STAR TREK: PICARD: Theory: Borg/Pah-wraith Combo Meal Deal!
Beware: Season 3 spoilers! If you have not watched the first eight episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD season 3, get thee to your streaming device and watch! Then come back for some combo crazytalk. =)
Thesis: JC was born to be a Pah-wraith Emissary with power over the Borg. He could easily have either PW or Borg ancestry, but no one is ever really just one thing, right? =)
MY THREE DADS.
After Jean-Luc was “cured” of Locutus in 2366 (TNG “The Best of Both Worlds”), vestiges of Jean-Loc’s Borg connection remained in his body. BC’s analysis of JL’s assimilation revealed that “microcircuit fibers” rewrote his DNA. When JL was released from the collective, BC explained that his DNA was returning to normal. However, JL’s ability to sense and “read” the Borg in 2373 (FIRST CONTACT) demonstrates that some of those modifications persisted, likely concentrated in his parietal lobe.
At some point, before 2379 (NEMESIS), archaeology nerd JL acquires a Bajoran tablet for study. Sometime between 2375 (DS9 “What You Leave Behind”) and 2379 (NEMESIS), the tablet breaks, releasing a Pah-wraith contained within. The incident is accompanied by a discharge of energy that renders JL unconscious. When JL wakes, he finds the tablet broken, but otherwise, nothing out of place. Of course, the truth is that while JL was knocked out, the PW bonded with him, possessing him, but in a passive way, taking up residence in JL’s mind and body. Typically, it would take control of its host’s form, but cut off from the rest of its kind (trapped in the Fire Caves of Bajor in 2375), it is weakened, and rides shotgun in JL, aware of his actions, but not able to control them.
After the events of NEMESIS, JL joins BC for their fateful shore leave on Casperia Prime. The PW within him contributes its energy to JC’s conception, and so Jack is destined to be the PW’s Emissary (following the formula used by the Prophets to create Emissary Sisko).
JL’s choice as Emissary sire was not made by chance. The PWs are aware that JL was once Locutus & that his offspring will possess unique mutated Borg abilities that other hosts could not. Due to the hive mind and techno-organic nature of the Borg, the PW have no influence over them as followers or hosts, but their Emissary shall. He will be able to control the Borg and turn them into an army for the PWs.
Thanks to the decimation of the Borg by Captain Janeway and her alternate timeline Admiral self in 2378 (VOYAGER “Endgame”), that army is significantly reduced by 2401. Because time travel enabled those events, the PWs could not foresee them. Regardless, Emissary Jack has the “natural born” abilities of Locutus, the Borg Consort.
The Prophets’ Emissary, Ben Sisko, acted as their agent on the mortal plane. Not possessed, but inclined by nature, duty, & sometimes persuasion to do as they required.
Previously, PWs once chose Dukat as their Emissary, imbuing him w their power, but not possessing him. Dukat was not a true Emissary, fated from birth, but a convenient vessel, free of the influence of the Prophets and already possessed of a will to destroy Emissary Sisko.
Emissary Jack is meant to serve the PWs the way Sisko served the Prophets, by following his nature, which is predisposed to darkness thanks to his PW heritage. However, I believe that nature has been modified, partly by BC’s nurture and parenting, and partly by the red door, or rather, what JC visualizes as a red door, a psychic block or partition that isolates the malevolence inherited from JL’s PW passenger and the dormant Borg connection.
BC explained to Jack that when he was a child, he suffered terrible nightmares, bad enough that he stopped sleeping. These nightmares were conjured by his PW self, his dark side. JC doesn’t remember having them, but BC does, and remembers that he got through them. She does not share with him how.
It was the psychic block, aka the red door, constructed within his mind to lock away the parts of him that are not human, the Borg connection and the PW darkness.
But how was this block created? I have a few ideas…
1. JC instinctively used his latent Borg abilities to build a psychic defense against his PW-ness when he was young. Over millennia, the Borg have developed a techno-organic method of overpowering and controlling the consciousness of thousands of species. The separation of one part of a mind from another is a low-level feature of their systems. BC had tried helping him however she could, but when the sleep/nightmare issues seemingly ended on their own, she knew it was not due to any of her efforts, but thanks to something within JC that had changed.
2. BC came up with a treatment that psychically blocked JC’s nightmares. She suspected the Jean-Loc origins, but could not identify a physiological cause and so treated the symptom using any psychological treatments available, which resulted in locking away the PW darkness that caused the nightmares as well as his Borg self.
NB. JC may have been suffering from two competing forms of nightmares. Fiery galactic apocalyptic visions inspired by his PW self and the distorted psychic cries and confusion of the drones of the Borg in the wake of Janeway’s viral attack in 2378.
