"Preemptive Strike"

[Prax]

I think Ro liked Starfleet, she just felt a lot of sympathy for the Maquis she met. She probably also recognized an injustice going on. And lastly, the reason she may not have been appropriate for the mission: She didn't want to betray these people and screw them over.

 

[Mojochi]

I think Ro liked Starfleet, she just felt a lot of sympathy for the Maquis she met. She probably also recognized an injustice going on. And lastly, the reason she may not have been appropriate for the mission: She didn't want to betray these people and screw them over.

Actually, I think more than liking Starfleet, she liked Picard's ideology. She could get behind HIS Starfleet way, MORE than the overall Starfleet way (Which she'd always struggled with). In a way it's Picard's fault, because he gave her the capacity to learn to open up to a person like that... (She was pretty closed off to mentorship before that) & that is exactly what happens to her when she gets mixed up with the elder in that Maqui faction. He too is someone with whom she opened up to their perspective. It really was him dying that sealed the deal

I imagine that if he hadn't died, she might have recused herself from the mission, & took a bruise or 2 for doing it, but she might not have completely turned her back on Picard & left Starfleet. That's just opinion though

 

[Prax]

So basically, Picard should have gotten Tuvok to do it.

 

[Devilpogostick]

I think Ro liked Starfleet, she just felt a lot of sympathy for the Maquis she met. She probably also recognized an injustice going on. And lastly, the reason she may not have been appropriate for the mission: She didn't want to betray these people and screw them over.

I think Ro did grew to actually enjoy her career when she joined the Enterprise, after that whole mess that nearly ruined it in her background. Picard did give her hope once he gave her a second chance and in return she has such faith in him.

But the situation with the Maquis kinda hit home for Ro and her past as everyone else has mentioned. She probably want some solution that would work out for both sides, something from Picard. However, she didn't get any alternatives and it seems Picard, as much as she admires him (and as Mojochi mentions, his ideology of Starfleet), was not going to bend to Starfleet's orders. The fact he got Riker to get involved to make sure she did her duty may have been the warning signs for Ro she's doing things poorly as Picard made it clear it's not really a choice for her to think this over as things are heading to an endpoint. I would think that while the death of her Maquis father figure steered her much more firmly to their side, Picard's growing concern over her loyalty/telling her in a polite way to suck it up and do her job cemented her final decision.

Yet she couldn't bear to disappoint Picard face to face...So opt not even coming back at all to make it easier on herself. Still painful but yeah.

 

[Nakita Akita]

I enjoyed that episode very much -- one of the few in Season 7 that I like -- but read it somewhat differently. I don't think Ro left because she hated Cardassians; I think she left because she empathized with the plight of the Maquis. They're living the life she grew up living: displaced from their homes, fighting against a powerful and cruel enemy that wants to take all that is theirs.

Given her history, to say nothing of her more recent troubles, Ro should never have been the one to infiltrate the Maquis. She was conflicted from the very start, and I find it to be a sad ending that the only time we saw her forming meaningful relationships and finding her sense of "home" was among struggling people engaged in a hopeless quest and living lives blanketed by uncertainty, fear, and anger.

It's a tragic ending, I think, that was punctuated by Ro's regret over disappointing Captain Picard -- the one person that she seemed to respect and admire in Starfleet, and who offered her a faith that she ultimately felt forced to betray.

And when he heard the news of Ro's decision, I don't think Picard was time-shifting... I think he was contemplating the situation, and probably was feeling a measure of deep disappointment in himself for having allowed Starfleet to put Ro in that position to begin with. He let his feelings of pride in her redemption, and his determination to give her every chance, cloud his better judgement (which he should have expressed to Nechayev). I think he feels like he failed Ro rather than vice versa.

What do you say in such a moment? What can you say? You just feel...

As an aside, it would be interesting to see what Picard and Ro would say to each other during their next meeting -- assuming Ro survived long enough to meet him again.

I don't think he was time shifting
It would be him reflecting on why he put her in that situation that was so tempting for her to return to her roots possibly.
Or he could have been wondering how or why he had decided that she ever should have been trusted.
He could have been reviewing everything he could think of from their interactions together to see if he had misjudged her. ( I'm sure he would be his harshest critic)
Was he lamenting his feelings for her of possibly a daughter he'd never had?
Time shifting? No.
It's Picard, you have to delve deep!

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

I know that a lot of Star Trek fans agree that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a better show than Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the episodes from TNG about Ro and the Maquis were superb... even better than what what done on DS9, even.

 

[Mojochi]

So basically, Picard should have gotten Tuvok to do it.

Or done it his damn self. What an ugly mission

 

[DonIago]

Kind of makes me wonder whether Ro was sent in specifically as a sort of test for her.

 

[Mojochi]

Kind of makes me wonder whether Ro was sent in specifically as a sort of test for her.

