The USS Discovery has held position in space for a thousand years, and its computer system “Zora” has become sentient. She retrieves a passing escape pod carrying a man named Craft. Zora keeps Craft aboard the ship and begins to fall in love with him, but eventually lets him take Discovery’s last shuttle to return to his family on Alcor IV.
Cast :
Aldis Hodge as Craft
Annabelle Wallis as the voice of Zora
Sash Striga as the hologram of Zora
Following a discussion with her mother, Sylvia Tilly encounters a young Xahean stowaway named Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po. Tilly, who is accustomed to taking orders from others, decides to make decisions by herself, to help Po return home in time for her coronation.
Cast :
Mary Wiseman as Silvia Tilly
Yadira Guevara-Prip as Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po
Mimi Kuzyk as Siobhan Tilly
After an epic intergalactic odyssey, Jean-Luc Picard makes one final attempt to stop the synthetics from annihilating all organic life in this week’s season finale, “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2”. Given that he’s also coping with a fatal health condition, it could be the Starfleet hero’s final mission — thus raising the monumental stakes for the conclusion of Star Trek: Picard’s maiden voyage.
Having been freed by Sutra, Narek returns to the Artifact, where he reunites with his sister Rizzo. He collects grenades that will let him destroy Coppelius’ orchid defense system, and leaves Rizzo to get the Artifact’s defense systems back online.
Soji explains to the imprisoned Picard that she’s carrying out Sutra’s plan because it affords synthetics their first opportunity to determine their own fate. “To say you have no choice is a failure of imagination”, Picard responds, telling her not to let the Romulans turn her into the monster they believe her to be. He implores her to shut down the beacon before it contacts the apocalyptic higher synthetics.
Onboard La Sirena, Rios learns to use his imagination when Raffi suggests that the ship-fixing device given to them by Arcana can be activated by mentally envisioning what one needs to be fixed. That magically does the trick, and La Sirena regains full operational power. The duo is then visited by Narek, who wants to join forces to stop the beacon from opening the portal. Elnor materializes and is prevented from killing Narek; instead, after failing to contact Picard, they all sit around a campfire and Narek recounts the ancient Romulan legend of “the end”.
Apparently, Romulans believe that, at the end of time, two sisters appear to unleash demons upon the galaxy. One of them is known as the “fortune teller”, and plays a drum made from the skin of children. The other is Seb-Cheneb, who carries a horn from a great pale hell-beast called Ganmadan. Blowing that horn will summon a horde of demons intent on bringing about 1,000 days of nightmarish pain and suffering. “I believe it’s history. And the fascinating thing about history is, it always repeats itself”, says Narek.
Construction of the beacon tower continues. Soong tells Jurati that her decision to help the synthetics end all organic life is “a remarkable act of self-sacrifice on your part. Well, I supposed that’s what mothers do, isn’t it?”. Once he’s gone, Jurati exclaims, “I’m not their mother, a–hole”. Soong is working on transferring Saga’s memory to a VR module for safekeeping, and when he momentarily leaves the room, Jurati steals Saga’s eyeball and uses it to gain access to Picard’s chamber. “I’m busting you out”, she informs the stunned Picard, and they flee for La Sirena.
Rios, Raffi, and Elnor gain entry to the synthetics’ compound by pretending that Narek is their prisoner. Via a soccer ball, they sneak in a bomb that they plan to use to destroy the beacon. Once inside, they’re immediately aided in their cause by Soong, who’s switched allegiances after seeing – via Saga’s VR memories – that the android was murdered by Sutra.
At the base of the beacon, Soong confronts Sutra, telling her, “I thought I taught you better than this. Turns out, you’re no better than we are”. With a handheld device, he easily deactivates her. Elnor and Narek fly into action, and Rios launches the bomb at the tower. Alas, Soji catches it mid-flight with her bare hands and throws it into the sky, where it detonates harmlessly. Meanwhile, on the Artifact, Rizzo is thwarted from activating the defense systems by Seven. They fight, and with a swift kick (“This is for Hugh”), Seven sends Rizzo plummeting to her death.
Commodore Oh’s fleet finally shows up and prepares to stop the synthetics by incinerating the entire planet. The orchids engage her ships, leading to an enormous space battle. Thanks to a suggestion by Jurati about “the Picard maneuver”, Picard devices a plan: using Arcana’s magic device, he creates hundreds of holographic duplications of La Sirena, thereby tricking Oh into thinking she’s under siege and diverting her attention away from Coppelius below. This works until the real La Sirena takes a serious hit.
The beacon is fully activated, and Oh once again orders her fleet to destroy Coppelius. At that moment, Starfleet arrives, led by a ship piloted by Riker. Rather than stand down, Oh gets set to fight the Federation’s forces. At this crucial moment, Picard suffers an attack from his “brain abnormality” and demands that Jurati give him medicine that’ll speed up his eventual demise. Temporarily lucid, he opens a communication channel with Soji and begs her to power down the beacon, saying, “Show them how profoundly wrong they are about you”. He argues that the Federation isn’t a danger to the synthetics like the Romulans are, because “we trust you to make the right choice. I trust you, Soji. I know you. I believe in you”.
Convinced, Soji destroys the beacon, thus closing the portal before giant tentacle-like creatures can emerge from it.
Having saved the day, Picard thanks Riker for “always having my back”. Riker replies, “I learned that from the best”. Following their farewell, Picard collapses, and Soji beams him and Jurati back down to Coppelius.
Surrounded by everyone, Picard informs Soji, “I gave you a choice. Not being the Destroyer was up to you. It always was”. Then, Picard dies!
Later that evening, Seven and Rios both admit that they wound up doing just what they’d always promised themselves they wouldn’t do again – for Seven, that means killing someone just because they deserved it, and for Rios, it entails allowing a no-nonsense ship captain back into his heart and then watching that man die. Elsewhere, Raffi consoles a weeping Elnor.
Such grieving, however, is short-lived. Star Trek: Picard subsequently cuts to Picard opening his eyes in a darkened living room opposite Data, who informs him that yes, he’s dead. Picard remembers dying, but Data does not – he only possesses the knowledge that he sacrificed himself to save Picard. Data says his memory was extracted from a single neuron by Bruce Maddox, and his consciousness was reconstructed by his brother Soong.
Together, they’re in a complex quantum simulation. Yet Picard, it turns out, is real. Before he expired, Soong, Jurati, and Soji transferred his entire memory into this simulation, and he can’t stay. Behind an opening door, blinding white light beckons. Data confesses that he remembers that Picard loves him. Before Picard departs, Data asks him a favor: to terminate his consciousness once Picard returns to the land of the living. This isn’t because Data wants to die, but because, “I want to live, however briefly, knowing that my life is finite. Mortality gives meaning to human life, Captain. Peace, love, friendship – these are precious because we know they cannot endure”.
Picard awakens in a chamber, and it’s clear his mind has been transferred into Soong’s synthetic golem. Picard’s new body is an exact replica of his prior one, and he learns that it features no superpowered augmentations, and will last just as long as his original mortal shell would have, had his (now erased) brain abnormality never existed. Basically, he’s his old self.