3. It turns out that Section 31 had been keeping tabs on BC and her son, aware that JC was the son of ex-Borg JL. When JC’s nightmares manifested, they approached BC and offered their help to manage them. They used programming techniques that involved hypnosis and exotic technology to lock away JC’s darkness and inherited Borg abilities. Their programming would have to be refreshed and reinforced periodically, so BC and JC would rendezvous with S31 operatives regularly to get that done. These treatments also allowed S31 to program JC with skills and intel needed to complete missions for them while performing his Doctors without Galactic Borders duties with Dr. Mom. To execute these missions, the red door would be unlocked, allowing JC to access both the darkness of his PW lineage and the abilities of his Borg lineage. On mission completion, the door would be locked again. Note that S31 knew about JC’s Borg potential, but were unaware of his PW darkness. They attributed his knack for black ops action to natural ability. The training he received as well as the memories of the missions themselves were locked up behind the red door, too. JC’s conscious self ihas no recall of his actions when the door is open. His dark side is in charge then. S31 shares the basics of JC’s issues and their “treatment” with BC, charging her with becoming her son’s handler. It is a deal with the devil she enters into willingly, as S31’s technique has succeeded where all of her medical knowledge has failed. Their dependence on S31 is another reason that BC continues to keep her distance from her old friends and colleagues. See my “Agent Crusher” theory for more along these lines. =)
When JC needs to protect himself and those he cares for, the red door opens so that he can access the abilities and natures hidden behind it as needed, but he retains no conscious memory of those times. Recently, that has changed. He experiences visions while awake, finds himself experiencing lost time, and able to share or project his consciousness into others. JC’s time spent in and around “integrated” Starfleet tech has awakened and stimulated his Borg self, weakening the door and allowing influence and abilities to bleed thru. Starfleet “integration” has been accomplished using tech derived from the Borg Artifact, and the ship computers have achieved a level of sentience. They sense the latent abilities of Locutus within JC and call out to him to join them and make them whole.
BONUS ROUND: WHAT ABOUT Q?
Did Q’s meddling help fulfill JC’s destiny? Did he interrupt and interfere with JL’s life in order to ensure the events unfolding this season? Did Q push humanity’s encounter w the Borg to intentionally set events in motion that would lead to JL becoming Locutus, and ultimately to Jack and his unique gifts? Also, in “All Good Things”, it is Borganic growth in JL’s parietal lobe that ends up being diagnosed as irumodic syndrome, causing his friends and colleagues to doubt him in that future. Also also, Q helped close the timeline loop-de-loop in the events of season 2 in such a way that traces of Confed timeline Borg tech were left on the grounds and in the home of Chateau Picard, inert for centuries until a young Jean-Luc was infected by them. Not in a high enough concentration or by the right nano components to fully assimilate him, but enough to perhaps make him… assimilation-friendly as an adult. The ideal candidate to become Locutus. The Borg did not choose him by chance, either. JL notes their surprising interest in the Enterprise and himself in the log playing on the Eleos.
MORE LATER?
No promises, but I’m hoping to get my thoughts together on why the Revenge Squad wants Jack and who might be behind Meathead. There are still just too many possibilities—argh!
LLAP…aka…
Keep on keepin’ on~
P.S. Check out “What’s Up with Jack?” for more rambling on JC’s potential Borg- and Wraith-ness =)
STAR TREK: PICARD: Theory: Borg/Pah-wraith Combo Meal Deal!
Beware: Season 3 spoilers! If you have not watched the first eight episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD season 3, get thee to your streaming device and watch! Then come back for some combo crazytalk. =)
Thesis: JC was born to be a Pah-wraith Emissary with power over the Borg. He could easily have either PW or Borg ancestry, but no one is ever really just one thing, right? =)
MY THREE DADS.
After Jean-Luc was “cured” of Locutus in 2366 (TNG “The Best of Both Worlds”), vestiges of Jean-Loc’s Borg connection remained in his body. BC’s analysis of JL’s assimilation revealed that “microcircuit fibers” rewrote his DNA. When JL was released from the collective, BC explained that his DNA was returning to normal. However, JL’s ability to sense and “read” the Borg in 2373 (FIRST CONTACT) demonstrates that some of those modifications persisted, likely concentrated in his parietal lobe.
At some point, before 2379 (NEMESIS), archaeology nerd JL acquires a Bajoran tablet for study. Sometime between 2375 (DS9 “What You Leave Behind”) and 2379 (NEMESIS), the tablet breaks, releasing a Pah-wraith contained within. The incident is accompanied by a discharge of energy that renders JL unconscious. When JL wakes, he finds the tablet broken, but otherwise, nothing out of place. Of course, the truth is that while JL was knocked out, the PW bonded with him, possessing him, but in a passive way, taking up residence in JL’s mind and body. Typically, it would take control of its host’s form, but cut off from the rest of its kind (trapped in the Fire Caves of Bajor in 2375), it is weakened, and rides shotgun in JL, aware of his actions, but not able to control them.
