Its possible, the Zhat Vash are going to look really bloody stupid though. At least for as long as they continue to exist which wont be very long at all. I think its more likely that there is something to it but they misunderstood the message or its to late and the big bad is coming anyway.
Man, has this season been steady.... No way am I reading all these comments, so apologies if all this has been covered already...but here are my random thoughts: 1. Alison Pill has won me over. What a great actress...she has delivered the last several weeks. Prior to that, I was nervous she was simply going to be "generic fish-out-of-water comic relief character #135" 2. Santiago Cabrera must be having an absolute BLAST doing this. And, I love that the Engineering Holo has a Scottish accent (they've done a great job carrying this tradition forward from DSC and Short Treks). 3. The opening scene with the Zhat Vash reminded me of something that would have happened in Event Horizon. Very creepy and effective. 4. Extra point for not having slimy Romulan Guy in this episode. 5. Points deducted for having a seemingly tacked-on Borg Cube plot...although Jeri Ryan really did a great job with 7 here. 6. Extra point added back for mention of Medusans and their navigation abilities. 7. I really liked the plotline about Rios and his former captain. Yes, it was very dark...but it was powerful and it explained a lot. 8. I enjoy how this season has been a puzzle quest, going from location to location collecting crew and getting different pieces of the overall mystery laying flat. I like that kind of Star Trek story. 9. I have a feeling that this is going to be very re-watch binge-worthy. 10. Please, please, please, please, please don't fuck up the ending. .....Please 11. Narissa is pretty badass. I know she's not for everyone, but I think she's a wonderful, "classic Trek" villain. I also enjoyed learning more about her and her background. It was good to see that she is not just evil for the sake of being evil. 12. Star Trek has seemingly waged a "War on AI" lately. Interesting. 13. Feeling Mass Effect vibes from how this is all shaping up. And that's not a bad thing. 14. That shot of the ship at warp was really cool. I may even like it better than the one we got from Star Trek Beyond. 15. Once again, Picard takes a brutal beating to the ego. I love it. 16. Sickbay has the "TOS laboratory" sound effects going for it. Very nice. Not perfect, and it was never going to live up to last week...but really very entertaining. 8/10
It occurred to me, if the Zhat Vash were after Data for a long time they would know Geordi is his best friend. Why didn't they brainwash Geordi to kill Data in the Mind's Eye? For that matter, Geordi is MASSIVELY forgiving if, like in tie-in material, he really did head up building those Romulan rescue fleet. I guess he knows those civilians weren't responsible for his brainwashing, but it would still be a trauma he'd have to overcome.
First of all, there are trillions of people in the Alpha Quadrant. They only have to convince (or rather entice to look at their evidence) a tiny sliver of the population to get the ball rolling. Besides, they have the coordinates for an octanary star system to pique people's interest which they actually tried to erase from their star charts. I got the impression that octanary star systems didn't just happen. Are you suggesting that most scientist would actually accelerate their efforts to make synths if shown their evidence? That isn't at all obvious nor is it what we see happen in the show. The only person they share evidence with actually tried to murder a man to prevent it from happening. Fist of all, let me say how convenient it is for the plot that the simple facts of the story, conceived by mortal writers in the real world, will destroy the minds of anyone who sees it first hand as if they were staring down Cthulhu himself. You're also assuming that no one would believe it unless they witnessed it first hand themselves, and not just a handful (perhaps even a large handful) of influential people. There are also ways of mitigating risk, such as showing stronger-willed people who are more likely to survive (such as Vulcans), disarming people before having them touch the device so they can't shoot themselves right afterwards, having people standing by to restrain and sedate people right afterwards. There's also the fact that Jurati was convinced by a completely survivable mind meld. The only person we see them telepathically share evidence with was human. The only person we see them share evidence with was a human who found it convincing enough to try and murder a man and also influenced others to discover the octanary system they were trying to hide for some reason. What you insist is ridiculous and implausible is exactly what we see unfolding in the show. The evidence I'm referring to is the octanary system and the device that gave them unholy visions of doom in the first place. Why did you think I was talking about the synth attack they manufactured?
So a people deserve extermination if they have done something in the past? Apparently hundreds of thousands of years and no direct connection don't wipe away the sins? This is rich!
another great episode. The season just keeps getting better and better, Really liked Rios' backstory and the redemption of sorts of Dr. Juratti. Also loved the way that Seven Of Nine took out those Romulans and seemingly condemned them to a fate of Borg assimilation. Great stuff and can't wait to see the season finale.
