Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 5 – "Imposters"The return of Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes) in Star Trek: Picard season 3 not only resolved some long-lingering issues with that character, it also set the stage for season 3's endgame as the Changeling plot enters a new phase. Ro debuted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season five episode "Ensign Ro" as a troubled young Bajoran officer who Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) took under his wing. Ro appeared sporadically over TNG's last three seasons, generally occupying the helmsman's chair on the bridge after it was vacated by Ensign Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) in season 4.
Ro defected to the Maquis, a terrorist organization that targeted Cardassians, in "Preemptive Strike," the penultimate episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ro's defection deeply wounded Picard, who had come to think of her as something of a protégé by that point. Her return in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 5 "Imposters" not only shed new light on the scope of the Changeling conspiracy, but it also resolved a character arc that remained in limbo for 29 years.
