Star Trek: Picard: Did The Borg Kill Narissa Or Assimilate Her?
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 1, episode 8.
What exactly happened to Narissa (Peyton List) when the Borg attacked her at the end of Star Trek: Picard episode 8? After remaining in the shadows for the first half of the Star Trek: The Next Generation sequel, which once again stars Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, Narissa's villainy has been in full effect as she attempts to find and destroy the homeworld of Soji (Isa Briones), the late Commander Data's (Brent Spiner) synthetic daughter. But the tables were turned on Narissa at the end of Star Trek: Picard episode 8, "Broken Pieces," and her fate may leave some Trekkers confused.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowIntroduced in Star Trek: Picard's second episode, Narissa is a Romulan Tal Shiar agent, the older sister of Narek (Harry Treadaway), and the top lieutenant of Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita), the Head of Starfleet Security. As "Broken Pieces" revealed in a flashback to 2385, Narissa survived the Admonition and joined the Tal Shiar's forerunner faction, the Zhat Vash, dedicating her life to the eradication of artificial lifeforms. Like Oh, Narissa joined Starfleet as a Romulan mole under the guise of Lieutenant Rizzo. Narissa helped engineer the rogue androids' attack on Mars and she oversaw the murder of Dahj, Soji's twin sister, on Earth. On the Romulans' captured Borg Cube, the Artifact, Narissa recruited Narek to learn the secret location of the synthetics' homeworld from Soji. But when Jean-Luc Picard helped Soji escape the Artifact, Narissa took direct control of the situation and learned that Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), the director of the Borg Reclamation Project, helped Picard, who is his old friend from TNG. Narissa then murdered Hugh and decided to wipe out all of the Borg remaining in the Artifact.
In Star Trek: Picard episode 8, the action on the Artifact turned into a chess match between Narissa and a new enemy, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), whom Elnor (Evan Evagora) summoned with an SOS after Hugh was killed. As Seven and Elnor attempted to gain control of the Artifact from the Borg Queen's secret Queen's Cell, Narissa moved quickly to terminate the XBs, shooting several of the reclaimed former Borg. As Seven reluctantly let herself become re-assimilated and was turned into the Borg Queen of the Artifact's micro-Collective, Narissa gave the order to blow the thousands of drones held in stasis into deep space, effectively robbing Seven of her Borg army. However, Narissa didn't kill all of the XBs and Seven took command of them. As Narissa tried to escape the Artifact, the nefarious Zhat Vash agent was swarmed by the XBs. So what happened to Narissa?
Naturally, Trekkers would assume that Narissa was either killed or assimilated, but it appears the Tal Shiar operative actually escaped the Artifact. Right after the XBs piled on top of her, there was a flash of green light. This is Narissa's personal transporter that she used in Star Trek: Picard episode 7, "Nepenthe," to escape Elnor after Narissa murdered Hugh. As Seven of Nine was taking control of the Artifact, a Romulan fleet arrived to beam all of the Romulans off of the Borg Cube for the assault on Soji's homeworld. So Narissa was the last to leave the Artifact, and she successfully transported away before the Romulan ships jumped to warp speed. This was confirmed when Seven of Nine announced "They're gone," meaning all of the Romulans, and that probably included Narissa.
However, there's also a chance Narissa didn't escape the XBs. It's possible her personal transporter failed her or that she was killed by the reclaimed Borg. Potentially, Narissa may have even been assimilated by the XBs and turned into a Borg herself, which would be poetic justice for someone who so virulently despised synthetic lifeforms. Although most of the XBs' Borg implants have been removed, they apparently retain enough that Seven was able to take control of them, so it's possible they still possess the ability to assimilate others. And if Narissa didn't transport away was indeed turned into a Borg, the tantalizing chance exists that the Zhat Vash agent could even become the Destroyer and leader of the synthetics she has feared for so long.
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Source: screenrant.com