Spoilers Who is the mastermind in Season 3 of Picard?

[Yistaan]

A dangerous side effect of Bendii Syndrome was that the loss of emotional control could be telepathically projected to others. Vulcans were able to resist the emotional projections, but if the afflicted person was in the presence of non-Vulcans, the emotions could cause outbreaks of anger and violence. An attending Vulcan telepath could keep these projections under control, but when the sufferer was particularly stressed, the side effect could overwhelm such efforts.

Anyone think after Jack's telepathy antics this past week that this all has to do with Picard mindmelding with a Bendii infected Sarek?

 

[Mike Doyle]

Picard's Borg DNA being the Macguffin still doesn't explain why they don't just use Tuvok, who they have in custody, who's also ex-Borg. And if they need the child of an ex-Borg, if they got Tuvok, then they can get Miral Paris. Unimatrix Zero considerably widened the amount of Trek main characters who were assimilated.

But I don’t think we’ve heard of anywhere else where they rewrote someone’s DNA. That’s more than having nano-probes in your blood.
We also had Shaw in his monologue in the holodeck labouring the point that Locutus was different from other drones.

 

[Yistaan]

But I don’t think we’ve heard of anywhere else where they rewrote someone’s DNA. That’s more than having nano-probes in your blood.
We also had Shaw in his monologue in the holodeck labouring the point that Locutus was different from other drones.

I got the impression that DNA rewriting was something that happened to all Borg, not just Locutus. And a line of dialogue at the end of BOBW pretty much addressed the DNA thing--

Crusher: Life signs are stable. The DNA around the microcircuit fiber implants is returning to normal.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

I've been thinking 'Locutus' for a few weeks. It just clicks with some of the traits of the season's writing too strongly.

Dukat would thrill me and frustrate me in equal measure.

I'm coming, more and more, toward that likelihood as well. But then again, some of the points could be misdirection, like control in Disco.

But, I still really want it to be Armus for a number of reasons. I want the Changelings to be the "Titan Species" that created him, cast him off and and abandoned him. But, then again, he'd really want to punish, rather than work with them.

What I'm trying to think is, what makes most sense from a story perspective, and Locutus does seem to better fit atm.

 

[Yistaan]

I'm coming, more and more, toward that likelihood as well. But then again, some of the points could be misdirection, like control in Disco.

But, I still really want it to be Armus for a number of reasons. I want the Changelings to be the "Titan Species" that created him, cast him off and and abandoned him. But, then again, he'd really want to punish, rather than work with them.

What I'm trying to think is, what makes most sense from a story perspective, and Locutus does seem to better fit atm.

Borg gizmos wouldn't explain why Jack hears the thoughts of people who have no connection at all with the Borg, like Sidney La Forge.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

I got the impression that DNA rewriting was something that happened to all Borg, not just Locutus. And a line of dialogue at the end of BOBW pretty much addressed the DNA thing--

Crusher: Life signs are stable. The DNA around the microcircuit fiber implants is returning to normal.

Whether the DNA thing os right or not, there is the fact that Locutus was considered special and treated differently by the Borg. If the brain abnormality is not irumodic syndrome, then it's possible it's something left behind from his assimilation. A dormant backup that could also be passed on.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

Borg gizmos wouldn't explain why Jack hears the thoughts of people who have no connection at all with the Borg, like Sidney La Forge.

I'm not convinced he was actually hearing her thoughts to begin with. I could have been a vision, followed by him touching her hand and passing something on...

 

[Yistaan]

I'm not convinced he was actually hearing her thoughts to begin with. I could have been a vision, followed by him touching her hand and passing something on...

If Jack were infecting everyone he touched since birth due to Borg genetics, then it's way too late to fix this problem. The kind of guy Jack is portrayed as and, yeah, probably better call up every teenage date he ever went on.

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

If Jack were infecting everyone he touched since birth due to Borg genetics, then it's way too late to fix this problem. The kind of guy Jack is portrayed as and, yeah, probably better call up every teenage date he ever went on.

If it's dormant, it could act a bit like shingles. Only infectious during flare-ups. It certainly seems like the visions have only been starting up recently. Bev mentioned nightmares when younger, but the visions seem new. The fact that he told her about them pretty soon after they started, and trusted her with that, makes it sound as if he always would have.

The thought I had specifically was that the vision was a way of telling him what to do. Sort of, the subconscious trying to pass something on in a way that it can't be done unintentionally.

 

[Yistaan]

If it's dormant, it could act a bit like shingles. Only infectious during flare-ups. It certainly seems like the visions have only been starting up recently. Bev mentioned nightmares when younger, but the visions seem new. The fact that he told her about them pretty soon after they started, and trusted her with that, makes it sound as if he always would have.

