europa mission star trek

Renée Picard explained: Star Trek just fixed a canon problem, 28 years later

In Star Trek: Picard , the history of space exploration — and Jean-Luc’s lineage — is finally starting to make sense.

In Star Trek: Nemesis , when Jean-Luc Picard’s clone Shinzon (Tom Hardy) asked him if the Picard family had “always been explorers,” Jean-Luc dodged the question by saying, “I was the first Picard to leave our solar system.” But now, in Picard Season 2 , we’ve discovered an unexpected branch of Jean-Luc’s family tree that finally addresses one very old gap in the Trek timeline. Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 5, “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Tallinn (Orla Brady) and Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) discuss Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell), a 21st-century astronaut.

Who is Renée Picard?

As revealed in the Picard episode “Fly Me to the Moon,” Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell) is Jean-Luc Picard’s ancestor, a French astronaut born in 1996 who’s slated to fly on a spaceflight called the Europa Mission aboard a ship dubbed Shango . Presumably, the mission is (or was) designed to explore Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. However, Jean-Luc later reveals that the only historical information about the mission available indicates a big moment on a different Jovian moon; Io.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE TIME-TRAVEL MOVIE? Click here to help us rank all the ones on Netflix .

“All that’s known about Renée is that she discovered a microorganism on Io that she believed was sentient,” Picard tells his time-traveling crew . He also says that Renée “convinced the mission commander to bring it back to Earth.”

Within the context of the episode, we have to assume that Picard is getting this from half-remembered history from his futuristic vantagepoint. He mentions that the history of the 21st century is incomplete, which checks out with previous Star Trek canon. In the TOS episode “Space Seed” Spock implied that pretty much everything post-1990s was spotty, saying “Records of that period are fragmentary.”

Family history appears spotty too, since Jean-Luc seems only vaguely aware of this Renée Picard and her exact relationship to him.

Renée Picard trains for the Europa Mission.

How does Renée impact the Star Trek timeline?

Although Jean-Luc and the crew of the La Sirena are assuming that Renée is supposed to be on this mission, like in many classic Star Trek time travel stories we don’t actually know what she’s “supposed” to do to preserve the “correct” timeline. Is she a space exploration hero? Or did she make a mistake? The line about a possibly sentient microorganism sounds a bit ominous , but we also know that Earth doesn’t make first contact with sentient aliens until 2063 , when they meet the Vulcans.

The fuzziness of Renée’s role in the divergent timelines isn’t resolved in Episode 5, and could be the source of massive twists in the episodes to come. Even Rios (Santiago Cabrera) is confused. “You’re saying this great aunt of yours is single-handedly responsible for preventing our future from becoming a xenophobic tyranny. How?”

Jean-Luc and Tallinn (Orla Brady) assume that because Q (John de Lancie) is trying to convince Renée not to go on the mission, then clearly she’s supposed to go. But, at this point in this episode, historical records of the time period are incomplete.

Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Picard (Patrick Stewart) go through his family album.

Picard’s ancestors as canonical space explorers

For some Trekkies, the existence of Renée Picard might seem like a massive retcon, and Jean-Luc only having vague knowledge of her is odd. However, although Jean-Luc made Shinzon think he was a big-time family game-changer, in Star Trek Generations Jean-Luc told Troi (Marina Sirtis) about how his parents always told him about the “family line.” This included, “The Picard who fought at Trafalgar. The Picard who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. The Picards who settled the first Martian colony.”

This means that in 1994, Trek canon established that more than one Picard settled the first Martian colony. Within the Star Trek timeline, we don’t actually know if the first Martian colony happens pre-First Contact (2063) or after. Either way, the existence of Renée Picard seems to connect to that small detail. Generations told us that the Picard family was involved in “early” space travel, and now we have our first link to that time period.

Whether Renée’s mission in Picard Season 2 is a success is still in question. But, in the larger Star Trek timeline, the mere existence of Renée fixes a gap in the Trek canon that’s existed for 28 years. Jean-Luc Picard does come from a family of space explorers. He said it in Generations , and now, in Picard Season 2, we’re seeing what that means.

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 airs new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 10 “Farewell” Review

In Star Trek: Picard ’s season two finale, our major questions are answered within a confident episode that practices some well-worn finale trends to mostly satisfying effect.  

Having lost Agnes Jurati ( Alison Pill ) and La Sirena to the Borgified Jurati’s quest to create a new collective, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and his crew fight the clock to prevent Adam Soong ( Brent Spiner ) from interfering with Renee Picard’s ( Penelope Mitchell ) vital mission to Europa.

Tallinn ( Orla Brady ) determines the best way to help Renee is to go to the launch site and ensure her continued survival. After all, the departing words of the Borg Queen asserted that one Renee must live and another must die. Tallinn thinks this means she will ultimately have to sacrifice her own life if it means saving Renee’s, but Picard takes issue with that assessment and ultimately follows Tallinn through her transporter to the Europa mission’s launch site.

At the site, Soong is trying to gain access to the room where Renee is waiting, alone, for launch, using his financial influence and a bit of aggressive negotiation to get his way past the mission’s organizers. Tallinn, through a bit of costume work, is successful at that goal first and comes face-to-face with Renee. This moment is a profound one for Tallinn, as she has been watching over Renee for the younger woman’s entire life, and now her watch is coming to an end if one believes Tallinn’s assertion that she will sacrifice her own life.

Tallinn spills the beans to Renee about her life being in danger and devises a simple plan to foil Soong’s plans. Predictably, Tallinn’s handy camouflage technology – the tech she uses to hide her Romulan ears as seen in “Monsters” – allows her to assume Renee’s features and adequately fool Soong. When Soong thinks he has poisoned Renee and leaves her for dead, he actually poisoned Tallinn. The dying Romulan makes her way to Picard for her final breaths as the pair watches the Europa mission take off successfully.

Not knowing that Soong would be at the launch site, Cristóbal Rios ( Santiago Cabrera), Raffaela Musiker ( Michelle Hurd ) and Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan )beam to Soong’s office to try and stop him. He isn’t there, but his backup plan is: a series of explosive drones that are programmed to intercept and stop the launching rocket. Thanks to some ingenuity by Raffi and expert piloting skills by Rios, the drones are stopped.

Our major complaint about this episode is that this little side quest is as cut-and-dry as it sounds.  Honestly, this episode could have gone without this drone complication, as it just seems like a way to find something for the aforementioned trio to do while more important things are happening elsewhere, and we must ask what does it add to the episode? A chance for Rios to show off his unrealistically adroit drone piloting skills? To put it another way, nothing of consequence would change if this sequence was removed from the episode.

“Absolve yourself. Or the only life left unsaved will be your own.” A dying Tallinn to Picard

In any case, the entire crew (sans Tallinn) reunite back at Chateau Picard, safe in the knowledge that their mission to ensure the launch of the Europa mission was successful – but also knowing they are stuck in 2024. In a profound moment for Picard, he places the skeleton key, the one he found during the battle for the Picard estate, back to the place where young Picard ultimately finds it and uses it to unlock the door to his mother’s room. Consider this: in this moment, the elder Picard has the option to try and prevent that horrible loss of life from happening – perhaps by hiding the key somewhere else and thus changing the course of history – but he resolves himself and chooses to let history run its course. What a brave and selfless act.

This act does raise some questions, however. Picard indeed returns the key to the place he found it the night his mother took her life. But earlier in the season, Picard noted how that skeleton key migrated all around the house when he was growing up, so the reasoning for placing the key where he did loses a bit of rationality. It isn’t guaranteed the key will be behind that brick when that fateful night comes. In any case, the symbolism is there.

As this is such an important moment for Picard, we wish this scene played out a bit more. As it is, we see Picard reflect only briefly on the momentous act of returning the key. Alas, the moment comes and goes, but this isn’t even the most important scene to play out in the chateau, as Picard finds Q waiting for him in the observatory. How or when Q got there is anybody’s guess. Finally, the pair have a chance to talk about the season’s events, and this exchange turns out to be the most remarkable part of the episode.

Q praises Picard for returning the key to its resting place instead of destroying it. Picard’s question to Q is: why this trial? And moreover, why Q’s interest in Picard at all? Q admits he is dying, something Picard already gathered based on their previous interactions. But beyond just dying, Q is dying alone , with no one to be with him in his final days. In a remarkable act of compassion, Q wanted to avoid that same fate for Picard, as the admiral was always resistant to forming relationships thanks to the emotional baggage his childhood caused. So, Q’s goal all along was the make Picard see how letting go of that baggage is vital – but of course, he couldn’t just tell Picard that; the man had to experience the journey, with all the trials and tribulations that came with it.

“Humans. Your griefs, your pains, fix you to moments in the past long gone. You’re like butterflies with your wings pinned. My old friend… forever the boy who with the errant turn of a skeleton key broke the universe in his own heart. No more. You are now unshackled from the past.” – Q to Picard

Yes, this is a touching moment and a remarkable conclusion to a rivalry that began more than 30 years ago. But Q has one last surprise in store for Picard: he can bring the admiral and his crew back to the future, but at the cost of his remaining life force. This is a slightly jarring promise; whereas we were led to believe Q had lost his powers entirely, he actually is merely “weakened” and still possesses substantial god-like abilities. In their final farewell, Picard asserts to the dying being that he isn’t actually dying alone, and hugs him. Q’s last words to Picard are the same parting words he said to the then-captain in “All Good Things”: “See you… out there.”

Thus ends Q’s foreseeable involvement in Star Trek , and we must say his final plan – his final trial – for Picard was quintessential Q. Even though his methods appeared more sinister than usual, his message to Picard about letting go of emotional baggage is an excellent sentiment for the audience . Who among us can’t take Q’s lesson to heart?

We have to wonder: when did Picard pass Q’s trial, the trial that began in “Encounter at Fairpoint” to prove that humanity is not a savage race? Was it when Picard returned the key to its resting place, thus ensuring his pained childhood still happens (in which case our aforementioned critique about that scene is more valid)? Q does say “bravo” when Picard does this. Or was the trial over when Picard hugged Q, as the admiral showed compassion for a superior being even in the aftermath of such sacrifice and hardship? Or perhaps the trial really does never end? This answer will likely be debated for some time to come.

In any case, Picard and crew (sans Rios, who predictably opts to stay in 2024) are snapped back to the bridge of the Stargazer , where they face, once again, a Borg entity trying to get into the ship’s systems. Our heroes are wiser about what is going on, though, and they know who the person is inside the Borg mask: Jurati. There’s a good reason she is trying to take over the Stargazer and other ships in the Federation fleet: a transwarp portal of some kind is opening nearby, and only the combined strength of the fleet’s shields can stop a burst of energy from wreaking havoc on the entire quadrant. Interestingly, Jurati, for all the knowledge she has amassed in her travels, does not know who is opening the portal, but the fleet springs into action anyway.

Picard recognizes that in Rios’ absence, Seven, the ex-Borg, is the most qualified person to captain the Stargazer in this moment, and grants her a battlefield commission. Thus, Seven suddenly gets the Starfleet commission she wanted ever since returning from the Delta Quadrant. Placing her trust in the Borgified Jurati, Seven orders the fleet to follow Jurati’s lead and block the energy discharge from the portal. The move is successful, leaving a massive gateway in space needing to be guarded against whatever was trying to get through. Jurati, asking for provisional membership in the Federation, offers the massive Borg ship to guard the gateway.

So, the major question left from this finale involves this mysterious gateway. Who made it, and why? Jurati calls it “a piece of the puzzle whose final image is unclear, but is tied to a threat.” That’s pretty vague. In an episode that answers all the season’s remaining questions, this thread is peculiar. Is there a plan in season three for this gateway? We’ll put money on us seeing this portal again in some way.

With the day saved, our heroes return to 10 Forward on Earth, where Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ) apologizes for not being able to tell Picard sooner about the events witnessed in this season, and thanks the older man for “setting her straight” back in that downtrodden part of her life. She also explains what happened to Rios, Teresa Ramirez ( Sol Rodriguez ), and her son, Ricardo ( Steve Gutierrez ) as they lived the rest of their lives in the 21 st century. The two adults headed their own medical movement, Mariposas, which is Spanish for “butterflies,” delivering goods to people who needed them. The name of their company is a neat full-circle reference to the butterfly imagery we’ve seen the entire season.  

More importantly, Ricardo grew into a person of great intellect and leadership. He was able to utilize the microorganism brought back from Europa by Renee to clean the Earth of its pollution and climate change-related environmental damage. While it’s a bit convenient that Ricardo of all people was the one to do this, it’s certainly a happy ending for the trio and helps explain why Renee’s mission was so important to history.

Picard isn’t quite done with the aftermath of his adventure, as he learned a valuable lesson from Q and opts to take advantage of it. He returns to Chateau Picard, where Laris ( Orla Brady ) is actually getting ready to leave until Picard makes the move he couldn’t make back in the season premiere. The episode ends with a strong hint that the two are striking up a relationship. Call us crazy, but knowing about this burgeoning relationship now, is it possible the paper Picard is writing on in the season three cast announcement is a wedding invitation?

While we appreciate the tone this season ends on, we have to say the last shot of the episode – the camera pulling back from Picard and Laris to the sky above the chateau – is jarring. It appears to be a completely CGI shot (besides the actors) of iffy quality, and the room Picard and Laris were standing in just seconds before was not the same room the last shot shows. It’s a strange continuity break that takes away from the tone the episode’s final moments are trying to present. So, in this way, Picard did not stick its season two landing.  

Let’s touch on how this season left two other characters: Adam Soong and Kore ( Isa Briones ). Remember, Kore had stormed out of her father’s house in “ Mercy ” when she learned she was just another of her father’s vain experiments. Well, she has some retribution in store for Adam. Working from a library, Kore hacks into her father’s computer using a Microsoft HoloLens and deletes everything on it – presumably his entire life’s work. Adam notices this as it’s happening, and understandably is distraught. With his work gone, and nothing left to lose, Adam immediately takes out an all-too-conveniently placed file folder with an ominous name from his desk: Project Khan.

Of course, this name should perk up the ears of any Star Trek fan. Khan was a major villain in The Original Series episode “Space Seed’ and the TOS movie that bears his name. By showing Soong with this folder, what this episode is seemingly implying is that Adam is responsible, in some way, for Khan when the genetically altered villain was rising to power in the 1990s amid the Eugenics Wars . The folder Soong takes out is a “confidential funding report” dated June 7, 1996. This could help explain why Soong’s reputation was already damaged when we first meet him in “ Fly Me to the Moon .” We don’t think we’ll necessarily find out what Soong is planning by returning to his previous work on Khan, but the tease is exciting. And continuing a theme revisited over this season, this episode helps shed some light on a rarely discussed topic in Star Trek lore.

And speaking of shedding some light on Star Trek lore, we learn a bit more about the Watchers, the people like Tallinn who are assigned to protect and observe certain individuals or species across the galaxy to ensure their survival and success. In a scene that would have made a great post-credits tease if Star Trek did such things, Kore, after nuking her father’s work, gets a mysterious message that tells her to come to a park to meet someone.

When she gets there, who happens to meet her? Wesley Crusher ( Wil Wheaton ). Talk about an out-of-left-field cameo. Wesley explains that he is a Traveler (a storyline described over a few The Next Generation episodes) and that the Travelers are the ones who dispatch Watchers and help keep the tapestry of the universe from unraveling. This is a welcome reveal, as knowing who sends Watchers around the galaxy has always been a point of interest ever since we met Gary Seven in “Assignment: Earth” back in 1968.

Wesley has taken in interest in Kore, although the reason why isn’t exactly clear, and it’s for this reason this cameo doesn’t exactly work for us. Kore is a person who has never felt safe anywhere thanks to her medical condition, and that mindset apparently lends itself well to being a Traveler, but surely there are plenty of other people who also don’t feel safe in their lives. What makes Kore so special?

Wesley invites her to join the club, and she agrees. Like the reveal of Soong’s work on Khan, we don’t think Kore’s involvement with the Travelers will be elaborated on in future Picard episodes; rather, this conclusion serves two purposes: 1) it’s a happy ending for someone who suffered a great deal of emotional trauma thanks to her father, and 2) in typical season finale style, it’s an opportunity to shock the audience with a surprise cameo.

As a season finale, “Farewell” certainly does the job. It adequately answers just about all of our remaining questions, questions that the show started asking in the season premiere. With that in mind, kudos to this season’s behind-the-scenes architects for crafting a story that offered both intense interpersonal conflicts and wider galactic-scale storytelling. One last remaining question we have is what exactly was afflicting Q. How or why a seemingly omnipotent and immortal being started dying is curious, but perhaps this answer is best left to mystery. After all, the nature of the Q is mysterious unto itself.

