2-09. Hide and Seek.

The Borg-possessed Jurati and her drones come for La Sirena!

Original Air Date: Apr. 28, 2022. Written by: Matt Okumura, Chris Derrick. Directed by: Michael Weaver.


THE PLOT:

Time has run out. The Borg Queen-possessed Jurati has taken control of La Sirena's transporters and has beamed herself and her Borg-possessed soldiers to the ship. Her intent is to take the ship, destroy the Europa from orbit to prevent the Federation from forming, and then get a 400-year head start on forming a Borg Empire capable of either wiping out or assimilating the fascist Confederation and anyone else who tries to get in her way.

Rios, Teresa, and Teresa's young son barely manage to escape the ship, even as Picard and the rest of his crew beam to the abandoned Chateau Picard. The primitive Borg drones, under the command of Adam Soong, have no intention of allowing Picard anywhere near the ship.

Rios is injured, so he is beamed to Tallinn's apartment with Teresa and her son. Seven and Raffi attempt to approach La Sirena from the side, hoping to avoid the bulk of the drones. It falls to Picard and Tallinn to draw Soong and his forces into the Chateau, where Picard uses the tunnels underneath to play a particularly deadly game of hide and seek...


CHARACTERS:

Picard: "I refuse to accept an outcome that has not yet occurred." Picard draws on his childhood memories of the tunnels under the Chateau to evade Soong's forces. He tries to persuade Soong that the future the Borg Queen has promised him is a horrible one, but he isn't at all surprised when the other man is unmoved.

Jurati: Even if she did a horrible job of guarding the Borg Queen, she at least had the presence of mind to take precautions against the Queen's desire to take the ship. She locked out systems with a security code that she took care not to memorize, transforming La Sirena into "the world's biggest paperweight." She challenges the Borg Queen about her own loneliness and points out that in every timeline, the Borg end up failing.

Seven: A few snatches of her post-Voyager life get filled in. She attempted to enter Starfleet after the ship returned to Earth, only to be rejected for being Borg. Janeway threatened to resign in protest, but Seven chose to withdraw her application and join the Rangers instead. It's unspoken, but she wasn't willing to see Janeway throw away her career on her account. She refuses to allow any illusions about their situation. The enemy soldiers are no longer human; they are Borg. When Raffi starts talking about what they will do after this crisis, she flatly states, "We're not getting out of this."

Capt. Rios: He's been sidelined for pretty much the whole season... and it happens again after he gets injured during the initial attack. Picard beams him to Tallinn's apartment, then locks him out of the transporter so that he can't come back. Rios spends the bulk of the episode trying to break into the system to get back to help. Both Picard and Teresa are right, of course; if he beamed back right at that moment, he would only succeed in getting himself killed. But his stubbornness does pay off at the end.

Elnor: One of Jurati's safeguards was to program an emergency security hologram with the likeness of Elnor. The hologram also seems to have both his personality and memories. He grins when picking up Elnor's old sword to fight the Borg drones, then does his best to console Raffi about Elnor's feelings for her.

Tallinn: Remember the tough, wary Watcher who trained a gun on Picard and told him that she didn't like time travelers? Or the uneasy ally who needled him about Laris? Well, now she's his unapologetic sidekick, tagging along after him like a lost puppy. Or possibly his roaming therapist, given how much time she devotes to trying to get him to reconcile with his childhood... while men with guns are chasing them. Even Troi would have more common sense. (Or, recalling some of Troi's TNG lowlights, possibly not). All told, it's a rather sad decline for an initially fun and interesting character.

Teresa: Is awed at Rios having what amounts to a full emergency room inside his pocket, and confronts him with the effect this has on her: "You have no idea what this is like for me, do you? ...Surrounded by miracles, knowing win or lose, I'll have to let them go?" This does not stop her from bluntly pointing out that the injured Rios is currently not in shape to help anyone. The Rios/Teresa scenes work much better in this episode than last time. I think the writers should have saved their first kiss for here, where the situation makes it feel more natural and less shoehorned-in.

Adam Soong: He was introduced proclaiming, "Imagine, if you will, I am a god." Here, he declares himself to be a captain of industry. He's neither. He's gone from being Q's lackey to being the Borg Queen's; from having the love of a daughter to being alone; and he's so self-absorbed that he's incapable of seeing that his obsession with legacy has all but guaranteed that he won't have one. Brent Spiner is very good, as he has been all season. It's notable that the same actor who made Data so beloved can create a villain so despicable and ultimately pathetic.


THE PICARD SLEDGEHAMMERS:

It might be more accurate to label this one the Jurati and Tallinn sledgehammers. Picard gets a speech, of course, talking about moments in time we wish we could return to - but it's actually fairly effective on its own. Too bad it's flanked by two that are much worse.

Jurati lectures the Borg Queen about embracing uniqueness and even apparent weakness; Tallinn earnestly talks to Picard about how love can be a source of grief, but it's always "a gift." Both of these feel ridiculously heavy handed, and coming so rapidly one after another, the speechifying destroys the momentum in the final Act.

I think this was entirely fixable. Tallinn's should have been dropped entirely, as Patrick Stewart and Orla Brady are more than capable of conveying Picard's acceptance of his past nonverbally. I also think Jurati's attempts to alternately needle and persuade the Borg Queen would have played more convincingly in small interactions spread across the full episode, rather than being compressed into a single monologue.

As it stands, though, the succession of speeches kills the momentum of the final Act - which is a shame, as the episode is generally gripping up to that point.


OF MONSTERS, MEN, AND FLASHBACKS:

Most of the flashbacks of this episode simply re-tell the "young Picard" story that had been told in Monsters, only minus the fairy tale nonsense. Hide and Seek tells it better, not least because this time the flashbacks are actually motivated by the present-day story, as Picard goes through the same tunnels he once went through with his mother.

Nearly all the information given in Monsters is repeated here, only with additional context and an ending. If you missed Monsters entirely, nothing in the flashback plot here would seem at all confusing. This episode, in itself, gives you all the information you need to follow along.

Meaning that, yes, one of the season's weakest episodes was also pure water treading.


OTHER MUSINGS:

For the most part, I quite enjoyed Hide and Seek. Director Michael Weaver does a fine job at keeping the pace moving and the action easily understandable. The script finds time for good character moments for multiple members of the cast - not only Picard, but also Seven, Raffi, and even Rios. The Elnor hologram even allows him to receive some decent material, six full episodes after his death.