While a tiny sliver of trillions of people is a huge number, the remainder who aren't convinced is an even huger number. And on the other side you have the Zhat Vash, which is a small, secretive cabal that has extremely stringent requirements for induction into their ranks (don't go mad from the Admonition), which you yourself point out. You can't convince trillions of people with a few handfuls of people. As I said below in my post, the rock-hard evidence the entire Zhat Vash rests upon is a telepathic vision. If a person was just told what the vision is about or shown a video without context, they're fully capable of calling bullshit because they're emotionally and contextually disconnected from it. Jurati was convinced because Oh mind-melded with her, which has been consistently shown on Star Trek to transfer emotions and thoughts along the visions. Jurati received a much deeper understanding of the Admonition than someone merely hearing about it would. We literally saw Romulans clawing their eyes out and shooting themselves in the head after seeing the vision, so yes, they were basically staring down Cthulhu himself. If someone merely told me "this is what would happen if [insert group here] were allowed to exist" and then showed me a video of palents being blown up, I'd laugh in their face, call them a racist asshole and walk away. Which the Zhat Vash themselves were shown not bothering with. It was more like an initiation ritual. If you're strong enough not to go insane, you're Zhat Vash. If not, you weren't worthy enough to begin with. Quite possibly the only people who are ever shown the Admonition are the inductees and, in more recent times, whoever Oh wants as an operative. Which was relayed through a Vulcan who has already seen and survived it. When someone tells you a story, you don't experience it as it happened, it's filtered through the person who tells it. And it's obvious that Oh is in a unique position because she's able to mind-meld with people to show them the Admonition without making them insane. I was talking about people who were told about the visions or shown footage of it. You're talking about someone who was subject to a mind-meld by the one single half-Romulan member of the Zhat Vash.
I think the Iconians are a much better bet than Tkon. Firstly, Iconia was destroyed 200-300k years ago, whereas the TKon Empire died out 600,000 years ago. So the timing's better. It also seems that many former Iconian worlds are near the Federation-Romulan border and that the Romulans were somewhat obsessed with acquiring Iconian technology (well, so was everyone, but they seemed very 'driven' in 'Contagion'). Also, the Iconians were very technologically advanced and their computer virus managed to infect (and nearly kill) Data, as well as the Yamato, Enteprise and a Romulan warbird (all of which have complex near-sentient computer systems on board). Perhaps it was meant to target complex artificial brains specifically? A doomsday weapon for an unwinnable war? Out of universe it's a better fit for the Picard timeline too. He showed a personal interest in the Iconians, whereas the TKon story was a Riker episode. Plus Data was heavily involved in the Iconian story, linking back to him too. Completely disagree. Q's motivations are chaotic, not malevolent. I doubt he cares about Data apart from as another lifeform to play with, probably something he's seen millions of times.
If you take a look at some of the Q novels you will find the TKon are a good match as well, plus they were known to have the ability to move Stars and were destroyed by an entity known as O that was eventually defeated by Q, I never said Q was the big bad I said O could be but you thought I meant to type Q. Could be Iconians, the Tkon or something else entirely.
I don't agree with the "Clancy is a bad 'un" view. She dismisses Picard because he has ZERO evidence and shows up making all sorts of demands a day or so after publically slagging off Starfleet, when she feels if he'd stayed he could have helped guide them back on course. If she really thought he was demented, she wouldn't report it to Oh and ask her to check into it - she has enough respect for Picard to at least follow up on what he told her, even if she bought Oh's cover-up. Now, with actual proof, she's willing to help, but not prepared to subject herself to a "Starfleet isn't what it used to be!" speech from the guy who retired rather than try to make the system better from the inside. I get the feeling that Clancy is another one who looked up to Picard and felt betrayed when he quit because he felt he couldn't make a difference.
That moment when you realise Seven is going to plug herself into the ship and become the Queen of the cube was the biggest fucking fangasm I've had in a very long time. When her eyes went black and she spoke in The Borg Voice™ I was like, YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! And then her plan immediately went to shit. But those few seconds were amazing. Rest of the episode was fab too. Loved the conference of Rios Holograms. Only complaint is that it's terrifically improbable that they'd end up chartering the ship captained by the guy who was there when 2 more of these "perfect synths" showed up and that his tragic backstory would so neatly tie into the main plot.
But all of the mysteries and subplots are connected. One main reveal would sufficiently address the subplots.
I was really hoping Seven could somehow retain control of the cube, so she can show up in the season finale to rescue Picard and Co - it would likely terrify Picard, until he gets a message from Seven saying 'I'm here to kick Romulan ass', but I guess we'll have a different direction! I still don't trust Agnes. There has to be some further consequence of her mind meld and the block.
So basically you can be mind melded into furthering their cause until said meld victim starts suffering consequences for their actions and then breaks free of the brainwashing. Clancy can still thus be converted.