
  • Jack has a vision of a group of officers getting scrambled by the transporter, which combined with his previous vision of a murder spree is even more unsettling to him.
• Teleport Interdiction: The Changeling bomb also blocks transporters to prevent Ro from beaming to safety, convincing her to use her last moments to buy the Titan a chance to escape.
• Tempting Fate: Just like in the first episode, Shaw expresses glee about finally having Picard and Riker off his ship and awaiting a court martial so he can get back to his neat and orderly life. So, of course everything goes sideways and he gets dragged along into a Fugitive Arc. Man needs to get his pogo stick off of the Tempting Fate button.
• Time Skip: Raffi's dialogue reveals that 24 hours have passed on their end since the events of "Seventeen Seconds".
• Tragic Keepsake: Subverted. Ro leaves her earring with Picard. He's confused as to why, but Riker realizes it's actually a disguised datachip containing the entirety of her investigation, as well as her secure line to Worf.
• Tranquil Fury: Picard's reunion with Ro Laren 30 years after she betrayed him.
• Uncertain Doom: The signal between Ro's shuttle and the Titan is cut off a few seconds before her shuttle is destroyed, so we don't know for certain if she died in the explosion or if she escaped at the last moment.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Zigzagged with Worf and Raffi's plan to get at Krinn. Although they never discuss their original plan on camera (Worf using a hologram of Raffi, who watches over him with a sniper phaser), it fails and they get captured. However, they do eventually manage to turn the table on him (by having Worf faking the dead), although it is not entirely clear if this was part of their plan from the beginning.
• Villain Respect: YMMV on villainy, but Ro is genuinely impressed that Picard's become fluent in the Bajoran language since their days aboard the Enterprise-D (something which Picard did specifically to get his point across to Ro in the event they ever crossed paths again).
• Vomit Discretion Shot: La Forge vomits just offscreen at the sight of her dead Changeling copy.
• We Are Everywhere: Ro feels this about the Changelings, convinced that they're placed in the highest levels of Starfleet. She indicates that she doesn't even trust her own security mooks, rightfully so as it turns out. That said, her paranoia clearly didn't go far enough, since they still manage to plant a bomb on her shuttle and beam out. Jack manages to kill four Changelings from the Intrepid who tried to capture him, which only highlights the extensiveness of their infiltration of Starfleet.
• Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: Ro Laren's ultimate fate following her defection to the Maquis, which has been one of the biggest loose ends of the 24th Century era, is finally revealed. Ro survived the Dominion's destruction of the Maquis and did time in Federation prison before being quietly recruited by Starfleet Intelligence.
• The Worf Effect: Seemingly Played Straight when Raffi delivers a fatal stab wound to the Trope Namer despite the obvious disparity in size and skill...only for it to be Subverted when the not-quite-dead Worf kills Krinn's mooks despite bleeding heavily, revealing he threw the fight on purpose.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Picard implores Shaw to trust him when he says they have to run. Shaw is skeptical, but the fact that the Intrepid is about to fire upon them (on top of Ro's murder) convinces him to go along with it.

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