After the events of NEMESIS, JL joins BC for their fateful shore leave on Casperia Prime. The PW within him contributes its energy to JC’s conception, and so Jack is destined to be the PW’s Emissary (following the formula used by the Prophets to create Emissary Sisko).
JL’s choice as Emissary sire was not made by chance. The PWs are aware that JL was once Locutus & that his offspring will possess unique mutated Borg abilities that other hosts could not. Due to the hive mind and techno-organic nature of the Borg, the PW have no influence over them as followers or hosts, but their Emissary shall. He will be able to control the Borg and turn them into an army for the PWs.
Thanks to the decimation of the Borg by Captain Janeway and her alternate timeline Admiral self in 2378 (VOYAGER “Endgame”), that army is significantly reduced by 2401. Because time travel enabled those events, the PWs could not foresee them. Regardless, Emissary Jack has the “natural born” abilities of Locutus, the Borg Consort.
The Prophets’ Emissary, Ben Sisko, acted as their agent on the mortal plane. Not possessed, but inclined by nature, duty, & sometimes persuasion to do as they required.
Previously, PWs once chose Dukat as their Emissary, imbuing him w their power, but not possessing him. Dukat was not a true Emissary, fated from birth, but a convenient vessel, free of the influence of the Prophets and already possessed of a will to destroy Emissary Sisko.
Emissary Jack is meant to serve the PWs the way Sisko served the Prophets, by following his nature, which is predisposed to darkness thanks to his PW heritage. However, I believe that nature has been modified, partly by BC’s nurture and parenting, and partly by the red door, or rather, what JC visualizes as a red door, a psychic block or partition that isolates the malevolence inherited from JL’s PW passenger and the dormant Borg connection.
BC explained to Jack that when he was a child, he suffered terrible nightmares, bad enough that he stopped sleeping. These nightmares were conjured by his PW self, his dark side. JC doesn’t remember having them, but BC does, and remembers that he got through them. She does not share with him how.
It was the psychic block, aka the red door, constructed within his mind to lock away the parts of him that are not human, the Borg connection and the PW darkness.
But how was this block created? I have a few ideas…
1. JC instinctively used his latent Borg abilities to build a psychic defense against his PW-ness when he was young. Over millennia, the Borg have developed a techno-organic method of overpowering and controlling the consciousness of thousands of species. The separation of one part of a mind from another is a low-level feature of their systems. BC had tried helping him however she could, but when the sleep/nightmare issues seemingly ended on their own, she knew it was not due to any of her efforts, but thanks to something within JC that had changed.
2. BC came up with a treatment that psychically blocked JC’s nightmares. She suspected the Jean-Loc origins, but could not identify a physiological cause and so treated the symptom using any psychological treatments available, which resulted in locking away the PW darkness that caused the nightmares as well as his Borg self.
NB. JC may have been suffering from two competing forms of nightmares. Fiery galactic apocalyptic visions inspired by his PW self and the distorted psychic cries and confusion of the drones of the Borg in the wake of Janeway’s viral attack in 2378.
3. It turns out that Section 31 had been keeping tabs on BC and her son, aware that JC was the son of ex-Borg JL. When JC’s nightmares manifested, they approached BC and offered their help to manage them. They used programming techniques that involved hypnosis and exotic technology to lock away JC’s darkness and inherited Borg abilities. Their programming would have to be refreshed and reinforced periodically, so BC and JC would rendezvous with S31 operatives regularly to get that done. These treatments also allowed S31 to program JC with skills and intel needed to complete missions for them while performing his Doctors without Galactic Borders duties with Dr. Mom. To execute these missions, the red door would be unlocked, allowing JC to access both the darkness of his PW lineage and the abilities of his Borg lineage. On mission completion, the door would be locked again. Note that S31 knew about JC’s Borg potential, but were unaware of his PW darkness. They attributed his knack for black ops action to natural ability. The training he received as well as the memories of the missions themselves were locked up behind the red door, too. JC’s conscious self ihas no recall of his actions when the door is open. His dark side is in charge then. S31 shares the basics of JC’s issues and their “treatment” with BC, charging her with becoming her son’s handler. It is a deal with the devil she enters into willingly, as S31’s technique has succeeded where all of her medical knowledge has failed. Their dependence on S31 is another reason that BC continues to keep her distance from her old friends and colleagues. See my “Agent Crusher” theory for more along these lines. =)
When JC needs to protect himself and those he cares for, the red door opens so that he can access the abilities and natures hidden behind it as needed, but he retains no conscious memory of those times. Recently, that has changed. He experiences visions while awake, finds himself experiencing lost time, and able to share or project his consciousness into others. JC’s time spent in and around “integrated” Starfleet tech has awakened and stimulated his Borg self, weakening the door and allowing influence and abilities to bleed thru. Starfleet “integration” has been accomplished using tech derived from the Borg Artifact, and the ship computers have achieved a level of sentience. They sense the latent abilities of Locutus within JC and call out to him to join them and make them whole.