It's worth pondering. It's not something I'd suspect of Picard, but Starfleet on the whole? yeah maybe. They'd just finished giving her special ops training. They were certainly grooming her for something like this. If you have any suspicions about how she might lean, better to toss her in the deep end asap.

 

[Prax]

Maybe SF intelligence and Admiral Nechayev KNEW she would she would "go native" and had a more long term strategy in mind. I'm sure psychological profiling in the 24th century is incredibly reliable.

I've always assumed that some part of SF intelligence was (at least initially) supplying the Maquis. If the Cardassians began fighting a war by proxy in the DMZ, the Federation would HAVE to respond likewise. They wouldn't want to just abandon territory, and they can no longer defend it with Starfleet.

...MAYBE Ro was supposed to betray Picard all along. This would help convince anyone smart enough to realize she was really working for Starfleet.

Picard eventually put the pieces together, and after brooding at his desk, Riker leaves to go take off his Bajoran face paint. Then, Picard turns to his laptop and calls up Nechayev to confront her. She evades his probing.


...this all happened off screen of course.

 

[DonIago]

Maybe Ro was sent to Picard as a Manchurian Candidate always intended to join the Maquis but serve Starfleet's (or some division of them) needs at an undefined point in the future.

Shame we never saw Ro playing Solitaire.

 

[Prax]

Maybe Ro was sent to Picard as a Manchurian Candidate always intended to join the Maquis but serve Starfleet's (or some division of them) needs at an undefined point in the future.

Shame we never saw Ro playing Solitaire.

Now this thread is getting good. I've never seen the original manchurian candidate, but I'm a huge fan of the remake. I got rid of like 75% of my DVDs, but kept TMC.

 

[Mojochi]

These are really excellent interpretations! I never even thought about Ro possibly being planted without her knowledge, as a way to unofficially provide support for the Maqui, & then to also use the mission as a method to convince the Cardies that the UFP was actively trying to quell the thing simultaneously. I don't know if I'm 100% sold on it, especially where Picard might be involved, but there's a very interesting kernel of possibility in there. Ro Laren: Double Agent. I mean c'mon. She literally JUST rolls back onto the Ent-D, days earlier, & suddenly, BAM! covert mission into the heart of Federation/Bajoran resistance? That is more than a little convenient

 

[velour]

I'd say this is his angry face.

Picard was pissed that he didn't get the chance to give a final speech to Ro about ethics and morality.

Also, at that moment, Picard may have been plotting vengeance against Ro. Ro may have been to Picard what Eddington was to Sisko. If the series hadn't ended with the next episodes, we might have seen Picard's anger turned into an obsession to hunt down Ro.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

At least Ro had the good sense to be conflicted about turning traitor.

he reason she may not have been appropriate for the mission: She didn't want to betray these people and screw them over.

So instead she betrays the entire Federation and screws THEM over? Way to prioritize there.

 

[Prax]

Did she, though? DID SHE???

 

[Mojochi]

Did she, though? DID SHE???

Well, from hers & Picard's point of view she did, which is kind of just as bad. Whether is was an intentional gambit or not, those two will always see it as traitorous betrayal

 

[Paradise City]

Ro was a strong willed restless character ill-at-ease and searching for peace of mind. She had an impatient rage regarding the fate of her dad that prevented her from getting that peace of mind. She was violently abused as a child in essence, watching her father being tortured and put to death. No small thing indeed.

I think the staff meeting she attends in her first episode is amusing. She hasn't the slightest interest in the petit-bureaucratic mindset of the bridge crew where they look to met some pompous figurehead politician. Streetwise Ro cuts through that stuff quite rudely with her no nonsense approach identifying the real player of things -- "who won't ask you to dance". The petit-bureaucratic mindset of Starfleet just comes across as idiocy tor Ro and we see this in later episodes with her clash with the ship's disciplinarian Riker.

Picard is a substantial figure, a paternal figure who at the end of the day has a broad vision for her perhaps informed by Picard's own journey of redemption from delinquent junior officer to captain and statesman. .He sees potential in her that only a father can really do with an obnoxious offspring and he sees past the bull headed 'interference' that she projects. So Picard's has this presence and a vision appeals to her.

The elderly Maquis chap is a fatherly figure with a heart of pure gold. Having to betray such a man and his memory in what she broadly identifies as a parallel cause to the Bajoran cause and the cause her father died in, is something that sets her on a head-on collision course with her other 'father' Picard. We might imagine that as she turns her phaser on Riker and ends her subterfuge her two other 'fathers' are looking on benevolently. I don't think she was ever a committed Starfleet type. Ro is simply a person drawn to substantial people.

 

[suarezguy]

Picard is clearly angry at Ro for betrayal but I think he still also has some grudging respect for her, surprise and anger at Riker for understanding her decision and anger at himself for putting her in the situation, that being a captain on ethically dubious or even justified missions can involve personal disappointments and losses.