Let's speculate on the deep, dark secret

[Tarek71]

Yeah I just can’t come up with anything that connects the dots. Especially when you add in the self loathing Romulans and to cooperating Federation. Doesn’t seem to make sense. Unless it’s a TUC situation and people in the Federation can’t let go of the status quo.

I think the Borg will be a key part of the connection. The Narada and the events involving Spock may come into this at some point. Remember when people said the Narada made use of Borg tech? I think that will turn out to be true. I think the Borg Queen allowed Borg tech to fall into Romulan hands, and she will "activate" the Cube and drones when the time comes.

 

[MrPointy]

I hope the secret is bluegill parasites.

 

[El Maestro]

Here we go...

Spoiler

On the planet Vulcan, there were people who wanted to develop Cyborgs. Those people were banned from Vulcan. They were the ancestors of the Romulans. The people who stayed on Vulcan were still passionate and war-like until Surak came along and taught them the True Way. Meanwhile the Romulans discovered what was wrong with developing Cyborgs but by then it was too late. The Proto-Borg escaped to the Delta Quadrant.

The Romulans then spent the next several centuries trying to develop a Quantum Singularity Drive. In hopes of being able to use it to eventually fight the Borg in the Delta Quadrant once they perfected it.

The Borg had intended to fight the Romulans when they attacked System J-25 in "The Neutral Zone" (TNG), but then shifted their focus to the Federation when it caught their eye in "Q Who?" (TNG). The Romulans then sat back and watched the Federation fight the Borg while gaining intelligence, so they could size up the Borg and how far they'd progressed from afar.

The Federation seemed to be able to handle the Borg but then they wanted to develop Synths. The Romulans remembered their own experiences and didn't want to deal with a second race like the Borg. So they manipulated the Synths to attack Mars so the Federation would ban all Synths.

Would that be the end of Romulus? Only if the Romulans didn't have another plan to save themselves. Most of them did survive. And the with a weakened Romulan government, that allows the Zhat Vash to use the Tal'Shiar to take more direct control. But the Tal'Shiar wouldn't be welcome with free arms, so they orchestrated for a new type of government to be formed and the Romulan Star Empire was replace with the Romulan Free State. Where leadership didn't change with coups. Where the government wouldn't radically alter from one administration to the next. Making the Romulan Free State more predictable than the Romulan Star Empire ever was.

They struck gold when they found the abandoned Borg Cube. Now they can do all the research they want on their creation.

And by infiltrating the Federation, they have control over their other greatest enemy.

So now: they have a more stable government, even though it was at the cost of Romulus, they're manipulating the Federation to their whims, and they've gained invaluable data on the Borg. Win, win, win.

That's my crackpot conspiracy theory. This post never happened.

This is super interesting and I like it! But would learning this make Jurati think she had no choice but to kill Maddox? It’s a bombshell for sure but is it so reality altering?

 

[Aragorn]

Maddox was killed because he was the one who nixed the concept of a grittier ragtag Star Trek: Voyager and ordered them to make it TNG-lite.

 

[El Maestro]

What if the Vulcans are actually former Borg who escaped the collective a super long time ago. Maybe they were the Borg Ur-species. They keep the logic-based aspects in their culture. Romulans cleaved and because they were tired of a logic based and “Robotic” existence.

 

[Lord Garth]

This is super interesting and I like it! But would learning this make Jurati think she had no choice but to kill Maddox? It’s a bombshell for sure but is it so reality altering?

I think Jurati has been manipulated through Oh by a mind-meld and isn't acting of her own free will. Kill Maddox, the guy developing Synths, and set Jurati so she's charged his murder when Starfleet catches up to them, since Oh's probably tracking them. With both Maddox and Jurati out of the picture, no one in the Federation can develop Synths as advanced as Data.

 

[SG-17]

I'm sure time travel is going to be involved in some way.

 

[DaveyNY]

I'm sure time travel is going to be involved in some way.

Well, so far, just about every episode has started with a trip to the past.

 

[MrPointy]

I'm sure time travel is going to be involved in some way.

To stop the Zhat Vash, Picard will need to travel back in time to find a pair of humpback whales.

 

[ISS-Magnum]

1. Santa Claus doesn't exist.

2. Agnes Jurati is actually a Synth. Maddox created her and then used her in inappropriate ways. Dark enough? Worth killing for?

3. Something stupid, unimportant and irrelevant, like that story with Spock and Michael... what was that about? Never mind.