Picard fulfills his promise to Data and erases his consciousness. As he does so, we see Data in the simulation, drinking wine while wearing a robe and listening to Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”. Picard “appears” in the simulation and hold Data’s hand as his life comes to an end. Quoting Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the reborn Picard intones, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on. And our little life is rounded with a sleep”.
Back on La Sirena, Jurati kisses Rios, Seven and Raffi romantically intertwine their hands, and everyone – including Elnor and Soji – join Picard on the bridge. Soji says that she’s cut out for wandering, and now that the synthetics ban has been lifted, she’s free to travel. “Me too”, Picard smiles.
At the sound of Picard’s trademark “Engage”, La Sirena blasts off.
Soji learns that her long-sought synthetic family may not be ready to listen to reason in Star Trek: Picard’s penultimate season 1 installment, “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1”. And that puts Picard — and the rest of the galaxy — in grave danger.
Having traveled 25 light-years in 15 minutes via a transwarp conduit, La Sirena arrives at Soji’s homeworld: Coppelius. Narek’s ship follows in short order, and a ferocious dogfight ensues. When Narek’s craft suffers a catastrophic hit, and his vital signs begin to wane, Soji says it’s a trick and they should let him die. Picard objects, maintaining, “There’s a difference between killing an attacking enemy and watching a wounded one die”. Before Picard can beam Narek to their sickbay, the Artifact shows up along with five giant orchids — defense mechanisms of Coppelius — that knock out La Sirena and the Artifact’s power, causing them both to plummet to the planet below.
His eyes closed and his head titled backward, a seated Picard mutters, “Thank you for coming, everyone”, and then passes out. He awakens in the sickbay, where Jurati has used some old-school medical equipment on him. He confirms her results: he’s dying. He promptly informs the entire crew that he has a fatal and untreatable brain abnormality and that their mission will go on — just as all conversation about his condition will cease. “There will be no further discussion. Anyone who treats me like a dying man will run the risk of pissing me off. Is that clear?”.
Soji has vague childhood recollections of nearby Coppelius Station. The crew arms itself for a trek across the desert to that outpost. First, though, everyone agrees to visit the Artifact to see if Hugh and Elnor are still alive.
As we know from last week’s episode, Hugh has already died. Picard and company do find Elnor and Seven, the latter of whom explains how they followed La Sirena through the transwarp conduit. Seven gets the Artifact’s long-range scanners operational, allowing Raffi to see that 218 Romulan warbirds are on their way.
Elnor wants to join Picard on his quest, but he says Elnor is needed on the Artifact to get its defense systems online and to help the XBs. “I’m very, very proud of you”, he tells the young warrior. Seven is less sentimental. “Keep saving the galaxy, Picard”, she says with a smile. “That’s all on you now”, he answers.
At idyllic Coppelius Station, Soji is greeted by synthetic twins Arcana (Jade Ramsey) and Saga (Nikita Ramsey), who know Soji as well as Picard. Soji informs them that a fleet of Romulan warbirds will be there soon, which is an especially big problem since there are only ten orchids left to defend the planet.
A stunned Picard is greeted by Dr. Altan Inigo Soong (Brent Spiner), who knew his appearance would have this effect on the captain since he looks like “Data if he’d gotten old and gone soft”. Soong describes himself as a “mad scientist”, explaining, “My father had me but he created Data. In fact, he never let me forget”.
Soji recounts her story to Soong, and then everyone is introduced to Sutra, who’s Jana’s sister, and the golden-skinned spitting image of Soji. Sutra is happy about this encounter because she thinks Soji and her friends have brought her vital information — namely, the Admonition. Sutra believes the Admonition compelled Jurati to kill Maddox because it literally drove the doctor out of her mind. Sutra is convinced the Admonition is intended for synthetic, not organic, minds. And since she’s apparently (and, one might say, conveniently) a Vulcan culture aficionado, she knows how to perform the Vulcan mind-meld — which she does with Jurati, in order to experience the Admonition herself.
What she receives is a revelatory message: “The dance of division and replication. Imperfect. Finite. Organic life evolves. Yearns for perfection. That yearning bleeds to synthetic life. But organics perceive this perfection as a threat. When they realize their creations do not age or become sick or die, they will seek to destroy them. And in so doing, destroy themselves. Beyond the boundaries of time and space, we stand. An alliance of synthetic life. Watching you. Waiting for your signal. Summon us and we will come. You will have our protection. Your evolution will be their extinction”.
In his lab, Soong tells Jurati she owes a “great debt” for offing Maddox and grants her the opportunity to repay it by giving a life versus taking one. He’s working on perfecting mind-transfer, suggesting — along with the synthetic body he’s building — that he plans to techno-resurrect Maddox. Later, Rios finds Jurati, who’s staying behind to finish Maddox’s incomplete work. Rios assures her he won’t forget her before they leave.
Having heard Sutra’s (for now mysterious) plan, Soji contends that there must be a means of survival that doesn’t result in so many people dying. Sutra counters that hers is the only way, since “to them, we’re monsters. They call us abominations”. Narek is then dragged in and put in a containment cell overseen by Saga. He tries to trick Saga into dropping his cell’s defenses, but Soji thwarts that ruse. Narek justifies his former attempt on Soji’s life, claiming he still loves her. Soji replies, “I know. What a sad and twisted thing you are. You disgust me, Narek. But not as much as I disgust myself for pitying you”. He says he pities her since the approaching Romulan forces will kill her and everyone else on the planet.
Arcana gives Raffi and Rios a device that will repair La Sirena. Raffi ignores Picard’s prior warning about discussing his condition and, after hugging him, tells him she loves him. “I love you too, Raffi”, he confesses before leaving.
Soji finds Picard in Maddox’s old quarters and engages him in a chat about “the logic of sacrifice” — a topic that lets her obliquely address Sutra’s brewing plan, about which she seems more than a bit uncomfortable. Soji wonders if all killing is driven by fear. Meanwhile, Sutra frees Narek because her need for his services outweighs her desire to end his life. A scream brings Soji and Picard running to Narek’s cell, where they discover that he’s escaped and killed Saga in the process.
This murder is the pretext Sutra needs for her true scheme, which she reveals to a public audience. She argues that humans will always hurt synthetics and that the Admonition wasn’t a warning but a “promise” from “higher synthetic beings” that are watching them. Coded in the Admonition are subspace frequencies needed to contact these higher beings, and Sutra and Soong have designed a beacon to do just that. By using this beacon before the Romulans arrive, they can save the synthetics from extinction.
Sutra doesn’t intend to stop with the annihilation of the coming Romulan horde. She believes the higher beings will unite synthetics throughout the galaxy and help them wipe out the greatest threat to their existence: organic life. Picard naturally doesn’t like the sound of that, saying, “You will become mass murders … You will fulfill their [the Romulans’] prophesy. You will become the destroyer after all”.
Picard pleads with them to abandon this course and escape with him on La Sirena. He also pledges to advocate on their behalf before the Federation. Soong reminds his synthetic compatriots that the Federation didn’t listen to Picard the last time he tried to stop the ban, and it won’t listen to him now. He places Picard under house arrest. Going along with Sutra, Soji tells Picard, “We can’t be your means of redemption. We’re too busy trying to survive”.