As was true of Mercy, this episode builds some honest-to-goodness momentum, and it manages to maintain it even during the flashbacks. Yes, when Tallinn and Picard pause in the tunnels to have a chat, I can't help but snap: "Is this really the best time?" - but it doesn't lose the tension, particularly with Soong finding the secret passage soon after.

The episode ends with a strong final note. It's not quite a cliffhanger. "The Siege of Chateau Picard" is fully resolved here, and the characters aren't in any immediate jeopardy at the end. Instead, we end on the heroes fully resolved in their next course of action, which I think is a lot more effective than, say, having someone pop up and train a gun on them.


OVERALL:

Hide and Seek has its faults. Tallinn has been completely flattened as a character by this point, and scenes with her and Picard talking about his childhood while actively being pursued just... annoy. Worse, a series of speeches badly disrupts the final stretch.

I'd still rate it as a good episode, however. For the bulk of its run, it builds tension and momentum. It offers strong moments to several characters. And it does an excellent job of giving every character something to do, even the ones who have often been sidelined this season.

Had the speeches been reduced or at least better spread out, this might have been one of the season's best. Even as it stands, I'd rate it as solidly above average.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Mercy
Next Episode: Farewell

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2-08. Mercy.

Jurati, possessed by the Borg Queen, attacks Raffi.

Original Air Date: Apr. 21, 2022. Written by: Cindy Appel, Kirsten Beyer. Directed by: Joe Menendez.


THE PLOT:

Picard and Guinan are in the custody of FBI Agent Martin Wells (Jay Karnes). It's not an official arrest. Wells has taken them to a basement in an FBI field office. He has nursed a lifelong obsession with the existence of extraterrestrials, and now he has evidence: surveillance video of Picard beaming onto the street outside Guinan's bar, photos of Picard and his crew infiltrating the gala, Picard's communications badge, and the scornfully true statement that Rios provided to ICE. It's enough, as Wells said, to bring agents who will make Picard and Guinan disappear forever!

Meanwhile, Seven and Raffi continue to track Jurati, who has been taken over by the Borg Queen. The Queen has a plan. She will build off Q's disruption of the Europa mission, enlisting the help - willing or not - of Dr. Adam Soong. Only her end game is not to create a future of mere human fascism. She will use the disrupted timeline to create the foundations for a galactic Borg Empire!


CHARACTERS:

Picard: There's a moment in this episode that showcases exactly what Patrick Stewart brings to this franchise. Picard has to persuade a man who has devoted his entire life to proving that aliens exist. All he has at his disposal are words. Give this same scene, with no changes, to a lesser actor, and it would fall ridiculously flat. Stewart, however, brings the right amounts of authority, empathy, and conviction to the moment that I actually believe it when it happens. 

Jurati: The Borg Queen is in full control... almost. When Raffi and Seven find her, she bats Seven away like a fly and is ready to kill Raffi - only to abruptly let her go before fleeing. As Seven observes: "Mercy is not a Borg quality." Jurati is still fighting the Queen on some level, and she manages in that moment to stop Raffi from being killed. I have no doubt her influence will come into play later.

Raffi: A flashback reveals the reason for her guilt over Elnor's death. He was considering delaying Starfleet Academy for a year to return home. Raffi was already losing Seven and couldn't stand the thought of being completely alone, so she passive/aggressively persuaded him to stay. In its way, her guilt is a kind of arrogance, an assumption that she had more control over Elnor's actions than he did. After all, within the same flashback, he observes how transparent her manipulations really are. Still, this makes sense for who Raffi is.

Seven: She's finally getting a taste of feeling truly human for the first time in her adult life. Her first scene sees her continuing to enjoy the sensation of people just naturally trusting her. Then circumstances force her to think like a Borh again. When Raffi is impressed at her ability to analyze the Queen's actions, Seven responds with bitterness: "You could be just a little less happy that I'm defective." These scenes allow Jeri Ryan, who has been pushed far too much to the background during the midseason, to remind us that she can actually act.

Capt. Rios: His relationship with Teresa doesn't so much move as get shoved forward in a forced scene midway through. Meanwhile, in Picard's strand, we learn that Rios is apparently much stupider than he's generally seemed. He didn't merely troll the ICE agent by telling him he was from the future - he gave details about the Borg Queen. This is like Jurati leaving the Queen unguarded - a generally competent regular suddenly losing their brain in order to advance the plot.

Adam Soong: Remember what I said about him being more sympathetic than other Dr. Soongs? Yeah, forget about that. In the space of this one episode, he makes himself the worst Soong - and given that his competition includes a guy who collaborated in an Augment revolution and another who was happy enough to see all organic life in the galaxy wiped out, that's saying something. The Borg Queen doesn't have to do much to get Soong to agree to help her. She teases him with a future that's better for him but dreadful for the rest of humanity, and he jumps at it. What matters to him is that he's remembered as a hero, with the actual welfare of humanity an absolute irrelevance.

Guinan: Ito Aghayere keeps getting better with each appearance. She quickly takes in the basement that's being used for her and Picard's interrogation and the unplugged camera and realizes that this is not a legitimate arrest. Her reaction to Wells's accusation of being an extra-terrestrial? "This guy is buckets of crazy." As much fun as she is with Picard and Wells, her best scene (and the episode's) comes when she meets Q. She matches John de Lancie's energy beat for beat, making for a memorable encounter.

Q: "We're all trapped in the past." In his scene with Guinan, Q finally reveals at least some of what's driving him. There is some terrific acting from de Lancie as Q moves between his accustomed scorn and sarcasm, a hint of anger, and even reflection and regret. The humor is also still there, such as when he snaps his fingers ineffectually while telling Guinan that he is sincerely trying to vaporize her right now - a bit that's all the funnier because I don't doubt for a second that he's telling the truth.


THOUGHTS:

"I know a haunted man when I see one. The things we hold onto, the pieces of emotional shrapnel that drive us all our lives."
-Picard gets into the head of his captor, FBI Agent Wells.

After a lackluster midseason, Picard finally delivers a good episode again! Mercy offers strong roles for all the regulars. It balances emotional material with plot movement, and it even finds time for a moment of danger when the Borg-possessed Jurati has Raffi literally by the throat.