The thought I had specifically was that the vision was a way of telling him what to do. Sort of, the subconscious trying to pass something on in a way that it can't be done unintentionally.

The problem with the Borg is that Picard would be featuring them for the 3rd season in a row in a prominent spot, rivaling Voyager for the sheer overuse of the Borg that pretty much reduced their fear factor to zero. If the Borg are the villains in this season, this overuse would break the camel's back to make their fear factor less than zero and probably a joke villain like Bowser from the Mario franchise at this point. Stuff like this is how we ended up with bad episodes like Unimatrix Zero (which basically undid the horror of assimilation by assmilating and then resetting Torres, Janeway, and Tuvok all in one go).

Practically anyone else would be better.

 

[vulcancicada]

Can't be. Trip's not dead

Trip lives!!

I am leaning towards there being a group of rebel changelings (floating head guy whom I refuse to call 'the face' as they don't have one) and Vadic and her cohort are just changelings that were experimented on who are part of that rebel group but are a different species of changeling.

 

[aeverett]

One of the higher beings (Organians, or Douwd, or Travelers, etc), maybe a Q angry that John De Lancie Q died. I just hope it isn't Q Jr. as that would mess up a fan fic I'm outlining. Sadly, I fear it might be, considering Janeway has disappeared from the radar of both Star Fleet and the Changelings. Q. Jr. would have the motive to keep her safe and to lash out at Picard and the rest of humanity for his dad's death.

 

[matthunter]

What could have infected Picard to alter his DNA?

Who was involved in the very episodes where we found out about Irumodic Syndrome?

Who can rewrite DNA with a snap of his fingers?

Who might need a backup plan in case he ever kicked the bucket last season?

Who would bad guys be VERY interested in harnessing the power of?

 

[Yistaan]

What could have infected Picard to alter his DNA?

Who was involved in the very episodes where we found out about Irumodic Syndrome?

Who can rewrite DNA with a snap of his fingers?

Who might need a backup plan in case he ever kicked the bucket last season?

Who would bad guys be VERY interested in harnessing the power of?

Well Jack being a Q would fit the very loosely defined nature of his powers. In this case his visions would be that of the Q continuum.

 

[Sketcher]

Personally I'm hoping it's Soran, somehow having survived the explosion on Veridian III, or an escaped echo from the Nexus. Maybe Jack's abilities are tied to Picard's time in the Nexus somehow too.

 

[Dukhat]

It's FutureGuy.

 

[Yistaan]

It's FutureGuy.

President Archer's going to make a surprise appearance on Frontier Day.

 

[koresoong]

Because there's really no solid clues delivered. We know Face uses the term "we" in the plural sense, indicating that perhaps Face is a representative of a group or a collective mind (maybe not necessarily the Borg) and that they're of a solid constructive nature as they were mocking Vadic being a changling as being maliable and such.

Kind of hard to go on that.

I do recall Face once did say "me" (singular)...

 

[koresoong]

Picard's Borg DNA being the Macguffin still doesn't explain why they don't just use Tuvok, who they have in custody, who's also ex-Borg. And if they need the child of an ex-Borg, if they got Tuvok, then they can get Miral Paris. Unimatrix Zero considerably widened the amount of Trek main characters who were assimilated.

Or Seven? Or any number of ex-B's? So yes I agree that specific borg dna thing doesn't hold water.

Also I don't think those characters in unimatrix zero (janeway, tuvok, b'elanna) were fully assimilated -- they all had neural suppressants so it was only some halfassed assimilation (other than tuvok's which was a bit more intense recovery) but all told their assimilations didn't last as long as Picard's.

we haven't seen troi give her "I sense a great darkness" line from the previews yet. wonder if telepathy will play a role. jack's visions aren't all premonitions though, there was one early on with some violence/people getting killed, but those people were fine just a few minutes later.

locutus as Face is an interesting idea, but still no clue why the shapeshifters would be deathly afraid of Face...

 

[Yistaan]

If it hadn't been killed in TNG, the Crystalline Entity would probably fit most of the checkmarks for the villain with the motivation being feeding on the entire fleet during Frontier Day. The Entity talks like a floating changeling head because it's one of the few ways he can communicate (he can't talk as seen in TNG). Jack would be needed because his powers are one of the few things that can kill the Entity. Q implanted the powers into Picard during All Good Things to fight the Entity, but Picard's stay on Ba'ku threw his biology out of whack and turned Q's gift into irumodic syndrome, which passed on to Jack.

Alas, the Crystalline Entity was killed in TNG so all of this falls apart.