Jurati begs to be allowed to stay on Coppelius. Given that Jurati is the figurative mother of the synthetics, Sutra asks her if, like a true mom, she’d die for her children. Jurati says yes, and Sutra believes her.
As Picard is taken away, Commodore Oh’s fleet continues racing toward Coppelius.
With Soji safe from Romulan harm (at least for the time being), Star Trek: Picard’s heroes set about deciphering the mystery of the anti-synthetic conspiracy in this week’s episode, “Broken Pieces” – an installment that plays like an exposition-filled setup for the season’s looming climax.
First, a flashback depicts Commander Oh and a cadre of female accomplices – all dressed in black hooded robes – on Aia, the Grief World. Standing in a circle in the desert, Oh – who’s apparently half-Romulan, half-Vulcan – says that their ancestors came here long ago and discovered the memories of an ancient civilization that met a grim fate. That race left behind an object known as the Admonishen, which warned of horror and annihilation coming from the skies above. When Oh’s godmothers first endured the Admonishen, the Zhat Vash were born.
For hundreds of years, the Zhat Vash have operated in the shadows to prevent the second coming of the destroyers. At a glowing table in a circular pool, these Zhat Vash members all place their hands on the Admonishen. Per Oh’s prediction, most are driven mad by the visions they receive, blowing their brains out or smashing their heads in with rocks – or, in the case of Ramdha, who’s a part of this cabal, tearing out her hair. Only Rizzo survives. She’s told by Oh that their work begins on Mars.
On the Artifact in the present day, Rizzo visits her now-comatose aunt Ramdha, whom she says lost her mind “with panache”. Apparently, Ramdha broke the Borg Cube through the sheer force of her grief (over what she saw from the Admonishen) when it tried to assimilate her Tal Shiar ship years earlier.
At the conclusion of this family reunion, Rizzo orders her men to take down “the freak”, Elnor. A skirmish ensues, and Elnor is rescued by Seven of Nine.
Aboard La Sirena, Rios freaks out at the sight of Soji. He agrees to Picard’s request to chart a course to Deep Space 12, after which, he proclaims, “I’m done”. Picard tells Soji, “You have no choice but to trust me”. His trustworthiness, however, is immediately called into question by Raffi, who introduces herself to Soji and then lambastes Picard for bringing along a double-agent: Jurati, whom Raffi has deduced is a Romulan spy (her self-injection was intended to disable the tracking isotope in her blood), and Maddox’s killer.
Picard balks at this hypothesis, but it’s more wishful thinking than forceful reasoning. Raffi slams Picard for recklessly predicating his entire mission of “rescue and sacrifice and redemption” on Soji, whom he only knows from one single Data-inherited neuron.
Picard chats with Admiral Clancy, who tells him to “Shut the f— up” but agrees to his demand that Starfleet send a squadron to rendezvous with La Sirena in Deep Space 12.
Rios has locked himself away in his quarters. Raffi talks to one of Rios’ holograms, which identifies Soji as a girl named Jana that Rios once knew. She asks the hologram about a symbol of eight circles that she noticed Romulans were drawing on the Artifact and learns that it’s called an Octonary – an “apocryphal” planetary system with eight component stars that are not found in any modern charts. Raffi deduces that the “conclave of eight” didn’t refer to the people behind the attack on Mars, but the place where those conspirators met.
While eating, Soji asks Picard about Data, whom he describes as “brave, curious, very gentle. He had a child’s wisdom, unclouded by habit or bias. He made us all laugh – except when he was trying to make us laugh”. She asks him if Data loved him, to which he says that both of them shared a limited capacity for expressing and processing emotion. Soji concludes that Data did love Picard, in part because she’s desperate to believe that she too can love.
Another hologram informs Raffi that an Octonary couldn’t occur naturally; it would have to be built. She tries to procure some wine, only to be reminded that she’s restricted her alcohol access. That’s not true of Rios, though, who’s boozing it up in his cabin. He finds an old cigar box of mementos that contains a picture of him (as a young man) with his former Starfleet Captain, Alonso Vandemir, as well as a sketch of him with a woman who looks just like Soji.
Seven and Elnor access the Queen Cell. Seven has begun regenerating the Cube. Her plan is to reconnect the Borgs to each other in a micro collective in order to fight off the Romulans and seize control of the Cube. Her fear is that once she “enslaves” the Borgs again, she might not want to release them from the collective’s control. Little does she know that Rizzo has a plan to exterminate the XBs, and to jettison into space the Borgs that are currently in stasis.
In a recreation of Picard’s chateau study, Raffi meets with Rios’ five holograms, each of which contains some part of his personality (and memory). They reveal that Rios was discharged from Starfleet and suffered a traumatic breakdown after an incident that involved Jahna and culminated with Vandemir dying by suicide.
Picard confronts Jurati about her treachery. She confesses that she killed Maddox because Commodore Oh poisoned her mind with visions of a centuries-old apocalypse. She says this calamity came about because of man’s hubris. “We are at a threshold…unless we act quickly and destroy even the possibility of synthetic life”, this hell will come again, courtesy of the destroyer – namely, Soji.
Jurati meets Soji and is amazed that she sleeps, eats, cries, and drinks like a real human. She calls Soji “a technological masterpiece and a work of art”, but the android wants to know if Jurati considers her a person, which goes unanswered. Jurati does state, forcefully, that despite Commodore Oh’s order to kill her, she would never harm Soji.
Raffi finally sits down with Rios, who recounts his sorrowful backstory. On a diplomatic mission, his Starfleet crew came upon a ship with two passengers – a figure known as “beautiful flower” and a younger protégé named Jahna. Following a black flag directive from Starfleet, Vandemir executed these visitors and then ended his own life. Rios covered up this crime so that Starfleet didn’t destroy his entire ship, and then left the Federation six months later, “broken”. He confirms that Jahna was identical to Soji, meaning she was obviously one of Maddox’s synthetics.
Rizzo executes a room full of XBs. Seeing this, Seven connects to the collective and activates the dormant Borgs. At this, Rizzo blasts the stasis Borgs into space. Rizzo’s Romulan fleet has the coordinates of the synthetic homeworld, and though she’s attacked by a horde of Borgs, she appears to escape by beaming herself onto an orbiting ship. Now under Borg control once more, the Cube releases Seven because she “still has work to do”.
The La Sirena crew gather for a cards-on-the-table chat. Jurati apologizes for what she’s done and says she’ll turn herself in once they reach Deep Space 12. Rios gives Soji French fries and a peppermint milkshake – a treat he knows she loves thanks to his brief time with Jahna. Raffi explains that 200,000-300,000 years ago, someone dragged eight suns together and hung a planet in the middle of them to house the Admonition, which warned of a past in which synthetic life was created and then evolved to a point in which it brought about destruction. Fearing that this synthetic “dividing line” might be crossed in the future, the Romulans formed the Zhat Vash to terminate all synthetic life. Oh has been carrying out this crusade as a mole within Starfleet, and she’s the one who orchestrated the false-flag attack on Mars that led to the synthetics ban.