BONUS ROUND: WHAT ABOUT Q?
Did Q’s meddling help fulfill JC’s destiny? Did he interrupt and interfere with JL’s life in order to ensure the events unfolding this season? Did Q push humanity’s encounter w the Borg to intentionally set events in motion that would lead to JL becoming Locutus, and ultimately to Jack and his unique gifts? Also, in “All Good Things”, it is Borganic growth in JL’s parietal lobe that ends up being diagnosed as irumodic syndrome, causing his friends and colleagues to doubt him in that future. Also also, Q helped close the timeline loop-de-loop in the events of season 2 in such a way that traces of Confed timeline Borg tech were left on the grounds and in the home of Chateau Picard, inert for centuries until a young Jean-Luc was infected by them. Not in a high enough concentration or by the right nano components to fully assimilate him, but enough to perhaps make him… assimilation-friendly as an adult. The ideal candidate to become Locutus. The Borg did not choose him by chance, either. JL notes their surprising interest in the Enterprise and himself in the log playing on the Eleos.
MORE LATER?
No promises, but I’m hoping to get my thoughts together on why the Revenge Squad wants Jack and who might be behind Meathead. There are still just too many possibilities—argh!
LLAP…aka…
Keep on keepin’ on~
P.S. Check out “What’s Up with Jack?” for more rambling on JC’s potential Borg- and Wraith-ness =)
STAR TREK: PICARD: 3x06: “The Bounty”: Agent Crusher?
Beware: Season 3 spoilers! If you have not watched the first six episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD season 3, get thee to your streaming device and watch! Then come back for some secret space police speculating. =)
Thesis: Jack is a sleeper agent of Section 31 and Beverly is his handler.
“MAYBE I WAS DOOMED BEFORE I WAS BORN.”
Jack exhibited unusual abilities-slash-symptoms as a child, including sleeplessness and traumatic visions. Beverly realized that they manifested as a result of traits unknowingly inherited from his father, someone who was once assimilated into the Borg and made into potential consort for their Queen, who was consumed by and then released from the Nexus energy ribbon, who traveled back and forth in time and visited alternate realities. With those ingredients, who knows WHAT you’re gonna get, right?
Specifically, it’s the latent Borg collective communication and coordination abilities that Jack inherited from Jean-Loc that make him valuable to Vadic and the Starfleet Revenge Squad (my name for the team-up of baddies responsible for all of JL & the gang’s woes in season 3).
A DEAL WITH THE DEVILS.
Beverly did what she could to treat her son’s apparent symptoms, but with little success. Having cut herself off from Starfleet and her friends to protect and raise her son on her own, she didn’t have access to legitimate resources that might have helped. However, Section 31 had been keeping tabs on JL and his associates and were well aware of her son and his health issues. They approached and offered to help Beverly help her son in exchange for their cooperation when called upon. Beverly and Jack would continue living their otherwise off-the-grid Galactic Doctors without Borders lives without any changes, but every once in a while, Section 31 would call on them to pick up or deliver something or someone, or provide assistance to other agents operating on the Federation fringe.
Beverly agrees and S31 gives her access to data and treatments that Beverly uses to relieve Jack’s symptoms. S31 continues to supply her with materials and assistance with Jack’s treatment as long as she continues to complete the missions they give her.
THE CRUSHER IDENTITY.
To better protect and equip the Crushers for space cloak and dagger work, when Section 31 offered to train him as a sleeper agent, young Jack agreed. This involved all manner of intelligence, weapons, and martial arts training, but psychically compartmentalized, thanks to unique tech and procedures available to Section 31 (visit Daystrom Station =). It also required that Jack’s knowledge of S31 be erased.
An outline of the imagined steps…
Jack signs up for the S31 sleeper agent program. —
S31 partitions his mind to create Action Jack, who undergoes training. —
S31 modifies Jack’s memory to forget that he works for S31 and is part of the sleeper agent program. —
S31 implants a trigger or triggers to activate and deactivate Action Jack when needed. He is automatically activated when Jack or Beverly is in mortal danger. —
31 trains Beverly to handle and monitor Jack and Action Jack’s behavior and programming.
