Recap / Star Trek: Picard S3E07 "Dominion"

As the Titan-A lurks in the Chin'toka system's Derelict Graveyard, Seven of Nine makes contact with an old friend: Captain Tuvok (Tim Russ). He has not been able to reach Admiral Janeway either, though he surmises that the preparations for Frontier Day, a mere 36 hours from now, are occupying her attention. The bridge crew are running all sorts of scans on Tuvok's voice print, but in the end it's down to Seven to Bluff the Imposter: she references their games of kal-toh, and he reminds her that she won most of them, to her relief: it's the real Tuvok. He agrees to summon allies and meet her at Aklion VII, where she had her neural pattern stabilized... Apparently forgetting that he did this back in the Delta Quadrant (VOY: "Infinite Regress"). Now revealed, the Changeling admits that they have the real Tuvok hostage... and implies that his fate will be much the same as Will Riker's.

Picard and Crusher discuss the current situation — the ship is still at large but without allies; Worf and Raffi are Put on a Bus to go do Intelligence stuff — and ruminate on what they learned during the last episode. Their hypothesis is that the Changelings want to break into Frontier Day, meaning they'll need to pass Starfleet's DNA scanners. As such, they need Picard's DNA (from his corpse) and Jack's blood to make a super-fake Changeling Picard. Meanwhile, La Forge, who is still working on Daystrom Android M-5-10, explains (and eventually demonstrates) to Picard that both Data and Lore's personalities are stored within, and are battling for control of the hardware platform. Lore implies that, per Altan Soong's genetic scans, something else is up with Picard's DNA, something that throws the old "Irumodic Syndrome" diagnosis into question, but won't say what. We get a potential answer belowdecks, where Jack and Sidney find themselves in a turbolift together. Their Unresolved Sexual Tension is somewhat derailed by the implication that Jack's glowing red eyes allow him to read her mind. He visits Picard and admits that there's more to the story of his uniqueness, but won't admit what it is, instead suggesting that maybe it is time for him to give himself up — especially since Starfleet has been playing from behind this whole time. Picard suggests he has an idea to turn those tables.

The Shrike arrives at the Titan's location. The ship is dead in the water, near the hulk of a Vulcan warship which is broadcasting logs: apparently, it engaged the Titan and both ships were crippled in the fight. Vadic, knowing her deadline is approaching, decides that Trap Is the Only Option and goes in. Jack and Sidney play bait, and up at the bridge, Shaw and Seven drop force fields to trap Vadic and her Changeling soldiers in the corridors... but not before Jack and Sidney manage to get themselves trapped as well. Vadic, captured, goes on her Motive Rant to Picard and Crusher: she and nine other Changelings were kept at Daystrom Station, where an Evilutionary Biologist under the auspices of "Project Proteus" performed experiments on them. From these experiments she learned the new "keep my form, have fake blood, etc" tricks her people are using to fool Starfleet's TSA checks, and formed the Renegade Splinter Faction to revenge themselves on the Federation. Picard and Crusher, though clearly torn about the choice, decide to execute their prisoner in cold blood and simplify the problem immensely.

Down in Engineering, the whole plan goes awry: Lore emerges triumphant from the Battle in the Center of the Mind and, hooked up to a computer, succeeds in taking over the whole ship. Vadic escapes, and her mooks are turned loose on Jack and Sidney. La Forge makes an impassioned plea to his friend, and Data takes the day, regaining control of Daystrom Android M-5-10 and resetting the ship's systems. Meanwhile, Jack uses his mind-reading powers to telepathically walk Sidney through the fight, allowing her to survive and take down her opponent. And Picard and Crusher, looking up files on Project Proteus, learns that the captive Changelings were injected with a very specific radioactive isotope, rendering them detectable.

But the damage has been done: Vadic and her one remaining mook get on the bridge and take it over. (More mooks spawn from Behind the Black.) Vadic calls out over the PA system to Jack Crusher, claiming it's time for him to learn who he really is.