In my last review, I complained that too many of the season's episodes seemed to be just setting characters up to do things later. Well, they finally start doing things here. Mercy fairly zips along. We get payoffs to Kore Soong (Isa Briones)'s discoveries about her father and Raffi's guilt about Elnor, we learn much more about the Borg Queen's plans and Q's changed situation, and we even get to see how Adam Soong fits in. There's very little dead space, with only the Rios/Teresa scene slowing things down.

I'll admit that I was not happy when Monsters ended with Picard being arrested, which just felt like a rerun of the Episode Three cliffhanger. This pays off much better, though, because it forces Picard to remain still. That leaves him in the right state of mind to process Guinan's revelation about Q, which equally applies to Wells: that people tend to get stuck in the past, wherever they were broken, until their minds find a way to resolve the problem. Picard the character is consistently at his best when he uses his intellect and empathy to solve problems, as is particularly shown by the scene in which he resolves the conflict with Wells simply by being open and honest.

This also creates some thematic unity in what might have been a fractured episode. "We're all trapped in the past." In addition to Wells and to Q, this applies across the various strands: Raffi, guilty over Elnor; Seven, haunted by her past Borg assimilation; Adam Soong, unable to move on from his research; his daughter, whose discoveries are forcing her to reevaluate her entire life; and Jurati, the most isolated of the crew, striving for connection only to have found the worst one possible. In a handful of lines, the script takes all these threads and makes them feel all of a piece.

It all ends with one of the season's most effective cliffhangers, leaving me very ready to see what happens next.


OVERALL:

Mercy is a legitimately good episode, arguably the first such one since Assimilation. It moves quickly, everyone gets something to do, and it all feels of a piece. Even better, there's a sense of the various threads coming together.

I wouldn't say it makes up for the weaknesses of the midseason. Still, this installment finally puts Picard's second season in place to be back on track. The season opened well, after all; and if the remaining two episodes follow through on the successes of this one, then there's a solid chance that the season can close as well as it started.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Monsters
Next Episode: Hide and Seek

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2-03. Assimiliation.

Raffi tends to a dying Elnor.

Original Air Date: Mar. 17, 2022. Written by: Kiley Rossetter, Christopher Monfette. Directed by: Lea Thompson.


THE PLOT:

Picard, his crew, and the Borg Queen beam to the alternate universe's version of La Sirena. Elnor is shot during the escape. Raffi tries to treat his wounds with the meager supplies in sickbay as the others complete the slingshot maneuver to go back to 2024. They reach their destination - but the ship loses power and, without sickbay's biobed to sustain him, Elnor dies.

The Borg Queen is unconscious, and the only clue they have is the Queen's words about a "watcher" in Los Angeles. Raffi, Seven, and Rios beam off the ship to search for non-human and/or non-contemporary signals. Picard and Jurati stay on board to attempt to revive the Queen to get answers. Given her current condition, Jurati can see only one way to repair the damage: to connect with the Queen, risking assimilation!


CHARACTERS:

Picard: He allows Raffi to rail against him, right up to the point that she compares him to Q, an accusation that he firmly rejects. Elnor was practically a surrogate son to him, so I have no doubt that his own grief dwarfs Raffi's current bitterness. Even so, he won't allow himself to feel it right now, when a mission affecting the entire future is at stake. He allows Jurati to meld with the Borg Queen for the same reason. He doesn't want to take such a risk with her life and consciousness - but there's no viable alternative.

Dr. Jurati: Demonstrates surprising authority when laying out the time travel rules for the Away Team: "No hospitals, no authorities, no security checkpoints. Anything that can scan you, it can find the ID implants... from a future that doesn't exist yet." She also doesn't allow Rios to take his weapon, pointing out the damage to the timeline if he were to lose it.

When she volunteers to be connected to the Borg Queen, she shows full faith in Picard to keep her safe. While her higher functions complete the repair, her subconcious talks to Picard and almost immediately reveals that she thinks of him as a father figure. She is afraid of the Queen... but she's also fascinated by her, to a degree that seems likely to be dangerous. Alison Pill is terrific, particularly in the melding scene as Jurati runs through a series of different emotions.

Elnor: Dies after being shot by one of the guards from the alternate timeline. Assuming that it sticks, I have to give points to the Picard creative team. Elnor dies an essentially pointless death, which was what the TNG staff were going for with Tasha Yar. This works much better than her death in Skin of Evil, thanks to the reactions of the others - particularly Raffi, who tries fruitlessly to save him and then spends the rest of the episode in a fury of activity (and fury in general) in response.

Raffi: She clings to the hope that fixing the timeline will result in Elnor's resurrection, filtering out Jurati's response that she doesn't know if that will happen. She is stricken after watching the death of this young man for whom she felt so protective. She lashes out Picard for taking time to save the Borg Queen while Elnor died, declaring her "sharp disappointment in (his) leadership."

Seven of Nine: Finally, for the first time in the series, gets some actual screen time with her love interest! It turns out that they do work together onscreen, though I will continue to insist that their relationship should have been allowed to develop rather than simply being plunked down as Established. Seven makes two attempts to comfort Raffi, first nonverbally and then by offering to talk. Both are rejected. She thinks fast when a 21st century security guard discovers her and Raffi where they aren't supposed to be, and she is astonished when this stranger actually seems to like her. Raffi is less than impressed.

Capt. Rios: Has the misfortune to beam into a, um, gravitationally untenable situation. He ends up with a concussion, and he is taken to a free clinic by well-meaning strangers. Santiago Cabrera gets some nice moments opposite Teresa Ramirez (Sol Rodriguez), a pretty young doctor with a precocious son. His scenes with these two allow him to show a softer side to Rios's character.

Hot Human Earth Doctor of the Week: Teresa seems a bit too idealized. She treats her patients for free, she's observant enough of her young son to keep tabs on his activities even in the midst of a very demanding job, and she's courageous in dealing with the authorities. Should we canonize her now or wait to see how the statue turns out? Fortunately, actress Sol Rodriguez injects an appealing amount of skepticism and humor into her scenes with Rios, which goes a long way toward making Teresa likeable. That said, I really hope the character gets a few flaws or at least blind spots before the season's end.