His “double agent” existence might be compared to those of characters in TOTAL RECALL, MOON KNIGHT, BOURNE IDENTITY, and SEVERANCE. I imagine two strong variations on how it could go, based on…
…what S31 wants. Action Jack is a separate persona, distinct from Jack, and programmed to follow orders as well as protect. Like Quaid in TOTAL RECALL, Grant/Spector in MOON KNIGHT, and Mark in SEVERANCE. —
…what we’ve seen. When in danger Jack enters a fugue state in which he can access his sleeper training on automatic, without a separate Action Jack persona. More like, but not identical to, Jason in BOURNE IDENTITY. Maybe measures taken by Dr. Mom have put a ding in “what S31 wants” resulting in this behavior, unintended by S31’s programming?
TRUST NO ONE.
I believe Beverly and Jack’s good standing with Section 31 changed a few months ago when Beverly realized that they wanted Jack for something more, something specific. Maybe at the same time 31 stopped or changed Jack’s treatments, or, in going fugitive on 31, Beverly lost access to them, which has resulted in the return of Jack’s spells and insomnia. She may also have learned that Section 31—or at least the cell or group that she and Jack have dealt with—are being run by Changelings. If she didn’t know then, she certainly must realize it now. The Changelings, thru Section 31, have been tracking and programming/grooming Jack to play a very important role in their plan to cripple Starfleet, thanks to the abilities inherited from his father. Starfleet Revenge Squad’s plan calls for Jack’s will—compromised by S31’s programming—to direct the currently latent hive mind collective that will emerge from the network of integrated Starfleet starships.
The visions of red vines and voices calling to Jack to “find us” and “connect us” are Starfleet ships calling for his help.“Integration” has been achieved via the repurposing of Borg tech extracted from the Romulan Borg Artifact. Starfleet—under Revenge Squad’s guidance—has turned their ship computers into entities resembling very simple Borg drones, sentient, but suppressed. The latent collective network among these drones is what enables integration, and Jack is naturally tuned into it.
ODDS & ENDS.
Some miscellaneous notes related to the above crazy talk…
This strategy for a Frontier Day attack seems like a perfect fit to me except for one thing—Borgnes and her Bjørg cooperative demonstrated the vulnerability in using Borg-derived tech in Starfleet ships when she overrode the Stargazer’s systems at the anomaly rift in season 2. But perhaps the Revenge Squad’s agents in Starfleet and Section 31 came up with a patch for that—an update that would prevent such an override by unfriendlies. Of course, it would be designed to identify Jack’s techno-organic commands as friendly. —
I’m unclear on how much Jack remembers of Action Jack’s activity, but it seems like none of it. He doesn’t explicitly say anything about taking out the four Changelings who were ready to abduct him on the Titan, letting Shaw and Beverly discuss without adding anything. —
I think his visions are a combination of Action Jack programming bleeding into his waking life and messages he is picking up via Radio Free Borg. Each muddling the other somewhat. The red door might be an entrance to an S31 training location, and/or access to his memories of his Action Jack training and activities. Or maybe it’s the gateway to Starfleet’s version of Unimatrix Zero. —
Beverly uses Irumodic Syndrome as an explanation for any situations in which Jack’s S31 programming “bleeds” through or is compromised by his actions in front of others or by leaving evidence.
I’ve still got more than a couple competing ideas about the Starfleet Revenge Squad and its motivations…
The Reman Viceroy is Vadic’s boss. He’s in it to bring down Starfleet (and Picard and friends) for cutting short the Reman rule of the Romulan empire and more than happy to ally with the Changelings to make it happen. He has delivered Romulan Artifact tech and research to the Changelings embedded in Starfleet to create the “integrated” fleet. (I originally hoped that there was another Thalaron doomsday device created in NEMESIS-times that was keyed to Shinzon’s living DNA and that the Viceroy needed Jack alive to unlock or activate it, since Jean-Luc no longer lives in his naturally born body.) —
Species 8472 is framing the Changelings. They have updated their isomorphic tech to allow them to shapeshift at will, but without regular boosters, revert to “goo” in reversion. Altho 8472 came to a peaceful accord with Voyager, there were hawks as well as doves among 8472, and as far as we know, no follow-up diplomatic communications were opened. Starfleet is the only enemy who defeated 8472, so their plan is to have the Dominion do their dirty work for them. A crazy long-shot, I know, but man, how awesome would it be to have JL and friends uncover the frame-up and have 8472 vs. the Dominion? =) —
Rogue 8472s are working with—enslaved by?—the rogue Changelings. 8472’s Federation simulation training and genetic modification skills have helped Changelings improve their mimicking capabilities, resulting in their meatier appearance. I’m not sure why 8472s would end up subservient to Changelings—I would prefer a straight-up team-up arrangement—but if it is Changelings and 8472s, I think they must be the ones chittering behind the masks. Maybe they are unable to return to fluidic space because of environmental damage? Struck with a preemptive S31 plague? Specifically sought out, captured, and suborned by the rogue Changelings? Maybe JL and friends can cure or free the 8472s and have them turn on the Changelings and Squad upper management to turn everything around? —
Would also be happy to see a Weyoun or Bashir’s Mutant/Augment Squad running the evil show. =)
STAR TREK: PICARD: 3x06: “The Bounty”: Agent Crusher?