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Tropes:

• Achilles' Heel: Once they learn the details of the experiment that created the altered changelings Beverly identifies a chemical compound with a specific half-life, something they can calibrate their scanners to detect and track them. Despite their more refined shapeshifting abilities, they have new limitations.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Vadic and her crew board and invade the Titan. Despite a promising start where the Changelings are contained by forcefields, Lore throws a wrench into that plan and they ultimately seize the ship.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's left unclear when specifically Tuvok was replaced by the rogue Changelings. It's implied to be at least several months, if his comment about not speaking with Janeway for some time was truthful (which makes sense as, given their longtime friendship, Janeway could spot any inconsistencies). However, he also fails the second Bluff the Imposter, but knew at least enough basic knowledge to pass the first. This suggests that Tuvok's impersonation and replacement may have been rushed, once they realized Seven and the Titan were now involved against them — and thus Seven would inevitably seek out her old crew for help.
• Author Appeal: Terry Matalas has admitted that, having gotten his Trek start as a PA on Voyager, there was a personal appeal to bringing back Tim Russ/Tuvok.
• Bad Boss: Vadic's superior is now resorting to torturing her over "conference" call for failing to find Jack. His dialogue also implies that he's not a Changeling or a Solid, but a Greater-Scope Villain that hasn't been revealed yet.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Vadic is part of a batch of Changelings experimented on by Starfleet to improve their abilities. Several of them were killed by the experiments, fueling her rage towards Starfleet.
• Beyond Redemption: Picard and Beverly conclude from their talk with Vadic that there's simply no way to end things peacefully. Vadic is driven solely by hatred and nothing they do will quell it.
• Bluff the Imposter: Seven mentions her games of kal-toh with Tuvok, and he accurately notes that she beat him numerous times. Then she suggests Aklion VII as a meeting point, citing it as the place where she had her neural patterns stabilized. He fails that check because he doesn't consider the anti-Kolinahr protests held there, and the event she speaks of happened on Voyager with Tuvok's help.
• Body Horror: Vadic's superior punishes her by involuntarily triggering her shapeshifting and leaving her locked between Solid and Liquid forms.
• Call-Back: According to Production Designer David Blass, the appearance and staging of Ghoul Riker was an homage to Admiral Riker's first appearance in the possible future from "All Good Things".
• The Cameo: Seven contacts Tuvok in an attempt to figure out where Riker is being held. Unfortunately, it isn't Tuvok, but a Changeling impersonator.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Titan hides in a Derelict Graveyard in the Chin'toka System, one of the battlegrounds of the Dominion War.
  • The events of "Infinite Regress" are mentioned as part of Seven's Bluff the Imposter gambit with Tuvok (and ultimately help expose him as a Changeling).
• Crazy-Prepared: The memory partition inside the Data Golem. Altan Soong had hoped Data and Lore's personalities would integrate with the other memory files and allow Data to finally become fully human in his way. However, Lore is Lore and thus Altan was rightly worried Lore's personality might seize control and consume Data.
• Create Your Own Villain: The altered Changelings originated from Vadic, who was captured during the Dominion War and experimented on by a Starfleet Mad Scientist for years. Vadic killed the human in charge and took her form, then retrieved the chemical vials that caused their mutation to be distributed among other Changelings looking for revenge. While there is still a Greater-Scope Villain behind Vadic, their personal anger and hatred towards Starfleet is justified and being more perfect infiltrators is exactly what they were designed to be.
• Derelict Graveyard: The Titan-A and her crew hide in one of these in the formerly Dominion-controlled Chin'toka system near Cardassian space, last seen in Deep Space Nine. In a distant counterpoint to the previous episode's visit to the Fleet Museum, somewhere out there in the field of wreckage probably still drifts the remains of the first U.S.S. Defiant, destroyed by a Breen energy dampening weapon and concentrated fire at the disastrous Second Battle of Chin'toka as depicted in "The Changing Face of Evil", late in DS9's seventh season.
• Didn't See That Coming: Vadic admits that she didn't anticipate how loyal Riker and Troi would be to Picard, or that they wouldn't break under torture.
• Downer Ending: The plan to entrap Vadic fails thanks to Lore, leading to her and her Changelings successfully seizing control of the Titan and in a position to finally capture Jack.
• Enemy Mine: Zigzagged. Lore technically doesn't join forces with Vadic. That said, Lore does invoke this basic trope as his motive for helping the Changelings by deactivating the Titan force fields.
  Geordi: What do you want, Lore?!
  Lore: No more than you want for your children. Nothing more than these Changelings want. Survival. It's... human nature, pal. Allow me to level the playing field. The enemy of my enemies... Well, you know the rest.