Borg Queen: During the escape, she assimilates with the ship. She so quickly disposes of their pursuers that I found myself wondering exactly how the alternate universe fascists managed to defeat her in the first place. When Jurati connects to heal her, the Queen probes around her subconscious, manipulating her emotions to try to gain control. Though she's still in a position of physical weakness, her final lines make clear that she is very much a threat.

Q: Is only seen for a few seconds, but those seconds are interesting, as he insists to Picard that "this is the only kind of life you understand" even as the enemy ships take damage. This not only echoes Q's statements from the last episode; it also recalls his very first appearance in Encounter at Farpoint, in which he put humanity on trial for being "a dangerous, savage child race." In Farpoint, as in most of TNG, he was just smug. Now that smugness seems like a thin veneer covering layers of disappointment. At this point, I have no idea what's motivating it - but I don't think he's just "playing games," and I certainly don't think he's insane.


THOUGHTS:

This episode was directed by Lea Thompson. Yes, the 1980s actress who is probably best known for Back to the Future. That seems appropriate, given this episode's focus on time travel. There's even a fair amount of humor, from Rios's catastrophic pratfall to a child mistaking Seven for a superhero. Not to mention Seven's and Raffi's banter in the scene with the security guard.

Given how grim the first half of the episode is, the humor in the back half is extremely welcome. It's also pitched at the right level, providing the viewer a bit of relief without distracting from the emotions Raffi is feeling or the ones that Picard isn't letting himself feel.

One area in which Season Two is excelling so far is in its use of the ensemble. Each of the regulars receives one or two good scenes. The emotional focus is on Raffi, while the story focus remains with Picard, Jurati, and the Borg Queen. But the script also shows Seven's strange sense of comfort with this new setting, and it gives Rios some choice scenes at the clinic. Even Elnor is well-used despite minimal screen time, with his death impacting the others and his last words to Raffi perfectly judged.

The standout moment of the episode is Jurati connecting with the Borg Queen. The lighting is dim and tinged with green, infusing a sense of the mechanical. As the Queen probes Jurati's emotions, she snarls in anger - but she only seems on the verge of truly losing herself when the Queen explores her sadness.

All three actors are superb here, and the scene is well staged and well shot. The camera slowly creeps in on Picard and Jurati at the start, sitting opposite each other with the Queen looming over them in the background. Close-ups of Jurati show her pale skin washed out by the Queen's mechanical green light. Then Jurati speaks through the Queen while the Queen speaks through Jurati, a suitably eerie moment. It ends with a great little button from Jurati - a moment of victory here... but judging from the Queen's reaction, one that will have consequences.


OVERALL:

Assimilation is my favorite episode of the season so far. It balances multiple elements and shifts in tone: action, strong emotion, comedy, and even a moment of horror. It skips between these tones seemingly without effort, and I never felt jarred by any of the transitions.

I'm still skeptical about centering an entire season around a time travel story. Still, with its several fine character moments and excellent use of the ensemble, this episode on its own terms was a joy to watch.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Penance
Next Episode: Watcher

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2-02. Penance.

Q transports Picard to an alternate reality in which he's a bloodthirsty, xenophobic conqueror.

Original Air Date: Mar. 10, 2022. Teleplay by: Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Christopher Monfette. Story by: Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas, Christopher Monfette. Directed by: Douglas Aarniokoski.


THE PLOT:

After activating the self-destruct on The Star Gazer, Jean-Luc Picard is dead. Or at least, he should be.

Instead, he is back at Chateau Picard, and he has company: Q (John DeLancie), who portentously announces that Picard is at "the very end of the road not taken." Q shows him around the chateau as it is now. Picard has robotic servants. The work is still being done by displaced Romulans - slaves taken during the human conquest of Romulus. "General Picard" has a trophy room with the skulls of his enemies, including Gul Dukat, Martok, and Sarek.

It is an alternate reality, one in which the Earth is governed by the warlike and xenophobic "Confederation." Q has transferred all of Picard's crew to this new reality. Seven is Earth's President; Raffi, a security chief; Elnor, a dissident; Rios, a starship captain; and Jurati... well, she's pretty much herself - save, as she notes, for an upgrade in torture devices.

Today is Eradication Day, a holiday celebrating humanity's supremacy through the execution of "dissidents, alien sympathizers, (and) terrorists." Among the condemned is a Borg Queen (Annie Wersching), who is able to sense the changes to the timeline. Under questioning, the queen reveals that this reality resulted from a single change to the past. Picard and company will need to go back in time to set things right - but first they will need to escape the watchful eyes of the Confederation!


CHARACTERS:

Picard: Q gives him a head start in grasping the type of reality he's now in, but he still gathers his composure and plays the part of his Fascist Universe Counterpart faster than any of the others manages. Then again, he has a bit of experience at finding himself suddenly living an unfamiliar life. He shows his leadership qualities as soon as he starts meeting the others, improvising quickly but authoritatively to keep Raffi and Elnor out of trouble, then focusing the group on what needs to be done to return to their own timeline.

Seven of Nine: When she wakes up in the Presidential bedroom without her Borg implants, she runs a series of quick sensory tests to make sure that what she's experiencing is real. She tests pain by burning herself, but the most convincing result is smell: "You can't smell in a dream." She recoils at the sight of the Borg Queen. When it becomes clear that they will need the Queen to help them, she is brutal in confronting her, almost gloating at the "pitiful end to the Great Borg Empire."

Dr. Jurati: Though her circumstances are the least changed, she does the worst job of fitting in. The way she stammers and babbles... Well, let's just say that if the Confederation Magistrate didn't already suspect something was "off," then he certainly did after meeting Jurati. She's more effective when actually working a scientific problem, taking down Confederation defenses so that Rios can beam them all safely away. Even then, she can't quite resist having what feels a lot like a marital dispute mid-crisis: "I would hang up on you right now if it wasn't going to get us all killed."

Raffi/Elnor: They make an entertaining duo, with Raffi playing the part of Elnor's captor. Her story about exactly what intelligence she's hoping to extract keeps changing just a little with each new guard she speaks to. At one point, she uses him as a distraction, allowing a couple of guards to beat him while she accesses their security - only to tell him, "Elnor, they're yours," once she has what she needs, at which point he takes great pleasure in demonstrating his martial skills.