Beware: Season 3 spoilers! If you have not watched the first six episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD season 3, get thee to your streaming device and watch! Then come back for some secret space police speculating. =)
Thesis: Jack is a sleeper agent of Section 31 and Beverly is his handler.
“MAYBE I WAS DOOMED BEFORE I WAS BORN.”
Jack exhibited unusual abilities-slash-symptoms as a child, including sleeplessness and traumatic visions. Beverly realized that they manifested as a result of traits unknowingly inherited from his father, someone who was once assimilated into the Borg and made into potential consort for their Queen, who was consumed by and then released from the Nexus energy ribbon, who traveled back and forth in time and visited alternate realities. With those ingredients, who knows WHAT you’re gonna get, right?
Specifically, it’s the latent Borg collective communication and coordination abilities that Jack inherited from Jean-Loc that make him valuable to Vadic and the Starfleet Revenge Squad (my name for the team-up of baddies responsible for all of JL & the gang’s woes in season 3).
A DEAL WITH THE DEVILS.
Beverly did what she could to treat her son’s apparent symptoms, but with little success. Having cut herself off from Starfleet and her friends to protect and raise her son on her own, she didn’t have access to legitimate resources that might have helped. However, Section 31 had been keeping tabs on JL and his associates and were well aware of her son and his health issues. They approached and offered to help Beverly help her son in exchange for their cooperation when called upon. Beverly and Jack would continue living their otherwise off-the-grid Galactic Doctors without Borders lives without any changes, but every once in a while, Section 31 would call on them to pick up or deliver something or someone, or provide assistance to other agents operating on the Federation fringe.
Beverly agrees and S31 gives her access to data and treatments that Beverly uses to relieve Jack’s symptoms. S31 continues to supply her with materials and assistance with Jack’s treatment as long as she continues to complete the missions they give her.
THE CRUSHER IDENTITY.
To better protect and equip the Crushers for space cloak and dagger work, when Section 31 offered to train him as a sleeper agent, young Jack agreed. This involved all manner of intelligence, weapons, and martial arts training, but psychically compartmentalized, thanks to unique tech and procedures available to Section 31 (visit Daystrom Station =). It also required that Jack’s knowledge of S31 be erased.
An outline of the imagined steps…
Jack signs up for the S31 sleeper agent program. —
S31 partitions his mind to create Action Jack, who undergoes training. —
S31 modifies Jack’s memory to forget that he works for S31 and is part of the sleeper agent program. —
S31 implants a trigger or triggers to activate and deactivate Action Jack when needed. He is automatically activated when Jack or Beverly is in mortal danger. —
31 trains Beverly to handle and monitor Jack and Action Jack’s behavior and programming.
His “double agent” existence might be compared to those of characters in TOTAL RECALL, MOON KNIGHT, BOURNE IDENTITY, and SEVERANCE. I imagine two strong variations on how it could go, based on…
…what S31 wants. Action Jack is a separate persona, distinct from Jack, and programmed to follow orders as well as protect. Like Quaid in TOTAL RECALL, Grant/Spector in MOON KNIGHT, and Mark in SEVERANCE. —
…what we’ve seen. When in danger Jack enters a fugue state in which he can access his sleeper training on automatic, without a separate Action Jack persona. More like, but not identical to, Jason in BOURNE IDENTITY. Maybe measures taken by Dr. Mom have put a ding in “what S31 wants” resulting in this behavior, unintended by S31’s programming?
TRUST NO ONE.
I believe Beverly and Jack’s good standing with Section 31 changed a few months ago when Beverly realized that they wanted Jack for something more, something specific. Maybe at the same time 31 stopped or changed Jack’s treatments, or, in going fugitive on 31, Beverly lost access to them, which has resulted in the return of Jack’s spells and insomnia. She may also have learned that Section 31—or at least the cell or group that she and Jack have dealt with—are being run by Changelings. If she didn’t know then, she certainly must realize it now. The Changelings, thru Section 31, have been tracking and programming/grooming Jack to play a very important role in their plan to cripple Starfleet, thanks to the abilities inherited from his father. Starfleet Revenge Squad’s plan calls for Jack’s will—compromised by S31’s programming—to direct the currently latent hive mind collective that will emerge from the network of integrated Starfleet starships.
The visions of red vines and voices calling to Jack to “find us” and “connect us” are Starfleet ships calling for his help.“Integration” has been achieved via the repurposing of Borg tech extracted from the Romulan Borg Artifact. Starfleet—under Revenge Squad’s guidance—has turned their ship computers into entities resembling very simple Borg drones, sentient, but suppressed. The latent collective network among these drones is what enables integration, and Jack is naturally tuned into it.
