Star Trek Picard: Secrets of the Romulan Empire

Hello readers.

Have you noticed how much plant life we've seen in this short season of "Picard"?

In this episode, Picard cultivating some flowers just before his visit from Dr. Benayoun.

Then there's the Orchids in Dahj's apartment.

There's been numerous shots of the Picard vineyard.  (Also included in the title roll of each episode.)

Admiral Clancy's office was abundantly populated with plants.  Even those seen through her window.  (It's a wonder the chill she exudes doesn't harm them.)

The treacherous Commodore Oh has her plants.  (You'd expect something like Hemlock.)

Plants and flowers in the Picard kitchen.

Soji has plants placed prominently placed about her bed.  (Fertile territory?)

Even Raffi, Jean Luc's old comrade in arms, has plants hanging about her desert seclusion.  (What, no cacti?)

It's enough to put a smile one's face.  Plants are so cheerful!

They are also thematic.  Especially to this show.

Let's start with the orchids we found in Dahj's apartment.


One of a Kind?

Dahj was so proud of her flowers.  The story she told to her boyfriend was that her father created a new species of Orchid and named them in her honor.  A complete fiction as it turns out.  

But, the story and history of the Orchid is quite analogous to the creation and production of synthetic humans, androids and robots that are so prevalent in Star Trek canon.

Did you know there are over 28,000 species of Orchid currently cataloged?  Some are even capable of asexual reproduction.  That makes them unique and metaphorically similar to Dahj and her sister.  Something out of nothing.  A creation in and of itself.  A genesis born of cultivation, splicing and genetic manipulation.

Orchids are a thing of beauty and famous for their sexual symbology.  Especially, that of the female species.  It's no wonder Dahj has a close association with them.  Did you notice how the orchids wilted in Dahj's apartment when the Romulan Tal Shiar hit squad beamed in?  (Or were they Zhat Vash?)  It was almost as if they exposed to some sort of Herbicide. 

Something akin to this happened again when the hit squad reappeared when Picard had Dahj in tow just outside the Federation/Star Fleet grounds.  It was if one of the wounded attackers spit a herbicide on Dahj that was deadly to her type and deleterious to both her and the assassin.  An instant and deadly effect.

Take a look at this video

The allusion between the effect of a herbicide/poison and a unique species or genetic creation is unmistakable.  Is there a "plant like" relation to the uniqueness of Dahj and her reaction to the poisonous spray?  It would certainly seem so.  Especially, considering the abundance of plants scattered about every "Star Trek: Picard" set.

I think they are trying to tell us something.

Let's explore this a little further.

Parietal Lobe Problems

It is well known among Trek fans that Jean Luc has lived with a problem since his assimilation with the Borg.  Upon the removal of his Borg ocular implant and the others that briefly made him a part of the collective, Picard has lived with a defect that has recently reared it's ugly head.  (Sorry xB's and other Borg, no pun intended.)  It prevents him interstellar travel due to the side effects of dementia, anger and hallucinations.  How can he be trusted to lead if true.

Moreover, how do you affect a cure?

With all this talk of genetic manipulation, cloning and splicing I thought.  Why not clone Picard?  Better yet, why not have Bruce Maddox build him a clone and insert Picard's consciousness with it's own positronic matrix into it?

Too close to "Star Trek: Nemesis" you say?  It's been done?  (Although not too successfully.)  

Okay, how about this.  With all these Borg parts on the market from the Romulan Borg reclamation site, why not infuse one with Jean Luc again to stave off the inevitable?  Of course, the danger of which is the Borg site being activated again.  C'mon, you know it's going to happen.  The Romulans won't be responsible to their monster.  Such is the lesson of the story of Frankenstein.  Dr. Frankenstein was not responsible for his monster and it wreaked havoc.  The Federation wasn't responsible enough with their synthetics and it led to the horror of the "Planetia Utopia" Massacre.  The Romulans will become the unwitting partner to bringing the Borg back.

It would make a great season cliffhanger.  The Borg's return, Soji being activated, Picard being assimilated.  What a wonderful disaster.

It's my thinking that "Star Trek: Picard" is bent on teasing us with plants and their genetic manipulation, their analogy to cloning and synths and the inevitable major consequences this will come to mean for this show.

By the way,  Dr. Frankenstein is all ready aboard the Borg cube in the form of Narek.  Harry Treadaway who plays Narek portrayed Dr. Frankenstein in "Penny Dreadful".  Not a coincidence I think.

The Romulan Lie

So, I think we've firmly established what's going on in this series.  Genetic manipulation, Synths, Organic cloning, Bruce Maddox and creation itself.  Lot's of plant clues!  What else is going on?

It's the Romulan's playing with fire and their biggest lie.

What is the deep seated hatred for clones, androids and other Synthoids that the Romulans have so much?  Why is the dreaded Zhat Vash so committed to keeping such a great secret upon the penalty of death?  A secret that has been theirs forever.

It's the Romulan Lie

The great and mighty Romulan Star Empire is all a lie.  Built on the fiction they were an ancient offshoot of the Vulcan species.  Forging their own destiny across the centuries as they explored the galaxy and built a formidable civilization.

All a lie.

Their deep seated hatred for cloning and synths comes from their own creation.  They were built in a lab.  An artificial race.  A secret they are willing to kill for.  Even to the point of war.  Their secret is their shame.

There once was a sect of the Vulcans that believed in absolute purity.  As we saw in Star Trek: Discovery, they were even willing commit acts of terrorism to preserve such purity.  Did they wish to preserve this purity and clone themselves and escape into space to insure this?  

Or, was it something more innocent?  Perhaps there was a sect of Vulcans that left their home planet.  But due to the rigors of interstellar space travel and the lack of a warp drive, they started to clone themselves in order to preserve their mission.  Organic clones built from a now lost science.  The original explorers eventually died out and only the clones remained.  They eventually reached Romulus and or discovered warp capability.  The mighty Star Empire was built and history was forever changed.

A secret history that is.  Their shame is their creation and none shall know it.

Well, that's my theory anyway.  

What are your thoughts?  The Romulans are near extinction, will they use Borg tech to preserve the Empire?  Is part of their covert effort a willingness to clone themselves in secret?  A secret they keep from their own population and one that is rooted in their history?  

Thanks for reading and leave your comments below.