Pompous Earth Bureaucrat of the Week: Jon Jon Briones, father of Sonji actress Isa Briones, is the Magistrate - Seven's husband in this reality. The marriage doesn't appear to be overly burdened by love or affection, and the "dear" he punctuates his sentences with sounds more artificial than anything the androids in the show have ever said. He's a weasel, and it isn't hard for either Seven or Picard to bully him into granting them privacy. That said, he does not appear to be stupid, and his facial expressions show that he senses something not quite right about his wife by the end of their first scene together.

Borg Queen: I'll allow that there are still a few Voyager Borg episodes that I haven't seen. Even so, this is the first time I can recall seeing a Borg Queen in a position of helplessness. Her people have been eradicated, leaving her isolated and alone - and as Seven's early Voyager appearances showed, "alone" isn't something Borg manage well. She is able to sense the timeline disturbances, however, recognizing Seven both as Borg and not and Picard as both "Locutus" and not.

Q: Picard wonders if he's unstable. To me, it looks like he's suppressing rage. He talks about how this world is a result of Picard and/or humanity's own choices. "Show them a world of their own making, and they ask what you've done." Picard, confronted with his counterpart's slaves, protests, "I would never" - and Q cuts him off, sneering at these words as "the luxury of the victors" before taking glee in showing off the alternate Picard's collection of gruesome trophies: the skulls of such adversaries as Martok, Sarek, and Gul Dukat. I bet Sisko wouldn't have minded adorning his office with the last of those...


THOUGHTS:

"You're welcome to remain here, in the body of a madman, in the world of a madman - to attempt, like Macbeth, to wash the blood from your hands. But I assure you, Jean-Luc, it's un-washable."
-Q demands penance from Picard.

After The Star Gazer set up the characters' new places, both professionally and emotionally, it falls to this episode to kick-start the plot. An alternate reality/time travel plot - which makes me a bit nervous. Alternate reality and time travel shenanigans can be fun, and Star Trek has delivered some corkers in both areas. But a full season? I worry that it will get... old.

My reservations about the season aside, Penance does its job well. This is an efficient script. The Picard/Q scene sets up the new universe while at the same time giving both Patrick Stewart and John DeLancie to show that time has not diminished their screen rapport. The next Act establishes the new existences of each of the crew. Then the meat of the episode centers around them having to keep up appearances while finding a way to escape from Eradication Day (which really should have been the title of the episode).


AN UNCREATIVE TIMELINE:

My biggest gripe is that the alternate timeline isn't particularly interesting.

Star Trek has shown plenty of alternate realities before, often with memorable results. Mirror, Mirror was a "pure evil" timeline, but there was still a sense of character relationships and power dynamics, and enough of a sense of a society for future books and spinoff series to revel in. Yesterday's Enterprise presented a changed reality in which all the regulars were recognizably themselves, but were altered by living in a militaristic environment.

Penance presents... "The Fascist Future." And there's really nothing more to it than that. The only thing I could truly tell you about this society is that its xenophobic. There aren't even any memorable guest characters. Seven's husband is the only one whose screen time goes beyond "walk-on," and he's pretty much your standard issue weasel. Aside from Picard himself, I had little sense of how the regulars' alternate timeline personalities differed from their regular ones. Never mind the actual alternate timelines I mentioned above: This episode's society feels less lived in than the deliberately over-the-top "fake history" of Voyager's Living Witness!

None of this makes the episode bad. It's well structured, it moves quickly, and it's never less than entertaining. I just wish its alternate reality had a bit more to it.


OVERALL:

Despite the generic setting, Penance does what it needs to do. It sets up the season arc while at the same time giving the characters an episode-specific situation to overcome. It even ends on a pretty decent cliffhanger.

I am worried that the overarching story seems to be focused on time travel and alternate universes, as such stories are usually best reserved for one or two-parters. On its own terms, though, Penance is... well, it's much like Picard itself. It was good, and I enjoyed it - but I couldn't help but feeling that with a bit more creativity, it could have been better.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: The Star Gazer
Next Episode: Assimilation

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1-08. Broken Pieces.

Zhat Vash recruits undergo The Admonition.

Original Air Date: Mar. 12, 2020. Written by: Michael Chabon. Directed by: Maja Vrvilo.


THE PLOT:

Picard returns to La Sirena to find Jurati unconscious after her drastic nullification of the Romulan tracker she had swallowed. He has little time to absorb the implications. The instant Capt. Rios lays eyes on Soji, he declares that he is done with this mission once Picard is dropped off at Deep Space 12, then disappears into his cabin, leaving his holograms to run the ship.

Rios makes it clear he doesn't want company, but a few careless words from the Navigation Hologram sets off Raffi's patented Conspiracy Radar. Raffi begins questioning each of the holograms in turn. She finds that their memories have been wiped. Still, just enough traces persist to allow her to piece the truth together - and to realize that Rios's trauma is closely linked to their current mission.

Back on the Romulan-controlled Borg Cube, Narissa prepares her forces to attack Soji's homeworld. She has just a few loose ends to tie up first: The Borg drones, the ex-Borg, and Elnor. But Elnor has already sent out a call for help, which arrives in the unexpected form of ex-Borg and current Fenris Ranger Seven of Nine!


CHARACTERS:

Picard: At first he is in denial about Jurati's betrayal. He doesn't stubbornly cling to that denial, however, particularly in the face of the Medical Hologram's evidence that she killed Dr. Maddox; and when Jurati regains consciousness, she is greeted by a stone-faced Picard flatly telling her that she will be surrendered to the authorities when they reach Deep Space 12. Not everything is angst for him this episode: He gets particular pleasure out of calling up Admiral Clancy, who has to interrupt him to admit that he was right and to tell him that he'll have whatever help she can give.

Soji: Continues to struggle with her true nature. A talk with Picard seems to help, as he shares recollections about Data while also telling her that both her past and future are hers to claim. She's helped even more by meeting Jurati, who responds to meeting a real synthetic with enthusiasm. Soji asks very directly if Jurati considers her to be truly alive, and she ends by telling her that she would never give the scientist the opportunity to harm her.

Dr. Jurati: Upon waking up, she ignores Picard's glare long enough to ask if her attempt to neutralize the Romulan tracker worked. She's exhausted by all that has transpired since she was approached by Commander Oh, and she doesn't even try to deny responsibility for her actions. She tells the others about Oh mindmelding with her, and with the added context of this episode we realize that Oh subjected her to The Admonition - the same vision given to prospective members of the Zhat Vash. Oh's conditioning can't stop the longtime cyberneticist from being enthused at meeting Soji, and the two seem to develop a certain rapport at the end of the episode.