Hearing this, as well as about Rios’ encounter with Jahna, Soji locks everyone out of the bridge and charts a course for her homeworld. Rios reluctantly agrees to this plan, and later, Picard consoles him about Vandemir’s death.
Rios is worried about the possibility that Soji might really be a destroyer of worlds. Picard opines, “The past is written. But the future is left for us to write. And we have powerful tools, Rios. Openness. Optimism. And the spirit of curiosity. All they have is secrecy and fear. And fear is the great destroyer”.
With that, La Sirena takes off through a vortex, followed closely by an enemy ship that, via cloaking, has been tailing it the entire time.
Star Trek: Picard delivers its longest episode to date with “Nepenthe”, all so it can spend as much time as possible on Picard’s long-awaited reunion with two of his closest Enterprise comrades.
Yet before that happy get-together can take place, this eighth installment flashes back to Jurati and Commander Oh’s chat at Okinawa’s Daystrom Institute. Oh knows Jurati has met with Picard, that Picard has revealed his belief that Maddox created a synthetic, and that Jurati gave him 300 GBs of material relevant to Maddox. Oh tells Jurati she wants her to accompany Picard on his off-world mission to find Maddox and the synthetic. Oh subsequently uses a Vulcan mind-meld to show Jurati the death and destruction — on a planetary scale — that will take place if synthetic life is allowed to exist. Shaken, Jurati agrees to Oh’s demands (which will require “a terrible sacrifice”) and ingests a tracking device.
On the Artifact, Rizzo demands that Hugh give up Picard and Soji’s destination (i.e. Nepenthe). She executes Hugh’s fellow XBs, but can’t kill Hugh himself because he’s protected by an “asinine” Starfleet treaty. At this point, La Sirena is released from the Artifact’s tractor beam. Although Rios knows they’re being followed by a Romulan ship (piloted by Narek), they nonetheless take off for Nepenthe — albeit not before first contacting Elnor, who’s staying behind on the Artifact because “my help is needed here”.
On Nepenthe, Picard and Soji are greeted by a young girl wearing an animal ear-decorated cloak and wielding a bow and arrow. Her name is Kestra (Lulu Wilson), and she knows Picard. On their way to the girl’s house, Kestra talks to Soji, who’s still plagued by confusion and distrust. Kestra shows her a compass but concedes it’s broken and admits that her arrows are real but that she’s a pacifist, and thus wouldn’t use them.
Kestra asks about Soji’s father, and upon hearing it’s Data, exclaims, “You’re an android?” This freaks out Soji. Trying to soothe her, Picard says that, though her memories and identity might not be real, her sister Dahj was. Then, he informs her that Dahj was murdered by the very people now hunting her. Having been repeatedly deceived, Soji is unwilling to believe anything.
At the house, Picard receives a giant hug from Kestra’s mom, Commander Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who instinctively senses that he’s in trouble. Picard goes inside and receives a similar embrace from William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), who immediately recognizes that Picard needs a place to hideout. When Picard suggests not only raising the residence’s shields and activating its perimeter scans but also running anti-cloaking scans, Riker realizes that Picard’s problems involve Romulans. Picard states that his plan has fallen apart, he’s (temporarily) lost his crew, and Soji is still in danger, to which Riker says, “Sounds like you need a new plan”.
As Picard takes a nap and Riker continues making homemade tomato-and-basil pizzas, Kestra tells Soji about Data. She surmises that the reason Soji has mucus, blood, and saliva is that Data always wanted to be human (i.e. have dreams, tell jokes, learn how to ballroom dance).
Troi shows Picard the bedroom of her and Riker’s late son Thad, whose 18th birthday would have been a week ago. Troi tells Picard to stay as long as he likes, but she acknowledges, “I’m not as brave as I used to be, Jean-Luc”. Picard responds, “You’re getting wiser”.
Onboard La Sirena, Rios strives to lose the pursuing Narek. Jurati asks if Rios and Raffi really want to go to Nepenthe. Since Jurati was originally eager to embark on this intergalactic search-and-rescue mission, Raffi is surprised by the question. That prompts Jurati to yell, “I just want to go home! Picard can look after himself and somebody else can find that f—ing synth — why does it have to be me?” Raffi calms her down by giving her red velvet cake, which she promptly throws up.
In the medical bay, Rios says he suspects the reason he can’t shake Narek is that Raffi is being (unwittingly) tracked. Before Jurati can fully confess that she’s the one with the tracker, Rios heads back to the bridge. Upset and alone, Jurati creates a handheld device and injects herself in the neck, instigating a mouth-foaming seizure that puts her in a coma.
Picard tells Riker that his visit is “a desperate impulse. I regret it already”. Riker presses the former admiral for details, stating that ignorance of danger doesn’t keep it at bay. Not that Riker needs Picard to spell things out for him — he’s already intuited that Picard is being hunted by the Tal Shiar and that Soji is the android offspring of Data (her head-tilt gave away her lineage). “Not bad for a pizza chef”, Picard smiles.
Riker slams Picard for his classic “arrogance”, once again deciding everything for everyone, and cautions that dealing with a teenager isn’t the same as commanding a starship. Picard admits he may not be up to this challenge, which is the first “baby step” toward attaining the humility he needs.
Soji and Kestra have become fast friends, speaking to each other in a language called Viveen that Thad created. In a lush garden, Troi has Soji try a real tomato — the first food she’s ever eaten that didn’t come from a replicator. She hears about Thad’s desire for a home, which is what Nepenthe eventually became for him. Apparently, Thad died of a rare disease that could have been cured if not for the synthetic ban (which denied the family access to an active positronic matrix) — proving, according to Troi, that “real isn’t always better”. Soji is still intensely skeptical of everything, suspecting that this paradise and its kind inhabitants are part of an elaborate trap.
Picard tells Soji he understands her doubts, but she violently shoves him aside and storms off. Troi chastises Picard for not fully comprehending how shaken Soji has been by Narek’s subterfuge and attempt on her life.
While Picard struggles to forge a connection with Soji, Hugh tells Elnor he’s now going to lead an open revolt against the Romulans and seize control of the Artifact. Rizzo takes this as a violation of the treaty governing his service — thereby granting her permission to kill them both. Elnor dispatches Rizzo’s guards and directly engages her in combat. Using a dagger, Rizzo murders Hugh. She then beams away before Elnor can finish her off. With his final breath, Hugh tells Elnor that he needs an XB to activate the Queen Cell, and thanks the warrior for giving him hope. Shortly thereafter, Elnor finds a dog tag-like device that allows him to activate a Fenris Rangers SOS signal.
Over pizza dinner, Soji recounts Narek’s meditation-ritual ruse, and Kestra — with the aid of Captain Rupert Crandall, who also lives on Nepenthe — discovers the location of Soji’s homeworld, which doesn’t have a name but does have a number. Picard works hard to convince Soji that she can trust him, admitting he wants to help her because she’s the daughter of his dear friend Data. Moreover, before this undertaking, Picard was just wasting his life, whereas now, “I’m alive. And I have a mission, which means there’s not a hell of a chance that you or anyone else can stop me”.