ODDS & ENDS.
Some miscellaneous notes related to the above crazy talk…
This strategy for a Frontier Day attack seems like a perfect fit to me except for one thing—Borgnes and her Bjørg cooperative demonstrated the vulnerability in using Borg-derived tech in Starfleet ships when she overrode the Stargazer’s systems at the anomaly rift in season 2. But perhaps the Revenge Squad’s agents in Starfleet and Section 31 came up with a patch for that—an update that would prevent such an override by unfriendlies. Of course, it would be designed to identify Jack’s techno-organic commands as friendly. —
I’m unclear on how much Jack remembers of Action Jack’s activity, but it seems like none of it. He doesn’t explicitly say anything about taking out the four Changelings who were ready to abduct him on the Titan, letting Shaw and Beverly discuss without adding anything. —
I think his visions are a combination of Action Jack programming bleeding into his waking life and messages he is picking up via Radio Free Borg. Each muddling the other somewhat. The red door might be an entrance to an S31 training location, and/or access to his memories of his Action Jack training and activities. Or maybe it’s the gateway to Starfleet’s version of Unimatrix Zero. —
Beverly uses Irumodic Syndrome as an explanation for any situations in which Jack’s S31 programming “bleeds” through or is compromised by his actions in front of others or by leaving evidence.
I’ve still got more than a couple competing ideas about the Starfleet Revenge Squad and its motivations…
The Reman Viceroy is Vadic’s boss. He’s in it to bring down Starfleet (and Picard and friends) for cutting short the Reman rule of the Romulan empire and more than happy to ally with the Changelings to make it happen. He has delivered Romulan Artifact tech and research to the Changelings embedded in Starfleet to create the “integrated” fleet. (I originally hoped that there was another Thalaron doomsday device created in NEMESIS-times that was keyed to Shinzon’s living DNA and that the Viceroy needed Jack alive to unlock or activate it, since Jean-Luc no longer lives in his naturally born body.) —
Species 8472 is framing the Changelings. They have updated their isomorphic tech to allow them to shapeshift at will, but without regular boosters, revert to “goo” in reversion. Altho 8472 came to a peaceful accord with Voyager, there were hawks as well as doves among 8472, and as far as we know, no follow-up diplomatic communications were opened. Starfleet is the only enemy who defeated 8472, so their plan is to have the Dominion do their dirty work for them. A crazy long-shot, I know, but man, how awesome would it be to have JL and friends uncover the frame-up and have 8472 vs. the Dominion? =) —
Rogue 8472s are working with—enslaved by?—the rogue Changelings. 8472’s Federation simulation training and genetic modification skills have helped Changelings improve their mimicking capabilities, resulting in their meatier appearance. I’m not sure why 8472s would end up subservient to Changelings—I would prefer a straight-up team-up arrangement—but if it is Changelings and 8472s, I think they must be the ones chittering behind the masks. Maybe they are unable to return to fluidic space because of environmental damage? Struck with a preemptive S31 plague? Specifically sought out, captured, and suborned by the rogue Changelings? Maybe JL and friends can cure or free the 8472s and have them turn on the Changelings and Squad upper management to turn everything around? —
Would also be happy to see a Weyoun or Bashir’s Mutant/Augment Squad running the evil show. =)
STAR TREK: PICARD: 3x05: “Imposters”: What’s up with Jack?
Beware: Season 3 spoilers! If you have not watched the first five episodes of STAR TREK: PICARD season 3, get thee to your streaming device and watch! Then come back for some crazytalk 23-and-me speculating. =)
So! I have some kooky thoughts and theories about Jack Crusher’s heritage…
1. PART BORG.
Jean-Loc passed his residual connection to the Borg collective on to his son. When he was a child, he had terrifying nightmares, which were actually visions of disoriented, perhaps crazed & dying Borg, as the Collective disassembled in the years after alternate Janeway’s infection of the Borg Queen. Dr. Mom was able to come up with a treatment that rid him of the visions so that he could sleep. Whether she somehow only treated the nightmare symptom or actually learned of and addressed the Borg-y root of the issue, there’s no telling yet. Years later, Jack is once again receiving messages and information via this psychic link, originating from a Borg, ex-Borg, or Borg-adjacent entity.
2. PART PAH WRAITH.
At some point before JL’s visit to Casperia Prime w BC, a Bajoran tablet came into his possession and was accidentally broken (seen in JL’s home in season 2). This released a Pah Wraith which had been imprisoned within. The Pah Wraith possessed JL, but did not assume full conscious control. Instead, realizing that his host was already taking steps toward the PW’s own goal, it rode shotgun in JL’s mind and body, and let nature take its course. Together with Beverly, JL and the PW conceived the Pah Wraith version of the Prophets’ Emissary, a mortal who can commune with the Pah Wraiths and serve as their autonomous agent in the mortal realm.
