“Through A Mirror Darkling And Here The Man Who Holds The Glass Is Darker Still”
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is really putting its foot on the gas!
Picking up immediately after the events of “The Star Gazer,” “Penance” brings viewers back to Chateau Picard and the good admiral’s latest encounter with the enigmatic Q, once again played to perfection by John de Lancie. Q seems a bit different now, with an unusual sense of urgency about him. Clearly, something is wrong, but he’ll never tell, not until his litigants in this phase of the Trial That Never Ends experience an existential epiphany.
Q isn’t the only thing that’s different now. The entire universe has changed. The Confederation of Earth rules the galaxy with an iron fist, and General Jean-Luc Picard is its greatest hero, having subjugated many other races, including the Vulcans, Klingons, Cardassians, and even the Borg. Earth itself is not the Eden it is in the Prime Universe, instead still polluted and exploited with a solar shield to maintain the environment.
This dark new reality is, I hate to say it, almost believable from a present-day perspective. It is chillingly reflective of some of the darkest atrocities against groups of people today in its depiction of the treatment of non-humans on Earth. Picard apparently has Romulan slaves in his home, and Elnor was hunted by the Star Corps (this universe’s version of Starfleet) for the crime of being different.
I had a major Starship Troopers vibe during this episode. From the uniforms of the Confederation military to its insignia, to the Eradication Day ceremony itself, everything felt very fascistic and frightening, and I sense this was intentional. Comparisons to warmongering nations of the past aside, I thought the aesthetic for the Confederation was very effective, being very different from what we’re accustomed to but similar enough that we knew we were seeing an extremely altered universe.
Like Picard, the rest of his team is dropped into a new pair of shoes in this universe. Rios, a colonel in Star Corps, commands La Sirena during what he called “D-Day over Vulcan.” Dr Jurati works in the presidential palace overseeing many artefacts, still Earth’s leading voice in the field of cybernetics. Seven of Nine, or should I say, Annika Hansen, is none other than the President of the Confederation!
The episode ends with a tense sequence during the Eradication Day ceremony which was executed brilliantly. The suspense brought into the scene, even if you knew deep down everything would work out for our heroes, was spellbinding. And it ended with a pretty killer cliffhanger as well.
Two episodes in and I’m very impressed with this season. The entire production has upped their game, which is definitely a statement since Season One was outstanding. The team has clearly accepted some of the criticisms from Season One, making Season Two significantly better in the process. I can’t wait for the next episode!
Picard airs on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci-Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon Prime Video
