The answers fall into place in this episode as we get ready for the two-part season finale.
Starting with another flashback, this time 14 years ago in the year of the attack on Mars. We finally get more of a glimpse into the images that Jurati saw in the mind meld last week, how the Zhat Vash came to be and their role in the destruction of Mars.
It seems that someone, perhaps the T’Kon Empire but we never do find out, had pulled 8 stars together and set a warning in the middle, a warning about synthetic life that could bring destruction to all. But this vision, the Admonition, seems to also drive people mad.
Narissa, however, seemed to be unique in being able to endure it. I love this scene because it’s not just exposition and info dump, but that it gives us another side of Narissa. Anything that can explain the origins of our “villains” is a plus for me because you want your villains to be interesting and complex, not just one note evil.
Narissa was clearly already a believer, trained and indoctrinated, but now having seen the visions, she’s even more fully committed to the crusade ahead.
It’s also here that we discover that Ramdha, the ex-Borg Romulan that Soji had been speaking to, is Narissa and Narek’s aunt who took them in after their parents died. The moment of Narissa talking to her unconscious aunt made me realize that it’s a parallel of Narek’s seen earlier in episode 4 when he talks about how Ramdha was always a bit of a tormented soul.
He would know, given that’s the person who raised him. As the layers to characters’ stories peel back, we see the seeds laid in earlier episodes paying off. This kind of storytelling is what I love, the joy of having that light go off in your head when you realize what you saw before suddenly making all the sense in the world.
However, now we come to a part of the Borg Cube story that doesn’t quite pay off as well as I would have liked. While Seven’s return to the cube started in high fashion with her saving the day and Elnor hugging her so tightly that it just warms my heart.
The rest of the story seems to be missing a proper climax as things just remain kind of stationary, without the kind of Borg Cube excitement as I had imagined. With Seven also not really having an explicit reaction to Hugh’s death, or even seeing his body.
Perhaps this is me setting my expectations too high, but other than some scenes of Elnor and Seven getting to the Queen Cell and Narissa ordering her men to jettison the remaining Borg drones, the story on the Borg Cube just seems to be a lot of walking around and talking, like someone narrating a chess game but in a rather boring way.
There are certainly moments of excitement and character building, such as Seven agonizing over the decision to take over, even if momentarily, as Borg Queen. But ultimately nothing is done to advance the story of the xBs beyond using them as a plot point to get from A to B.
This Borg Cube story aspect may be the only thing on this show, along with last week’s Hugh death, that could be counted as disappointing, as once again I feel they did not let the story reach its full potential.
Still, despite some narrative failing on this B plot, I do love the little character moments that came from it. Seven struggling with the decision to reconnect to the Collective and become Queen, I’m glad that was a decision she didn’t just suddenly make without hesitation.
Her having to do it out of necessity because Narissa was jettisoning the unconscious drones into space was a brilliant move. Because it was something that forced her hand, a decision she had to make at the moment to save lives.
It was a moment that was earned. And I think this was the first time was hearing the words “We are Borg” makes me cheer in excitement. Another thing that made me smile was seeing Seven and Elnor’s relationship develop. His absolute candor is something she needs to hear, but more than that, Elnor is also a child who needs a guide, and Seven is a mother without a child.
Much like how Kestra last week said that Soji and Picard could have each other, Seven and Elnor can do the same.
One question I still have though is what happened to all the other scientists who were working on the cube? Between Narissa speaking to Ramdha to her chasing after Elnor and Seven, there didn’t seem to be a moment where she gave any orders about sending any scientists off the cube.
I could only assume that between episodes after Soji escaped, they knew they had to clear the cube, so they sent all the scientists home.
The focus of the episode though was all happening on La Sirena, a place of the usual drama. Soji’s arrival immediately spooks Rios to the point that he tells Picard that he will take him to a Starbase and then he’s done, promptly locking himself in his room and leaving the holograms to do his work.
Raffi, meanwhile, is riding high on vindication as her theory about Jurati killing Bruce Maddox proved to be right, but then is drawn into the mystery of Rios’ strange behaviour. And here, hijinks and hilarity ensue as Santiago Cabrera looks to be having the absolute time of his life playing up the five different holograms on the ship:
Enoch for navigation, Emil for medical, Emmet for tactical, Ian for engineering, and Mr Hospitality for hospitality.
Each one of the holograms is beyond just their accents, but also different mannerisms and personalities. Mr Hospitality seems to not understand personal space. Enoch has the most precious reaction to Raffi kissing him on the head. Emmet’s chill and relaxed attitude along with their seemingly perpetual need for napping makes him my favourite. And the scene of all five of them in the same room with Raffi will no doubt be iconic.
It’s through the holograms that we find out the basics of Rios’ past about his old ship, his old captain who had killed himself, and someone named Jana who looks like Soji. When Rios and Raffi finally come face to face, the humour and joy Santiago infused into the holograms turn to sombre pain and guilt on the real Rios’ face.
