WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 3, "Seventeen Seconds."Jack Crusher (Ed Speelers) experiences a strange vision in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 3, leading to speculation that something is very wrong with the character. In "Seventeen Seconds", the USS Titan-A is still being pursued through the Ryton nebula by Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer) and her formidable ship, the Shrike. As Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is assumed command of the Titan, iral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) comes to with Dr. Beverly Crusher's (Gates McFadden) decision to conceal his son's identity.
When the Titan's Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick) is seriously wounded, he asks Jack how the Shrike was able to continue tracking the Titan through the nebula. This led Jack and Commander Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) to investigate an act of sabotage that allowed poison gas to escape from the ship. Confronted by the saboteur, Jack's gas mask was torn from his face, forcing him to inhale large quantities of the potentially fatal gas. As he struggled to maintain consciousness, he saw a vision of Seven instructing him to "connect the branches," and Jack saw flashes of a storm, a rolling sea, and a mysterious red door. Here's what it could mean for Jack Crusher in Star Trek: Picard season 3.
What Happened To Jack Crusher In Picard Season 3, Episode 3?
The cause of Jack's vision is possibly the injury to his head from his fight with the saboteur, and his exposure to deadly gas. However, it's more likely that Jack's vision has something to do with the larger Star Trek: Picard season 3 story. As Jean-Luc Picard is Jack Crusher's father, it's possible that Jack is experiencing the strange visions because he has inherited his father's Irumodic Syndrome. An elderly Jean-Luc was living with Irumodic Syndrome in the Star Trek; The Next Generation finale, "All Good Things", which was believed to be the reason for his "shifts" into the past and present.
The ending of "All Good Things" confirmed that Picard didn't have Irumodic Syndrome, but did have a structural neurological defect that could lead to the condition developing in later life. It's possible, therefore, Jean-Luc could have ed the defect down to Jack through his genes. Jean-Luc's neurological defect led to Picard's death and resurrection in season 1, so it would make sense for season 3 to address his condition once again, this time through his son, Jack. However, it's not the only explanation for what's happening to Jack in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 3.
Does Jack's Vision Tie Into Picard's DS9 Changeling Reveal?
Jack's discovery that one of all of DS9's Changelings. The Link is a mass network of the Changelings in their liquid form, suggesting an alternate way to read the instruction to "connect the branches".
This reading of Jack's vision creates the worrying possibility that the Jack Crusher aboard the Titan is actually a Changeling impersonator. Given that Jack is as shaken by the vision and revelations around a Changeling saboteur as the rest of the Titan, perhaps he's a sleeper agent awaiting activation. Now that DS9's Changelings have been revealed to be the villains of Star Trek: Picard season 3, it would appear that nobody, not even the son of Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher, can be trusted completely.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.