The next morning, Picard and Riker take a walk to a forest-nestled lake. Picard has heard from Rios, and he talks to Riker about his “decidedly motley” new crew, who “seem to be carrying more baggage than all of you ever did”. Sitting on a pier bench, Riker lets Picard know that no one would think less of him if he gave up this quest. That said, Riker also says he never thought Picard had any business retiring, to which Picard replies, “And you were right”.
Picard thanks Riker for “so many things. But today, for not trying to talk me out of all this”. Riker says he knows better than to attempt that, since “that, my friend, was always a losing proposition”.
Kestra conveys to Soji that she understands what it’s like to experience something really awful (i.e. her brother’s death) and that what helped her get through it were her parents. She says Picard could be Soji’s new father figure and, in turn, Soji could be there for Picard. “I’ll think about it”, Soji responds.
After receiving Kestra’s compass as a gift, Soji and Picard say their farewells and beam back up to La Sirena.
It’s Picard to the rescue in this week’s episode of Star Trek: Picard (“The Impossible Box”), but only after Soji comes face-to-face with the traumatic memories haunting her — and, consequently, the truth about her inherent nature.
A shaken Soji awakens after suffering a recurring dream in which, as a child (Ella McKenzie) on a rainy night, she walks down a long, dark corridor toward her father’s workshop, where she sees him behind a row of orchids and, upon entering, is yelled at — thus ending the reverie.
Narek is beside Soji in bed, and under the covers, he kisses her and admits, “I want to know every little thing about you”. Soji thinks Narek suspects she’s an imposter because all Romulans love secrets. He says everyone is hiding something, whether they know it or not. Despite pressing him on the issue, however, he won’t reveal his actual name — the one that’s reserved for the individual to whom a Romulan gives his or her heart. Before leaving, he suggests she speak to her mother about her dream.
Chatting with Picard, Jurati says that Maddox’s death was “harder than I could have imagined” (but obviously not too hard, since she killed him!). Picard confirms that Soji is onboard the Artifact. Though he doesn’t know why she’s there, he’s not looking forward to joining her. “My last visit to a Borg cube was not voluntary … they coolly assimilate entire civilizations, entire systems — in a matter of hours!” he cries, still distressed by his assimilation ordeal years ago. “They don’t change; they metastasize”.
Much to Jurati’s chagrin, Elnor perceptively states about her and Picard, “He can’t see you’re also haunted by something you’d like to forget”.
Troubled as she might be, Jurati later encounters Rios on the deck, shirtless and kicking around a soccer ball (some Earth sports have apparently endured). Over swigs from his flask, she confesses, “I’ve never slept with the captain of anything before”. Jurati knows that having sex with Rios is a bad idea — she says her “superpower” is recognizing mistakes as she makes them — but does so anyway, to ease the fact that she feels “hollow, hopeless, alone, afraid”.
Narek finds Rizzo waiting for him in his room. He reports that he’s making progress with Soji, and she once again mocks him for having feelings for the female synth (which Rizzo refers to as “It. A program. A machine”). Narek is sure that, since every element of a synth is designed for a specific purpose, there must be a reason Soji is having dreams. He surmises that they’re manifestations of her subconscious, which has developed as a means of reconciling the synthetic and human parts of her mind. If he can get her to talk about her dreams, he can unlock her core secret: namely, the location of her homeworld, where the rest of her artificial kind can be found (and destroyed).
Rather than using subterfuge to gain access to the Artifact’s Borg Reclamation Project, Picard opts to do things the Qowat Milat way — “by being perfectly open”. He has Raffi, still on a smoking-and-boozing bender following her disastrous meeting with her son Gabriel, call up an old Federation buddy and ask for diplomatic credentials. That request doesn’t go over well. Yet since La Sirena is about to be in breach of galactic treaty by entering Romulan space (thereby threatening war), Raffi’s friend relents and grants Picard access. Afterward, Rios helps Raffi back to bed, and she opens up to him about her son before passing out in a haze of guilt and anguish.
Soji tells Narek that she had the dream again, but that when she talked to her mom about it, she fell asleep. He reveals to her that every call she’s had with her mom lasted only 70 seconds. Soji can’t believe this and later calls her mom again. She becomes immediately drowsy, such that stabbing herself in the hand can’t keep her awake. When she rises from her slumber at her desk, she scans her family photographs, childhood drawings, and necklace to verify their age, and learns that everything she owns is only 37 months old. Unsurprisingly, this revelation causes her to freak out.
Plagued by flashes of his Borg past, Picard orders Elnor to remain on La Sirena no matter what happens. Upon beaming to the Artifact, Picard is greeted by a friendly face — Hugh, who understands what the hero is going through. “Coming back is hard, I know. This is the last place any of us would want to see again”. Nonetheless, they’re not alone; there are plenty of XBs (i.e. “ex-Borgs”) on the Artifact. Picard informs Hugh about his search for Soji. Hugh says that he not only knows her, but he’s also had a hunch she might be in danger, especially because of the young Romulan spy (i.e. Narek) who showed up two weeks earlier pretending that he wasn’t asking questions about her.
Picard visits the Borg Reclamation Project, and is heartened to see that Hugh’s work is truly undoing the assimilation perpetrated by the Borg. This proves Picard’s fundamental belief that “They’re victims, not monsters”.
Soji recounts her (self-)discovery to Narek. He deceptively theorizes that someone may have implanted her with false memories, as a means of using her to find something on the Artifact. Although it’s traditionally only available to Romulans, he says Soji should partake in the ancient Romulan meditation practice of Zhal Makh in order to unlock the true meaning of her dreams.
In the Zhal Makh chamber, Soji follows Narek’s instructions and is transported back to the dark hallway we saw at the episode’s opening. He asks her questions and counsels her to push past the point at which her father yells at her and the dream ends. Soji does this, entering her father’s workshop. She sees that his face is blurred. Worse still, behind her father’s row of orchids is an operating table featuring a wooden doll-like Soji in unconnected pieces. Narek has her look up through the ceiling’s window, and she spots two red moons in an atmosphere wracked by lightning. “It means you found home”, Narek states about her vision.
Picard and Hugh find Soji’s room in disarray. A scan indicates that she’s nowhere to be found on the Artifact. “I believe she’s close to discovering who she really is”, Picard intuits.
Back in the Zhal Makh chamber, Narek explains to Soji why she imagined her father working on an artificial version of herself: “Because you’re not real. You never were”. He says farewell and locks her inside the room, leaving behind his toy puzzle box, which emits a deadly gas. This activates Soji, and she uses her super-android strength to punch and tear a hole in the floor and escapes. Freed from her confinement, she’s also now back online, so Hugh and Picard race to find her.
That doesn’t take long, since Soji plummets through the ceiling and lands right in front of them. Picard quickly convinces her that he not only knows her but is there to help; showing her Dahj’s necklace, which is identical to her own, does the trick. Soji races off with Picard and Hugh as Romulan guards follow in pursuit.
