Who is hiding and who is seeking? Spoilers.
As we close in on the end of the season, it’s clear that a major theme of the season is relationships. We have Seven/Raffi, Picard/Laris, Rios/Isabel, even Jurati/Queen. What’s nice is that each of these relationships is well down and compelling. What’s less compelling is the trauma of Picard from his childhood. The final resolution is satisfying in its, way, but ultimately it doesn’t make enough sense that Picard has suppressed it all this time.
Jurati versus the Queen continues to be the best stuff in the season. It’s a compelling duel, and the season has so far left me wanting more of it. Spinoff series maybe? I hope it’s not the last we’ve seen of Jurati, and that the hooded figure from episode one is going to turn out to be her.
The episode itself is well assembled and enjoyable. A fair bit is taken up with action sequences, but the resolved plots are satisfying, and there’s a good amount of plot left over for the season finale next week. But that all leaves me with not that much to talk about in a review. I had fun, not much more to say than that.
Quick hits:
– Haven’t the Borg been around for thousands of years? 400 years isn’t much of a jump start on the galaxy. The Federation, sure, but not the galaxy.
– Millions of species seems inconsistent with the species numbering established in Voyager (which only goes up to 10,000 or so).
– Elnor ECH – Yay! Someone give him a sword please.
– Not entirely sure what a fractal encryption would mean. The inherent repetition at different scales of fractals seems like exactly the opposite of what you want for encryption.
– So, how exactly does the Soong line continue? There’s not really a way we can redeem Adam at this point, so is it through Kore? Speaking of Kore, will we see her again?
– I’d love to see the scene where they reconfigure the laser target designators to be the proper Borg colour scheme.
– The ‘in the dark in the chateau’ sequences are really hard to see.
– Yay, Elnor with a sword.
– Teresa/Rios is some good stuff. She’s a very well drawn character, and has some of the best reactions to contact with the future I’ve seen in SF.
– Not sure why the Queen didn’t assimilate Soong – was there something she needed that prevented that? Seems like it would be safest.
– Aha, I knew there had to be an explanation for the appearance of Picard’s mother in *Where No One Has Gone Before*.
850 down. Next week we get the finale of this season of Picard and the start of Strange New Worlds.