WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6 - "The Bounty".The ending of Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 6, "The Bounty," finally reveals what the Changelings stole from Daystrom Station, but the answer only asks more questions about their overall plan. After a rendezvous with Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) and Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), the USS Titan-A made it to Daystrom Station to investigate the burglary of the highly classified Starfleet facility. ed by Captain William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Worf and Raffi finally reached a breakthrough in their investigation of the Daystrom heist, learning what the Changelings stole, but leaving a huge question as to why.
Meanwhile, iral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) hid the Titan among the relics at the Starfleet Fleet Museum, run by the former USS Enterprise-D and E's fromer Chief Engineer, Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton). Picard got a surprisingly frosty reception from Geordi, who was furious with his former Captain for putting his daughter Ensign Sidney La Forge (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) in danger. Thankfully, by the end of Star Trek: Picard season 3 episode 6, Geordi and Picard reconciled, which is just as well, as it appears that Jean-Luc will need all the help he can get to defeat the vast Changeling plot.
Changelings Stole Picard's Corpse - But Why?
In the closing moments of Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 6, "The Bounty", it's revealed that Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer) stole the portal weapon to distract from the fact they also stole the corpse of Jean-Luc Picard. It's unclear why the body was kept at Daystrom Station after Picard's season 1 death, but it's presumably due to the experimental technology Soong used to transfer the Starfleet iral's mind into the Golem, Jean-Luc's positronic android body. Interestingly, it appears that the body of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) is also stored at Daystrom Station. Perhaps all Starfleet legends are buried in high-security facilities to stop grave robbers from stealing and weaponizing their corpses.
It's unclear exactly why the Changelings need Picard's corpse. Using his genetic material to create a clone doesn't make sense given that they can already impersonate anyone or anything. It's possible that Jean-Luc's nascent link to the Borg Collective after Picard became Locutus means there's Borg tech that can be used against the Federation by the Changelings. The other possibility is that Picard's organic materials have somehow contributed to the evolution of the Changelings in Star Trek: Picard season 3, allowing them to better replicate internal organs and avoid detection.
There's an interesting moment when Riker turns to one of Vadic's soldiers and asks "How much of that goo sh** did they pour into you?" It could easily be Will making a joke about the size of his Changeling captor to show he's not afraid of them. However, the line could also be a means of implanting the idea in the mind of audiences that the Changeling "goo" has been poured into a vessel similar to Picard's android body, which Vadic knows about.
Will Riker And Deanna Troi Are Prisoners Of Vadic
Riker sacrificed himself to allow Worf and Raffi to beam out of Daystrom Station, fighting off advancing Starfleet officers as they took Daystrom's advanced AI back to the Titan. Predictably, it was revealed that Vadic had infiltrated the Starfleet officers sent to Daystrom and took Will back to the Shrike as her prisoner. Hoping that he'll betray his friends and hand over Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers), Vadic reveals that she also has Riker's wife, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), in her custody. As she had previously asked her crew to track down all of Jean-Luc's known associates, it's likely that Vadic captured Deanna for use as a bargaining chip when she learned that Starfleet had Riker pinned down at Daystrom.
While Star Trek: Prodigy. Alternatively, maybe Deanna is actually a Changeling impersonator, deployed to get information from Will about the whereabouts of the Titan and Vadic's quarry, Jack Crusher. Presumably Picard will reach out to Deanna to inform her about Will's capture in the next episode, which will answer whether it's the real Deanna in the cell aboard the Shrike.
Data is Back! And Lore, B4, Lal & Soong As A New Evolved Android
Initially, it appeared that Star Trek: The Next Generation's Professor James Moriarty (Daniel Davis) was the highly advanced A.I. security system that protected Daystrom Station. Nor was it Lore (Brent Spiner), who audiences may have expected from his appearance in the Star Trek: Picard season 3 trailer. Instead, Moriarty, combined with the traditional song "Pop Goes The Weasel", and a holographic crow, revealed that it was actually Data (Brent Spiner) who provided security for Daystrom. However, this isn't the Data that TNG fans know and love, and is instead a new, evolved version of the beloved android.
In the heart of Daystrom, Riker, Worf, and Raffi learned that Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner) had decided to evolve, rather than prolong his life. His answer was to create a new positronic, synthetic body, similar to Picard's, but with aspects of the Soong family included. As well as Data and Altan Soong, the evolved android contains elements of Data's evil brother Lore, the earlier model B-4 from Star Trek: Nemesis, and Lal (Hallie Todd), Data's daughter. However, the personality matrix was never completed before Altan Soong's death, but if Geordi can fix it, and retain Data as the dominant personality, he may finally be able to give his best friend Data the humanity he had always craved.
Jack Crusher Is Dying From Jean-Luc's Brain Disease
Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 6, "The Bounty" opened with the heartbreaking revelation that Jack Crusher had inherited his father Jean-Luc's Irumodic Syndrome. It's a terminal neurological disease that will ultimately kill him, however, it's still possible that Jack could live with it for decades. As the symptoms of the disease include hallucinations and delusions, it appears that the answer to what's happening to Jack Crusher has been answered. However, the revelations about the theft of Picard's corpse do suggest that Jack's diagnosis may not be as clear-cut as it initially seems.
Earlier in Star Trek: Picard season 3, Jack Crusher was described as an "asset" to the Changelings by their leader, The Face (Garth Kemp). It implies that Jack is unknowingly working with the Changelings, either as an infiltrator who, like a sleeper agent, is currently unaware of their true nature. As they possess Picard's corpse, who also died from the neurological disease, it would make it easy for the Changelings to trick the medical examinations of Jack's mother Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden). Convincing Jack that he has Irumodic Syndrome would stop him from questioning the true nature of his visions, long enough for him to complete whatever function he's serving for them.
What Geordi's Return Means For Picard Season 3
Star Trek: Picard no longer and plays a big part in the events of "The Bounty", stabilizing the stolen Klingon cloaking device installed on the Titan, and repairing the evolved Data to gain the information about the Daystrom robbery. Throughout the episode, Geordi makes references to his discomfort around the visibility of the entire fleet at the Frontier Day parade, and his disapproval of Starfleet ships being able to "speak to each other." These teases combined with the revelation by Commander Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) that there have been a dozen known Changeling infiltrations aboard Starfleet vessels suggest that the parade is at the heart of the Changeling plot.
With the whole fleet on display, and infiltrators aboard each ship, the Changelings could swiftly decimate the whole of Starfleet by destroying multiple Star Trek starships. It's still unclear exactly how Picard's corpse would play into such a plot, but his speech at Frontier Day could hold the key. A biologically indistinguishable Jean-Luc Picard impersonator taking to the stage to make a speech that triggers the destruction of the entire fleet would make an incredible statement. Now that Geordi La Forge - an engineer so great that he's even respected by Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) - is involved, he can hopefully undo whatever damage the Changelings may have done to Starfleet's shared systems and avert the devastation in Star Trek: Picard season 3's final four episodes.
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