• Equivalent Exchange: Project Proteus was this for Vadic and her faction. While the experiments enhanced their physiology and shapeshifting abilities (and can also be passed on to other Changelings), it was at the cost of shorter lifespans and almost constant pain.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After Seven exposes "Tuvok", she slowly realizes that while the Changeling failed the second test, he was able to pass the first one. Her games of Kal-toh with Tuvok about Voyager were personal, private information — which means the only way the Founders would know this was if they'd "spoken" with Tuvok. That means this isn't just a Changeling posing as Tuvok, but that they specifically captured and interrogated the Vulcan to trick Seven — and her old friend may now very well be dead.
• Face Stealer: Flashbacks reveal Vadic's humanoid form is intentionally modeled after the Starfleet scientist who tortured her and her siblings (and whom Vadic eventually murdered). Vadic adopted the look as her private "Fuck You" — a reminder of her hate for the Federation and what they did to the Changelings every time she looks in the mirror.
  • Vadic's adoption of her jailer's form also serves as a twisted parallel to the backstory of Odo, who modeled his own solid appearance on the Bajoran scientist (Mora Pol) who studied him.
• Failed a Spot Check: As the systems are working against him, Geordi asks, "what is doing this"...as he walks right by the android with the murderous alternate personality plugged into the ship's computer system.
• Fate Worse than Death: Changeling Tuvok's gloating promise to Seven after she demands to know if the real Tuvok is still alive.
  Changeling Tuvok: All I can tell you is: when we are done with [the real Tuvok] — when we are done with all of you — death will come as a relief.
• Faux Affably Evil: Lore's still a smooth-talker to the old Enterprise crew, but he has no lost love for them and will happily destroy them.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Again, from the perspective of the Data copy inside the Golem, it's still 2379, though he adapts quickly once Picard explains that it's been a while.
• Friend on the Force: Seven approaches Tuvok in the hopes he can serve this role and give them intel on Riker's whereabouts after being captured at Daystrom. Alas, of course, he turns out to be a false friend.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • The beginning of the episode. The Titan has recovered Data and learned what was stolen from Daystrom, but it doesn't do much to help them. 36 hours are now left until Frontier Day and they're running out of places to hide from the compromised Starfleet. Worse, the Changelings also got to Tuvok, which eliminates another avenue of alerting Admiral Janeway (and also means they can't seek out any other Voyager allies as Seven had hoped).
  • The whole episode, arguably. Not only is Tuvok found to be in Changeling captivity (or possibly worse), the attempt to trap Vadic and her underlings backfires horribly due to Lore's Spanner in the Works and they end up taking over the Titan-A, killing several of her already minimal crew, and preparing to take Jack by force.
• Frontline General: Vadic personally leads the boarding of the Titan.
• Fugitive Arc: The Titan is still on the run from the compromised-Starfleet. This is actually one of the catalysts for their trap for Vadic: Geordi's running out of ideas for potential hiding places and they can't evade Starfleet indefinitely.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Lampshaded after Vadic listens to Crusher threatening to violate the Hippocratic Oath and figures that Picard will be the "understanding" to Crusher's "cruel".
• Greater-Scope Villain: Vadic's boss, who is implied to not be a Changeling from his dialogue.
• He's Back!: Played horrifically when Lore manages to seize full control of the Data Golem.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Vadic's motives are transparent, but the Face's obsession with Jack and mocking of both Changelings and Solids suggests destroying the Federation isn't as important to him as it is her.
• Hope Spot:
  • Tuvok passes Seven's first Bluff the Imposter test, signifying he's the real deal and they've got a key Voyager ally on their side. Then, Seven quietly performs one more test just to be safe — and "Tuvok" flunks it, revealing he is actually a Changeling and their potential allies are all compromised. The soundtrack even plays the Voyager theme as if indicating it's two old friends coming together — something Terry Matalas has confirmed was intentional — only to cut out when the ruse is revealed.
  • The Titan gambit works, they've got Vadic and her crew contained, her motives are clearer, and they have a means of detecting the evolved Changelings. And then everything goes to hell because of Lore.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Similar to Moriarty with Riker and Worf last episode, Lore has the same mocking and sneering opinion of the (from his perspective) now-elderly Picard (and to a lesser extent Geordi).
  Lore: [That would explain] why you're so old. Time has been very cruel to you, [Picard].