We learn how Rios’ ship had picked up a diplomatic mission out of nowhere that was the first contact with two synths before getting a black flag directive from Commodore Oh who told Captain Alonzo Vandermeer to kill the two people, or his ship would be destroyed with all hands.
The guilt that Rios had carried for so long was that he had felt responsible for driving his captain, whom he had seen as a father figure, to kill himself because Rios went hard at Vandermeer for murdering two people they’d just had a meal without of the blue. The intense trauma that Rios always carried that had intrigued me from the first moment we met the character was finally revealed in all its heartbreaking detail, and Santiago just nails every single emotion.
With the way I praise the cast on this show, it’s practically Acting Olympics. Every week someone delivers just a heartbreaking performance and this week was Santiago’s turn. And beyond this amazing performance, the friendship of Rios and Raffi is just so powerful. I love that there is no romance set up, I love that they are allowed to remain loving platonic friends who simply care about each other and isn’t afraid to show affection for one another.
Good male and female platonic friendships are a rare commodity in today’s TV landscape, so watch me cling to this beautiful bond for dear life.
Speaking of needing affection, Jurati woke up to the worst thing ever – a disappointed frowny faced Picard. I shrink from it and I’m not even the one Picard is disappointed at. Jurati spills the beans on what Commodore Oh had her do and what she saw in the visions, even mentioning that Oh put a psychic block on her to keep her from talking about it.
This explains Jurati’s struggles last episode at trying to admit what she had done and why Jurati, who seems rather talkative, hadn’t just accidentally blurted something out when stressed. But these extenuating circumstances don’t seem to change that Jurati is expected to turn herself in when they arrive at Deep Space 12 for the murder of Bruce Maddox.
But at least she’s not in a murdering mood anymore and found some moments of joy at finally meeting Soji for the first time. Interestingly though, Jurati never did answer Soji’s question if Jurati thought of her as a real person or just a piece of machine. And if this wasn’t already Santiago Cabrera’s episode, I would have given top performer status to Allison Pill once again, for giving such nuance to Jurati’s struggling set of circumstances and her pain.
Despite everyone’s high running emotions, both Picard and Soji were surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly after Nepenthe, far more confident in who they are than ever before. Soji confronts Jurati for her actions and eventually seems to forgive her.
Picard gets into contact with Admiral Clancy (my new favourite badass Admiral) again and gets that Starfleet squadron of ships he’s going to need to help complete his mission. And they share with each other a nice quiet meal discussing Data, in which Soji gives Picard something that I don’t think Picard knew he needed to hear until it happened, that Data loved Picard.
It’s a subtle moment, a small moment, but at the centre of all this chaos, Star Trek: Picard is a story about love and relationships. And through Soji, through Data’s daughter, Picard is healing from that old festering wound of guilt that he had never quite learned how to let go of. At that moment, it’s as if Soji had released him of a burden.
Once everyone’s had their emotional moment, the crew finally put their heads together and worked as one. All the pieces fall into place as the story unravels itself. The Romulans were behind the attack on Mars, and they did it because of the warning about synthetic life, how there is a threshold and once we cross it, something will come for us. Except it won’t be the nice Vulcan greeting that met Zefram Cochrane in Montana after the success of the first warp drive flight. Soji also learns about her two other siblings Beautiful Flower and Jana, and how Commodore Oh had ordered their deaths. And now that Zhat Vash knows about her homeworld, more of her family is in danger.
Her upset leads her to attempt to try to gain control of Rios’ ship so she can go home, but Rios smartly has a system in place to regain control quickly. Picard though, suggests that perhaps they need to finally try Soji’s way. After all, they’ve tried everyone else’s way and it hasn’t worked out so far. With the crew in unison, they aim for Soji’s homeworld. Though not without Narek sneakily tagging along.
This episode is an episode where the small moments on La Sirena carried a lot of weight, but also numerous other moments that just brings me joy. Admiral Clancy returning and dropping another F-bomb was hilarious and appropriate, Picard did seconds before calling her a waste of space.
I hope to see her back again because her presence is always magnetic. Picard sitting down in Rios’ chair and ready to fly the ship, all with the score cheering him on, only to have him realize he didn’t know how the controls worked, had me cracking up. And I can’t even begin to describe the various emotions I went through watching the end scene of Picard talking with Rios about his captain and how the Federation betrayed that trust when it fell to fear instead of embracing openness, optimism, and the spirit of curiosity.
So many things resonated, but most of all Picard’s line that fear is the great destroyer.
There have always been criticisms that Star Trek: Picard is too dark, too gritty, yet much is ignored that the show is at its core, inherently optimistic and hopeful, because it’s about not letting fear and darkness win, it’s about choosing to stand up and doing something good to change the world.
Picard is following in the steps of another great captain, Captain America, whose comics, and films told us that even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say “No, you move.”
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Star Trek: Picard airs on Paramount+ followed on CTV SciFi Channel in Canada and on Amazon Prime Video internationally
