Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x04 - "Absolute Candor"

Drinking and smoking on La Sirena. What would Mom say?

Sure, I could go for that.

 

The show implied that the Qowat Milat were hiding inside the Tal Shiar, in much the same way that Hydra concealed itself within SHIELD in the MCU. Get enough double agents into a high enough position and they can cover up a multitude of sins - as proved by them also installing Oh within Starfleet.

 

The Romulan reunification movement hiding underground on Romulus thrived for almost twenty years before the destruction of the planet and this was with a police state trying to squash what Ambassador Spock and his followers wanted to do. Clearly the Romulan state isn't nearly as effective a brutal oppressor as it liked to portray itself otherwise the Reunification Movement, Qowat Milat and other potentially troublesome or subversive/seditious groups would have long since been eradicated.

 

Gah, you are right. Darn these Romulan organisations and their (to me) interchangeable names. A re-watch is clearly called for!

I don't see why the Qowat Milat and Tal Shiar shouldn't co-exist within the broader tapestry of Romulan culture and society, into which previous iterations of Trek only ever granted us the slightest peek. Plenty of societies here on Earth have, or have had, both religious sects and secret police - there may be friction between them from time to time, but on the whole if the one does not pose a threat to the other, they are usually left to their own devices.

 

An aside, but since someone engaged in thread necromancy, this episode is in retrospect very frustrating. I mean, its a good episode, I like it. But the whole purpose was to introduce Elnor, which the show did absolutely nothing useful with in any following episodes. It makes me wish they didn't include this story at all and spent more time on aspects of the show more core to the narrative.

 

What?? Where??? I missed that. Rats, now I have to go back and watch it.

 

Exactly. The Zhat Vash would do well to hide itself to avoid the wrath of the Tal Shiar, largely because their overall goal might not be in line with what the Tal Shiar necessarily want. The Qowat Milat strike me as more able to continue on, since their loyalty would still be to the Empire.

 

No, you're all right, I was getting my Qowat Milat and my Zhat Vash mixed up (easy mistake, right?)

 

Zhat Vash is what happened when Q took her to the SG1 universe and she annoyed Daniel.

 

NOOOOOO!!! Are you KIDDING me, man? When I saw your username I got all excited about you telling me which part of the episode to watch, and you just ruined 2020 for me.

 

There's a Whoopi Goldberg and Guinan joke in here somewhere but I'm not going to go rooting around for it.

 

Romulan society is more diverse, and the Romulan government more ineffective, than the Star Empire wants us to think.

I would keep this episode even if Elnor had not been a part of the show. It was a really important episode in terms of establishing some of the important thematic content of the show, of establishing how Picard had the 24th Century version of a "white savior complex" that he needed to be humbled from in order to become a better ally.

I suspect the Qowat Milat pre-date the establishment of the Star Empire, and that the Romulan Star Empire could no more suppress them than Fascist Italy could suppress the Jesuits.