• Hypocrite:
  • Played for Black Comedy when Lore sneers at the-now centenarian Picard and how time has been cruel to him — all the while ignoring his current shell is a septuagenarian version of the basic Soong android template.
  • Vadic complains that Starfleet attempted genocide on her people and declares their own behavior "warfare". The Dominion infected rebellious populations in their corner of the galaxy with bioweapons, tried to wipe out Bajor and its entire star system before the war even started and tried to completely bomb Cardassia to the ground for rebelling against them with explicit orders to exterminate the Cardasians, so she doesn't have much of a leg to stand on in that department.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Geordi pleads with Data to overcome Lore when Lore hijacks the Titan-A's systems. It takes some doing, but Data succeeds.
  Geordi: Data, I know you're in there. So I need you to listen to me because life rarely gives you second chances to say what you should. Okay? Data, you made me better. You did. You made a better man, a-a... a better father. A better friend. And when you died... it broke me. But, see, you... You put me back together, you repaired me. It-it... The-the memory of you.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Changeling impersonating Tuvok, once uncovered by Seven, claims that their group's plan will result in a Fate Worse than Death for all Solids involved, before changing to an undead-looking echo of the imprisoned Riker to play on the main characters' fears even further.
• It's All About Me: A variation with Vadic during her Motive Rant. In spite of being subservient to her boss, Vadic is still a Changeling and thus still possesses the arrogance that was part and parcel of the Founders on DS9. As far as Vadic's concerned, Starfleet's attempted genocide of her people is a far worse crime than the Dominion's invasion of the Alpha Quadrant and the millions of lives lost (and nearly a billion in the case of the Cardassians) — and countless worlds left devastated all in the name of their holy crusade to Never Be Hurt Again.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Vadic recalls the scientist who experimented on her and her fellow Changelings whistling while she did so — it would appear that "Three Blind Mice" will persevere into the 24th century.
• It's Personal: Vadic's boast to Picard and Beverly:
  Vadic: The Federation took my family. Now I will take yours.
• Leitmotif: Very cleverly used when Seven speaks with Tuvok. The Voyager theme begins playing after he passes the Trust Password, musically signifying this is the real Tuvok and they've got a key Voyager ally on their side. As soon as he fails Seven's second test, however, the Voyager theme cuts out and the music goes sinister.
• Mandatory Line: Jonathan Frakes appears for only about five seconds, after the Tuvok imposter changes to his (Riker's) form to taunt our heroes.
• Mind Hive: Data and Lore are partitioned into each half of the android's positronic brain and are vying for control (Soong and B-4 are mere memory files, by comparison). Lore takes over in the climax, also seizing control of the ship, but Data is able to reassert himself with some pleading from Geordi.
• Name One: When Vadic claims that solids like humans ruin every planet they touch, Picard challenges her to name one. Her response: "Mine."
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: The Titan was hiding from the fleet among the wreckages of previous battles powered down, but still have to rotate between them to stay under the radar.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • During the war, Section 31 used Daystrom Station to experiment on Changeling prisoners of war, giving them the ability to mimic those they shapeshift into down to the cellular level. Then said Changelings escaped, brought this gift back to their own kind, and used their further-justified hatred of the Federation to go rogue from the Great Link and bring down Starfleet once and for all. Really, between Control and the Changeling Virus, you'd think someone at Starfleet should put more oversight on their black ops division.
  • The late Ro Laren transferring most of the Titan crew to the Intrepid two episodes ago posthumously comes back to bite Shaw and Team Picard. Once Lore lets Vadic and her team out of the traps the Titan set, they're able to bum rush and overpower the skeleton crew and easily seize control of the ship.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While it comes a bit late to help immediately, Vadic choosing to elaborate on her backstory and identify the name of the experimental program that enhanced her shapeshifting allows Beverly to figure out a means to detect the evolved Changelings through a specific isotope in the serum that allows them to maintain their forms.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The anti-Kolinahr demonstrations on Aklion VII, which Seven uses to expose "Tuvok".
  • Geordi's dialogue after they cut the call with "Tuvok" implies he's not the first person they've contacted who either wouldn't help them, or had also been compromised.
• Oh, Crap!: Geordi's reaction upon realizing Lore's personality's now in complete control of the Data Golem.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Vadic doesn't revert to her Laughing Mad act upon finishing the "conference call" with her superior (and as she previously did back in "No Win Scenario"). Instead, Vadic's morose and exhausted.
