Now you mention the Great Link: who the fuck is the hand head Vadic communicates with? It gave them an order. AFAIR, it was mentioned that an extremist group severed their connection from the Great Link - so did they form a New Link? Is there some singularity which controls the others? An alliance between the two, the Borg and the Changelings, does not seem so far-fetched to me, since both share the idea of a collective, and they have a common enemy they seek venegance against. Also, the visions Jack is having with the pulsating organic matter covering technical stuff would perfectly fit. I don’t know how desperate the Changelings are, but if they are extremists in the very sense of the word, wouldn’t they go to the extreme to kill themselves to destroy their enemy, so that the Great Link could be restored to it’s power? If they are severed form the collective, they could think that a suicide mission would not endanger the Great Link itself. Turn yourself into the weapon, destroy yourself and take your enemy with you? Anyway, we will see. Tonight, I plan watching E7. I will be back to support or destroy my reasoning. Until then,
Sure the floating disembodied Head looks like a tumor, but It also flows somehow like a flame. The Pah-Wraith also loved to show themselves in form of twirling pillars of fire.
Hmmm… Anyone else catch the line in episode 7 about Picard’s Irumodic Syndrome actually being something else? Seems to give credence to the theories upthread about Jack having some Borg in 'im.
My best bet ist now that Section 31 somehow managed to inject Borg tech and Picard DNA into the nine Ringwraiths Changelings, then used the portal thingummy to go back in spacetime and ‘made’ Jack. For all I care they might have added some Majel Barret-Roddenberry Lawxana Troi into the mix for telepathy and mind control capabilities. Or, as @BakaNeko already suggested, a Pa(g)h-wraith jumped on the opportunity when the artificial wormhole was used to go back in time.
Ok, seriously though, this was not something anyone could miss - it was an in-your face suggestion that Soong has found something in Picard’s brain which is not Irumodic Syndrome, but something artificial. The wording “form” stood out.
Overall, I was entertained by this episode, but some exposition bits and monologues were a bit distracting from the immersive fun.
ETA: now I did, but TWICE it failed to work? What? Hey, Discourse, wazzap? Also, I still fail to see where I fell short of not spoilering, but anyway, done is done.
Why the FUCK did Mr. ‘Let the engineering magic begin’ LaForge connect an USB stick android with unknown content to a non-airgapped system? I say! Does the IEEE know?
Some other rather unpleasant observations: I am Jack’s lack of communication talent. I am Jack’s lack of confidence. I am Jack’s lack of gettin’ laid. I am Jack’s lack of a proper sense of privacy, thank you very much.
And I am honestly surprised why they so obviously have to indicate a) the shift from Data to Lore by acoustic cuse and from Jack to Jack’s evil twin by optical cues. Pun intended.
What I really enjoyed is the intensity of the unease projected by Vadic’s tale how Section 31 perverts all that JLP believed in. And I enjoyed the bit with Dr. Beverly thinking aloud about genocide by biological warfare to protect her son (and, on a second thought, the Federation). Picard being ready to kill Vadic I did not properly buy into. That was a bit weird - to quick for me, maybe.
No need. It is so silly that It impossible to be true. Come on, they wouldn’t dare making something so absurd like this or writing an episode about an horny ghost hauting old ladies, a cheesy tabletop game traping the crew or turning the Captain of the ship into a giant Newt.