 

[Beckerjr]

This plot line as its known so far feels really similar to the Battlestar Galactica reboot. Advanced artificial life that is very much organic too that can pass as human along with not even knowing what their true nature is.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I was just speculating on this in the episode thread, but it strikes me that as it would involve synths, Jurati might be more affected by whatever this secret is than the next person. As that's her life's work, and she worked with the man who created the synth that everyone is after, she might feel more personally responsible for the situation.

Having rewatched, I'm doubling down on this. Just before she killed him, Maddox emphasized that her role in his work was instrumental (or whatever phrasing he used), and she responded that it was one more thing she had to atone for (which I took to be, besides being a viper in the nest and what she was about to do).

 

[Charles Phipps]

MY PITCH:

* Maddox did the Genesis thing and used Borg technology to make his androids at the Daystrom Institute. The near mindless ones on Mars.
* The Borg technology is alive because, well, it is. It's like Mass Effect.
* The Borg technology triggered the Hobus Supernova and destruction of Mars because it protects its secrets.
* They're afraid Data's children can reactivate the Borg cube and start the threat all over again.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Trojan horse Borg! Maybe that's how Lore was able to do what he did in Descent? Or maybe somehow the Borg found a way to create artificial life that can pass as organic and are up to this for some reason? Hard to imagine what they'd gain from it though.

Maybe because they have been thwarted from assimilating Earth in the past, they have decided to start to assimilate the planet from the inside.

 

[Tarek71]

1. They have spent as much time as they have with Soji and Narek for a reason. They are both key to this somehow.

2. Narek is obviously stalling with his sister. For what purpose? Is he a double agent? Does he work for the Borg? Or is he a synth?

3. What were those Romulans that Soji was looking into, doing prior to their assimilation? Were they like Sevens parents and trying to get close to the Borg? Steal their tech?

4. They make a point of Picard asking, more than once, WHY would ANY Romulans collaborate in plans that result in enormous Romulan loss of life? Is it because Romulans, all of them, are actually synths and have been for centuries?

5. Did they use Borg tech to create the supermova, and then have the synths destroy the rescue fleet to eliminate the Romulan (all synths) pop? Ie the Zhat Vash do not regard them as real Romulans?

6. Did Oh tell Jumati that Maddox deliberately had the synths destroy Mars? When in fact Maddox is innocent?

7. People are talking about the origin of the Borg being part of this, but I suspect the origin of the Romulans is even more important to the "mythology" research of Soji. How exactly did the Romulans come about?

8. Did the Vulcans create the synths during their Warlike period? Maybe they then rebelled, left and became the Romulans? The Zhat Vash thus being a VULCAN organization to stop synths, and not a Romulan one. Vulcan Blade Runners. An org whose Vulcan agents have infiltrated the Tal Shiar for centuries. Vulcan Commodore Oh being a Vulcan Zhat Vash.

9. "A far older cabal" would therefore mean that they originated on Vulcan.

 

[Tarek71]

So the big dark secret is:

1. Romulans are ALL synths. Created as disposable soldiers by the Vulcans during their warlike period.
2. Peace comes to Vulcan through Surak. Vulcans try to eliminate their Cylon creations. But they rebel and some escape.
3. The Vulcans create a Blade Runner corps called the Zhat Vash. After hunting down all the synths on Vulcan, they infiltrate Romulan society, govt, including the Tal Shiar.
4. The Zhat Vash seen an opportunity to eliminate the Cylon Vulcans (Romulans) once and for all, by using Borg tech to cause a supernova.
5. They also collaborate to eliminate Federation synths and use them to attack Mars. Dooming more synth Romulans to destruction and getting the Federation synths banned. Two birds with one stone.
6. Narek is a Vulcan Zhat Vash, but the Borg have their OWN plans. They allow this all to happen as it serves their interests to see Romulans and synths weakened. But in fact, they have their own sleeper agent plan that is about to swing into action.
7. Romulans do not know they are synths, but the Borg discover it by assimilating them.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

 

[Crazyewok]

The deep dark secret was that Genes Vision was bullshit and he was only in it for the money, coke and sex.

 

[Commander K]

I know the secret....

Two words...

RED....ANGEL....

 

[Turtletrekker]

I know the secret....

Two words...

RED....ANGEL....

 

[iamzod]

There has to be some connection between the Romulans & Borg even though I don't want there to be. Hugh said that the Romulan Vessel that Ramda was on was the last thing that the cube assimilated before it's "Sub Matrix Collapsed" & left it a sitting duck.

The dysfunctional ex-borg are also all Romulan, all other species of ex-Borg we have seen eventually learn to function, why not those Romulans?

Somehow the assimilation of that Romulan vessel crippled the cube & severed it from the collective.

Either way, I think we will know in the next 5 weeks.