• Phone-Trace Race: When Seven contacts "Tuvok", the Founders initially don't do this to avoid alerting their quarry anything is wrong. They instead try to trick Seven to willingly bringing the Titan to a rendezvous of their choice. Once "Tuvok" is exposed, however, the Changelings drop all pretenses and launch an aggressive subspace trace. They nearly succeed before Shaw and Geordi manage to cut the signal (and because Seven and Picard keep the call going as long as possible to try and glean any valuable intel the Changeling might let slip during his gloating).
• Precision F-Strike: Geordi swears at Lore after his deactivation of the force fields endangers Sidney.
  Geordi: Goddamnit, Lore!
• Put on a Bus: Similarly to "No Win Scenario", Worf and Raffi do not appear in this episode. They're stated to have taken La Sirena to covertly follow up potential Starfleet Security leads on Riker's whereabouts.
• Race Against Time: The Changelings are also now racing against the clock to try and recover Jack before Frontier Day. At the top of the episode, the clock's now at 36 hours left and counting.
• Rank Up: Tuvok has gone from a lieutenant commander to a captain in the decades since Voyager returned home to the Alpha Quadrant. Lower Decks had previously briefly depicted him as a full commander in the 2380s.
• The Reveal:
  • The evolved Changelings are a result of Starfleet experiments at Daystrom to create perfect Changeling spies. Vadic and her batch of Changelings escaped, and can pass the ability on to those they link with.
  • What was believed to be Irumodic Syndrome in Picard and Jack is indicated to be something different — and alien — mistaken for that condition. This is at least partly why Picard's corpse was stolen, to extract that thing from it, and Vadic's mysterious employer wants Jack alive for that reason.
• Rule of Symbolism: The Titan-A hiding out in the Chin'Toka System. Chin'toka was one of the crucial battlegrounds of the Dominion War. Capturing it gave the Federation their sole foothold in Dominion territory, but holding it was a tenuous balancing act. Eventually, the Dominion struck back and retook control — much like how the Titan's plan to entrap Vadic initially succeeds, only to blow up in their faces. Likewise, the wreckage of the Second Battle is still there decades later (probably including the original U.S.S. Defiant) — mirroring how the reverberations of the War are still present and how the survivors of the War are still fighting through its figurative and literal wreckage decades later.
• Self-Serving Memory: Though Vadic is technically correct that the Federation refused to give the Great Link the cure to the plague and "one of [their] own" had to do so, she conveniently leaves out that said individual was Odo, who only agreed to/was allowed to distribute it to the Great Link on the condition that the Female Changeling end hostilities immediately and agree to what was essentially an unconditional surrender.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: It's revealed that Vadic took on the appearance of the human scientist that abused and experimented on them, choosing it as their standard appearance. This is heavily interconnected with their erratic personality.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip:
  • The "Tuvok" Changeling shapeshifts into a ghoulish version of Riker to taunt Picard.
  • Vadic also does the same by briefly shapeshifting into Jack to taunt both Beverly and Picard after revealing her motivations while she's confined.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Lore's unchanged opinion of Picard, Geordi, and the rest of the Enterprise-D alums. He even lampshades the trope to Sidney as a necessity for dealing with Starfleet types.
  Alamndra: So, has Lore always been this arch?
  Lore: ...Did the tree move, or did the apple just fall far from it? When you're constantly subjected to these self-righteous, self-proclaimed "heroes" spewing their morality as if vomit were somehow virtuous, then sometimes, dear, a little bend, a little arch, a little antagonizing flare is required.
• Spanner in the Works: Lore gaining control of the Data Golem derails the entire trap Picard and the Titan set for Vadic.
• Special Edition Title: The end credits play the mournful piano-based piece that earlier accompanied Vadic's story of her suffering.
• Spot the Imposter: When Seven contacts Tuvok, the crew run a voice analysis in an attempt to confirm he's the real deal. The test comes up inconclusive, so Seven switches to a Bluff the Imposter gambit.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham:
  • Averted initially, as Seven finally seeks out her old allies from Voyager (Tuvok in this case) for help in locating Riker (and to finally get through to Janeway and alert her). However, it then gets played straight once it's revealed he's a Changeling. It's too risky to reach out to anyone else given how close "Tuvok" came to tracing their signal. And if the Founders had enough prescience to replace Tuvok, then they can't trust any of the other Voyager veterans haven't also been compromised.