“Farewell” is also a prime example of this season of Picard taking stock of Star Trek lore and exploring it where it could. In just this episode alone, we gain some small measure of insight into the Travelers, Watchers, and Khan; elsewhere in the season, we saw references to pre-First Contact Vulcan observers, the return of the Stargazer in a way that was thematically important to Picard’s life, some vital details of the Q-El-Aurien conflict, and a million other small references that show Picard ’s producers clearly know their stuff. This alone made this season of Picard fascinating to watch.

More importantly, however, this season gave us incredible insight into Jean-Luc Picard himself. Thanks to episodes like “Monsters” and “Mercy,” we can never look at the character the same way again, which is a pretty cool experience after watching Jean-Luc Picard for more than 30 years. While the pacing of this season wasn’t always consistent, and there were some questionable narrative decisions that took us out of the immersion from time to time, we’re thankful Picard is as retrospective as it was.

The adventures of Picard certainly aren’t over yet, and we’re amazingly curious to see what season three brings to the table besides the promise of a full-fledged, season-long The Next Generation reunion. Not that there isn’t plenty of Star Trek to watch until then…  

Stray Thoughts:

• We want to praise Orla Brady’s fantastic acting when her character realizes Tallinn’s fate is sealed. It’s a subtle but powerful reaction, and we can’t help but feel for her.  
• Tallinn gets into Renee’s room way too easily. She clearly wears the wrong ID badge, which doesn’t seem to concern the security guard she has to walk past.
• Soong gets angry that pre-launch quarantine procedures mean he can’t get “five minutes of face time” with the astronauts, and the mission organizer crumbles quickly and allows him in. But there are quarantine procedures for a reason, most important of which is the safety of the astronauts from external contaminants. Flashing some money around shouldn’t allow Soong access, no matter how angry he gets, and the mission organizer should know that.  She should have simply suggested a phone call to Renee, or a socially distanced meeting. Instead, she places the entire mission in jeopardy because Soong started to get annoyed.
• When Raffi first discovers the drones, the timer has three minutes and forty-five seconds left. Later, when the drones actually launch, the timer reads three minutes and thirty seconds. Was Raffi able to increase the timer duration and buy more time to hack the drones, or is this a major continuity error?
• Astronauts are usually seated and ready to go in their rockets a couple hours or more before launch. Such is not the case for Renee, who seemingly only must get into the rocket mere minutes before liftoff.
• How does Soong rationalize Renee surviving his neurotoxin? He obviously doesn’t know he actually poisoned Tallinn. He must think poorly of the Europa mission’s flight protocols if the mission organizers allowed an obviously sick Renee to board the rocket.
• Soong doesn’t keep backups of his data? Are we meant to believe all his work is gone?
• Why doesn’t Kore assume Wesley is a lunatic and just walk away from his crazy-sounding pitch?
• When we last saw Teresa and Ricardo before this episode, Rios had just left them in L.A. while he beamed back to Chateau Picard. In this episode, we see them back with the rest of the crew at the chateau. Why exactly did they come back from L.A. to Chateau Picard?
• The planets and star systems labeled on the Stargazer ’s viewscreen when we first get a look at the transport portal are: Inferna Prime , Vega , Maxia , 61 Cygni , Altair , Arcturus , Benzar , Draylax , Sol , Wolf 359 , Yadalla , Calder , and others.
• Beyond the obvious reason of Raffi and others learning Q brought Elnor back to life, why would Elnor, a brand-new graduate from Starfleet Academy, be the one who answers hails on the Excelsior ?
• The First Contact theme makes a nice reprisal during the scenes in 10 Forward as Picard and crew celebrate the end of their mission.
• This episode sure does gloss over what Tallinn said to Renee to get her onboard with the latter’s plan to save her life just before the launch. We have to wonder: does Renee stay quiet for the rest of her life about her run-in with Laris?
• We’re just noticing this in this episode, but doesn’t Renee, played by Penelope Mitchell, look a lot like Picard’s mom, played by Madeline Wise? Kudos to this show’s casting director for keeping an eye on family lineage.
• Tallinn awkwardly mentions in “Monsters” that her camouflage tech needs an eight-hour cooldown, but such a strange requirement never came into play.
• As this episode showed the last interaction between Picard and Q, was the lack of trial imagery a missed opportunity? We have to figure the show’s architects considered it, but opted not to. We’d be curious as to why.
• Jurati’s 400-year-long journey recruiting Borg for her new collective would be a great subject of tie-in media.
• Wasn’t it remarkably foolish for Guinan to include a picture of Rios in 10 Forward? She was counting on Picard not observing the photo. If he had, that would have major implications for the timeline. Guinan sure got lucky on this one.
• The final second of this episode shows a quick flash of light as the camera is looking out at space. Is this an innocent little visual effect, or is that hinting at something else, possibly Q-related?

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Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

May 5, 2022 at 8:13 pm

I’m a bit of a wreck right now so I’ll try to make this coherent.

I can’t praise John de Lancie’s performance this season enough. He did such a great job. It’s some of his best work as the character. A different plane of existence for Q, maybe? I hope he’s not gone for good, but the two farewell scenes were amazing. I lost it when Picard told Q he wasn’t alone and embraced him.

Of course, I’m not sure how Q would be alone if there were still a Continuum. Or if he still had a son. Which begs the question…what happened to them?

An omnipotent being who believes he’s immortal suddenly begins to feel as if his existence is coming to an end doesn’t go to his compatriots and ask, “Hey, guys, I kinda thought we were immortal but I’m feeling a little weird. Any thoughts?”

There’s no dialogue to address where the Continuum is, why Q is “moving on” and why they allowed a 400-year change to the galactic timeline that impacted countless civilizations.

Isn’t the Continuum supposed to look after stuff like this? Did they just decide to hand that job over to the Travelers?

So Q saved Picard and crew from the self-destruct and put them in an alternate timeline that he caused so that Picard could get over his commitment issues?

* Field commissions usually only last as long as a crisis. Seven may not last long in that chair.

* When Picard orders everyone not to resist the Borg, did not a single captain out there think, “Oh, no, he’s Locutus again!”?

* Agreed that Guinan was terribly irresponsible for keeping that photo of Rios.

* How much did Rios change the future by staying in the past? What was supposed to happen to Ricardo? Yeah, it’s great he cleaned the oceans. Was that before or after WWIII which is supposed to begin in a couple of years? In 40 years, Zefram Cochrane is going to fly his ship and make First Contact. Does none of that happen?

May 10, 2022 at 9:45 am

There’s no reason for Picard’s relative from the Picard line to have any resemblance to his mother, who is a Picard by marriage.

May 10, 2022 at 10:03 am

Excellent review. Great insight and clarification, we needed it, a lot happened and too much for a single “dialogue scene” to explain it all. Your article will help “The Next Generation” of trekies whom may have missed all the references to previous movies and episodes.

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Recap / Star Trek: Picard S2E10 "Farewell"

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Picard's crew regroup at the Chateau to decide what to do about the Europa Mission. Picard, Rios and Tallinn muse about Queen Jurati's prophecy — two Renée Picards, one who lives and one who dies — and Tallinn gets a "Eureka!" Moment , but declines to share it with anyone. Instead, she beams the Starfleet contingent to Adam Soong's home, where he's preparing to make a play for the mission, and then herself to Mission Control — with Picard hitching a ride at the last second.

Raffi, Rios and Seven arrive at Soong's house. They hear his voice but the man himself is nowhere to be seen — Picard and Tallinn spy him at Mission Control — but he has rigged four drones to attack the rocket itself. Raffi is able to hardwire the 21st-century tech, and Rios uses the fourth drone to destroy the other three (and itself, via a bit of Ramming Always Works ).

Picard has realized that Tallinn is about to make a Heroic Sacrifice on Renée's behalf, and refuses to let her do it. Tallinn criticizes his Chronic Hero Syndrome : by trying to save everyone, he is refusing them agency, the right to decide how they want to live their lives. Tallinn has spent her entire life protecting Renée, and she isn't about to stop now. As such, she arranges a meeting with Renée and confesses her role in the latter's life. She asks Renée to trust her. The Answer Cut is Renée emerging and talking to Dr. Soong: there's a woman claiming to be from space, she seems to be crazy. Dr. Soong takes her by the hand and promises to get her to the authorities... and, unbeknownst to her, exposing her to a fatal neurotoxin. He leaves her to die. But it's All According to Plan : the real Renée is aboard the Shango , flying into the future, and the person Soong poisoned was Tallinn in disguise. She staggers back to Picard, her duty complete, and dies in his arms.

Soong returns to his house, smashing things in rage when he realizes that he has been duped. He is then helpless as Kore hacks his system remotely and wipes the records of his life's work. He's left wretched and defeated... gazing upon a manila folder, marked "Confidental" and labeled " Project Khan ". Kore, meanwhile, finally free to do whatever she wants... realizes she has no idea what she wants. However, a message beckons her to a park, telling her she can learn what comes next. The sender is a man who was once called Wesley Crusher, now a member of the Travelers , the people who dispatch Watchers and Supervisors (like Tallinn) to maintain the integrity of the timeline. He asks Kore to join them; she accepts, and the two step into the future.

Picard, Seven, Raffi and Rios return to Chateau Picard, where they prepare to live out the rest of their days. Picard takes the opportunity to return the skeleton key, the one that will have allowed his mother out of her room, to its hiding place behind a brick. Q congratulates him on maintaining the Stable Time Loop , pointing out that this is proof Picard has experienced Character Development and been able to forgive himself for the innocent wrong he did so many years ago. He admits that he is dying — and Dying Alone — and has used the last of his power to try and make sure Picard won't suffer the same fate. He gathers the crew and prepares, with what little puissance remains to him, to send them home. He is spared one effort: Rios chooses to stay in the 21st century; with this extra energy, Q promises them a surprise. Picard hugs him, and Q, with his Badass Fingersnap , dies... but not alone.

Picard and Seven are back aboard the Stargazer in the year 2401. The Borg Queen, masked and rampant, controls the bridge. The Self-Destruct Sequence has been engaged... but Picard, realizing the truth, orders it canceled. He then reaches out to his old friend, Dr. Agnes Jurati. Obligingly, the Queen removes her mask, revealing it is indeed Queen Jurati. A Negative Space Wedgie has emerged in the middle of the sector, and the Borg can't stop it alone; she came to Picard because she not only needed someone with authority, but someone who would trust her. There's no Rios, but Picard grants Seven a field commission, and she takes the chair as The Captain , formally ceding control of the fleet to Queen Jurati. Jurati has them link their shields to deflect the energy expulsion of the Negative Space Wedgie; the USS Excelsior has some trouble, but Cadet Elnor, Back from the Dead by Q's machinations, is able to stabilize the ship's shield harmonics. Queen Jurati explains that the explosion of energy marks the birth of a new transwarp conduit, but nobody has any idea what is on the other side; she petitions that her Borg Collective be granted provisional membership in the Federation, allowing them to Hold the Line against whatever may emerge.

