Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 7 - "Monsters"
Tallinn (Orla Brady) revealed that she's Romulan in Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell), whose destiny Q (John de Lancie) wants to change in order to bring forth the dark Confederation future.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 is answering questions about Jean-Luc Picard and the choices he made in his life, specifically why he never married and decided to remain alone. According to Q, Picard facing the answers to these questions is innately tied to the Confederation reality supplanting the original Star Trek Prime timeline. But on a personal level, even Jean-Luc's oldest friends, like Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), don't know why Picard never married or had a family. When Star Trek: Picard season 2 began, Laris made it clear she was romantically interested in Jean-Luc. No longer mourning the death of her husband Zhaban (Jamie McShane), Laris looked forward to finding love with Picard only to be stonewalled, even though Jean-Luc reciprocated her feelings. But Laris has vanished after Q changed the timeline while Tallinn turned out to be a doppelganger of her.
When Tallinn unleashed her pointed ears to prove she was really Romulan in Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 7, "Monsters," Jean-Luc deduced that she "must be an ancestor" of Laris. While that's likely the case, it's a bizarre turn of events that Laris has an exact lookalike helping Picard in the 21st century. Further, Tallinn and Picard have grown remarkably close in a short amount of time after a rough meeting. This can be attributed to Tallinn being grateful Jean-Luc saved Renée from an assassination attempt by Q's accomplice, Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner). Tallinn also used her Romulan technology (her pointed earpiece gave away her reveal before the fact) to delve into Picard's subconscious when he was in a coma. Tallinn helped Jean-Luc face his suppressed childhood memories of his mother Yvette's (Madeleine Wise) mental illness.
Jean-Luc certainly isn't foolish enough to confuse Tallinn with Laris despite their identical faces. Nor is Picard and Tallinn being set up as a romance, although Jean-Luc's willingness to trust Tallinn is fueled, in part, because she looks like just Laris. But it will be weird if and when Laris is restored to the timeline and Picard explains that he was able to save the galaxy again because of Laris' Romulan ancestor who looks just like her. And what a happy (and convenient) coincidence that Laris has a doppelganger in 2024 Los Angeles to help Picard - one who is literally assigned to protect Jean-Luc's ancestor Renée, no less. Would Laris be happy to hear all of this and be willing to give Jean-Luc a second chance at romance?
Both Laris and Tallinn are intriguing characters played with cool earnestness by Orla Brady, who has been able to make both Romulans distinct and fascinating. But it's also quite a contrivance that Star Trek: Picard season 2 has three exact doubles for core characters who happen to live in 2024 Los Angeles, the others being the mad scientist Dr. Adam Soong and his daughter Kore (Isa Briones), who is the physical basis the synthetic Soji and Dahj were built to resemble. For Jean-Luc Picard, working alongside Tallinn (and losing Laris in this new timeline) is likely helping him appreciate his Romulan love interest so that he realizes he wants to be with Laris. But it's a strange leap of logic if Laris will be happy that Jean-Luc finally got over his lifelong issues with intimacy because he met her doppelganger in Star Trek: Picard season 2. It's also possible Laris is gone for good and Tallinn will be Jean-Luc's love interest, which would also be very strange.
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.