  • By hiding in the Chin'toka system, the Titan is now in proximity to Cardassian and Bajoran space. However, none of the Deep Space Nine characters are contacted for assistance (ex. asking Garak or Kira for sanctuary on Cardassia or Bajor). Justified, as Worf is the only member of Team Titan with the connections to the DS9 crew — and he and Raffi are currently off pursuing Starfleet Security leads on Riker's whereabouts. Even if Worf wasn't absent, it's been over two decades since he left the Bajor Sector. There are no guarantees any of his old friends and allies from the station would even be nearby or in a position to help them.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Vadic and her faction's split from the Great Link takes on additional context with this episode's revelations. If you were prisoners of war and experimented upon, you'd understandably be pretty pissed off. And if you made it home and informed your government of these war crimes, you would expect them to take action and seek retribution to such an injustice. And if said government, even after learning this (and in addition to learning your captors were also responsible for the plague that almost wiped out the Link) still vowed to honor the Female Founder's sacrifice and the Odo initiative? Well, then, you might just be pissed off enough to give them the finger, break away from your own people with like-minded supporters (thereby shattering thousands of years of unity), and go gunning for the Solids to burn their civilization to the ground.
• Tautological Templar: Vadic claims that Solids destroy every world they touch, and as proof cites her own world, specifically noting it as a retaliation to their own warfare. Genocidial or not, her argument is that the act of retaliating in itself proves they were right to strike first.
• Telepathy: Jack gains the ability to hear Sydney's thoughts, and eventually project his own to her. It's how he can tell that she's developed a budding interest in him, and it later lets him guide her in combat against Vadic's mooks.
• Title Drop: References to the Dominion War are made twice.
• Too Dumb to Live: The Federation scientists who captured Vadic and several other Changelings — a species who already hated them with a passion — and performed torturous experiments on them to boost their abilities, with the intent of weaponizing them. This went about as well for them as you'd expect.
• Tranquil Fury: Seven upon realizing that "Tuvok" is a Changeling and that they've captured and possibly killed her old, dear friend from Voyager.
• Trap Is the Only Option: Vadic's crew rightly suspects the seemingly adrift Titan is a trap, but Vadic points out they don't have the time to wait for another opportunity.
• Uncertain Doom: Tuvok has been replaced, but his imposter indicates he isn't dead yet. This, of course, is assuming the Changeling's telling the truth, and not intentionally giving Seven false hope just to twist the knife.
• Undying Loyalty: While briefing the Face on the interrogation of Riker and Troi, Vadic admits she misjudged how firm and loyal Picard's associates would be to the old man.
• Villain Has a Point: Vadic rightly points out to Picard and Beverly that Starfleet technically never gave the morphogenic virus cure to the Founders; the Federation Council did after all vote against giving it to them, to avoid aiding their wartime enemy. It was Bashir and O'Brien who stole it from Section 31, used it to cure Odo, and it was then the Constable — one of their own people — who ultimately brought it home, albeit only after the Female Changeling agreed to surrender. Vadic also points out that Starfleet performed cruel experiments on her and her fellows in order to weaponize them, which even upsets Picard.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Riker is able to send a comm signal from the Shrike that confirms he has been captured there. Despite this, nobody thinks of sending over a Boarding Party to free him, or even communicating to him so he can break out and be a Spanner in the Works behind the lines. (The former is justified by the Titan's Critical Staffing Shortage; the latter is not.)
• Wham Line: "Your physiology is not as complex or as special as you believe", which implies The Face isn't a Changeling like Vadic and her faction. (Or possibly is just a "normal" Changeling who isn't impressed by Vadic's aditional abilities.) The events of "Vox" will subsequently confirm it was the former.
• Wham Shot: "Tuvok" smirks, confirming he did indeed fail Seven's test and is a Changeling.
• The Worf Effect: It's not a combat situation, but Tuvok's impersonation is used to show that no one is safe from being replaced by a Changeling with little to no warning to those around. Bear in mind that Tuvok was Voyager's chief of security and tactical officer, spent time undercover in the Maquis, and going by Lower Decks had a career in Starfleet Intelligence after that. This would make him one of the most qualified of basically any Star Trek main cast member in being Properly Paranoid, and even he got replaced by a Changeling imposter.
• Worthy Opponent: After capturing the Titan, Vadic admits that the crew have proven themselves worthy.

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