• Arc Welding : The Supervisors are revealed to be working for the Travelers, whose ranks now include Wesley Crusher.
• Badass Fingersnap : As one of his defining characteristics since "Encounter at Farpoint" 35 years earlier, it's fitting that Q's final moment and act is him performing the signature snap one more time.
• Back from the Dead : With Rios opting to stay behind, meaning one less person to send back to their proper timeframe with his scant remaining power, Q is able to resurrect Elnor when he sends everyone else back to the 24th century.
• Bookends : As in "All Good Things", Q's final words to Picard are once again, "See you out there."
• Again, Q's final words to Jean-Luc are the same as his final words from "All Good Things".
• As in "Time's Arrow", Guinan has once again known Picard long before his birth and their first official meeting. And like the Devidian crisis, Guinan has been unable to discuss that future knowledge (in this case the ultimate fate of Rios) with her old friend until after events had played out and the time loop had closed.
• Queen Jurati calling Picard "Mister" references a moment in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2" where Locutus calls Riker "Number One." Here, though, it's heartwarming rather than chilling, proving the change that has taken place in the Borg.
• In the first season , La Sirena is under attack but rescued by Seven, whose own ship is destroyed. Her first words: "You owe me a ship, Picard." note  *THUD* In this episode, he promotes her to captain of the Stargazer .
• Call-Forward : Adam Soong had a role in, or at the least has access to, the Augment genetic research that unleashed Khan. This sets up his descendant Arik Soong's own Augment experiments over a century later during Star Trek: Enterprise 's Augment Trilogy.
• Didn't See That Coming : Q is genuinely surprised when Rios chooses to stay in the past.
• Dying Alone : Q is resigned to this fate, and his entire goal in setting Picard on this season's adventure is to help him to let go of his guilt and pain, to accept himself and be at peace so that he can share the rest of his life with someone else who will accept him too.
• End of an Age : During the third episode he appeared in, Q threw Picard and his crew into first contact with the Borg (quite possibly to warn the Federation and prepare them) and the two forces would be bitter enemies for over thirty years, both in and out of universe. Now, as Q dies (and partly due to his meddling in Picard's life once again) the Borg have developed into something more benevolent and hope to ally with the Federation in order to protect the galaxy from an even greater threat, bringing decades of conflict to an end.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! : Tallinn quickly puts together what Jurati meant by "one who lives and one who dies"—she is the one who dies and doesn't hesitate to go. Jean Luc realizes it too and goes with her.
• Q. After 35 years as the snarky trickster, in his final moments there's no camp, no smirk, and no condescension. Instead, it's just one last familiar pearl of wisdom to mon capitaine , a smile, and quiet gratitude that Picard is there with him as Q snaps his fingers for the last time.
• Tallinn. After Soong poisons her, Picard comforts her and she watches the rocket launch with no regrets and dies peacefully.
• Friendship Moment : Why is Q going out of his way to help Picard get over his childhood grief? Is it because Picard is needed for some coming trial of grave import? No! It's because Q wanted to do a favor for Picard, whom he had come over the last thirty years to view as one of his best friends! Q : You ask why it matters. It matters to me... You matter to me! Even gods have favorites, Jean-Luc, and you've always been one of mine.
• Foreshadowing : Picard reveals that he was told as a child about how Chateau Picard was shot up while abandoned by the family, and notes that the bullet holes left in the walls by the Borg are the exact same ones he remembers, indicating that they're not creating a Close-Enough Timeline , but the same one they hailed from in the first place. This should allow viewers to guess (if they haven't already) just who it was that beamed on board the Stargazer at the end of the season opener.
• Good All Along : The Borg Queen from "The Star Gazer", who turns out to be Jurati, and has come to help Starfleet avert a catastrophe. This explains why she pointedly avoided killing anybody when the crew fired on her.
• A variation. According to 25th Century Guinan, Rios died the way he lived: Puffing on one of his beloved cigars.
• Tallinn's last moments were speaking of Renée and that she was so glad they finally met.
• Q during his final moments smiles before snapping his fingers one last time.
• Greater-Scope Villain : The mysterious creator(s) of the Transwarp Gateway in the 25th Century. Whoever's behind it is powerful enough to have spooked the Borg (something that hasn't happened to them in-universe since the Species 8472 crisis).
• Happily Married : While it's not explicitly confirmed if they ever tied the knot, 25th Century Guinan reveals to Picard that Rios and Teresa had a long, happy life together.
• Tallinn impersonates Renée to keep her safe from Soong and lets him poison her. She's completely at peace with it and dies in Jean Luc's arms.
• Q uses the last of his power to return Picard, Seven and Raffi back to the 25th century and to resurrect Elnor.
• Hidden in Plain Sight : 25th Century Guinan reveals that a 21st Century photo of Rios and Teresa has been hanging on the walls of Ten-Forward this entire time. Guinan cheekily lampshades she thought Picard would notice it and that it was gonna be 'a bit of a spoiler'. But she ultimately worried about nothing because, as Guinan teases, Picard's always been more clever than observant.
• I Choose to Stay : Rios chooses to stay in the past with Teresa.
• On launch day there should have been absolutely no way anyone from outside the organization would be allowed to break the quarantine to see the astronauts face to face, no matter how much they donated or how severely they berated a manager.
• For that matter, with all the cameras that get focused on a launching spacecraft, there is no way that Soong could have expected the quartet of Attack Drones that he sent to attack the Shango to stay hidden from the outside world, making them very likely to get tracked back to him.
• Irony : It's heavily implied that Adam Soong is responsible for a second Eugenics Wars (per Memory Alpha) and all the misery that will befall Earth; whereas his descendant, Noonien Soong, ends up creating Data, who continuously saved the galaxy and from whom leads a whole new species of artificial intelligence.
• Karma Houdini : Other than losing all his data on Kore and her sisters and not getting the legacy he wanted, Adam doesn't face any legal action for his attempted murder of Renée, the attempted sabotage of the Europa mission or his murdering Tallinn. note  Sadly, this is an enforced trope because punishing Adam would break the Stable Time Loop .
• Q, which ends a 35 year tenure for John de Lancie and closes the door on the franchise's very first Q. For now.
• Rios also dies off-screen in the Past.
• Man Hug : Picard hugs Q before they part ways for the final time.
• Negative Space Wedgie : Jurati takes control of the fleet to neutralize an anomaly which will expel a devastating burst of energy. Once it's finished, a transwarp conduit is left behind.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero : An inversion with Rios staying behind in the 21st Century. Rather than backfire on him and everyone, it instead leaves Q enough surplus energy to not only send Picard and his team back to the future, but to also resurrect Elnor.
• Noodle Incident : According to Wesley, a joke he once told while on a Traveler mission somehow inadvertently ended up changing a century's worth of history.
• The Borg, for so long the absolute enemy not just of the Federation but of all species in the galaxy, not only ally with the Federation but request to join it — because they have detected an even greater threat from the transwarp conduit.
• While the Federation will have at least one more contact with the Q Continuum in the coming centuries , the Q that Picard, Sisko, Janeway, and Freeman have all encountered on their voyages — the Q who's been the face of the Continuum in-universe and for the franchise as a whole for 35 years — is now dead and gone.
• Older and Wiser : The time that Wesley has spent as a Traveler has helped him understand the responsibilities that he's taken on. Wesley: My colleagues and I, we dispatch those we call supervisors to help ensure the proper flow of time. So the universe is essentially a grand tapestry. It is flawless. It is fragile. It is exquisite. Yet it is somehow always a thread's pull away from total annihilation. A star is born, but a ship is lost. A new species thrives, but a civilization collapses. Knowing when to step in— that's the tricky part. And so my colleagues and I, we watch. We protect everything.
• One Last Smoke : According to Guinan, Rios' last breath was into a cigar after he was mortally wounded in a bar fight in Morocco over a medical supply shipment. Guinan: So he died like he lived.
• Pet the Dog : When Picard calls out Q for his meddling causing Tallinn's death, Q points out that, by nature of this being 400 years in the past, Tallinn would die anyway in every timeline — this was the only one in which she finally got to speak to Renée.
• Q is dying alone and this whole journey has been about him sparing Picard that same fate. His goal was to free him of the pain of his past and move forward.
• The new Borg Queen is Jurati, having become the head of a new Collective over 400 years.
• Jurati takes control of the fleet in order to create a large shield to deflect massive amounts of energy from a formation of a new transwarp conduit from killing billions of lives.
• The request for Federation membership is indeed genuine as the Collective has detected a new threat from said conduit and needs to stay and monitor it. She specifically requested Picard knowing that they not only needed someone of authority but a friend.
• On the Project Khan's folder tab is Soong's company logo—meaning that Soong is responsible for creating Khan and the Eugenics Wars.
• Riddle for the Ages : Exactly why Q is dying is not revealed.
• Rule of Symbolism : Wesley Crusher being the one to approach and recruit Kore. Like her, Wesley too was once a child raised by a single parent and who broke free from what was expected of him (in his case, a career and destiny in Starfleet) in search of something more.
• Sequel Hook : Someone created the transwarp gateway. The Borg intend to find out who.
• Jurati, kept alive by Borg tech, lived 400 years to the present.
• As with "Time's Arrow", Guinan once again has to wait centuries before re-encountering Picard in the 24th Century (and once more being unable to discuss any of this with her old friend until the events of the time loop had played out).
• Q commends Picard for creating the Stable Time Loop that will cause the death of his mother, as it means accepting himself for who he is- rather than trying to avert that pain. Q : Bravo. Destiny. Left for the little boy you will be in the future to find.
• Picard and the others are proud of the person Jurati has become and what she and the Borg has just accomplished. Picard: You just saved billions of lives. Queen Jurati: That was the idea, mister.
• Something Only They Would Say : Queen Jurati calling Picard "Mister", confirming that she is still Jurati.
• Picard hides the skeleton key that his younger self will eventually use to let his mother out of her room.
• The new Borg Queen is actually Jurati from an alternate timeline, a timeline only created because Picard's first reaction to the Borg Queen hijacking the fleet was to activate the self-destruct, a mistake he only knew to rectify after making it.
• Trust Password : Picard recognizes the song playing in the background as one from his childhood that his mother played to calm him down. He had confided to his friend about it: Jurati.
• Villainous Breakdown : Soong trashes his lab and drinks away his sorrows when he realizes that he'd been tricked. Kore then finishes it off by remotely wiping his computer system of all his data pertaining to her and her sisters. But he then pulls out a folder from his desk drawer titled "Project Khan".
• The folder bearing the line "Project Khan".
• Wesley Crusher approaching Kore.
• What Is One Man's Life In Comparison? : This is the gist of Picard's question to Q as to why he helped him to let go of his pain. Picard naturally thinks that Q must be helping him to fulfill some grand purpose that will save the galaxy in the future, yet Q tells him that Picard's life matters just as much because it matters to him . Picard: But... why does all this matter? Is something going to happen, for which I will be required? Q: Must it always have galactic importance? Universal stakes? Celestial upheaval? Isn't one life enough? You ask me why it matters. It matters to me . You matter. To me. Even gods have favorites, Jean-Luc. And you've always been one of mine.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue : Guinan is able to tell Picard what happened to Rios, Teresa, and Ricardo once he returns to his present. Chris and Teresa founded a medical service charity that helped people around the world, presumably through and beyond World War III. Auntie Renée would go on to travel the Solar System, and made discoveries on Europa that Ricardo would use to help heal Earth's ecosystem. Teresa died of old age, and Chris pre-deceased her a little bit, dying in a fight in Morocco over medical supplies.
• You Already Changed the Past : Picard notes that the damage to Chatau Picard caused by Soong's Borg existed in his present, setting up that Rios remaining is part of the "correct" timeline, and that the Borg Queen in the first episode always was Jurati.
• You Are in Command Now : With Rios no longer in 2401 and Seven knowing more about the Borg than anyone in Starfleet, Picard gives her a field commission to command Stargazer .

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Q is dying, but with what fleeting time he has, he affirms that through the 30 years they have known each other, he has always considered Jean-Luc Picard an important friend.

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The 'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 finale will leave you feeling somewhat shortchanged

It's mostly exactly what was expected, but there was one twist that no one saw coming

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Picard" season 2, episode 10

Here we are then. After nine weeks, this particular journey is at an end and the second season of " Star Trek: Picard " draws to a close. We spoke last week of how it had been confirmed that the third and final season of "Star Trek: Picard" on Paramount Plus was not a continuation of the events unfolding before us now and consequently that left quite a lot to be wrapped up.

Sadly, most of the story threads concluded in a manner that was exactly what we were expecting, with one small surprise however, that we can guarantee no one saw coming. All things considered though, it's still so much better than the first season finale. You can check out our Star Trek streaming guide to catch up on "Star Trek: Picard" for the finale and be ready for season three. Now, on to the episode.

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Following the somewhat lengthy recap that covers the events of the whole of the season, we're right back where we left off last week, with our peppy band of timeline polluters at Château Picard pondering their next move after Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), who is now more or less fully integrated with the Borg Queen, stole La Sirena and took off, leaving everyone else stranded in La Barre, eastern France, in 2024. But not for long. 

After a super-speedy conference, they beam back to Tallinn's (Orla Brady) apartment, grab some gear and she and Jean-Luc (Patrick Stewart) then beam to the launch site of the Europa mission to prevent the presumed attack on astronaut Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell). 

This sets up one of the plot threads that we fully anticipate to be tied up, that of the relationship between Jean-Luc and Tallinn-lookalike Laris (also Orla Brady). Since the two are identical in both appearance and attitude, Jean-Luc can resolve his issues with former and transfer his feelings over to the latter with relative ease, which he does. ✓

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) are able to track Jurati's movements from before she stole La Sirena and they beam to Dr. Adam Soong's ( Brent Spiner ) home, expecting to find him there, except he's at the Europa launch site. Uh oh. Instead however, they find his "plan B" for preventing the launch, which is basically a drone attack. And thus begins one of the weakest story elements in this season finale. It also conveniently provides a ticking clock for the Renée Picard sub-plot.

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That's handled by Tallinn and she enters the astronaut building in a stolen uniform and is forced to confront Renée directly. It also fulfills the cryptic prophecy that the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) foretold when she said, "There must be two Renées." And in all fairness, it's not handled too badly. Soong is at the site and getting into a tantrum about not being allowed into the complex despite being a very generous donor to ... the mission? Exactly what, or who, Soong has been making generous donations to, is glossed over. Nevertheless, he's eventually able to catch up with Renée and poisons her by way of a rather nice, peel-away skin graft-of-sorts from his hand that contains a powerful neurotoxin, which he was able to transmit when he shook her hand.

Related:  'Picard' Season 3 cast announcement includes many familiar names

Except of course it isn't Renée, it's Tallinn, who has expanded the operational area of her ear-camouflaging, holographic cloaking device to now encompass her whole face ... and thus she's able to deceive Soong. Oh, yeah, and the drones have been destroyed, so you know, phew .

The pacing is good throughout and the dialogue is actually very good, in particular between Renée and Tallinn, then between Jean-Luc and the dying Romulan. So far however, there have been no real surprises. The mission launches and, to all intents and purposes, is a success and the authoritarian future has been prevented. As a final gesture of general loathing, all of Soong's work is deleted by Kore (Isa Briones) who hacks in remotely. Watching the launch on television and seething with anger, he gulps down a whiskey and reaches into a drawer, pulling out a file labeled "Project Khan" and dated 1996.

This is of course a direct reference to Khan Noonien Singh, played magnificently by Ricardo Montalbán, first in "The Original Series" episode "Space Seed" (S01, E24) and then again in " Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan " — arguably the greatest movie ever made. (The less said about "Star Trek Into Darkness" the better.) Khan was genetically engineered "augment" and former ruler of more than one-quarter of Earth, from Asia to the Middle East.

In " Star Trek " history however, the augment tyrants began warring among themselves in the mid-1990s. Other nations joined in, to force them from power, in a series of struggles that became known as the Eugenics Wars. Much of this story was exceptionally well told in the vastly underrated "Enterprise" Season 4 three-part augments story arc. 

Eventually, most of these "super humans" were defeated and their territory recaptured, but approximately 90 were never accounted for. Turns out they escaped and stole a DY-100-class interplanetary sleeper ship that Khan named the SS Botany Bay. Set on a course outbound from the solar system , but with no destination in mind, Khan and his people remained in suspended animation until they were discovered in deep space by Captain Kirk some 270 years later.

And it becomes clear that this is less of a throwback to "Enterprise" and more of a set up for " Strange New Worlds ," since it's been decided that one of the USS Enterprise bridge crewmembers is Khan's daughter, La'an Noonien-Singh, played by Christina Chong. Quite how this will be incorporated into the fabric of space and time remains to be seen. Or perhaps it won't be.

Then comes the biggest twist, by far. Kore has been sitting in a library while she hacks in and mercilessly deletes all of her father's work. Having completed her task and exacted her revenge, she collects her stuff, packs it into her bag and casually makes her way outside into the late afternoon sunshine where she's greeted by ... of all peopl ... Wesley Crusher.

And why not. It's great to see Wil Wheaton capitalizing on some Paramount-paid "TNG" nostalgia, why should all everyone else have all the cash fun?

So, here's what we know. In "The Next Generation" episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" (S01, E06) experimental engine modifications throw the Enterprise to the edge of the known universe. A mysterious alien, known as the Traveler from another plane of existence, is making his way through our galaxy, peacefully observing all lifeforms. By disguising himself as a human, he is able to get passage on different starships and in this instance, onboard the USS Enterprise. During this escapade, the Traveler and Wesley become good friends.

Seven years later, cadet Crusher resigns from Starfleet Academy after the Traveler — this time posing as a villager on Dorvan V — accompanies him through a vision of his deceased father who tells him that his destiny lies somewhere other than with Starfleet and that he should not follow in his footsteps in "The Next Generation" episode "Journey's End" (S07, E02). (By the way, here's our take on the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes ever.)

The Traveler promises to mentor Wesley as he begins his journey to another plane of existence. That said, Wesley attends the marriage of William Riker and Deanna Troi in "Star Trek: Nemesis" in a lieutenant junior grade dress uniform in 2379, suggesting that he had in fact become a Starfleet officer at some point. Regardless of how "Star Trek" canon chooses to interpret all of this, Wesley approaches Kore and explains how he can guide her. Turns out, the Travelers are the ones behind the Supervisors. "My colleagues and I, we dispatch those we call supervisors to help ensure the proper flow of time," says Wes. 

"Two paths are before you. The first one leads to a perfectly normal life. The second ... that path leads to everything else. And it offers a chance to give your life purpose and meaning," he continues and it works because without any real hesitation, she joins him. And we won't see Isa Briones in Season 3 because she posted on Instagram that her involvement with "Picard" at least, was at an end.

 Back at Château Picard, Seven and Raffi finally get their act together, share their feelings for each other and kiss, so we can check that box now too. ✓ But then we get to the very best part of this episode, the final exchange between Q (John de Lancie) and Jean-Luc. It's beautifully written, nicely explains the events of the last 10 episodes without spoonfuls of exposition and the performances, from de Lancie in particular, are outstanding.

As we eventually discover — and we'll come to shortly — the Borg were facing an extinction level event and so called for Jean-Luc. But, as we saw in the very first episode of this second season " The Star Gazer ," Jean-Luc tried to activate the self destruct on the USS Stargazer, but the Borg Queen was already Agnes Jurati — because of time loops and stuff like that. Behind the scenes, Q does his Thanos thing and all key member of the cast are unwittingly transported to an alt-history timeline. This is crucial so they can pick up the actual Borg Queen who a) helps La Sirena Six navigate back to 2024 but also b) has to be present so Jurati can merge with her and fulfill that pesky time loop.

The importance placed on the Europa mission is, in essence, to prevent Dr. Soong from offering his solution to the world's problems and thus creating the authoritarian state. We learn later that "they found a way to heal the ocean and clean the sky using an alien organism that Renée discovered during the Europa Mission." What a very handy organism indeed.

— Kirk vs Picard: Who is the best Star Trek captain?

— Star Trek movies in chronological order

— Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best

A second chance at all of this was Q's parting gift to Jean-Luc before he died. So it's not quite like Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Tapestry" (S06, E15) or "All Good Things" (S07, E25 & 26) in that they were more like glimpses of alternative outcomes. This is a full on chance to change the future, by not destroying the USS Stargazer, saving the galaxy one more time and even establishing a line of communication to the Borg — in fact, changing the Borg forever. Perhaps this was all meant to happen and Q ensures it does. Perhaps he should've worked in cooperation with the Travelers.

The important thing is that this effectively delivered in the best way possible. Q doesn't explain his roadmap — although it's arguable if he'd done that, then he and Jean-Luc wouldn't have had to exchange blows in the vineyard. But we're given enough for both of us — the viewers and Jean-Luc to work out for ourselves. It's even been speculated on social media that perhaps this All New & Improved Borg could be the ones who find and repair V'ger.

Nerd Note: According to Memory Alpha , La Sirena (a Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter) was "slower, but more maneuverable, than a 23rd century Romulan Bird-of-Prey." We saw in "Star Trek IV" The Voyage Home" the captured Bird of Prey, referred to as HMS Bounty reach warp 9.3 before beginning to shake apart. So, would Queen Agnes have reached the Borg in the Delta Quadrant in under 377 years? Taking USS Voyager's projected journey time back to the Alpha Quadrant of 23 years, give or take (at warp 9.975) then yes. The events of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" take place in 2270, so that leaves, very roughly, 246 years for Voyager 6 to fall into a black hole and "emerge on the far side of the galaxy" and into the "machine planet's gravitational field." So, yeah…it's entirely plausible.

Still at Château Picard, Rios declares he's staying ✓ and Q says his final farewell, which is all rather emotional, and as we've mentioned, is in considerable contrast to how he was behaving at the beginning of the season. Then we're whisked away back to the bridge of the USS Stargazer just moments before the self destruct completed its countdown. Jean-Luc cancels the order and Queen Agnes reveals herself.

Only now do we discover what this was all about. Apparently, it's a "galactic event" presumably like a gamma ray burst, or possibly a supernova. These things happen, we fully understand that. Or at least gamma ray bursts and supernovas happen, the jury's still out on triquantum waves. And it would be OK, even a novelty, if this hadn't been an integral part of the last two seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery." But here's the thing, Aaron J. Waltke, Executive Producer on "Star Trek" Prodigy" tweeted after the finale had aired, "Boy oh boy, there are things I wish I could show you about the upcoming seasons of #StarTrekProdigy today, of all days."