Hugh takes to them to the Artifact’s clandestine Queen Cell, which both he and Picard remember despite the fact that they’ve never visited it (a byproduct of their time spent as part of the Borg hive-mind collective). Hugh activates a spatial trajector that will beam them anywhere within a 40 light-years range. Picard contacts Rios and tells him to meet them at the distant planet to which they’re headed. However, their travel is momentarily delayed by the arrival of Elnor, who couldn’t resist helping Picard. While Picard is frustrated by Elnor’s heroism — and by his desire to stay and fend off more incoming adversaries — he’s forced to acquiesce to the warrior’s wishes.
As Elnor and Hugh cover their tracks by hiding the Queen Cell and prepare to fight more Romulan enemies, Picard and Soji travel through the spatial trajector.
Picard finds the mystery man he’s been looking for and gets to don an absurd disguise in this week’s installment of Star Trek: Picard (“Stardust City Rag”), which is arguably the most streamlined, and confident, episode to date.
Thirteen years earlier at The Seven Domes on Planet Vergessen, a doctor brutally extracts an eyeball from her Borg captive. This torturous operation is ended by Seven of Nine, who blasts those working at this Borg slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, she’s too late to save her comrade, whom she refers to as her “son”, and then kills in an act of mercy.
Freecloud’s Stardust City is a neo-Vegas, all holographic projections of towering dancing beauties, fighting robots, and gambling iconography. In a swanky lounge, Mr. Vup (Dominic Burgess) — a giant, unfriendly lizard man referred to later as a “sentient reptiloid” — tells crime boss Bjayzl (Necar Zadegan) that Bruce Maddox (John Ales) is in the establishment. Though Bjayzl initially orders Maddox killed, she reconsiders and instead has a chat with the scruffy-bearded doc, whose unkempt appearance and harried demeanor are in keeping with the story he has to tell — namely, that his lab was destroyed by the Tal Shiar, prompting him to flee for his life. Maddox apologetically tells Bjayzl that he won’t be able to repay her loan. Bjayzl has already set a new plan in motion, which begins with poisoning Maddox via booze.
Onboard the La Sirena, Seven finds Picard in a holographic recreation of his chateau den. He states that he admires the goals, courage, and tenacity of the Fenris Rangers, a squad of galactic vigilante do-gooders that Seven joined once the Federation, post-Mars crisis, gave up on aiding planets and people in need. Picard chides Seven for “taking the law into your hands”. However, he can’t argue with her retort: “What law?”.
Seven isn’t interested in receiving a lecture about her “judge and jury” conduct since she believes doing nothing and giving up would be far worse. She agrees to be dropped off on Freecloud. Yet upon hearing that Picard is trying to help “someone who has no one else to help her” — and will likely die without his assistance — she signs up for his mission.
Raffi researches a man named Gabriel Wong (Mason Gooding) and then has a conversation with Rios in which they discuss — more for the benefit of newbie Star Trek viewers than for narrative purposes — the “notorious” Seven, and the fact that Picard used to be a Borg. “This is some strange cargo you brought me this time”, Rios tells Raffi with a smile.
Jurati watches a home movie of herself and Maddox baking cookies, which ends in a kiss — a key revelation about her personal connection to this saga. After the crew dispatch holographic advertisements from Freecloud (Jurati has to virtually knock out a robot pugilist), Raffi announces that she’s found Maddox on an online message board for illicit transactions. Apparently, Bjayzl is looking to broker a deal for Maddox with the Tal Shiar.
Seven informs the crew that Bjayzl butchers ex-Borgs for their implanted parts. She suggests a plan in which the heroes trade her — whom Bjayzl covets more than anyone — for Maddox.
For this scheme, Rios dons a fur-shouldered coat, open-necked shirt, gold chains, sunglasses, and a giant wide-brimmed hat decorated with a feather to pose as the confident middleman for the deal. He beams down to the Freecloud nightclub and negotiates with Mr. Vup, who can smell a lie. That would be a problem if not for the fact that Rios has already received a beta-blocker injection that masks any chemical scent indicating deception. Rios tells Mr. Vup that rather than working on behalf of the Tal Shiar, he’s actually been hired by a third party with a different offer for Maddox — namely, Seven.
Wearing an eye patch and sporting a ludicrous French accent for his performance as Seven’s “seller”, Picard beams down with Elnor and a handcuffed Seven, who’s earned the respect of Raffi for trying to aid the downtrodden when no one else would. Raffi, meanwhile, leaves Picard and company for good — or so she thinks — and travels to the Stardust City Reproductive Health Services center. There, she finds her son, Gabriel. Gabriel remains furious about the fact that Raffi prioritized her “crackpot” theory about an “Enclave of Eight” and a conspiracy about the synthetics’ attack on Mars over her family. She defends those convictions but pleads with him to give her another chance, saying she’s cleaned herself up. It doesn’t work, and though Raffi gets to briefly meet her daughter-in-law — who’s pregnant with her granddaughter — her reunion abruptly ends there.
Bjayzl taunts Seven about carving up her comrade, and mocks her for wanting to “save the outcast, rescue the forgotten”. Seven responds by reminding Bjayzl that she was able to escape the villain’s clutches (“I’m the one that got away”). Breaking free from her handcuffs, Seven grabs Bjayzl by the throat. The jig is up, and Picard demands answers from Seven about her relationship to Bjayzl. Seven obliges, recounting Bjayzl’s slaughter of her friend, and Picard proclaims, “Murder is not justice. There is no solace in revenge”.
Rios kills Mr. Vup (who was making a move to attack) and warns Seven that if she assassinates Bjayzl, Picard and Elnor will wind up with a bounty on their heads. Conceding this point, Seven offers Bjayzl her life in exchange for their safe passage back to their ship with Maddox. Bjayzl agrees, and Maddox is taken to the sickbay, where he’s cared for by Jurati.
Picard is happy with Seven’s choice and allows her to take two blasters as she departs La Sirena. On her way out, she asks Picard if, after being brought back from the Borg collective, he feels he’s regained all of his humanity. “No. But we’re both working on it, aren’t we?” he replies, to which she says, “Every damn day of my life”.
Seven beams back to Freecloud, and everyone in the lounge bolts except for Bjayzl, who says Seven is “sentimental” for risking her own life to protect her friends. “Picard still thinks there’s a place in the galaxy for mercy. I didn’t want to disillusion him. Somebody out there ought to have a little hope”, Seven states, before vaporizing Bjayzl and taking on the vanquished enemy’s hostile security forces.
In the sickbay, Maddox confesses to Picard that he knew Dahj was dead as soon as the Tal Shiar raided his laboratory. He informs Picard that Soji is on the Artifact for the same reason her sister was sent to Earth — to uncover the truth about the ban on synthetics. Maddox claims that the ones hiding that truth are also hunting Soji, and he believes those nefarious forces aren’t just the Romulans, but also members of the Federation.
Rios accepts Picard’s request to fly into Romulan space (to visit the Artifact), and then asks him about their “stowaway” Raffi, who’s sulking in her room following her disastrous meeting with Gabriel.
