WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 3, "Seventeen Seconds."Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 3 ended with the surprise return of some classic villains, and a serious breakdown in the relationship between Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) as the USS Titan-A faced catastrophe. Directly following up Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) wordlessly confirming that Jean-Luc Picard was the father of Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers), "Seventeen Seconds" tackled how fatherhood affected both Riker and Picard's approaches to command as the Titan continued to evade the Shrike. Another attack from Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer) revealed the existence of a saboteur aboard the Titan, who had links to events on M'Talas Prime.
After rescuing Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) from Sneed (Aaron Stanford), Star Trek: Picard's Ferengi villain, Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) assisted Raffaela in apprehending another suspect named Titus Rikka (Thomas Dekker). Over the course of their good cop/bad cop routine, Worf and Raffi's interrogation Rikka revealed him to be a Changeling. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Changelings as the villains of Picard season 3 makes more sense of Beverly's warning to "trust no one" in Picard's season 3 premiere, "The Next Generation". This huge bombshell from the ending of "Seventeen Seconds" has much wider implications for the crew of the Titan and the other returning Star Trek: The Next Generation characters as Picard season 3 continues.
DS9's Changelings Are Back And Have Infiltrated Starfleet
Once Titus Rikka was exposed as a Changeling, Raffi learned that Worf received intelligence about a schism within the Changelings' Great Link. Although he doesn't mention him by name, the "man of honor" responsible for informing Worf is clearly DS9's Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois). The Klingon has told Raffi that the information about the schism has been suppressed by Starfleet Intelligence to avoid triggering a second Dominion War. However, the discovery made by Jack Crusher aboard the USS Titan-A suggests another reason that Odo's information has been kept under wraps.
When Jack and Commander Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) investigated an act of sabotage on the Titan, Jack came face to face with a Changeling, who was impersonating Ensign Foster (Chad Lindberg). It's clear that the Changelings have figured out a way to beat the phaser sweeps and blood tests implemented by Starfleet during the Dominion War. If one Changeling can make it aboard the Titan, or infiltrate Daystrom Station, then it would surely be easy for them to penetrate the highest levels of Starfleet to enact their planned attack on the Federation.
Jack Crusher Is Seeing Visions - Is It Connected To The Changelings?
Picard and Beverly's son, Jack Crusher, was incapacitated during his fight with the Changeling Ensign Foster. In the scuffle, he lost his protective mask, and inhaled dangerous levels of poison gas. As Jack struggled to stay conscious, he saw visions of red branches, a door, stormy weather, rocks, and rolling oceans. The rocky outcrops and rolling oceans recall the Great Link on the Changeling's home world, suggesting that Jack Crusher could be connected to the Changeling's liquid mass.
Jack could therefore be a sleeper agent for the Changeling villains, posing as the son of Jean-Luc and Beverly. Perhaps the Changelings are using Jack as part of a plot against Picard and Starfleet, such as when the Ferengi DaiMon Bok presented Jason Vigo (Ken Olandt) as Picard's son in TNG as part of his revenge against the former Stargazer Captain. Alternatively, Jack could have inherited Jean-Luc's neurological defect, leaving him prone to developing Irumodic Syndrome, of which hallucinations and delusions are symptoms.
Picard And Riker's Conflict On The Titan Bridge - Who Is Right?
Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) was severely injured by another devastating attack from the Shrike. Shaw handed control of the Titan back to its former Captain, Will Riker, to get them out of the situation he and Picard and put them in. After a fun reversal of roles where Picard became Riker's Number One, the two men clashed over the correct way to confront Captain Vadic. Riker was in favor of beating a retreat through the Ryton nebula, then warping the Titan to escape the Shrike. Picard, meanwhile, believed that they should take Vadic by surprise and strike back against the Shrike. Instead, Vadic used the portal weapon to redirect the Titan's missiles back on itself, crippling the Titan and sending it hurtling into a gravity well.
However, the former Enterprise Captain is right in his assessment of the no-win scenario with Vadic and the Shrike. At the end of Star Trek: Picard episode 2, "Disengage," the Titan fired on the Shrike and made a run for it, much to Vadic's delight. She is clearly thrilled by the chase and confirmed this with her bird-of-prey speech and promise to "peck" and "jab". Despite spitefully suggesting that Picard has killed them all, the pain on Riker's face suggests he knows Jean-Luc was right all along, and that he acted too late. Hopefully, Picard and Riker can reconcile their differences in the next episode and save the crew of the Titan from being destroyed by the nebula's gravity well.
Jack Crusher Knew Picard Is His Father (And Beverly's Explanation)
The "Seventeen Seconds" of Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 3's title refers to the amount of time Will Riker spent in a turbolift to the Titan sickbay during his son Thaddeus' complicated birth. "And in that moment, you became a father", Picard told Riker when the two men shared a celebratory drink in Ten Forward in a flashback. Picard experienced his own "Seventeen Seconds" later in the episode when he raced to sickbay to be at Jack's side. Beverly confirmed that Jack knew he was Jean-Luc Picard's son and resolved never to meet his living legend of a father. By the end of the episode, Jean-Luc finally became a father in his own desperate turbolift ride.
Beverly and Jean-Luc's family is finally given a chance in the closing scenes of episode 3, but earlier, Picard confronted his former lover and friend about why she hid Jack from him. She explained that she had lost her parents, her husband, and her son Wesley (Wil Wheaton) to the same stars that "owned" Jean-Luc. Beverly resolved that she could protect her son, but not the son of the legendary Jean-Luc Picard, and so kept Jack's existence a secret. Following Beverly's explanation, it will be interesting to see how Jack justifies his own reasons for never reaching out to Jean-Luc in later episodes of Picard season 3.
What Else Was Stolen From Daystrom Station?
Worf and Raffi's interrogation of Titus Rikka revealed that it wasn't just Vadic's secret portal weapon that was stolen from Daystrom Station. Rikka says that the Changelings stole the devastating portal weapon as a distraction from a much more dangerous weapon that had also been liberated from Daystrom Station. It's unclear what that could be, but given the Daystrom Institute's multiple departments, it could be anything. One of the most obvious candidates is Lore (Brent Spiner), who is confirmed to appear later in Star Trek: Picard season 3, and would surely have no qualms about teaming up with the Changelings to destroy the Solids once and for all.
Another possibility is the sentient holodeck replica of Sherlock Holmes' arch-nemesis, Professor James Moriarty (Daniel Davis). A technological anomaly like Moriarty would be of great interest to the Daystrom Institute and, as a criminal genius, James could be of great use in planning the Changeling's attack on Starfleet. Whatever the weapon is that has now found its way into the hands of the Changelings, it's clear that the TNG crew's problems are only just beginning in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
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