And in fact, Seven says, "I believe we have just witnessed the creation of a transwarp conduit, but unlike any I've ever seen before." 

"But…created by who?" Asks a puzzled Jean-Luc. "Even with our collective knowledge, that answer remains elusive," Queen Agnes responds, with little sign of any emotion. "But you know more…" Jean-Luc insists. "What you see is a piece of the puzzle whose final image is unclear, but is tied to a threat. One which requires close observation. We request provisional membership in the Federation so that we may remain here, a guardian at the gates," Queen Agnes replies, this time perhaps showing the smallest of signs of the former doctor's personality.

Nerd Note: Jean-Luc can't hear the Borg anymore (as he used to be able to following his assimilation) after getting his new synthetic body replacement at the end of last season, so instead he relies on Seven when he needs to.

Put all that together and what we have is an inadequate, unsatisfying ending to "Picard" Season 2, but one that now deliberately links to events in the animated "Star Trek" spin-off show that's aimed primarily at children; perfect if you watch "Prodigy," less so if you don't.

Once this is all solved, the Borg harmonize the fleet's shields with their own and massive spike in neutrino emissions focused on the center of the quadrant have been diverted, it's basically a matter of closure. Queen Agnes, who seems to have taken some fashion advice from David Warner's character in "Time Bandits," goes back to the Borg fleet and the impressive gathering of Federation starships, complete with Elnor, makes it's way back to Sector 001.

We learn from Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) that Teresa eventually died of old age and Rios slightly younger, in a Moroccan bar fight, over medical supplies. Thus the single best new character given to us from this spin-off show will no longer appear in any more. And the very last, very predictable event is that Jean-Luc tells Laris how he really feels about her. ✓

All in all, it's a very mixed bag. Still, it's better than the first season and perhaps this will fare better upon a more condensed rewatch. Without any doubt, Q's dialogue and performance was the highlight, even if it was in stark contrast to his earlier behavior. Plus questions remain unanswered, as they tend to do when you muck about with the timeline. What happened to former FBI Agent Wells (Jay Karnes) for instance? Was he eradicated when Q did his Thanos thing?

Rating: A very generous 6/10

The entire second season of "Star Trek: Picard" is now available to watch on Paramount Plus as is the first episode of "Strange New Worlds." Season 4 of "Star Trek: Discovery" is also available to watch now on Paramount Plus in the US and CTV Sci-Fi or Crave TV in Canada. Countries outside of North America can watch on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel.

Paramount has confirmed that its streaming platform will launch in the UK and Ireland on June 22, available both as a standalone service and as part of the Sky Cinema subscription for the UK cable provider.

Follow Scott Snowden on Twitter . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

When Scott's application to the NASA astronaut training program was turned down, he was naturally upset...as any 6-year-old boy would be. He chose instead to write as much as he possibly could about science, technology and space exploration. He graduated from The University of Coventry and received his training on Fleet Street in London. He still hopes to be the first journalist in space.

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Review: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Mixes Things Up In “Fly Me To The Moon”

| March 31, 2022 | By: Anthony Pascale 136 comments so far

“Fly Me to the Moon”

Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 5 – Debuted Thursday, March 31, 2022 Written by: Cindy Appel Directed by Jonathan Frakes

A mixed bag of stories and genres moves the season plot forward in a big way.

WARNING: Spoilers below!

“Fear can be your friend.”

Transported away to the LA apartment of the “The Watcher” who looks like a human Laris (which makes sense, since it is the same actress), Picard learns this “Supervisor” is actually named Tallinn. And her job has been to protect a single individual, someone who is really important to the fabric of the universe, although she doesn’t know exactly why. After learning he is a time traveler named Jean-Luc Picard trying to stop a divergence, she drops the bomb: Her particular charge is an ancestor of his named Renée Picard, who is set to go on a historic spaceflight in three days, which just so happens to be the exact timing of that divergence. Now we’re getting somewhere.

After seeing her brief introduction in that final scene with Q last episode, we start to get a better look at this Renée Picard. The former child prodigy turned NASA astronaut pilot is dealing with anxiety as she struggles in a Europa mission simulator. Picard and Tallin voyeuristically (but awkwardly, on Picard’s part) peer in on her mandatory psych evaluation as the young woman expresses her doubts. Tallinn is concerned Renée isn’t going to make it to her destined flight and her therapist isn’t exactly helping with stuff like “Perhaps you are not ready.” In fact, there is something oddly familiar about him… OMG, it’s Q! Everything snaps together for Jean-Luc; his old nemesis masquerading as an Austrian-wannabe shrink is using this 21st-century Picard to change the future. Scheisse!

“Imagine being loved.”

At Chateau Picard, the evil queen hacks La Sirena to ring the local gendarmes for help. The responding solo cop is too busy living up to the smoking Frenchman stereotype to notice the sleeping Agnes, but he does spot the flickering cloaked spaceship in the backyard. And he clearly hasn’t seen any horror movies as he enters the dimly-lit spooky sci-fi thing without calling for backup so yeah, he gets totally captured when tentacles pull him into the Queen’s web. But the Borg forgoes assimilation and instead uses him as a hostage, calling out to her real prey, Jurati. Queenie really has it bad for Agnes, launching into a whole thing about how great life would be if they were joined, but Agnes isn’t buying it, and with officer Leclerc’s life literally hanging in the balance, she fires the shotgun. Oh right, Jurati found an old shotgun… probably should have mentioned that.

Cohorts Seven and Raffi are still stalking Rios’ prison bus and debating butterfly effects, which seems to come a bit late after transporting out in the middle of a car chase last week. The more reasonable Seven uses her tricorder to shut down the bus and Rios catches on, getting some help from a compadre to take down Officer FerengiFace. After some fun banter, things get a bit weird as Raffi sees Elnor exiting the bus, but then it wasn’t Elnor. Is she going crazy or is this a glitch in the matrix? No time to sort that out as they beam back to La Sirena to find Agnes looking like she stepped into the Saw franchise. The Queen is hanging dead like a bloody side of beef, but the cop is alive… and his spleen is in a box. Yep, everything is fine.

“How far are you willing to go?”

We meet another Spiner, as Noonian Arik Altan Adam Soong advocates for a future “free from disease.” This geneticist argues you have to break a few illegal human-experimenting eggs to get to that promised land of no more genetic defects, like the ones keeping his daughter stuck in a sealed room as the outside world would kill her instantly. His “Imagine, if you will, I’m a god” bit probably didn’t help his case with the skeptical tribunal, who takes away his license to research and funding. Oh, and his daughter Kore looks just like Soji, because, once again, she is played by the same actress. This is a small universe, after all.

Out of options, this mad scientist gets a glimmer of hope in the form of an email full of promising cure clues from someone named “Q,” who may have lost his powers, but is really getting around. Soong meets Q for lunch and blusters his “teasing me with data” (we see what you did there). Q is here to trade, curing Soong’s daughter for unspecified future favors, and because Soong is desperate, he takes the deal and brings home a mysterious vial which actually works, allowing Kore to finally see the sun and swim—but cruelly, only for a limited time. There’s always a twist. Now the Faustian figure returns with the promise of more cure if the bad doctor can help him “remove an obstacle.” Without powers, Q needs a little help… with a certain problem named “Picard.”

“We’re stronger together.”

Team La Sirena reunites, along with a somewhat reluctant Tallin, and starts working on a plan to keep an eye on Renée at a fancy gala right before she is to go into quarantine. If they can just keep her from quitting for one more night, young Picard can go on the Europa Mission and the whole Confederation timeline will go poof. All their future tech won’t help get the team in, so they are going to have to go old-school. Surprisingly, Agnes is chosen to lead this impossible mission as she is the only one who can hack the ancient computers to get the rest of the team into the system. Astro-Picard is there, still obsessing over her failure in the simulator, so they’d better hurry up. But Agent Jurati in her extremely red dress doesn’t keep a low profile and is spotted and detained by security soon after entering the jazzy black-tie event.

But wait! As Jurati squirms, cuffed to a chair in the security room, we flash back to her Borg regicide… and there is more to the story. She couldn’t let the queen kill the cop, but she also couldn’t kill off the only navigator that could get them home. The dying Queen made one last plea: “You need me, Agnes. How will you survive without me?” Turns out Jurati is now carrying a cybernetic secret: She’s got a little bit of Queen in her. They can even have nice little chats, as her onboard Borg pooka compliments her plan to get captured. But what that plan is will have to wait for next week.

Too many licks and not enough comp

“Fly Me to the Moon” is another one of those frustrating outings that still has a lot going for it. Emblematic of the somewhat disjointed mid-season entries since episode two, episode five has some uneven pacing as it hops genres to keep up with each thread and introduces a lot of new characters. However, within each of the varied stories, there was much to enjoy and even love. And thanks to extended moments of exposition, there was a lot of progress on the main plot arc for the season.

It was a delight to see the return of Orla Brady, mysteriously playing the new character Tallinn. She and Sir Patrick Stewart quickly found a different dynamic that was still just as engaging as Picard and Laris’—and the way Picard looked into her eyes and didn’t see the same soul as his close Romulan friend was a nice, subtle moment. The introduction of Renée Picard was also intriguing, with Penelope Mitchell garnering the audience’s sympathy as she went up against Q, with John de Lancie chewing up the scenery as the fake psychiatrist. But it is his intense scene with Brent Spiner that is the standout of the episode as the two TNG vets sparred deliciously over who could be more ruthless and vulnerable at the same time.

The Raffi/Rios/Seven storyline again brought some action and humor to the episode along with more character insights, especially Michelle Hurd’s exploration of grief. But now that they have reunited with Picard, there is a sense that their three-episode adventure in LA was simply a distraction and a bit of literal wheel-spinning. While providing a vehicle for some social commentary, this subplot was a missed opportunity for some good time travel fish-out-of-water fun and in the end, provided no meaningful contribution to the season’s big mysteries or plot. This is in stark contrast to the Queen and Jurati horror movie played with relish by Annie Wersching and Alison Pill, with director Jonathan Frakes recreating some of his macabre best from First Contact . The final episode pivot to a heist movie vibe was fun but frustratingly short and maybe one genre too many, perhaps best held back for the next episode to fully embrace.

Haven’t we met before?

There was a lot of activity in this episode with the season’s main mysteries and plot arc, with The Watcher fully explained as a Supervisor. Picard even mentioned Kirk and Gary Seven , but of course Tallinn would not be aware of that due to the  show’s time travel rules . Why Tallinn looks just like Laris is an oddity, and even with Raffi hanging a fun lantern on it with her “good talk” at the Chateau, this still needs an explanation and hopefully we’ll get one soon. Adding to the mystery is how some of Tallinn’s tech indicated possible Romulan origins .

We got a lot of Q in this episode as he pops into both the Adam Soong and Renée Picard storylines. While it’s spelled out that he’s trying to stop the young Picard from going on her mission, his true motivations are still unclear, as is how it all ties into some lesson he is teaching Jean-Luc about his fear. Tallinn’s Laris-like looks could possibly be connected to all of that. But lines like “I have taken time for granted of late and it seems she is threatening to abandon me” and “We are all hostages to what we love. The only way to truly be free is to love nothing” are probably more than just poetry and probably important to the plot.

Renée herself is an interesting character, and the brief mention of her destined discovery of a possible sentient organism on Jupiter’s moon Io could be a big clue about why she’s so important. One of the strengths of this season is how they have been dropping hints and clues along the way, like Renée being mentioned in episode one during Picard’s speech to the Academy.

As for why another Soong is in the mix, the answer is more likely practical: The team likes working with Brent Spiner, so why not? While it’s great to see him again, the character still feels like part of the family pattern, especially along the lines of Arik Soong . And there is certainly something odd going on with his daughter Kore, who may not be entirely a real girl if we are to read anything into his reaction when the subject of her mother came up. This Soong “daughter” could be the inspiration for Data’s future vision of a daughter , resulting in the creation of Soji. Also, besides the obvious eugenics angle, there is a hint about how this Soong is revered in the future Confederation timeline with his drone shields resembling the atmospheric shield the planet deploys in the 25 th century.

Final thoughts

Hitting the halfway mark, the show has finally narrowed down some of the goals and mysteries for the season, while introducing a whole slew of new characters and questions. Diffused with great little moments of action, fright, warmth, and fun, “Fly Me to the Moon” had enough to keep us entertained, but in the end still felt like it was trying to keep too many plates spinning at once, turning it into more of a transitional episode. It did a fine job setting up what comes next, with season two still an improvement on the first, and Frakes’ second entry next week still highly anticipated.

Random bits

• The episode title refers to the 1954 song “ Fly Me to the Moon ,” which became associated with NASA when Frank Sinatra’s version was played on the Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 missions to the moon.
• The music for the song can be heard at the gala.
• At 41:16, the episode runtime is relatively short for modern Star Trek shows.
• This is the first Star Trek credit for writer Cindy Appel, who joined the series as a producer for season two.
• This is Jonathan Frakes’ 27th directing credit for the Star Trek franchise and third for  Picard .
• Lea Thompson, who directed the previous two episodes, plays Dr. Diane Werner, the chairman of the committee dealing with Dr. Soong.
• Also on the committee is a character named Dr. Vasily Rozhenko, possibly an ancestor of Sergey Rozhenko , Worf’s adoptive father.
• Like Gary Seven, Tallinn’s transporter is housed inside a bank vault.
• Australian actress Penelope Mitchell (Renée Picard) had a recurring role on The Vampire Diaries , along with star Paul Wesley, who recently joined the season two cast of Strange New Worlds as James T. Kirk.
• As per family tradition, the French-born (Chateauneuf-Grasse) Renée Picard has an English accent. She also had a French flag on her NASA flight suit.
• Her birthday is November 22nd, 1996, which was the release date of Star Trek: First Contact , directed by Frakes.
• The date was shown on her French passport as 11 22 1996, but it should be 22 11 1996, in the European style .
• Agnes’ fake name was Holly Eva Visser.
• If you call the number on Q’s business card (323-634-5667) you get a real message from Q.
• What did they do with the spleen?

More to come

Every Friday, the TrekMovie.com All Access Star Trek Podcast  covers the latest news in the Star Trek Universe and discusses the latest episode. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Pocket Casts ,  Stitcher and is part of the TrekMovie Podcast Network.

New episodes of  Star  Trek: Picard  premiere on Thursdays on  Paramount+  in the U.S. and on Fridays where Paramount+ is available around the world. In Canada, it airs on  CTV Sci-Fi Channel on streams on Crave on Thursdays. Picard  is also available on Fridays on Amazon Prime Video around the world.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard  news and analysis .

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Couple of things:

1) LOVED this episode. Stronger than eps 3 and 4. 2) Did anyone notice the editing flaw, early in the episode as the bus quickly drives you’ll see the back side of it. It is reversed and the text is backwards (oops Frakes) 3) Also, pesky Borg Queens always gotta assimilate. Reminded me of the line the “J. Jonah Jameson” actor said in Terminator: Genesys or whatever it was. “GD time travelling robots!”

In TV, directors do not have final cut.

Editors then. My mistake.

Editors do not have final cut. They do the first assembly, then the director does their cut, and then the cut is finalized by the showrunner, who is also the head writer. Movies are primarily a director’s medium, but TV is a producer’s medium.

That said, it may have been done for continuity reasons, even though the backwards text would be incongruous. They may not have had time to fix it (or weren’t willing to expend budget money to do so).

Or, it could be one of those “Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones” mistakes. Rare, but there are times that mistakes get through even with a ton of eyes on the process.

That may have been intentional editing actually. If during editing they realized the scene would be stronger if the bus was going left-to-right instead of right-to-left, they might have just flipped it and figured the reversed text wasn’t important.

Printing adverts in reverse on buses billboards etc is an attention grabber that has been used on occasions, I can remember Guinness doing it in the UK in the sixties, so why not in 2024?

When I watch this I just see ex star trek actors in a skit. I can’t watch it anymore, and won’t be a part of this echo chamber anymore either.

I noticed it was driving in the wrong set of lanes and that there were no other vehicles on that road, weirdly.

Unless looking at history through a mirror, in which case, the wonky text is a clue.

I missed the reverse lettering but I did notice the bus was on the wrong side of the road when it stopped. I’m loving this season, this episode included; you just have to pay close attention.

I love the amount of plot threats interweaving with each other in fun and engaging patterns. Before one resolves, another begins. It’s like the Expanse- in a good way.

