Star Trek Just Revealed That Picard May Be the Biggest Threat to the Galaxy (Again)

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 has been all about the secret invasion plot of the Changelings, who infiltrated Starfleet and pulled off a brazen robbery inside Starfleet's top-secret holdings at Daystrom Station. Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) teammates both old and new have been working different lanes of investigation to determine what the Changelings took from Daystrom, and what they plan to do with it. In Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 6, we finally get the answer about that dangerous weapon the Changelings stole – and (SPOILERS) it turns out to be Picard! 

In "The Bounty" Picard and his collection of allies split into two teams, with Worf (Michael Dorn), Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) forming the away team that infiltrates Daystrom Station. The operation is the usual Star Trek near-disaster experience – but in the end, the away team makes it into Daystrom's most secure vault, where they discover a new version of Commander Data (in a sense), who they escape with back to the USS Titan. 

This new Soong Android was aware of the Changelings' heist at Daystrom, and held the vital information about what was stolen: the original organic body of Jean-Luc Picard. 

What Is Picard's Original Body? 

The first season of Star Trek: Picard revealed that Picard's brain abnormality in his parietal lobe (something discovered by Beverly Crusher during his transition from human to Borg and back) had become a terminal condition. Picard "died" completing the mission to stop a Romulan extremist sect from causing war with next-generation synthetics. In order to preserve Picard's existence, artificial life guru Dr. Altan Inigo Soong selflessly gave up his own "golem" – i.e., a prototype android body that could "download" an organic consciousness into its brain, giving someone a new life. Picard set conditions on his new "life" as a synthetic, including keeping his lifespan and aging at a human pace. 

Why Is Picard's Original Body So Important to the Changelings? 

The big question at hand, now, is why Picard's original body is so important to the Changelings, and what makes it so dangerous that a portable portal device was the weapon that served as a cover for the real prize (Picard's corpse). 

As a few key scenes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 have reminded us, Jean-Luc Picard's brain was unique both in its original organic form and after he was transformed into a Borg drone whose will was strong enough for him to have a name ("Locutus of Borg") and use an "I" pronoun. Could Picard's Borg connections still come back to haunt him (again)? The shadow of the Borg hung over Picard Seasons 1 & 2, so this would be a nice full-circle turn if that's the Changelings' plan. 

...Then again, the actual body and DNA of Picard could also be potentially key, as we know the Changelings are evolving to become truly indiscernible from those they copy. 

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+.