Capt: Rios: This episode is a tour-de-force for Santiago Cabrera, who plays not only Rios but also five distinct holograms, each with his own accent and personality. Cabrera has a lot of fun as the various holograms: one seems to have no sense of personal space boundaries, another primly sniffs every line of dialogue, another splays back in his chair while incoherently mumbling responses to questions (prompting an exasperated Raffi to declare, "That's not even a language"). Cabrera's best acting, however, is reserved for Rios's recollection of what happened in the past. As Rios gives the details of the incident that led to his former C. O.'s death, we see both how he is equally haunted and outraged by what happened, even as the final pieces fall into place linking that event to the present-day story.

Raffi: At some point in the last couple episodes, she locked herself out of being able to replicate drugs or alcohol... A major enough character progression that we really should have seen it, rather than learning about it after the fact (perhaps as a button on the previous episode, with Raffi blaming her lack of sobriety for missing the warning signs Jurati was giving off?).  In any case, with no substances to distract and numb her, Raffi leans into the mystery of why Rios has such a stark reaction to Soji. When it becomes clear that the holograms have information, but that it's been wiped and/or buried, she gets to enjoy unraveling the puzzle, something that no doubt appeals to her conspiracy-theorist instincts.

Elnor/Seven: When Seven arrives just in time to save him, Elnor is so overwhelmed at the rescue that he gives her a full hug... which she receives very awkwardly. She hesitates over the morality of using her implants to re-enslave the Borg drones, but Elnor responds with practicality: They need the drones to defeat the Romulans, and she can always release them once they've won. She doesn't think it's that simple, observing that once she's joined with the Collective, she may not wish to release either the drones or herself. When circumstances force Seven's hand, she proceeds anyway - and becomes so completely Borg that Elnor asks if she plans to assimilate him. He does not sound resistant to the idea, which is somewhat concerning - Does he so crave a place to belong that he would willingly sacrifice his individuality?

Narissa: The episode opens, as most of them have, in the past, just prior to the attack on Mars. This time, Narissa is the focus of the flashback. We see her joining the Zhat Vash, undergoing The Admonition alongside her aunt - who turns out to be Ramdha (Rebecca Wisocky), the very Romulan mythology expert Soji had interviewed. Oh (Tamlyn Tomita) presides over the ritual, warning the participants that the vision would drive some of them mad. She undersells the experience, which drives everyone mad with one exception: Narissa. The question of the day: Did Narissa become a murderous psychopath because of the vision, or did she survive the vision because she already was so damaged? The present day story pauses to show that Narissa genuinely cares for her aunt and to give us additional backstory about the Borg Cube... before then returning her to her usual role as a gleefully murderous villain.


THOUGHTS:

Broken Pieces is an appropriate title for this episode. So many of the characters are broken in one way or another. The ex-Borg, including Narissa's aunt, are broken: the other ex-Borg, by their assimilation; Ramdha, by her exposure to The Admonition. Commodore Oh "broke" Jurati with that same vision; and though Jurati seems to be regaining her sense of self, particularly in her scene with Soji, she now is left to wrestle with the guilt over her actions.

Rios is also broken. He's been left traumatized by the incident that led to the death of a captain he considered as a father figure, and his Starfleet career was destroyed by that same event. To an extent, Rios as a full person is represented by his holograms: one is outgoing, probably as he was before the incident; another is an intellectual, not unlike the Rios who reads existentialist literature; another is laid-back to a fault... all of them basically different facets of Rios - or who Rios would be, had he not been shattered so many years ago.

The thematic unity is well-done, which helps to carry an episode that is primarily concerned with exposition. The opening fills in the backstory behind the Zhat Vash and their crusade against synthetics. The middle is dominated by Raffi's search to learn about the incident that destroyed Rios, and how it is tied to Soji. The final scenes tie the disparate bits of information together, ending with a direct lead-in to the next episode. We get a bit of action in the Elnor/Seven subplot, but for the most part this is the episode that gets all that pesky information out of the way, so that the two-part finale is (hopefully) not weighed down by it.

This much exposition, much of it delivered via monologue, could be dramatically inert, if not outright dull. Writer Michael Chabon mostly makes it work by structuring it well. Rios doesn't simply recite his backstory upon seeing Soji; he withdraws, prompting Raffi to spend much of the episode hunting for information before finally confronting him. Rios's backstory becomes an intriguing mystery, and even the source of a bit of light humor in the scenes with the holograms, before the emotional revelation comes.

The emotion is the other thing that makes it work. The backstory isn't just dry exposition: It's an event that effects our regulars, and we see the reactions of Rios, Picard, Jurati, and Soji.


OVERALL:

Though mostly a talky episode, Broken Pieces fills in a lot of needed backstory. To an extent, I wonder if some of this couldn't have been parceled out earlier. Still, Michael Chabon's script does a good job of structuring the exposition in an engaging manner. It may be The Exposition Episode before the grand finale, but to its credit it only occasionally feels like it.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Nepenthe
Next Episode: Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1

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1-06. The Impossible Box.

Narek guides Soji through a forbidden ritual.

Original Air Date: Feb. 27, 2020. Written by: Nick Zayas. Directed by: Maja Vrvilo.


THE PLOT:

Bruce Maddox is dead... but not before telling Picard that Soji is on the Artifact, working for the Borg Reclamation Project. That means a new course: into Romulan territory, in violation of the treaty between the Romulans and the Federation. This doesn't worry Picard, who has a plan to sidestep that. But voluntarily going to a Borg Cube brings back the worst memories of his life.

On the cube, Soji is having nightmares. A few questions from Narek lead her to question her own past and memories. Narek offers a solution in the form of the Zhal Makh, a Romulan meditation ritual that is forbidden to outsiders. Soji feels just desperate and vulnerable enough to agree, not realizing that she could be walking into a trap.


CHARACTERS:

Picard: Even the prospect of returning to a Borg cube puts him on edge, and when he beams over, he all but collapses at the memories of being transformed into Locutus of Borg. He is impressed by the work the Reclamation Project is doing under Hugh's direction, amazed to see the Borg assimilation reversed on such a scale. When Hugh protests that the results are far from ideal, Picard dismisses that: "What you're doing is good, Hugh. There's no need for it to be perfect."