Ha, I thought when they mentioned her finding something alien on a remote moon of Jupiter, I was like woah, what if they had said Phoebe… *bug eyes*

You thick or something mate?

Some more thoughts:

4) I believe this is the first time in all of Star Trek we see an actual Microsoft-branded product. Interesting, kinda cool. 5) I also loved some of the subtle gags – the gag where Raffi & Picard walked and talked about how Laris looks like this lady, and how when Picard and Tallinn go to the ship and they see the crew moving the officer’s body; funny bits.

Good episode i would give it a B.

The Borg queen calling the french police i thought was funny lol and loved the ‘talk’ between Picard and Raffi lol.

The scenes with Renee Picard i felt sad for her suffering through depression and Q under the guise of a therapist to manipulate her to not go in the mission was disturbing but typical of Q.

Adam Soong is an interesting character he reminds me of Arik Soong from Enterprise S4 which is not a surprise and i felt sad for his daughter Kore and her medical condition her father has been trying to cure.

Q using Adam’s daughter as a way to manipulate him to get what he wants is again disturbing but typical of him.

Loved Raffi and 7’s rescue of Rios from the ice/homeland bus and happy to see everyone is finally back together.

I liked the scenes between Picard and Laris look alike Tallinn and the Gary 7 call back and the talk about Renee Picard was interesting. It’s easy to forget that in 2401 they don’t have that many accurate records probably due to WW3.

The scenes with Jurati and the queen were again great i find this queen to be far more disturbing then the previous Borg queens in Trek especially when she used the police man and Jurati’s loneliness to get to her and now the queen is in her mind.

It will be interesting to see how what direction this goes but it gives more evidence to Jurati being the Borg Queen on the stargazer.

But how will they handle it as when they get back to 2401 and the stargazer won’t there be 2 Jurati’s? 1 as the queen and 1 not borgified Jurati on the stargazer?

I like the Gala scenes and will be interesting to see what happens next week.

Overall i enjoyed this episode it had some nice character moments for everyone.

S2 has been so far just as good as S1 though i hope they speed the story-line up next week as i feel they are trying to stretch out the 2024 story-line so they could solve everything in the final and i fear that the tying up of the seasons story-line will be rushed though i hope I’m wrong about that and we get a satisfying conclusion to the story-line.

Can’t wait for next weeks episode

Right. A good episode for sure, and left me wanting more.

Speaking of Q being a therapist, how is he able to do impersonate someone so easily without snapping it so? It would seem the only reason he is going through the trouble is because he could not snap her to act the way he wanted to begin with.

The manipulation of Soong using his daughter reminded me of Khan manipulating the Dr. Who actor into blowing up the Kelvin archives in STID. Was this an intentional parallel?

I don’t buy the lack of records in this time at all. Pretty much EVERYTHING is recorded. Especially important things like a manned space mission to Io. I call BS on that. Seems like something they made up because they needed it for their story to work.

I’m guessing that Q isn’t completely powerless – otherwise I don’t think he’d have been able to break into Soong’s computer so easily; just powerless enough as to not be able to snap things to his will.

As for the records, my take is that a lot of the records where destroyed during WWIII due to massive EMPs bursts caused by nuclear bombs.

That is why they probably should have focused on Q more. His situation is by far the most interesting thing going on at the moment. We don’t know what’s going on. And the way it was present he absolutely lost his mojo.

And I was under the impression that the Eugenics wars of the 90’s WAS WWIII in the Trek world. And this show opted, correctly IMHO, to ignore that.

No, WWIII and the Eugenics war have always been different affairs. The Eugenics war was fought b/w 1992-1996 ( https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Eugenics_Wars ) and WWIII from 2026-2053 ( https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/World_War_III ) – which made Picard’s speech to Guinan about humanity getting better rather ironic considering WWIII will break out in 2 years (from the time the episodes take place).

And I agree on the Q part. I’m really intrigued as to what is going on with him and we’ve only gotten very, very brief hints about it. Hopefully the writers aren’t waiting until the very end for the big reveal.

Originally the Eugenics war was WW 3 but when TNG came along, I think it was retcon to be a separate ordeal and started in the first half of the 21st century instead. I don’t remember when they gave it a specific date, but we now know it starts in 2026.

Then that explains it. I’ve never been that enamored with TNG. Until I did my very first rewatch of the series a few years ago I had only seen the bulk of the episodes once.

I find it odd that a tyrant the took over more than 1/4 of the Earth would not drag the so many of the world’s nations into the conflict that it would not be considered WWIII. But that is what TNG decided to do it seems.

November 22, 1996 is also the release date of First Contact, lol

Officer Leclerc! Love it.

Named after Marshall Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque? Who was also born on November 22 :O

Not that i’m _not_ enjoying Picard but S2 is definitely better than S1. I’m glad that S3 is the last one and will probably be the best one of the three as is normal for Trek shows. I’m imagining a full on TNG reunion on the bridge of the Stargazer. but it won’t be as good a send off as All Good Things.

I don’t think it’s all that hard to have a better sendoff than AGT. Mainly because it really wasn’t a sendoff. They went right into production of their movie the next week. And it never felt like a sendoff either. It felt like just another mediocre Q episode.

No, won’t be better than AGT, but it can be a second sendoff, and I think they all come to see Picard as his health declines OR at a funeral. Whether my two or yours, I think we get the remaining characters all together.

Solid episode! Really liked it. So intense. Each week is taking us to a deeper level. Did Jurati sold her soul to the Queen? Did she tricked her to help her crew? Who is the Queen from the Star Gazer? Agnes or Renee!? Who really messed up the timeline? Q or the Queen?

I am enjoying this season so much. Like the story, the pace, and the dynamic between the characters. Every episode gives me something to enjoy and something to look forward for the following week.

I have said this before. This is the first time I am truly enjoying the return of TV Star Trek. So happy we are finally picking up after All Good Things. Love all the other shows, but Picard Season 2 is officially the show that I have been waiting for.

This Season could open the door for DS9. I am watching this episode again tonight.

I’d love to see Sisko or others again for sure.

Waiting for decades now. :D

Europa could be the goo that got destroyed in “All Good Things’, in which case it’d be Picards fault (not Q or Borg Queen)

Since we know Adam Soong has descendants, that HAS to mean Kore survives. Presumably, it must also mean that she will either be a single mother or keep her maiden name if she marries in order to keep the family line intact.

Not necessarily. There could be other Soongs in the family.

This is the second time I’ve seen someone suggest that a character in one of these shows who shares a surname with someone else may not actually be related to that other one. Over at Elsewhere here, it was La’an, with the suggestion being that she’s not related to Khan directly but maybe just his cousin or twin brother, or something.

When one hears hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras..

In context here, that means that if Adam is a Soong that HAS to make him Arik’s and Noonien’s ancestor, while if La’an is a Singh that HAS to make her Khan’s descendant in some way or another.

If he wasn’t their ancestor, why are we wasting time with him?

That is a possibility as well but my comment was along the lines of Adam Soong could have a brother or uncle or cousin that shares the name. Just because his daughter perishes it doesn’t mean the line is broken.

My question stands, if he’s not Arik’s and Noonien’s ancestor, why are we wasting time with him? It’s like watching Voyager’s 11:59 AM only to find out that the woman the episode was about was not Janeway’s ancestor at all.

No, more like details to tie “v’gr”, “best of both worlds” with enterprise avoiding borg in a nebula, STNG “all good things” and picard show leadin with image of ‘v’gr”/nebula hiding enterprise.

If use “first contact” scene with picard in holo suite being chased by borg. Everything becomes a play on who’s in picard,guinnan, borg queen,Q,gary 7, #1, “data” and a few other roles (either in “first contact”, regular star trek, OST, voyager, picard, etc.)

Then perhaps it wasn’t a question for me.

I tend not to try speculating too much about what’s coming along because I kind of believe that takes a bit of the fun out if I get too close to solving the season as I’m watching it. That doesn’t stop me from reading the speculation of others. A lot of the time, the fans are right, such as the twist involving Voq and Tyler in DSC season one.  This is one of those times, on two fronts. First, they predicted that the cloudy door teleportation effect had a connection to Gary Seven from TOS’s “Assignment: Earth,” another story that took place roughly at the same time as it was released and featured a guardian and a pivotal spaceflight (this episode was produced as a backdoor pilot should Star Trek get cancelled, and it bore a striking resemblance to Doctor Who). The Watcher appears to be a similar guardian. The other fan prediction was that Jurati would become a Borg Queen. That hasn’t quite happened, but it looks much more inevitable after this week.  But on top of that, we get some major revelations on what Brent Spiner’s character Adam Soong has to do with all this, and finally the reappearance of Isa Briones, also playing a new character (Spiner and Briones might set some kind of Trek records for most doppelgängers on their résumés).  I also wonder if it kind of provides a clue as to why white guys that look like Spiner have the surname Soong (Keye Luke was originally going to play Dr. Soong way back in “Brothers,” until Spiner got the idea to do it himself, opening up a massive Pandora’s box of Spiner performances). This episode did a trick previously seen in episodes like “Maps and Legends” and the movie Don’t Look Up, in which the “present” scene is expository dialogue placed over visuals from the past and future to show that exposition in action. It begins with such a scene of Renée Picard, the woman reading Dixon Hill last week, in a flight simulator, her confidence shaken. She seeks a therapist, but Picard and Renée’s Watcher (who looks like Laris, but calls herself Tallinn) realize that therapist is Q. Orla Brady puts on an American accent (semi-successfully), and Q does one of his parodic accents, this time Freudian. One thing this episode also asked of its actors is a lot of playing with voices. I don’t really count the Borg Queen in this in terms of the actor, since Wersching was pantomiming the actual dialogue that Pill, Stewart, and Cabrera recorded, but diagetically speaking, it counts.  So, the Borg Queen calls the cops on Château Picard, in order to lure Jurati back to La Sirena. The score sure believes ACAB, just as the rest of the season shows, but the show itself takes a fairly neutral stance on this particular cop. The queen takes the cop hostage, so Jurati kills the queen without sacrificing the knight. There’s a darkly humorous moment later when Picard explains to Tallinn that his colleagues dragging the unconscious policeman’s body probably has a good reason. And Raffi observes the resemblance to Laris to Picard, something he’s not in the mood to consider. Speaking of cops, Rios, Raffi, and Seven don’t quite have as much to do this week, but they get nice moments. Rios busts out of the ICE bus eliciting cheers in a somewhat more organic nod to the scene on the bus in Star Trek IV. He thanks Pedro for his help, and says goodbye. Raffi and Seven have the same banter they’ve shared the past few episodes, but conclude with more trust that they’ve got each other’s backs, and there’s a brief flash of Elnor in a vision from the release of prisoners. Meanwhile, we finally get to meet Adam Soong, along with a nifty Lea Thompson cameo. Given she’s an actor/director, and a Trek fan, it was nice to see. He’s giving a speech to a committee in search of a grant to continue research that would help cure his daughter Kore of her sensitivity to sunlight. She’s played by Isa Briones, which plants a centuries-long seed for Data’s painting and his eventual daughter (perhaps Adam Soong took his wife’s surname). This is one of those dreamlike scenes with back-and-forth editing that reveals he’s been experimenting on soldiers and culminates on a message from Q. They meet, kind of proving how dangerous the other is, when Adam claims to be capable of killing threats. He can certainly drop F bombs! In turn, Q invokes Oppenheimer and offers a Faustian vial that claims to be a cure, but is short-lived, when Kore can only stand a few minutes swimming in the sun. So, in exchange, he asks Adam to help prevent Renée from completing the Europa Mission. Eventually, this brings Tallinn and La Sirena’s crew together for a debriefing. The queen’s dead (their only calculator home), Tallinn says Renée will …  Read more »

” … This episode did a trick previously seen in episodes like “Maps and Legends” and the movie Don’t Look Up, in which the “present” scene is expository dialogue placed over visuals from the past and future to show that exposition in action. It begins with such a scene of Renée Picard, the woman reading Dixon Hill last week, in a flight simulator, her confidence shaken. She seeks a therapist, but Picard and Renée’s Watcher (who looks like Laris, but calls herself Tallinn) realize that therapist is Q. Orla Brady puts on an American accent (semi-successfully), and Q does one of his parodic accents, this time Freudian. One thing this episode also asked of its actors is a lot of playing with voices ….”

Ah, yeah, what’s interesting is if pair up with stuff from ‘First Contact”, such as the dixon hill where “ensign lynch” borg chasing picard initial lead in at ending Q/Renee sequence from “The Watcher” and played out in this episod as the astronaut party.

Is Q, Nicky the Nose? Is Tallin, Ensign Lynch (aka smoky data portal as “borg node”) or Spiner via Q info Is Renee, Cochran? (where finds sentient microbs on europa, a ‘safe’ borg theme) Is Jurati/Borg Queen ‘holo deck controls’ or the two drones chasing picard into holodeck?

Keying in on several times Picard has comment about history not being as he recalled it, is this whole season a play on the next genreation storylines involving data dreams? aka Per first season lead in, where Picard is now an android: (some of the ‘dream’ references) 1) data slurping up polypeptides as stand-in for proverbial surfing waves of time. 3) Is finding sentient microbs on Europa a polypeptide clue? 4) data learning how to dream and the “raven flying around” reference to ‘The Raven’ ship & 7 of 9 5) Blacksmith / forge -> Q “trial never ends” & Q providing info to Soong

er playing with voices: Perhaps referring to Borg queen not hearing voices?

Guess picard relative needing to find sentient micros could be a reference to goo that Q shows Picard in “All Good Things” (picard is 3 seasons, “All good things” has 3 picard enterprises)

@TrekMovie “As per tradition, the French-born (Chateauneuf-Grasse) Renée Picard has a British accent.”

You presumably mean an English accent. You know, one of the four separate countries that make up Britain.

Fair enough. Cheers

Whenever I’m in the US people always say British accent,but I guess English works too,lol! A cab driver DID say English accent once though.

Too much Spiner, not enough Rios, who is easily the most charismatic NuTrek character. I hope they give Rios a spinoff.

I agree I like Rios (the cast is quite good) but I also enjoyed Spiner. Just needs more Rios, sure.

Yeah, I agree. Somehow he really stood out in this episode.

Ummm…. Spine … errr spin her story backround.

Current situation in south west wold make for a very dry/dusty Rio story.

Hopefully as Captain of the Stargazer.

I’d actually prefer something on his ship, La Sirena, so we could see him with the holograms again. It would also have a different feel from the other shows. Other characters can come and go throughout the episodes and seasons.

Here too! I liked him better when he was independent with his holograms. That right there was enough to hold a 10 episode season in the right hands I should think.

I hate that ship so much I’m hoping it gets destroyed for good this season.

And he can always bring his holograms to the Stargazer. He is the Captain. I like them too.

I actually do think Rios is the most interesting character in the show. I feel they are underusing him here, too. I know he’s not the lead but still he’s the most interesting.

“… Turns out Jurati is now carrying a cybernetic secret: She’s got a little bit of Queen in her. ….”

So, at some point will there be a Juratian or Borgian Rrapsody? (substiuting Europa for Galilleo of course)

Protecting an ancestor of Jean-Luc Picard was the basic premise of the Enterprise ride at Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas.

Good call! I did that ride and can confirm.

I had TOTALLY forgotten about that narrative!!!

That’s no coincidence, it’s it?!!

Terry Matalas, what say you???

Hmm, thought Soong was going to be all “we should use artificial intelligence for this flight, I can build a flawless machine that equates with life and can do all the jobs of people without any disease or anything”, Picard: “That’s nonsensical, life is special, oh wait I am a flawless machine equal to life and just built an evacuation fleet out of synths I wanted to be lifeforms.” Q (mic drop): Hypocrite exposed! Later! Borg Queen: “I’ll take that tech.. which is why I logically did not just go back in time and win Wolf 359”. NASA: “Sorry peoples, this mission to Europa with SLS will cost too much and is cancelled. Then Elon Musk walks in “Let’s save this mission with the reusable Starship that will cost less than a tenth of that.” Government: “Sorry… we aren’t going to let you prove that. FAA, get in here!!! Block that launch!!” Putin: “World War 3 time!!! Because that is supposed to happen right, like the Eugenics Wars? Or we only accept the Trek timeline for imaginary Sanctuary zones and Earth-Saturn missions?” Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher: I had better be heading up this mission that there is some kind of timeline consistency.

“…. Q (mic drop): Hypocrite exposed! Later!” Ah, no, didn’t time jump to when the Army slogan was “Be all you can be.” But even if had, in episode Soong did grumple about being a pawn of para-military groups.

