Q and the Grey is actually Ingenious.

[TK_Swag]

I realized something recently while rewatching some of Chuck's old reviews. Q and the Grey becomes a completely different episode if you just remove one assumption going in. The assumption that Q is telling the truth. All of the events of the episode is created by him to mess with the Voyager crew.

I know what you are thinking. "Why would Q do this?" It is because it is him responding to Janeway's line from Deathwish where she said that she researched Q and knows that he isn't a liar. You can tell by his reaction that he knows Janeway is full of shit. She didn't read the Starfleet files on him. At most she probably just skimmed through them. Now that he has gone back to his trickster ways he has decided it would be fun to trap Janeway in this lie. Thus creates a series of events that would contradict his files until he can see Janeway's face when she realizes she is being duped.

He starts by trying to romance Janeway. That contradicts what he said about romance back in Q-pid. Granted, Jean-luc might have chosen not to make the captain's log available for that one because it was rather embarrassing for him. God forbid the Admirals know he was forced to wear tights. Then he moves on to the need to create a Q offspring. Amanda Rogers being a child of the Q would have to be in the records because how else do you explain an intern just disappearing off of the Federation Flag Ship....actually, best not to think on that one. But nope, Janeway didn't catch that. Ok, Q now creates Suzie Q, a female Q who use to be his significant other. Janeway must know that the Q have no gender. She is a scientist and would at least be privy to that kind of information. Nope, she still didn't realize what is going on. Alright, the first sentence on the report had to mention how Q first appeared to judge humanity for their barbaric ways. Q whisks Janeway to the "Continuem" (another falsehood made by Q) and shows the vicious and bloody war being waged by the Q. Still, Janeway does not put two and two together. At this point, Q realizes she didn't do any research at all. So the last thing he can do is do something that contradicts their previous meeting. That is when he has Suzie Q bring the Voyager crew into the Continuem to pick up the Super Duper Collasal Ganga Ganga rifles. Even if Janeway doesn't recognize the ridiculousness of them using something that is actually beyond their comprehension, one of her crew will realize it. Still nothing. Alright, last resort. Q will do something that contradicts something said just a few hours before. He will have near instantaneous sex with Suzie Q despite saying the Q foreplay lasts decades. Still no reaction. Q has lost to the stupidity of Voyager.

With his plan falling apart, he decides to head home dejected, but he already decided to get back at them by shoving his annoying "offspring" onto them in a few years.

[Beelzquill]

This would explain why he'd so casually turn his "son" into an amoeba.

[nebagram]

This has actually been my headcanon for a very long time.

[Yukaphile]

Why John de Lancie? It could be an entirely unknown Q messing with them that we'd never heard of.

[Yukaphile]

Another one who's just generally bored and sees what Q is doing, thus he follows his example, and wants to pay back Voyager for killing off their greatest thinker.