Soji: Narek's questions already have planted doubts, which may well be what prompted her nightmares in the first place. When Narek tells her that the logs of her calls to her mother all last a mere 70 seconds, she investigates on her own, scanning her old photos and childhood mementos. She is understandably shocked when every item reads as "37 months old." All of this leaves her vulnerable to Narek's suggestions, even though she still doesn't truly trust him.

Dr. Jurati: "I have a superpower: I can sense mistakes while I'm making them." Jurati has been left shaken by Maddox's death. She seeks comfort by initiating an affair with Capt. Rios, even though she pauses to label this a mistake before going forward with it. She continues to be refreshingly eager to avoid danger: She hates space travel, in part because space "wants to kill you," and she is openly relieved when Picard is the only one allowed to beam over to the cube.

Narek: The episode's title refers in part to Narek's prized possession: a puzzle box that his sister dismisses as a "toy." Narek clarifies that it's a tool that helps him focus, as solving the box requires patience. He compares the box to Soji: "The information is all in there... The key to opening (the box) is taking the time to understand what's keeping it closed." Despite his cold words, it's obvious that he's emotionally attached to Soji. When his trap for her finally snaps shut, his face is the very picture of anguish.

Elnor: The sheltered Romulan is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. Some comedy is wrung from his blunt assessments of both Picard and Jurati, with him worrying that he was "in-butting" after seeing their reactions. He is highly observant and is the first to notice that Jurati is feeling haunted. His pledge to Picard makes him resist staying on the ship, and Picard has to firmly order him to stay behind before he will agree.

Raffi: Her son's rejection sees her returning to her worst habits. She's drinking almost constantly, and she apparently picked up some of her favorite recreational drug while on Freecloud, leaving her in a bad state. Rios acts as a friend, making sure to be there for her without trying to push her or lecture her. To her credit, she pulls herself together long enough to prod a Starfleet contact into getting Picard authorized for a visit to the Artifact - but even this moment of usefulness comes at a price, as the old friend she calls tells her to never call again, leaving her shaken as she staggers off the bridge.

Hugh: He makes sure to greet Picard on beam-in, recognizing how traumatic this visit will be for the former Starfleet officer. Though he appreciates Picard's praise for his work, he isn't entirely happy with the way the Romulans are running the project. His team may be able to deprogram the Borg drones, but the Romulans won't allow the ex-Borg to leave, leading him to complain that they have exchanged slavery to the Borg for slavery to the Romulans. It's unspoken but obvious that he accepted the post to make sure no actual abuses take place. He is unsurprised when Picard asks about Soji, not least because he has observed Narek's interest in her and has already realized that she is in trouble.


THOUGHTS:

I have been waiting for this.

So far I've been enjoying Picard. Episode by episode, it's been consistently decent, consistently enjoyably, consistently fine. Just fine. I've found something to enjoy in every episode; but of the first five installments, only Map and Legends left me genuinely gripped.  The rest have left me generally entertained, but not much more than that.

The Impossible Box finally delivers. Part of the reason, I think, is that it runs 54 minutes - about ten minutes longer than most episodes - giving the story time to breathe. Though it's a major arc episode, Nick Zayas's script focuses heavily on the characters. Every one of the regulars receives at least one good scene, and the characters feel like complete, flawed, messy human beings.

There are a number of strong moments. The scene in which Raffi gains Picard's authorization is an old-fashioned bit designed to make you laugh and smile at the victory... until Raffi gets a verbal slap as an old friend tells her never to call again. I found the scene of Picard's traumatic arrival on the Borg to be over-the-top, but it's thankfully a brief moment; and the tone instantly corrects when Hugh arrives. This single misjudged scene is then followed by a quite good one, as Hugh takes time to show off the work that is being done to reclaim the ex-Borg. This allows Picard to recognize that his former tormenters are themselves victims, and the work Hugh is doing to try to save them seems to bring Picard a measure of peace.

The best scene is the major set piece, as Narek takes Soji through the Zhal Makh. This is staged as Soji taking a physical journey to match her emotional one. Her path is marked out by candles, with her slowly moving along this path as she mentally relives her nightmare. When her internal defenses kick in to try to make her stop, Narek is ready. He is soft and affectionate in his manner, but his every breath is spent urging her to search for the answers that he needs as much as she does, even though doing this causes him genuine emotional pain. In short, the scene is an encapsulation of their entire relationship.

It ends with an effective action sequence, with its final fade-out clearly a direct lead-in to the next episode. As we go to black in mid-confrontation, a final line is spoken, followed by the sounds of combat. Given the last time we heard that line, there's not much doubt about what happens next... but the execution is perfectly judged, as much for the gap between dialogue and sound effects as for the actual writing.

As the end credits started to roll, I had to restrain myself from moving onto the next episode - marking only the second time that an episode has left me with that reaction.


OVERALL:

The Impossible Box is easily the best episode of Picard up to this point. An extra ten minutes of running time gives it space to breathe. Every one of the regulars receives at least one good moment, and the script doesn't so much balance character and plot advancement as intertwine them, with the big story scenes also being big character scenes.

I'm not quite awarding full marks; I didn't care for the overdone moment when Picard arrived on the Cube, which led me to wonder how he was even able to function during other post-Best of Both Worlds encounters with the Borg. Still, this was an otherwise terrific episode, and I'm hoping it marks a turning point in a series that, while perfectly entertaining, has until this point mostly fallen short of its potential.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Stardust City Rag
Next Episode: Nepenthe

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1-04. Absolute Candor.

Picard solicits the aid of Elnor (Evan Evagora), who was trained by a Romulan warrior sect.

Original Air Date: Feb. 13, 2020. Written by: Michael Chabon. Directed by: Jonathan Frakes.


THE PLOT:

Picard takes a detour to Vashti. During the Romulan evacuation, Vashti was the planet where refugees were housed to await permanent relocation. After the synthetic uprising, the evacuation was abandoned, as were the refugees... leaving Vashti to degenerate into a crime-riddled slum.