His health improving, Maddox is thrilled to see Jurati and asks her if she got to meet Dahj on Earth, referring to the synthetic (and her sister) as “perfectly imperfect” and crediting Jurati for her essential contribution to their creation. As with Raffi and Gabriel, however, their reunion is an unhappy one, as Jurati murders Maddox while tearfully admitting, “I wish you know what I know. I wish I didn’t know what I know. I wish they hadn’t shown me. I’m so sorry”.
Picard seemed to have finished assembling his crew of adventurers in last week’s “The End Is the Beginning.” Yet it appears he was just getting started, as “Absolute Candor” finds the former Starfleet hero once more confronting past mistakes in order to forge his (hopefully triumphant) future — a process that involves face-to-face meetings with not one, but two key figures from his past.
Directed by longtime Trek favorite Jonathan Frakes (and written by Michael Chabon), Star Trek: Picard‘s fourth installment begins fourteen years in the past on the planet of Vashti, a Romulan Relocation Hub in the Beta Quadrant. It’s a happy place, and when Picard beams down — in a tan suit and matching wide-brimmed Panama hat — he’s greeted warmly by its inhabitants. Having stolen some fruit from the marketplace, young Elnor (Ian Nunney) runs home, announcing Picard’s impending arrival.
At Elnor’s residence, Picard gives the boy a copy of The Three Musketeers. As a sign of gratitude, Elnor hugs Picard. This prompts Elnor’s caretaker Zani (Amirah Vann) to inform the boy that he’s making their visitor — an accurate, if blunt, assessment that causes Picard to remark, “Someday, I may get used to the way of absolute candor.” Zani is one of the sisters of the Qowat Milat, an all-female religious order/fighting force whose “way of absolute candor” involves speaking one’s mind without hesitation or guile. Picard can only shrug in agreement when Zani says that Picard doesn’t like kids because “they’re demanding, distracting, and interfere with duty and pleasure alike.” Yet he also tells Elnor — whose feelings are hurt by this admission — that he likes him very much.
Picard wishes Zani and the Qowat Milat could find Elnor a more suitable home, and during his stay, he tries to provide the boy with some paternal attention and affection, fencing with him by day and reading to him at night. Picard’s visit is cut short, though, when he receives word that Mars has been attacked by synthetics, and promises to return soon before beaming away.
In the present, Jurati tells Rios that her dad used to read paper books, and Rios explains that the one he’s currently immersed in is about “the existential pain of living with the consciousness of death. And how it defines us as human beings.” Upon learning that Picard has scheduled an unplanned stop at Vashti, Raffi angrily confronts Picard in a holo-matrix recreation of his chateau study (which has been meticulously crafted by Rios’ hospitality hologram). Picard pointedly remarks that he knows Raffi is “eager” to get to Freecloud, at which she bristles. He then hears from Rios that Vashti has devolved into a dodgy place full of smugglers, warlords, and other unsavory types.
Nonetheless, Picard is determined to visit the Qowat Milat (here referred to as “Romulan warrior nuns”), the most skilled single-combat fighters he’s ever seen, and the feared enemies of the Tal Shiar. He’s confident he can convince one of them to join his cause, even though the Qowat Milat have a particular criteria for giving, or withholding, assistance.
Unable to land on Vashti due to their defense forces, Picard beams down alone to find the community radically changed, now full of angry-looking men and women, and cafes with signs stipulating “Romulans Only.” He receives a warm greeting from Zani, but Elnor (Evan Evagora), having grown into a fearsome adult warrior, is less thrilled about this reunion.
On the Borg cube, Soji watches an old video of Ramdha speaking about Ganmadan, an ancestral term for “The Day of Annihilation,” in which all unshackled demons answer the call of “The Destroyer” (the very name Ramdha called Soji during their previous encounter). Later, while examining the still-unconscious Ramdha in the “disordered” wing, Soji tells Narek that she blames herself for the woman’s suicide attempt and that she felt “seen” by Ramdha. Over subsequent drinks, Soji asks Narek how he always knows her whereabouts and has so much insight into her life. He denies being Tal Shiar but confesses that even if he were a member of the secret Romulan sect, he wouldn’t admit it.
Candor is clearly not Narek’s strong suit. Still, the enigmatic figure does suggest that the Borg database might have answers to Soji’s questions about what happened to Ramdha’s Borg-assimilated ship. To access the database, Narek makes Soji follow a Borg ritual by taking off her shoes and sliding through steam-filled passageways. While their joyful hand-in-hand trip along this corridor ends in kissing, things turn sour when Narek confronts Soji about her lie regarding her presence on a transport ship, and she considers storming off.
Back on Vashti, Raffi warns Picard that he’s been ID’d, and that local chatter is turning hostile. Picard admits to Zani that, by sticking to his ideals at the expense of saving lives years earlier, he allowed “the perfect to become the enemy of the good.” Despite his failings, however, he desperately needs the help of the Qowat Milat in his quest to combat the Tal Shiar. Elnor is not an official member of the Qowat Milat (because he’s a man), but he remains a formidable and open-hearted warrior, and in order to convince Elnor to bind his sword to his cause, Picard tells Elnor the story of Data, Dahj, and her mysterious android twin. “I’m an old man, and you’re a young one, and you’re strong,” says Picard, which isn’t enough to stop Elnor — still fuming over Picard’s prior abandonment — from angrily walking out.
Back in town, Picard pokes the proverbial bear by taking down the “Romulans Only” sign, walking over it, and taking a seat at the cantina. He’s confronted by a former Romulan senator who blames Picard for ditching them on Vashti in a supposed effort to scatter, confuse, and divide the Romulan people. Picard denies this, proclaiming that he “did everything I could,” which doesn’t smooth things over. The giant man forces Picard to take up a sword, and during their showdown, Elnor appears, announces that he’s bound himself to Picard as “qualankhkai,” and then decapitates Picard’s adversary. Before things can get nastier, they’re both beamed up to Rios’ ship.
Now safe, Picard chastises Elnor for committing murder, saying that if he’s bound to Picard’s cause, he will fight, or stand down, when ordered. Picard introduces Elnor to the rest of the crew, and confesses that the reason Elnor found his proposition acceptable is because it’s a “lost cause”.
Narek is awakened in bed by his sister Rizzo, who teases her brother about Soji’s anatomical correctness. He asks her why Soji is so obsessed with Ramdha and the fate of her ship, and when Rizzo mocks his lack of progress, Narek tells her that if he presses Soji too hard, he might activate her, leading to the same sort of violent situation they had on Earth — thereby creating the need to kill Soji. Rizzo reminds him that Soji will have to be killed, but he says they can’t do that until they’ve learned where she comes from — and where “the rest of them are.” Apparently, Soji and Dahj aren’t the only Data-bred androids roaming the galaxy.
Rizzo reminds her sibling that “your little robot girl has a plan — don’t forget that.” She then grabs him by the throat and demands he reveal Soji’s true identity, which he does: “The Destroyer.” She gives him one more week to get somewhere with his undercover work; after that, they’ll try her “pain and violence” approach.
Picard and company are attacked by an enemy ship. They’re saved, however, by a mysterious, and “hideous,” second ship that comes to the rescue. That helpful craft takes catastrophic damage, and Picard agrees to let the doomed pilot beam onto their own deck. Prepared for a possible adversary to materialize in their midst, Picard instead finds himself in the presence of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), who states, “You owe me a ship, Picard” before collapsing.