I though Jonathan Frakes did a masterful job in directing this episode. Nice pacing and intersplicing back and forth between separate storylines. Kudos!

Well said ’66. The three plotlines interweaving together in the end reminded me of First Contact. Spiner and De Lancie were delicious here as well.

Things that stood out.

First, does the US switch sides of roads to drive on in the next two years? That bus was OBVIOUSLY driving on the wrong side of that highway. And no, roads don’t get closed when busses filled with illegals are moving somewhere. There should have been other vehicles on that highway. But that would interfere with their story, I guess. I also loved the insert of an entirely different landscape than the area where the actors were interacting with the bus. That’s the sort of thing you see in satire or super low budget productions. Sorry Star Trek Picard. Someone on the staff missed it.

And next… That’s a LOT of high tech security (that I guess gets invented in the next two years as well) for an astronaut party. It felt like something the next Bond villain might host. Good grief…

I know they are talking about the very near future but the show is truly stretching credibility for what will be invented in the next two years. Quite a bit.

Picard seems to have watched a lot of Star Trek to know every aspect of every mission Kirk had. It seems being turned into a robot has its advantages. He has files stored away of every mission Kirk, and I’m sure Janeway, Archer and Sisko, ever had.

Kinda wondering how Q got a hold of the exact substance Soong needed. He can’t snap his fingers any longer. So did he bring it with him? I got the impression he was only doing this because he COULDN’T snap things the way he wanted anymore. Really hoping those who claim that Matalas smartly ties everything up in the end are right because things aren’t making a whole lot of logical sense here.

And for the record… The assimilation was telegraphed. Although I thought it was done already rather than on the Borg’s deathbed. But still… It was the obvious next step of the plot.

And one last thing.. Disappointed we didn’t get into what is easily the most interesting plot element by light years. Why was Q not able to “snap” things anymore? And how is he still able to do all the things he is doing without it?

“First, does the US switch sides of roads to drive on in the next two years?” Perhaps has something to do with the British accent comment noted else where. Picard does doe a British accent. if this is the Picard android dream sequence,then would make sense that remembers things on the other side of the road. Alternatively, per text on back of bus is “reverse”, could be an allusion to looking at history through a mirror.

“ Picard seems to have watched a lot of Star Trek to know every aspect of every mission Kirk had. It seems being turned into a robot has its advantages. He has files stored away of every mission Kirk, and I’m sure Janeway, Archer and Sisko, ever had.”

Good point. Maybe Picard took a special interest in Kirk’s adventures after meeting him in the Nexus.

I love the TOS callbacks. I’d have to think that Kirk’s history would be pretty familiar to a guy so intelligent and knowledgeable of Star Fleet history plus they shared a love… the Enterprise! This is a fun season.

I liked it. Made me miss Caprica. It was like a trailer for Caprica.

But Caprica alternate time line shouldn’ t be possible until this time line’s WW III

The Trek’s greatest hits tour continues, sight. The first two episodes were so strong, but the originality is dwindling. So much heavy handedness in the messaging, and the continued connectedness of all people is a bit ridiculous. Going to the 21st century is increasingly looking like a bad idea.

Good episode 👍!!! I’m always a fan of seeing more Q and he had a lot to do in this episode. By the way, I called that telephone number and it actually is a recorded message from John De Lancie, that’s wild 😄! Also, I knew the Borg Queen was eventually gonna assimilate somebody.

It’s what they’ve been doing since 1988! And if Agnes is the new Borg Queen, it’ll be interesting to see how she behaves as the Borg Queen. Because the good Dr.Juratti was all ready to join A.I. Soongs cause last year and destroy all sentient life in the galaxy. So, will she go on a similar bend if she becomes the Borg Queen?

That’s the big question. I knew that whole “Borg asking for peace” story in episode 1 was just a ruse. They probably would’ve attempted an invasion the first chance they got. In Voyager’s Endgame episode, Admiral Janeway herself even said that the Borg NEVER give up and that the Queen is very devious and she’s always coming up with three or four different situations herself to get ahead of her opponents.

If the Borg were really in trouble, they would’ve taken measures to help themselves. They would never go to the Federation for help. The Federation represents everything they hate about humanoid life forms and the Queen said that herself to Data in First Contact (the movie). So the LAST thing they would ever do is ask for help.

Then the question becomes do they help them? Just because they say they want peace, doesn’t mean they actually want peace? They could start reassimilating races in the future and then the Federation would have to live with the consequences of their actions and those consequences could be horrific. So do you put a temporary salve on a really bad situation just to look like the good guy or do you enforce the Prime Directive’s mandate not to meddle in a society’s affairs?

I know what the Prime Directive is and what it stands for and I also know that it doesn’t apply to the Borg because of how advanced they are. But that decision really is up to the Federation because the Borg are considered enemy combatants and if the Federation wanted a way out, they could say that the Prime Directive prevents them from getting involved in their affairs. Oh, on the subject of Kore, I wonder if that might be Soji displaced in time by Q. I hope not because that would be a pretty neat story then about Data painting that portrait in season 1 and why the woman looked so much like Soji.

If she is an actual ancestor of Data’s then the story they may be telling here is that she was the woman in the portrait from season 1. They never did explain about why Data painted that portrait of a woman who looked exactly like Soji nearly 20 years before she was built. If Kore really is an ancestor of Data’s, then it stands to reason that she “existed” somewhere in Data’s memory bank. He probably had memories of her and never understood why or where those memories came from because he didn’t even know who she was.

And Kore can’t go outside, so that may be why Data painted that picture of her walking on the beach and it felt like in that picture she was so isolated and so alone. That’s why the picture was painted in a grey color. That usually symbolizes loneliness or isolation or a sense of aloneness. And if Kore is the woman in the painting, then that’s a plot thread being wrapped up from season 1 and people have tried telling me that the Picard cast and crew are not paying attention to their story when, in fact, they are.

Sir Patrick is keeping a tight reign on the writer’s room and that’s why he said in an interview about season 3 that he’s arguing with them everyday 🙂. Live long and prosper, Trekmovie 🖖.

“So, will she go on a similar bend if she becomes the Borg Queen?” Obviously this episode just scractch the surface on what’s going to happen.

“… And Kore can’t go outside,” And when shown what happens if she does & isn’t protected makes it look like reference to picard’s knowledge of theta radiation & what happened to romulans in startrek:nemisys.

Umm…. do the lyrics in ‘California Dreamin’ in prior episode allude to Kore ‘gray painting/skies’, fits in with ‘sense of aloneness’. Would seem at odds with ‘winter day’, especially when in season 1, the ‘flower machines’ saved the day.

The song is probably alluding to the fact that they’re in California in the past when music is still played on radio stations or streaming channels. All I’m doing is speculating about a painting that was shown in season 1 of a woman who looked like Soji walking on a beach under gray skies along the ocean and the ocean looked like it was in tumult.

I am surmising that the woman in the picture is Kore because it was never answered how Data could paint a picture of Soji 20 years before she was built. I simply said that would be a good way to solve that mystery if it was. And from what we just learned about Kore, she can’t go outside because of her medical condition. So she probably feels a sense of isolation or aloneness because of her disability.

We just met Kore so I don’t think the choice of song in the previous episode when we didn’t even know she existed matters. Live long and prosper, galaxy’s got talent 🖖.

One, it’s Thalaron radiation that the Scimitar used in Nemesis, not Theta. And that’s not Thalaron radiation used in this show because if it was, then Kore would’ve disintegrated because the bio-genic properties of Thalaron radiation cause it to disintegrate whoever or whatever comes into contact with it. The Scimitar would’ve completely destroyed the Enterprise-E and her crew because of the Thalaron radiation that resided within her. That was the point of getting the Enterprise free from the Scimitar.

And two, why wouldn’t Picard remember the events of Nemesis. It’s the same Jean-Luc Picard from the Prime Timeline. He was just switched over to the Confederacy Timeline so he remembers. I would hope he remembers since Sir Patrick Stewart co-wrote Nemesis and the events of Nemesis heavily inform this whole show🙂.

And about Dr.Juratti becoming the Borg Queen and what she might do, well, you should probably rewatch Picard season 1. Because in that season, Agnes sided with the synthetic life forms over the humanoids. She was on the side that wanted to exterminate all sentient life in favor of artificial life. So I theorized that if the writers are turning her into a Borg Queen, then it will be interesting to see what side she falls on: hero or genocidal maniac?

Remember Jean-Luc Picard couldn’t even stand up against the influence of the Borg when he was Locutus and look what happened at Wolf 359 because of it? Live long and prosper, galaxy’s got talent 🖖.

“ picard’s knowledge of theta radiation”

Is it a little on the nose to have Q peddling wild theories and secret facts ‘they’ don’t want you to know via the Internet? Hmmm lol

Well, does the delancie phone message include the radio frequency the borg queen is listening in on?

For a family that has flawed genes, I’m impressed that all of the Soong men look exactly alike. Even several hundred years later. That’s some strong genes. ;)

“Fly Me to the Moon” is another one of those frustrating outings…” “episode five has some uneven pacing…”

You got is so wrong it’s frustrating. After last week’s disaster episode (which you were unrealistically positive about), this one was really good, fun and thrilling. I’m glad they’re back to it. 8/10

Note a couple of “Back to the Future” nods:

Leah Thompson doing her best Huey Lewis impression, wearing the “you’re too darn loud” glasses. Q says, “Right on the tick”, which I’ve only otherwise heard when Doc Brown predicts when it will stop raining.

Yeah, but didn’t happen on 1/9 at 5:05

So, established shot song was ‘California Dreaming’. Should the scene with Renee looking at the Saturn V launch have played ‘Hotel California’? (especially since Jurati is a prisoner of own device)

Or perhaps have to wait until ‘The Raven’ character declares ‘Never More!’

The episode held my attention but also has some problematic aspects to it.

Raffi has reverted almost completely to the human trainwreck she was in S1. For a Starfleet officer she shows remarkably poor judgment and downright pettiness again and again. Really get the feeling the writers are struggling to figure out her role in all of this.

The immigration bus escape struck me as odd. I understand needing to get Rios out. But knocking out the guards and then releasing all the other prisoners into the wild without any consideration as to who they may be or what they may do seemed especially strange in light of all the talk about trying not to corrupt the timeline.

Picard is really coming across as a Kirk fanboy; would have been fun to have Shatner do a cameo as Shatner (the NASA party would have been a perfect spot for this) if only to see Picard’s reaction.

Jurati’s story arc continues to be the most interesting part of the season so far for me; hope they don’t drop the ball with her.

It’s hard to make characters too distinct when you’re scrambling to keep a shaggy season arc going. Three-dimensional characters make choices, and sometimes those choices might not lead them to where you need them to be when you start paying off in episodes 8, 9, and 10 the stuff you setup in 1 & 2.

(It’s hard but the reward is that the show is better, which you might not have enough time & money to afford on account of shooting two seasons simultaneously and a dozen producers saying, “good enough, let’s move on.”)

Am I the only one who tried to call that number?

I only called it after I heard about the joke message.

Nope! It was great lol.

Loved it. Hope they keep it active a long time!

Again, the overwhelmingly positive response in these comments makes me wish I could see this show the way the majority of the audience seems to. You folks are being Star Trek fans the right way. All I could see was:

… The total pointlessness of Raffi-Seven-Rios’ original away mission. Even if Picard is the one who finds the Watcher, the fact that the three of them do nothing other than be 21st century tourists for the viewers — they do not gain any skills or meet any people that might help them in their mission (Star Trek IV did a good job of dividing up the crew and giving them or pairs of them mini missions) — is obnoxious. The La Sirena doesn’t work when it needs to and then does when the writers need it to, so the actors beamed away long enough for them to block shoot out the rest of their episodes for this and next season.

… If Q is posing as Renee’s NASA psychologist then he doesn’t need to nudge her, he could just recommend *to NASA* that she be scrubbed from the mission. If it’s more important that he convince her to give up, then that should’ve been made clearer. The other two storylines sort of muddy things up: Neither Q nor the Queen manipulate Soong or Jurati, respectively. They brute force their way to a desired result. But I don’t know, maybe the writers think poisoning someone’s daughter and holding an innocent person hostage is textbook manipulation.

… If the ship was repaired enough to bring the transporters back online and somehow repower the Queen enough so that she could throw around some nanoprobes, then why couldn’t Jurati just sleep in the ship? Oh, right, because they needed to contrive of a way to get her off the ship so the Queen could brute force her escape.

… A smart show would not leave THE BORG QUEEN alone. She doesn’t even have her baby forcefield on like she did when in the Confederation lab. That’s a Confederation ship. But Jurati has to ignore all of that so that we can get to the desired endpoint.

… Jurati knows how to use an ancient shotgun because she took an ancient Earth programming intro course at the Academy. WINK WINK.

… Jurati gets close enough to be touched by the Borg Queen because they need her to. EXCITING! (I think the “you’re alone” bit doesn’t really work — it’s played as though it IS working, but I never bought it, and this show hasn’t earned the right for me to “just go with it,” since they make a big intelligence-defying ask at least twice an episode already.

… The Picard-NotLaris scene(s) played a lot like the Guinan stuff in the last episode: perfunctory, expository dialogue that could’ve been spoken by anybody. Neither Picard nor NotLaris are characters. Nothing they do is motivated by character. And nothing they say is at all interesting.

… So much fake jeopardy/schmuck bait.

… Can really feel their 2-hour plot being stretched out over 10.

But again, I am fully wrong here. The people who like this show are watching it correctly.

No need to apologize for your opinion. If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you. There is no incorrect way to watch something. (Unless you’re staring at your phone or hanging upside down. That’s incorrect.)

I’m glad its not just me. This episode really lost me but this season is just turning disappointing altogether. The first two episodes were great. But every since they got to 2024 it’s been feeling worse and worse for me. I agree with many of your points and said them in my own review too.

And no one is ‘wrong’, this is how opinions work. We just may be in the minority here, but it’s still just as valid as everyone else’s.

Exactly why I’m holding out now unt Ep 10 is out after watching 1st two episodes. They seem to be going for a 10 hour movie.. probably stupid to do. imo. It’s a tv series afterall, so it needs to be structured as such.

ObiWan show for example is doing 6 episodes so that can still work if they want to go for a big cinematic extended movie sort of. But 10 hours is too much of a stretch here. The positive is the final act of the season may well go out with a bang as movies tend to do and seen in a ful context the whole season watched back might play much better.

Another Apollo 11 Easter egg: The “1202 Alarm” during Renée Picard’s crash drill is a reference to the same “1202 Program Alarm” that occurred during the final moments of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

The committee’s description of Soong’s previous behavior (  “unmonitored, unregulated, illegal… genetic experiments with a privatized military organization; spearhead operations on soldiers”) seemed to imply he may have been involved in the Eugenics Wars.

I enjoyed this episode much more than 3 and 4. But my question is what is Q’s endgame here?

In all of TNG, Q was a jerk, and could be indifferent to human suffering. But it was in the way that a person has no feeling for an ant that it may step on. And, moreover, Q had moments where he seemed to genuinely care about Picard and Janeway, and show compassion.

This version of Q feels more outright malevolent.

I like your connection with the Eugenics Wars. Very good point!

Ok. Admit it. Eveyone called Q Lol. Yes. I did.

When the gala security system is explained, the date of birth on Renée Picard’s passport does not match the ID record on the scanner readout. (November 22 vs. July 1) You can see that these numbers are supposed to match when Dr. Jurati’s fake passport is scanned.

I noticed the November 22 vs July 1 discrepancy as well. I am speculating that the earlier date is the date that her parents created an ID for her in utero.

The passport contains further errors. The Numbers on the lower area of the passport do also encode birth date and gender of the owner, here (after the “FRA”) : birthdate 11.07.1989 and gender: male. The date de deliverance of the Passport is 27.09.2017, a sunday.

Good eye, Heiko242!

I agree that the episode was disjointed – some of the storylines were interesting and compelling but the Borg Queen Jurati storyline was lacking in so many ways. Last week, I noted the Queen’s antagonistic attitude made no sense – simply because she too wanted the same thing as Picard and the rest of the team. As for Agnus, all she had to do was use a phaser to shut the Queen up for a few hours. No need for a shotgun. That storyline deserves a F. As for the other storylines, each of them IMO deserved a passing grade for various levels of intrigue and interest. So far, the season is barely getting a passing grade, maybe a 6.5 out of 10. Let’s see what they come up with next week!

Haven’t even seen the ep yet, but absolutely loved the Q phone number easter egg! 😜

This episode was “meh.” I found myself bored this time. I’m losing interest. It’s become predictable and has a “been there done that” vibe. And I’m tired of the Soong family and Picard’s Kirk fetish. The first 3 episodes grabbed my interest, but these last two have left my eyes rolling. I hope it gets more interesting.