Picard tries to enlist the aid of an old friend: Zani (Amirah Vann) of the Qowat Milat, an order of Romulan warrior nuns who believe in "absolute candor" - always speaking what they are thinking and feeling. Years ago, Picard had befriended Zani's ward, a refugee boy named Elnor (Evan Evagora). Now a young man, Elnor harbors resentment at Picard's abandonment of him. Zani requests Picard take Elnor with him on his mission, assuming Elnor can overcome his anger long enough to agree.

Meanwhile, Soji searches for answers about what happened to the Romulan ship assimilated by the Borg. Narek indicates that he may be able to get those answers.  Soji, however, finds herself increasingly wary of her lover's secrets, even as his information leads her to begin doubting herself.


CHARACTERS:

Picard: Goes to Vashti for two reasons. The first is practical: He knows that he and his ramshackle crew are up against dangerous forces, and having a trained Romulan warrior on his side will be a benefit. The second, and more important to him, is emotional: He feels deep guilt at his failure to complete the evacuation. At the time, he solely blamed Starfleet, telling Raffi that it was impossible to evacuate everyone without Starfleet support. Now he blames himself for not attempting to do something more, acknowledging to Zani that even though he couldn't save everyone, he should have done everything in his power to do more.

Soji: Her conversation with Ramdha has left her feeling driven to understand more. We first see her watching an old interview with Ramdha, from before the Borg, in which she described the mythological significance of "The Destroyer" - the name she applied to Soji. When Narek appears, seemingly out of nowhere, Soji expresses suspicion about how he always seems to know where she is or what she is doing. She remains drawn to him, as we see at the end of a sequence in which they playfully evade security sensors only to fall, laughing, into each others' arms, but she doesn't trust him.

Capt. Rios: Though he seems to be the Star Trek version of Han Solo, the jaded mercenary pilot with the beat up but highly maneuverable old ship, there are clearly other sides to him. When Jurati catches him on his down time, he is doing some light reading: a (paper) book about the implications of man's awareness of his inevitable death. He seems to instinctively defer to Picard, but he still bristles when Picard snaps orders before he does.

Dr. Jurati: Now that the mission is underway, Jurati takes on the role of Audience Surrogate, voicing the observations that most of us would have in the same situation. She finds space travel boring, because there's really nothing to do until they reach their destination. When Picard and Raffi describe the Romulan warrior nuns, she can't help but grin about such an Order actually existing. Even so, she opines that the Order's "Way of Absolute Candor sound potentially annoying."

Elnor: Evan Evagoria debuts as Elnor, whom I sincerely hope is the last of the series' "new regular" introductions. As a child, he is enthusiastic, swiping fruit from the local market, begging Picard to read to him, and clearly engaging in some serious hero worship toward the Starfleet admiral. 14 years later, that hero worship has turned into bitter resentment. When Picard asks for his aid, he snits that the old man has only come to him now that he can be useful, and his first inclination is to turn him down flat. It's no spoiler to say that he changes his mind, in a scene that demonstrates both his combat skills and his lack of restraint in a single blow.

Narek: He plants "a seed of doubt" in Soji, telling her that despite her memory of traveling on the Ellison to the Beta Quadrant (where the Borg Cube is located), her name does not appear on that ship's manifest. When Soji demands to know what game he's playing, he replies honestly by his standards: "Feeding an insatiable curiosity." His sister later observes that his obsession with Soji makes sense, given that he's been studying androids for his entire life.


THOUGHTS:

Before I discuss the episode proper, one quick complaint. Absolute Candor is the second Picard episode in which a character has dropped an "f" bomb, seemingly for no reason other than to show that they can. I'm happy to see modern production values and storytelling techniques in use in this show; I don't want new Star Trek to look and feel exactly like old Star Trek. But for all that... the "f" word feels out of place to me in Star Trek. It doesn't offend - I just find it jarring, and it takes me momentarily out of the episode.

That aside, I enjoyed Absolute Candor. Not least because, while it's still very much a stage setting episode, it is the first installment to really have its own individual focus: namely, Picard's return to Vashti, and the guilt he feels as a result.

"A promise is a prison," Zani intones early in the episode, during Picard's previous visit to Vashti. We open (once again) 14 years in the past, with Admiral Picard dropping in on the Romulan refugees. He is greeted as a hero, and he isn't shy about playing the part as he makes promises about Starfleet's support. His stay is cut short by news of the synthetic uprising. When Zani asks what impact this will have on their efforts, Picard makes one last promise: That all will go ahead as planned. It's a promise he won't be able to keep.

His return to Vashti shows how far the planet has fallen. It's physically the same, though the golden lighting of the opening is replaced by a flat, ugly visual aesthetic for the present. The main difference, however, is in the residents. When Picard beams down and greets the people on the streets, they don't reply. Most don't even look at him; those who do, stare in a way that's decidedly unfriendly. And establishments now are marked with signs reading: "Romulans only," underscoring inter-species tensions that had not been there previously.

This change is a direct result of Starfleet pulling back their support. The evacuation was called off, and Vashti was left to its own devices. Picard feels instant guilt. He may have argued against Starfleet's decision. But after Starfleet decided, he... did nothing. As he admits to Zani: "I made the perfect the enemy of the good."

That the episode is focused around Vashti, and Picard's emotional ties to the planet, helps it to feel more like a full episode than like just another chapter. The individual story - Picard's return to Vashti and his recruitment of Elnor - is simple, but it's effectively done, all the more so for the contrasts between past and present: The vibrant Vashti becomes a slum; the grateful residents become resentful inmates; and the confident Picard becomes a regretful old man. Patrick Stewart is particularly good here, conveying Picard's guilt without overplaying it or allowing it to compromise his basic dignity.

The episode ends with a crowd-pleasing appearance that would have been a nice surprise... if only the opening credits hadn't spoiled it. Generally, other shows have handled such appearances by saving the actor's credit for the end titles, which is what should have happened here. Instead, when the crew of La Sirena begins talking about a mysterious pilot, we're several steps ahead regarding that pilot's identity. A minor missed opportunity, but I would have much rather been surprised.


OVERALL:

Absolute Candor gets a boost by actually feeling like an episode in itself rather than just a building block. I'm still waiting for Star Trek: Picard to finish stage setting and get on with the play... but the show is keeping me engaged so far, and I found this a solidly enjoyable installment.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The End Is the Beginning
Next Episode: Stardust City Rag

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