While Synthville may have the look of a chilled out community, it’s a fearful one too. The synths who live there have been hiding for a reason: their very existences are always threatened by the single-minded hate of the Zhat Vash. This has made members of the synth community paranoid, namely Sutra.
Sutra (played by Isa Briones, who really demonstrates her acting muscles in this episode) is the sister of Jana, one of the two synths Rios saw his captain murder by command of the Federation nine years ago. Given this backstory, it’s easy to understand why Sutra may be particularly fearful towards “organics.” Fear can drive us to do terrible things, and synths are no different. When Agnes shows Sutra the Admonition, Sutra doesn’t see it as a warning, but as a promise: if synth life is threatened, as it has been by both the Federation and the Romulans, then their is a synth civilization out there willing to swoop in an “excise” synthetic life from organic oppression—or at least they were there thousands of years ago.
Sutra sees her opportunity. She kills Arcana and frames prisoner Narek for it, using the murder as a rallying call for her fellow synths. She asks that they send a message to the synths who sent the Admonition message for help before the Romulan fleet arrives. Picard tries to use his vast diplomatic skill to convince the community otherwise. They can all fit on the La Sirena, he tells them; there is a way other than violence against the Romulans and, past that, potential mass murder of all organic life in the galaxy.
But the synths are easily swayed by Sutra, and Picard can’t even get support from Soji, who has been grappling with where she belongs and what choice she should make in this high-stakes quandary. Soji publicly sides with Sutra, as does Agnes, though I wonder if this is part of a larger plan that will inevitably see her support Picard.
It’s an unsettling end to the first part of a two-parter that is hard to judge in terms of characterization, as we have yet to see how honest both Soji and Agnes are being in their public announcements of allegiance. The climax is somewhat undercut by the fact that we have spent so little time in Synthville, and therefore understand so little about who these people are, how they function as a community, and how strong Soji’s connection to them truly is. For now, however, it sets up a high-stakes scenario for the Season 1 finale, in which the very fate of the human race is at stake.
