I guess the novel canon is dead. lol
But more seriously, I guess they had to do a lot of work to try to fill in a backstory that maybe some people wouldn't even understand, so I want to at least forgive them for the immediate questions of how Picard wouldn't have known Ro was back in Starfleet after all this time.
I get using the feeling of betrayal as this moment of 'honesty' between them that allows them to pass the changeling test, and at least she got a better ending that Hugh, but something about it just felt off to me. It was a meaningful moment, but I guess I didn't entirely like the way it came together.
Maybe I'll be able to articulate my feelings about it with some more thought, but maybe it's just as simple not believing the set up of the reunion.
As for the actual conspiracy, I find myself kind of shrugging at it all. If Worf had actually died, I might feel differently, but there's still no real tension at all and in the grand scheme of the meta story, at the very least we know that the Federation lasts until the 30th Century anyway, so it's the moments that matter to me. Killing Ro off is supposed to give the story stakes, but while I preferred it to Hugh's death in S1, it felt so calculated after the Worf fake out that I felt the influence of the writer moving pieces rather than the the immediate moment of the story beat.
I'm also reminded of how this season started, with Beverly telling Picard not to trust anyone in Starfleet... but even after all this time, we don't really know what she knows. And for whatever reason, she didn't tell anyone else about what she knows for plot reasons, just so Shaw could contact Starfleet and put them in the position to be on the run.
It feels like a jigsaw puzzle put together by someone who was impatient, shoving pieces together that 'kind of' fit in order to finish as fast as they can, even if the completed puzzle looks nothing like the intended picture.
I'm not even sure how I might evaluate the episode... as someone who really liked Ro, I'm glad that they acknowledged her existence. I just wish it was in a different context, but it's not like there are going to be any other opportunities.