In the opening sequence, the Exalted Ruler (John Elliott) is solemnly exhorting all the members (at a secret "special meeting" of the fraternal order) o "meet the situation with determination.Give me that letter! And take those skates off, I told you.Clattering up and down the stairs all day." It is early morning and the family has just received a letter from Aunt Matilda about the expected demise of Uncle Bean." Hasslein described the testimony of the apes, about how they had acquired the power of intelligent speech and soon became Earth""s master race.In a one-on-one dinner conversation with Picard in the Romulan Senate, Shinzon revealed facts about his past: there had been a Romulan plot to replace Picard with a clone (Shinzon was created from Picard""s DNA) who would then become a Romulan spy within Starfleet, but the plan was abandoned as too risky when Shinzon was only a child.