Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'Et In Arcadia Ego, Part 2'

Just as robot octopus arms begin to emerge from the space hole, Picard makes an impassioned speech to Soji and convinces her to shutdown the portal. The speech also takes the heart out of the Romulans' fight and they call off their attack and leave the area.

Once again, the advanced synths (kinda) resemble Control from Star Trek: Discovery's second season. In the episode "Light and Shadows", an evolved version of Control from the distant future appeared as squid-like robots. Michael Chabon has suggested that after 200,000 years, the advanced synths may not actually be so advanced anymore and theorized that their octopus-like form demonstrates their devolution over the years.