Red eyes have been seen to be a sign of possession by a Pah Wraith.
Ben Sisko’s mother Sarah was fully possessed by a Prophet when she met and married Ben’s father Joseph and gave birth to Ben. In Jack’s case, the PW possessed JL after he and BC were involved, so the PW did not need to exert active control of JL to bring its progeny into the world.
If Sisko is the Emissary, what is Jack? I have a feeling that he may be the Eschaton or perhaps the Sacrifice or Offering, a being fated to bring about a cataclysm (freeing the PWs and/or trapping/killing the Prophets?), possibly killing himself in the process.
When Seven shot the Changeling wearing Sidney La Forge’s form, the Changeling’s eyes went red on its death. Not quite the same effect as with Jack’s eyes, but I’m gonna say it’s close enough for now. To me, that means that at some point a Changeling visited the Fire Caves of Bajor and left with a Pah Wraith passenger, maybe possessor, maybe partner. I haven’t decided if PWs would be controlling rogue Changelings (and other non-Changeling hosts?) or are partnered with them. In either case, would every Changeling be partnered with a PW or carry a fraction of a single PW (I don’t remember seeing that in PWs or Prophets before), or Sideeye/Sidney was the only or one of only a few Changeling’s possessed by a PW.
PWs and Prophets appear to their faithful and agents as familiar faces and voices. We are hearing the PWs call to Jack in his visions in the voices of people he knows. Perhaps JL has translated enough of the tablet’s inscription to know or say the right thing to free his son from a dark destiny. Or—Beverly’s influence, guidance, and love will prove that nurture can overcome nature, and JC will throw off the fate the PWs planned for him, Hellboy-style.
3. PART 8472.
While pregnant with JC, BC used the genetic modification techniques of Species 8472 to eliminate the genes responsible for Irumodic Syndrome, inherited from JL. These techniques were acquired in an exchange of information between Voyager and the 8472 humanoid mimics in the Delta Quadrant. BC employed 8472’s techniques without adjustment, and in doing so—knowingly or not—boosted some of JC’s baseline physiological characteristics because the mods included and assumed some of 8472’s natural attributes, including a powerful immune system, a very resilient healing factor, and telepathy. JC does not have these attributes at the level of an 8472, but at a high level for a human.
8472s in humanoid form had to learn to sleep, as their original bodies do not need it. This is how JC, as a child and now as an adult, can go for days without sleeping. His visions are a consequence of some entity or entities tuning into his latent telepathy. His BOURNE IDENTITY-like fighting prowess is also enabled via telepathy, either by remote control or a psychic “download” of skills.
If this crazytalk turns out to be even close to accurate, I really hope that his vision experiences connect to a conspiracy of warhawk 8472s who are masquerading as (meatier) Changelings in order to frame the Founders for a series of terrorist attacks and plunge Starfleet and perhaps the Alpha Quadrant back into war with the Dominion.
NB. The genetic modification of JC makes him an augment, forbidden and outlawed in the Federation. This is another reason that BC cut herself off from her friends and Starfleet.
4. PART CHANGELING.
While pregnant with JC, BC used the genetic modification techniques of the Founders to eliminate the genes responsible for Irumodic Syndrome, inherited from JL. These techniques were reverse engineered from studies of Founder, Vorta, and Gamma and Alpha Jem'hadar biology. The Founders engineered their follower species and could dial specific physical and mental qualities up and down as desired. Embedded, but perhaps not recognized by Starfleet or BC herself, in the Founders’ mod processes are traces of Changeling genetic sequences, the creators’ signature on their work. Combined in human DNA, these sequences express themselves in an enhanced immune system and healing factor as well as a psychic connection compatible with Changeling linking.
The psychic connection resulted in JC’s childhood nightmares, which BC treated. There’s no telling yet if she only treated the nightmare symptom or learned the root cause of the issue, but she is recognizing its return now.
NB. The genetic modification of JC makes him an augment, forbidden and outlawed in the Federation. This is another reason that BC cut herself off from her friends and Starfleet.
5. MIX AND MATCH.
Take some or all of 1 thru 4 and mash them up good. Like, he’s part Borg—maybe thanks to Jean-Loc’s nanoprobed sex cells, or maybe thanks to actual Borg-rewritten DNA—and an Irumodic Syndrome-free augment! Or—he’s part Borg, which is where his visions come from, but also playing host to a Pah Wraith, which is where the voices and ninja skills come from. Try one of your own!
I’ve had several more notions that I couldn’t quite extrapolate into meaningful theories, but maybe some new pieces will fall into place for them in episode 6. If they do, I’ll try to work them out in another post.