I’m sorry, but I am just not enjoying this season at all. Three straight disappointing episodes for me. Every one looks like it has promise until I watch them. I thought this one was going to be great. We finally know who the watcher is and would get a deep dive into Renee Picard. But it just felt meandering and a lot of time wasting for most of the episode.

Yes, I did like the watcher actually being connected to Gary Seven. That was pretty cool but it just went downhill for me after that. So Soong #47 is trying to cure his daughter through questionable genetics but the Eugenics Wars are never directly referenced. Star Trek it HAPPENED in canon, either deal with it or retcon it out of existence.

The entire ‘save Rios from evil ICE agents’ just felt like complete filler. Three episodes to basically bust him out and story over. Maybe they will swing it back to the doctor for some reason but does anyone truly care?

Seven and Raffi arguing over beaming Rios out of the bus and the ‘harm’ it can do if others saw, but somehow forgot the fact they just did that in the middle of downtown L.A. in front of a bunch of police officers. Did the writers truly forgot about that?

The stuff with Q being the therapist just felt really ridiculous. Really? He’s going to change history by having a session with her?

I really hate how everyone looks like other characters. Soong’s daughter, OK, I guess I have to buy Data or Soong of the 24th century decided to make a 400 year old ancestor the image of their new synth line. But fake Laris being the watcher? I thought there was going to be some big twist but nope, she just happens to look like Laris for some odd reason. We already discussed the Soongs to death.

I did like the Borg Queen cleverness with the officer. But c’mon, this is common lazy screenwriting where the officer doesn’t call for back up when he sees some cloaked space ship nonchalantly siting in the middle of a field but just goes in anyway. How do you not call THAT in???

The ‘heist’ scene looked interesting and will follow up next week but why couldn’t they just get to Renee BEFORE she entered it? Is there something needed besides her? They have transporters and a freaking Supervisor, I’m guessing they could’ve gotten to her before then. But maybe I’m forgetting something.

I’m just feeling disappointed in this season so far. Better than season one, but still making the same mistakes and mostly just feel like it’s spinning it’s wheels. I can see I’m the minority with my opinion here which is both good and bad. I REALLY want to like this season, it has all the elements I wanted, but it’s still just lacking overall for me.

Maybe next week will be better I guess.

I agree that, at least so far, the whole ICE plot line seems mostly like filler and an excuse to make some very on-the-nose commentary. I guess the main plot doesn’t give all characters something meaningful to do so they went on this side-plot. Maybe it’s best to think of it as A and B stories we often got on previous shows. Often, your main story just doesn’t involve all characters, and then you can either write them out of the episode or give them a B story.

I also agree that it’s getting ridiculous to see all these Soong ancestors that all look just like Brent Spiner. If you want to put blame, this was started during the Berman era (Arik Soong on ENT), the new shows are just continuing that trope. Spiner is pretty popular among fans so it makes sense from that sense to bring the actor back. As for Adam Soong’s daughter looking just like Soji, you can probably explain that away since Soji was an artificial creation that may have been designed after Kore. I guess now we know why Soji didn’t travel back in time with the rest of the crew: They didn’t want to have Isa Briones play two roles concurrently.

Could Laris be a future version of the watcher character we see here? Picard thinks she’s Laris but she doesn’t know who Laris is because that’s only in her future?

Wasn’t there a scene where the French officer tried to call in over the radio and only got static? Even complaining about “hating the countryside” or something? Let’s no forget that this is rural France. There’s probably far less (gun) violence against police than in the US. He was the only officer on scene. Backup was far away, but there was probably also little reason for him to expect to be in any real danger. Cloaked ships do not exist in reality so he just saw some strange phenomenon that he couldn’t explain.

They don’t want to “get to Renee”. They just want to make sure Renee goes on her spaceflight, without anybody noticing. So they can’t kidnap her or anything. I think the watcher also mentioned that she is not allowed to make direct contact with Renee.

Save yourself and stop watching the show if you’re feeling soooo disappointed. Spare us also, from your negativity.

When Q’s business card appeared on-screen I immediately hit pause, called the number, and had myself a good chuckle…

Who else did so as well? 🤙😃

Can I just ask why a Board of Review would meet in a hallway?

You can survive without a spleen- my grandmother had hers removed and lived on for decades after the fact.

Was this the first Star Trek to have both French and Spanish in the same episode?

Man, did I love the Gary Seven connection this week. I had to stop the stream and play the KT end titles’ rendition of the TOS theme to celebrate this! I’m glad I have finally been right about something :-) And behold: the portal mist was blue that week as it was on TOS, not grey as last week…

Desperate dads, searching for a cure for their ailing daughters- accepting a miracle drug from a stranger. Sound familiar? Reminded me of Star Trek Into Darkness- with Q replacing Khan.

Picard is such a well made series full of great characters, but the writing in this episode wasn’t as tight as it has been this season. I think too much was left unexplained in this episode so I was deeply distracted by it. For example, why doesn’t Picard know much about Renee? What’s this convenient excuse that much of this time period was lost to history? How can Rene and the Europa mission be the key to paving the right path for Earth if we have already been set up to believe First Contact following WWIII is what set us on the right path? Whatever happens in 2024 is going to be meaningless by 2026 when WWIII begins so how can anything be relevant before that? We also get two characters showing up in this episode without any form of plausible explanation for their existence, hoping they will get around to it. Why does Soong have strange future tech in 2024, surely they aren’t suggesting we have drones with UV forcefields in 2024? Also, Agnes plucking a fully functioning shotgun off the fireplace mantle is another silly convenience in an episode that just has too many of them to overlook. And more importantly, why wasn’t the Watcher suspicious of the therapist? Surely you didn’t need Picard to figure that one out? And then there is Picard conveniently putting together Gary Seven for us in exposition, which was hamfisted to say the least. This episode also had some weird tonal shifts from scene to scene, even if the individual scenes themselves were great…they just didn’t fit together smoothly. There was also some editing issues I noticed here and there, mostly because they stood out as abrupt or confusing.

But on the bright side, Agnes and the Queen are so phenomenal, every scene they have together is a highlight for me. Just fantastic writing and performances, especially for Alison Pill who is a revelation this season.

Aaron Soong is great, I love the asshole billionaire mogul shtick, he’s playing it perfectly and convincingly. That entire scene with Q was perhaps my favorite of the episode, great writing and performances. This show is just nailing the two things they had to get right, Q and the Queen.

Another so-so episode. A big negative for me was making Picard’s ancestor the key to the future. Also another Soong is involved. It makes the universe feel small, and it’s getting awfully close to making these families the Skywalkers of Star Trek, with destiny and fate in the bloodline and all that.

Or maybe this is dream logic, all apart of Q’s illusions…? Right…? Nah, I can’t stretch that to make it work. It’s just mediocre writing.

Just an absolutely bizarre choice to introduce Renee in prior episode reading a book on a lunch break, and dressed like she’s an Apple Store specialist. There’s nothing about her in appearance or behavior that says she’s an astronaut. In the simulator scene, it played more like an actor doing a scene – as though Renee is an actor in a movie about an astronaut. Just shaggy.

Actually, my favorite part, is Picard has no idea about his ancestor’s role in the Europa Missions, but knows all about the importance of the Europa Missions. When they hand wave stuff, it’s so glaringly distracting and obvious.

Yes! It’s bizarre what they choose to double down on (constantly restating at the top of each scene what the episode objective) and what they decide to blow right past.

Picard actually mentioned Renee Picard in the season premiere so he knows she played a role in early exploration of the solar system but he may not know all details about her life.

Anyone notice the Frakes style camera work on the first shot of the Borg queen? Exactly like the first contact style…

Why didn’t the queen just turn the cop into a drone?

You guys forgot to mention something BIG in random bits.. Renee Picard… Renee Picard! Was Picards nephew that appeared in TNG multiple times and died in the fire with Picards brother in Generations!

Actually, that nephew of his was called René Picard.

After my feelings about jumping ship after episode 3, and being advised to stick with it just a bit longer, I am once again feeling appalled at the state of modern Trek. It’s rudderless. Jumping from one scene to the next with little true flow or understanding of how proper drama works. Or how Star Trek works. Or logic and intellect. So we’re halfway into this Season 2. And we’ve got further proof that the writers have ZERO idea of how things work in a professional organisation, or the chain of command. Which is why the crew were always more professional (and believable) in TOS, TNG etc. Writers often had had prior experience of doing service, or working in the Police force, or being familiar with those (family, friends) that had etc. Modern writers seemingly have none of that and seem to have as their only ‘rock’, pop culture references and winks and nods to far better written dramas and films from the past. None of these characters acts in a professional manner scene-to-scene. Take Rios. In episode 1, he told his crew to stop firing at the “Borg” “Queen”, and he had to issue that command three times before they ceased. Can you imagine Picard or Kirk or Janaway having to issue an order three times before the crew acted professionally? Officers are trained to react and still obey orders under considerable stress. There was no sign of that understanding whatsoever in that scene.

Take Raffi, as but one example. There is NO WAY somebody that ill tempered and ill disciplined would make the grade in the Starfleet we traditionally (at least) know from prior (pre 2009) productions. Michell Hurd – a superb actress – truly gives it her best shot in a badly written, haphazard and schizoid role. The appalling writing means there’s VERY little chance at all of any chance for crackling chemistry with Jeri Ryan. Her character would fit in far better in Discovery with it’s frequent and ludicrous use of over-emoting, bursting into tears, and “ACT-ing mo-ments”. Emotional moments placed there ‘just because’, not because it’s been earned by good quality writing to develop naturally from the scene, or that the writers really understand emotions beyond sitcom or soap level drivel. Acting moments are, like Star Trek moments, seemingly put into a blender and sh*t out at random and patchwork’d together with thin scripting, yet top quality production values to fool many into thinking they’re watching quality entertainment…

OK, so we haven’t had anything close to an eyeball being slowly pulled out whilst the victim screams in agony, like Season 1. But, we’ve had a Starfleet officer slitting throats (and Raffi wise-cracking afterwards!) (read that again if you don’t ‘get it’. Starfleet officers do not slit throats to get out of a scrape!). We’ve had the use of sh*t, pr*ck, and in episode 5, they couldn’t resist another F-bomb. Why am I so angry? I’m angry because episode 1 showed THEY CAN STILL DO IT, IF THEY WANT! Episode 1 (as MANY had commented joyfully) was quintessential Star Trek. Star Trek that is exciting, well written, well acted, has an edge, BUT has the class not to cross it, so it can be watched by every age group, so it’s ultimate message of ‘we can do better as a race working together’ can be appreciated, and inspiring to all! Instead it’s been snatched away from the younger audience members. And for what? Is having cussing and casual neck slitting violence in Trek warranted to make it “cool” by some in the audience? Do the producers and show runners truly think it makes Star Trek ‘less square’ (it survived VERY well being a somewhat niche show without pandering to the masses!) by being ‘edgy’ in some way?

I am disappointed and ANGRY with Sir Patrick, Frakes, Spiner, the snow runners, the script writers for allowing this to happen. Shame on you all! I was inspired by Star Trek as a kid, as were millions. And now you’ve rendered it suitable for 13/15 (depending upon the episode ratings!) year old demographics only! Bravo! Proud of yourselves?….. You shouldn’t be.

My last hope is Strange New Worlds. Though as Kurtzman is behind this one too, I am sure it’ll be “course correcting” episode to episode as it tries to pander towards every pop-culture whim that’s flavour of the month, rather than ploughing it’s own course. All his others shows have the same failure mechanisms – chopping and changing throughout and not knowing which direction they’re taking tonally, or in terms of demographics. Will Strange New Worlds be the live action FAMILY friendly Trek many fans desire? Time will tell, but my well of patience has pretty much run dry. This “franchise” needs a FAR more appropriate show runner.

@I, Mugsy — you are spot-on about the writers, especially the Discovery writers. The writing is just so juvenile and immature and inexperienced. I’m constantly thinking that these must be twenty-somethings writing the shows today, and as you said, apparently writing from no life experience at all. It’s really sad to see.

Just so we’re clear, NotLaris — Renee’s Watcher — can’t get close to her, necessitating the Ocean’s Eleven sequence in the next episode, but she CAN take over other people’s bodies to talk to and escort Picard to her in the previous episode?

The Ending Of Picard Season 2 Episode 5 Explained

Contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2, Episode 5

The plot gears are finally turning in Season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard." After quite a bit of setup in the previous episodes, we are finally getting what seem to be answers regarding how Q (John de Lancie) has altered the timeline to create his hellish version of the 25th century, and what the crew of the La Sirena must do to stop his meddling.

Directed by Jonathan Frakes, Episode 5 finds our crew getting the hang of the 21st century and deciphering Q's plan. Admiral Picard (Patrick Stewart) has tracked down the Watcher (Orla Brady), who bears an uncanny resemblance to his Romulan assistant, Laris, minus the pointy ears and arched, alien eyebrows. He soon realizes that the space mission to Europa we've heard chatter about in the background of the past couple episodes is vastly important. Jean-Luc's ancestor, Renee Picard (Penelope Mitchell), is an astronaut aboard that flight, and Q has diverged the timeline by convincing her not to go. Unable to use his godlike powers to accomplish this, Q is posing as a therapist to talk her out of going.

But while Q schemes and wheedles his way into history's path, the crew of the La Sirena manages to reunite after various circumstances drew them apart in previous episodes — and now they've got The Watcher on their side. So, as the episode draws to a close, it seems they might have a plan, however daring, to set things right and save the future. 

Here's the ending of Episode 5 explained.

John de Lancie delivers a different kind of Q

Data may have died for good at the end of "Picard" Season 1, but Brent Spiner is now back as Doctor Adam Soongh, presumably the ancestor of Data's progenitor, Noonian Soongh . Also back is Isa Briones as his daughter, Corey, who is afflicted with a strange genetic disorder that causes sunlight to "turn her blood to poison."

It looks like talking Renee Picard out of going on the Europa mission isn't enough, because Q approaches Soongh with the cure for his daughter's condition, promising to ask something in return later. Desperate to save Corey, Soongh uses the cure on her and sure enough, she's able to step outdoors for the first time and can even fulfill her lifelong dream of taking a swim in the pool. But after a few minutes, Q's serum wears off, and she collapses as the disease takes hold once more. Soongh tells Q that if he has the real cure, he will pay any price, and Q says, "I want you to remove an obstacle." Clearly, Q is not here as a good Samaritan and will extract a hefty price for Corey's life.

It seems odd that Q, who is virtually omnipotent, doesn't simply snap his fingers to get things done, but it appears something is wrong with the old demigod. As he tells Soongh, "I have discovered of late that I have certain limitations." His power is waning, and at the end of Episode 4, he is unable to mind control Renee into doubting herself, something that should have been simple as pie for him. That's presumably the reason he resorted to posing as her analyst instead and is now manipulating Soongh. 

The great Q is now reduced to simple human trickery. When John de Lancie promised " a different kind of Q ," he meant it.

Saving the future means crashing a fancy party

Q, stripped of his powers, has a plan to convince astronaut Renee Picard not to board her spaceship to Europa, thus ensuring that humanity never understands the hope for its future that lies among the stars, and setting the world on course for the dystopian future seen in Episode 2, "Penance." Picard convinces The Watcher, that they must get in close to Renee in order to stop him.

The Watcher identifies their window of opportunity to be a private, black-tie gala celebrating the mission, after which the astronauts will go into pre-launch quarantine. However, the event is tightly guarded with digital security. Each guest, The Watcher explains, is given a "radio frequency" invite that "corresponds to a database of their entire life," and on the inside, attendants will be monitored by cameras with facial recognition technology, meaning they can't transport in. Additionally, the system is self-contained, making it impossible to hack remotely. That kind of security seems like overkill if you're not expecting a bunch of people from the year 2401 to show up, but it gives the show an excuse to mimic the tropes of a classic heist movie. The Watcher can temporarily get one person through security, so Doctor Jurati (Alison Pill) dons a flattering red dress to attend the gala and hack the system from inside the building.

Once inside, Jurati is spotted by security and detained, but it's all part of the plan. She's cuffed and put in the security control room, exactly where she needs to be. That seems like precisely the room you wouldn't want to bring someone who's a threat to security into, but lest viewers dwell too much on that point, this episode has one last, massive twist to throw our way. Jurati is once again hiding a dark secret.