Picard may be a legend, but he can’t unravel the mystery at the heart of his latest mission alone. Thus, the third episode of Star Trek: Picard (“The End Is the Beginning”) finds the former Starfleet admiral putting together a team that will hopefully lead him to Dahj’s twin Soji — and also, in the process, to answers about the apparent conspiracy involving the Romulan evacuation crisis.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2385 Mars catastrophe, Picard and Raffi meet outside Starfleet’s San Francisco headquarters. Picard tells Raffi that, in the conference he just left, he made the case for continuing to evacuate Romulans from the supernova blast radius by using reserve duty officers and mothball ships. They rejected his plan, and instead of letting synthetics handle the evacuation (as Raffi suggested), they instituted a ban on synthetics, which they claim went haywire on Mars due to “a fatal code error in the operating system.”
Raffi doesn’t buy that for a second, and says, “I smell the Tal Shiar.” She has no idea why the Romulans would want to sabotage their own rescue, and neither does Picard. Nonetheless, he’s immensely disappointed in the organization to which he’s given his life. “I never dreamed that Starfleet would give in to intolerance and fear,” he laments, and in that moment, Star Trek: Picard offers a not-so-subtle critique of contemporary democracies that refuse to help refugees out of either prejudice or cowardice.
In the face of this objectionable stance, Picard demanded that Starfleet either accept his evacuation plan or his resignation — and they accepted the latter. Raffi is stunned, and hopes Picard has “some last, desperate, wild solution — that’s what you do.” Alas, Picard’s resignation was that Hail Mary, and it failed. “I never believed they would accept it,” he confesses. Realizing this turn of events means she’s about to be fired (while Picard gets to retreat to his swanky chateau), Raffi angrily storms off to face her Starfleet fate.
In the present, Picard asks Raffi for help procuring a ship and a pilot so he can locate Dr. Bruce Maddox, who’s the key to understanding this Dahj mystery. She chastises him for tipping off Starfleet about his activity, as well as for the “unmitigated disaster” that was his TV interview. She also tells Picard he has “some goddamn nerve” for making requests after abandoning her for the past decade-plus, which she describes as “one long slide into humiliation. And rage. Also a fair amount of snake leaf-induced paranoia,” at which point she takes another drag off her high-tech vape pen.
Following another elaborate visual journey around and through the Artifact — a CGI sequence that director Hanelle M. Culpepper once again handles with aplomb — we’re introduced to Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), the executive director of the Borg reclamation project. He visits Soji and commends her on her excellent work. Hugh is a reclaimed Borg drone and states that there are no more despised people in the galaxy than those like him, who are seen as either property to be exploited or a hazard to be warehoused. Romulans, he states, view his kind as both.
Soji is different because she has compassion for those assimilated by the Borg. Consequently, Hugh grants her an interview with Ramdha (Rebecca Wisocky), the foremost expert on Romulan myths. Ramdha is part of a group of assimilated Romulans referred to as “the disordered,” who mutter and shuffle about aimlessly. When Soji arrives, the once-revered author is assembling a puzzle comprised of triangular pieces featuring tarot card-like symbols.
Back at Vasquez Rocks, Picard apologizes to Raffi for abandoning her. Though she claims not to care, she listens to Picard’s talk about a unit of Tal Shiar operating on Earth, which couldn’t happen without Federation complicity. She replies that she always knew the Federation was in bed with the Romulans, and that she has concrete evidence that a high-ranking Starfleet official conspired to allow the attack on Mars to go forward. Picard tells her it’s this very ability to see things that others don’t that makes her invaluable. Such praise doesn’t convince her to join his new squad, but she does give him the name of a pilot: Rios (Santiago Cabrera).
Later that night, Picard sends Raffi everything he has on this case and beams up to Rios’ ship, where the pilot is having shrapnel removed from his arm by a hologram of himself that, we soon learn, likes to speak in different accents. At first glance, it’s clear Rios is a cigar-smoking, liquor-swilling, devil-may-care badass — he even reads a book called “The Tragic Sense of Life” — and when Rios asks if they’re going to be breaking any laws together, Picard asserts, “I’m not in the habit of consulting lawyers before I do what needs to be done.” This pleases Rios, who counters with, “I’m not in the habit of consulting anybody about anything.”
Picard’s impression of Rios as a kindred spirit is confirmed by the fact that the pilot keeps his ship in immaculate shape, thus proving he’s “Starfleet to the core. I can smell it on you.” After Picard leaves, Rios’ hologram excitedly talks about the prospect of teaming up with the iconic hero (“he’s on the side of angels”). Still tormented by the death of his last noble captain, Rios isn’t quite as enthusiastic.
“The End Is the Beginning” subsequently sets about cross-cutting between two momentous encounters, both of which culminate with a tense interview. At his chateau, Picard confides to Laris that he never truly felt at home in France; his place was in the stars. Before he can depart, Picard and his friends are attacked by Romulan assassins. They triumph in this fierce skirmish, thanks in part to the aid of Dr. Jurati, who unexpectedly shows up. They attempt to interrogate one of their attackers, who merely growls — about Dahj and her twin — “She’s not a girl…she’s not what you think she is…She’s the end of all. She’s the destroyer!” He then takes his own life.
At the same time, Soji chats with Ramdha. When questioned about mythology, Ramdha states that she prefers the term “The News” — a concept that pleases Soji. More revealing still, Ramdha muses that she remembers Soji “from tomorrow.” Soji presses her on this point, saying she’s aware Ramdha was on board the last ship assimilated by this Borg Cube — a fact that Hugh didn’t know, and can’t understand how Soji knows. Ramdha suddenly asks Soji, “Which sister are you? The one who dies or the one who lives?” and then leaps up and grabs a guard’s blaster, yelling, “I know who you are … You are the destroyer!” Ramdha tries to kill herself with the weapon, but Soji stops her.
In her bedroom, Soji calls her mom, who reports that Dahj is fine and thinking about adopting a puppy — a lie indicating that Soji’s mom (who may not even be real) is interested in deceiving her. Strangely, Soji then immediately passes out. Awakened by Narek’s arrival, she tells him she doesn’t understand how she knew anything about Ramdha’s ship. Rather than provide her with clarity, Narek instead whispers in her ear, “I may be falling in love with you,” thus solidifying his connection to her. Upon leaving, Narek runs into his sister Rizzo — who’s now on board the Artifact — and she wishes him luck in his scheming.
Jurati informs Picard that, though she spilled the beans about his plans to Commodore Oh, she didn’t tell the Director of Starfleet Security about her intention to join Picard on his quest. Convinced that he can use Earth’s leading expert on synthetic life, Picard agrees to this arrangement. The two subsequently beam up to Rios’ ship. Raffi is already there and has found Maddox’s whereabouts — he’s on Freecloud. Raffi has her own reasons for wanting to travel there, but for now, she keeps those to herself.
With the ragtag crew complete, Picard gives a trademark forward thrust of his hand and commands, “Engage”.
Star Trek Command 