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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2-03. 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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1-04. 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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