Jurati slays the Borg Queen and gains a frightening new companion ... the Borg Queen

While the other crew are busy busting Rios (Santiago Cabrera) out of an ICE deportation bus and tracking down The Watcher, Agnes Jurati is left aboard the La Sirena with the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching). After getting a taste of Jurati when the two melded, the Queen is determined to make her a Borg. While Jurati sleeps at the nearby ruins of Chateau Picard, the Queen fakes a call to the police, and when a cop arrives, she lures him into the ship and kidnaps him. Jurati arrives back on the ship to find the Queen's tendrils choking the officer to death, and shoots her dead.

It's not until the very last scene of the episode, when Jurati is detained in the security control room of the Europa gala, that the true sequence of events is revealed. After being shot, the Queen implanted herself in Jurati's mind, and the doctor didn't exactly resist. Now, the Queen is co-piloting the doctor. Her body may lie dead on the La Sirena, but her consciousness persists. Jurati's loneliness has been emphasized this season, and the Queen seduced her with the promise of becoming Borg and merging into the collective. Neither of them is alone anymore, but at what cost? Hiding inside Jurati, the Queen is sure to remain a wrench in the gears for Picard and his crew, and it's unlikely someone as anxious and impulsive as Jurati can contain such a powerful being for long.

Loneliness has been a major theme this season, with Jurati's fear of isolation mirroring Jean-Luc's refusal to form romantic attachment to Laris in Episode 1, "The Star Gazer." This shocking twist shows just how far these characters can be pushed by heartache. But at this critical juncture in the crew's adventure, they can't afford to make mistakes.

The story of Episode 5 calls back to an earlier film

As the end credits roll on this episode, it seems as if the events of the Europa gala will take center stage next week. The event is, for now, the last chance to stop Q's plan from succeeding, and any number of factors could veer things off course. Renee Picard must fulfill her destiny and travel to Europa, or else Q's dystopian future of a xenophobic human society ruled by tyranny will come to pass. He's already succeeded in destabilizing her. She's on edge at the gala, drinking heavily to calm her nerves. Meanwhile, Jurati, handcuffed in the gala's security control room, has the Borg Queen loose in her brain, and there's no telling what that might lead her to do. Last season she committed murder and double0crossed the crew — and that was without humanity's most fearsome foe jockeying for control of her mind.

Meanwhile, Q is manipulating events from behind the scenes. Even with his diminished powers, he remains the biggest threat on the board. Whatever he's planning to ask of Doctor Adam Soongh, we can assume it won't be good for Jean-Luc and the crew. Q's ominous question for Soongh was, "Does the name Picard mean anything to you?" Whether that means Jean-Luc or Renee is unclear, but keep a lookout for the disgraced geneticist in next week's episode.

This isn't the first time Picard has needed to convince someone to travel to space to save the future. The plot of the film "Star Trek: First Contact" revolves around the Enterprise traveling back in time to ensure that the inventor of the warp drive makes his first faster-than-light spaceflight. It's among the best "Star Trek" movies and also featured the Borg Queen, so "Picard" has a high bar to clear moving forward.

'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 Ending Explained: Look Up

It's a hopeful conclusion that sets up a potential reunion in the show's final season.

Star Trek: Picard 's Season 2 finale has dropped, signifying a close to another chapter of Jean Luc Picard's ( Sir Patrick Stewart ) journey. With so many threads left dangling, "Farewell" manages to give closure to not only the timeless story between Picard and Q ( John de Lancie ), but also the stories of Borg Queen Jurati ( Alison Pill ), Cristobal Rios ( Santiago Cabrera ), and Elnor ( Evan Evagora ), likely to make way for the return of The Next Generation reunion in Picard 's final season.

But how does Picard return to the nexus event of the season? And what was the point of all of this?

RELATED: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2 Finale Review: Even Gods Have Favorites

Those that Came Before Us

After Rios forces Soong ( Brent Spiner ) to flee and the new Borg Queen leaves to the Delta quadrant, the team is left with one task to hopefully get home -- make sure that Renee Picard ( Penelope Mitchell ) successfully leaves with the Europa Mission. The team splits up — Picard sneaks into Tallinn's ( Orla Brady ) beam into the mission's quarantine zone after realizing that The Borg Queen's message that there must be 2 Renees and 1 must die was meant for her. After Tallinn dismisses Picard's attempt to save (and control) her life, she is able to reach Renee before Soong, using Romulan holographic technology to disguise herself as Renee. This allows Renee to make it on the mission, but Soong gives the disguised Romulan a neurotoxin. She dies in Picard's arms but successfully saves Renee. Q later reveals that this is the one reality where she gets to meet the Picard and shares a moment with her before her death.

Meanwhile, Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ), Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ), and Rios find at Soong's residence 4 jerry-rigged missiles — a backup plan in case he isn't able to kill Renee. Thankfully, they're able to use the missiles to destroy each other, foiling all of Soong's plans to kill the Picard, foiling any chance he has of being powerful, wealthy, and respected in Q's alternate timeline. Bummer.

A Grand Tapestry

With Soong almost having lost everything, Kore ( Isa Briones ) decides to take the thing that he cares most about away — his research. She doesn't do this for herself, though — she does this for all the lives he created and lost due to his reckless experimentation. Little does she know that he has a physical folder remaining for a 'Khan Project.' Despite this, she still garners the attention of the Travelers, the group that both Tallinn and Wesley Crusher ( Wil Wheaton ) belong to. In an exciting and surprising cameo, The Being Formerly Known as Wesley Crusher greets Kore and gives her the pitch to become a supervisor, the same role Tallinn served for Renee Picard. Her life has never been safe, so she agrees.

Even Gods Have Favorites

After successfully completing their mission (or so they think), Picard and friends return to the Picard Château to lament over their success and what their future now holds. Picard decides to close the time loop and replace the key in the loose brick in the wall, leaving it for his young self to find in the future. This summons Q and the two have a final earnest heart-to-heart, more considerably down to earth than his usual theatrics.

Q reveals that the reason he put the events into place was for Picard to have an epiphany about his guilt over his mother's death. Since he is dying, Q feels the pain of doing so alone, yet still cares about Picard and doesn't want that for him as well. There's even an embrace, showing the true connection between these two characters garnered over 3 decades. Cue the tears. But despite Q's claims that there was no galactic size reason for this last game, only personal reasons, the trans-warp conduit waiting back for them in the future says otherwise.

After an emotional but incomprehensible hug and a chemistry-filled kiss between Raffi and Seven, Q uses the last of his remaining energy to end the trial and send Picard, Seven, and Raffi home and bring Elnor back to life. Rios decides to stay back in 2024, ultimately living his life out in the present-day timeline with Teresa ( Sol Rodriguez ) and her son. Guinan ( Whoopi Goldberg ) even confirms this at the end of the episode, confessing that she knew the whole time and hoped that all Picard needed was a push in the right direction.

Guardian at the Gates

After Picard and the crew return to the moment they left, Picard uses his new experiences to put together the Borg Queen's identity and stops the self-destruct sequence. Since Seven knows the most about the Borg, he gives her a field commission that she deserved after Voyager . The crowd goes wild!

Queen Jurati explains that they need to combine their fleet's shields with Starfleet's to protect the quadrant from the new mysterious conduit. Picard accepts and together they're able to save billions of lives in the galaxy. Even the Borg don't know who is behind the conduit with their 400-year jump start, but they are willing to monitor and study it as new provisional members of the Federation. With this new mysterious threat looming over The Next Generation reunion in Picard 's final season and potential upcoming seasons of Star Trek: Discovery , the finale ends with a hopeful, open-ended conclusion that sees Picard healed and perhaps ready to open his heart.

• View history

In 1610 , Galileo Galilei discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter , which became known to history as the Galilean moons . One of these moons was Europa. It wasn't until the 20th century that Humans were able to get close to the Europan surface, seeing it afar through telescopes for centuries . The NASA probes Voyager 1 , Voyager 2 , and Galileo visited this moon and took detailed [[image]s of its surface. ( PIC : " Watcher ", " Two of One ")

In the 21st century , Human scientists hypothesized that Europa could support life in its subsurface ocean . The Europa Mission to investigate the moon's environment was launched in 2024 and was expected to reach its destination in 2028 . ( PIC : " Assimilation ", " Watcher ")

In Brad Boimler 's 2381 holonovel Crisis Point II: Paradoxus , Europa was the site of the Starfleet Temporal Laboratory , where the Chronogami was created. ( LD : " Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus ")

At least two Federation starships were named USS Europa , one in the 23rd century and another in the 25th century . ( DIS : " The Vulcan Hello "; PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

In 3190 , an emergency center was established on Europa to assist refugees displaced by the Dark Matter Anomaly . Cleveland Booker was sentenced to work there for his violations of Federation law. ( DIS : " Coming Home ")

External link [ ]

• Europa at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Europa at Wikipedia

Screen Rant

Q's star trek: picard plan, real mission & future explained.

Star Trek: Picard's season 2 finale reveals Q's true intentions. What was his actual plan? Why did he create the Confederation? And what's his future?

Q is not a straightforward man, and he doesn't have a straightforward plan - what was the enigmatic entity's  Star Trek: Picard season 2 scheme, why was each step taken, and what does the future hold? Though Q's presence has rippled throughout the  Star Trek franchise, everyone knows Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard is his favorite plaything, having first met the Enterprise-D captain during their 1987 debut. Renowned for his propensity to poke and prod Picard with time-twisting tests of human mortality, an appearance from the godlike Q is rarely welcomed by inhabitants of  Star Trek 's universe. When John de Lancie's character returned in  Star Trek: Picard season 2, therefore, Jean-Luc would've been internally recreating his famous "face-palm" meme.

The devilish Q plucked Picard from his natural timeline - alongside fellow main characters Rios, Seven of Nine, Raffi, Agnes Jurati, and Elnor - at the very moment the Stargazer self-destructed. The group emerged to find their timeline altered - the peaceful Federation a dictatorship called the Confederation, and Jean-Luc Picard one of its most fervent servants. Needing to set history on its rightful course, Picard's gang traveled back to 2024, when Q created a divergence by stopping Renée Picard's Europa flight.

Related:  Q's Star Trek: Picard Death Can Explain A Discovery Mystery

Star Trek: Picard 's season 2 finale reveals Q's  true intentions were far less villainous than his old nemesis presumed. How does each action taken by Q correspond to his ultimate aim of helping Jean-Luc?

What Was Q's REAL Goal In Star Trek: Picard Season 2?

Jean-Luc Picard assumed Q's latest trial was another depraved test for his own amusement. Though Picard did notice something  unusual about Q's new demeanor upon returning, the Starfleet Admiral drastically underestimated his demigod friend's capacity for kindness. Sometime before  Star Trek: Picard season 2 began, Q sensed he was dying (or as close to dying as the Q Continuum gets), and felt the painful sting of mortality for the first time. Q was especially upset by the prospect of dying alone and, predictably, turned his attentions to "Mon Capitaine" once again.

In  Star Trek: Picard 's season 2 finale , Q reveals he didn't want Jean-Luc to die alone, but knew his synthetic friend could never experience true love while the specter of a painful childhood still lingered. Thus, Q designed  Star Trek: Picard season 2's entire scenario as an elaborate therapy session that would force Jean-Luc to confront his demons, then return to his own timeline finally ready for romance. As Picard rightfully points out, Q's scheme also had an ulterior movie -  Star Trek 's omnipotent meddler got to spend his last moments with a person he was fond of, rather than dying alone.

Why Did Q Create Star Trek: Picard's Confederation Timeline?

For Jean-Luc Picard to mentally process the long-gestating trauma of his mother's death, Q needed to give Picard a shot at altering that harrowing moment. This is why Q's lesson comes to an end as soon as Picard places the skeleton key of his family château back in its rightful place. Had Jean-Luc destroyed this relic in 2024, his future self would never release his mother from that locked room, and Yvette wouldn't take her own life. By refusing to alter this traumatic moment, the 90-something-year-old Picard finally makes peace with his mother's passing.

Related:  Picard's Massive Borg Change Is Perfect For Star Trek

Did Q  really need to create that entire Confederation dystopia just to bring Picard some emotional closure? Was there not a simpler method of laying those ghosts to rest? Probably, but this is Q we're talking about - a time-traveling showman with a flair for the dramatic. By turning  Star Trek 's reality into the awful Confederation dystopia, Q left Picard little option but to plot a course back through time - a time before he was born, and when the skeleton key would still be hidden at the château. Picard's glimpse of a dark alternate future was just a shove in the right direction, not Q's endgame.

However, Q's Confederation timeline also showed Picard how one pull on history's thread can ruin the future. Learning this lesson ensured Picard would accept Yvette's death as a sad but necessary step in his journey through life. That doesn't mean Picard would've  caused  the Confederation timeline by destroying the skeleton key (the Europa mission was the crucial factor there), but removing the key  could have triggered perilous ramifications of its own. Seeing Q's Confederation helps Jean-Luc  avert that conclusion.

Q Never Intended Renée Picard's Europa Mission To Fail

There are any number of ways  Star Trek 's nearly-immortal imp could've ruined history - why choose one involving Picard's own ancestor? Though Q doesn't say so explicitly, bringing Jean-Luc and Renée Picard together represented a huge moment of healing for the loveless Admiral. Just like Yvette, Renée struggled with her mental health, and Jean-Luc notes this himself while convincing his ancestor to push forward with the Europa mission. The young Jean-Luc couldn't help his unwell mother , but he could  help Renée, and this slither of redemption may explain why Q specifically picked the Europa thread to pull.

Though the pair are divided by generations, Jean-Luc and Renée are very similar Picards. When the time-traveler implored Renée to not let inner "darkness" steal away dreams of astronaut renown, he might as well have been speaking to himself. Jean-Luc has spent decades turning away from love due to a painful childhood memory, just like Renée wants to turn away from her space adventure due to depression. Q concocted a scenario whereby Picard helped a relative overcome inner demons similar to his own.

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Q's interest in Renée Picard was purely as a therapy tool. He had no intention of  actually stopping the Europa mission and, in reality, knew the fateful flight would go ahead as planned. As proof the future was never in any  real danger, the Borg Queen from  Star Trek: Picard season 2's premiere was Agnes Jurati all along. The only way Agnes could be Borg-ed up  before Q's interjection is if the timeline played out exactly as it was meant to, and Picard's trip to 2024 was already woven into history's grand tapestry.

Why Q Asked Adam Soong For Help (& Then Helped Kore)

If Q was secretly  helping  Jean-Luc Picard, why blackmail Dr. Adam Soong into fighting against the Admiral? Q works in mysterious ways, and apparently doesn't feel inclined to detail his thinking, but one possible explanation is Q's waning power.  Star Trek: Picard season 2's "Watcher" shows Q attempting to "snap" Renée, but his magic abruptly fails. Unable to rely on his usual tricks to make Renée doubt herself, exploiting Adam Soong's scientific ego was perhaps plan B. Another possibility is that Q needed Soong to run Picard over. Colliding with the Soongmobile sent Picard into a coma-like state where he replayed haunted maternal memories alongside Tallinn. Sharing his grief with a close friend (or someone that  looked like a close friend) marked the beginning of Picard coming to terms with the past.

Less clear is why Q helped Kore, since liberating Soong's daughter doesn't affect Picard's progress in any meaningful way. Perhaps Q simply had a moment of moral madness and decided to perform one more good deed before dying, or maybe freeing Kore was how Q prevented further changes to  Star Trek 's timeline. Adam Soong's computer was filled with traces of Q, records of futuristic medicine, and flecks of Borg technology. After Q sets Kore free, she wipes Soong's hard drive, eliminating that potentially history-changing evidence. A big fan of poetic symbolism, Q probably also got a kick out of including the ancestor of Data's creator in his final Jean-Luc Picard trial.

Can Q Return In Star Trek: Picard Season 3?

Star Trek: Picard season 2 ends with Q expending his last dregs of power to send Jean-Luc and friends back to their own timeline, throwing in the added bonus of a revived Elnor. Is this  really the end for John de Lancie in  Star Trek ?

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No eventuality can be  completely ruled out where Q is involved. Not even the godlike maestro himself knows what death will bring, meaning the Q Continuum's version of afterlife might be considerably less "final" than everybody else's. The ambiguity of Q's next destination certainly leaves the door slightly ajar for a future comeback. Also worth remembering is how John de Lancie himself broke the news that  Star Trek: Picard season 2 and 3 were filming back-to-back - a strong indication of Q's presence in the third and final outing.

After such an emotive and meaningful farewell, however, Q's future return would risk undermining the impact of  Star Trek: Picard 's season 2 finale. That final embrace with Jean-Luc Picard was lump-in-throat stuff, but loses all relevance if Q strolls into season 3 like nothing happened. Q certainly  can make a comeback in  Star Trek: Picard , but whether he  should is an entirely different matter.

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