Here's how Star Trek: Picard season 2 currently finds itself in 2024, and though the era is largely alien to Jean-Luc and friends, a few aspects of historic Earth are all too familiar - Guinan behind a bar, a Picard heading into space... and a member of the Soong family pursuing controversial cutting edge science. Rather than building synthetic life forms, Star Trek: Picard's Adam Soong is feverishly pursuing eugenics in order to cure Kore, his sick daughter who must exist within a protective bubble because of a crippling aversion to pretty much everything.
Star Trek: Picard season 2's "Two of One" reveals there's more to Kore than meets the eye. Hacking into her father's surprisingly-easy-to-access files, Kore discovers she's the latest in a line of genetically-engineered experiment children "fathered" by Adam Soong. Every previous child died within their formative years, whereas Kore has survived into her 20s - extensive list of environmental allergies notwithstanding. Though the revelation is certainly a shock to Kore herself (and Star Trek: Picard does play the reveal as a major twist), the true nature of Adam Soong's daughter is a classic case of history repeating itself.
In Star Trek: Picard season 1, Isa Briones portrayed Soji - an anthropologist making her family proud by working aboard the Borg Artifact, and exploring romance with a handsome undercover Romulan. Soji's world turns upside down in "The Impossible Box," when suspicions and inconsistencies force her toward the truth - she's actually a synthetic android created by Altan Inigo Soong. Soji rifles through treasured possessions and family photographs, but they only confirm her life-changing realization. Kore finding out she's Adam Soong's genetic experiment mirrors Soji's discovery with eerie symmetry. Both characters are played by Isa Briones, both believed they were human before deducing they're creations of a Soong, and even Kore's desperate cry of, "Why don't I this?" has echoes of Soji freaking out after finding her family heirlooms were all part of an elaborate backstory. The decision to cast Briones as Adam Soong's daughter should've been a sure sign that Kore's existence was inevitably a lie - just like the actress' Star Trek: Picard season 1 character. And with synthetics like Soji not technologically feasible in Star Trek's 2024, a genetic creation was left as the only alternative.
Curiously, the parallels between Kore and Soji contribute toward a larger theme of history repeating itself in Star Trek: Picard season 2. Whereas Altan Inigo Soong saved Jean-Luc Picard's life, Adam Soong tries to kill him. And whereas Dr. Agnes Jurati found herself manipulated by Commodore Oh in Star Trek: Picard season 1, she's now the Borg Queen's puppet instead. The correlation even extends back into Star Trek's early years, as Rios falling for Teresa makes exactly the same mistake as Kirk falling for Edith Keeler. With so many points of comparison between Star Trek's past and present (or present and future...?), Isa Briones' chances of playing a character whose life isn't built around a lie were always rather slim.
You could argue that Star Trek: Picard doesn't seriously attempt to hide season 2's Kore twist. Only a single episode es between her introduction and the big reveal, while Adam Soong's references to eugenics are suspicious by design. Not to mention this is Adam Soong, so of course Kore isn't what she seems. Nevertheless, Star Trek: Picard season 1's Soji arc means we've seen Kore's "I'm a real girl" storyline before - with the same actress, no less. This is very much familiar territory for Jean-Luc Picard's solo series, leaving Kore alone in her surprise.
Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on Paramount+.