Star Trek: Picard may have its essential crew assembled, but as the title suggests, “The End is the Beginning.”
The first three episodes of Picard weaved exposition in with nostalgia, introductions with farewells, and most importantly, history with new endeavors. The latter is the hardest pill to swallow for most of the members of the newly assembled bunch on Star Trek: Picard, but their sorted histories are the motivation they need to launch into a new beginning.
And as an audience, we needed all of that history. As Picard stands looking over the vineyard on the eve of his departure, he notes “the familiar smell of harvest time.” Building a home with Laris and Zhaban during the past 14 years has brought rhythms into his life — pick the grapes, make the wine, protect the vines, rinse, repeat. Going through the motions of being in a home, does not equate to feeling like you are home.
“The familiar smell of harvest time,” is layered in its meaning. There is a physical scent in the air that arrives when the seasons change enough that you know it is time to go to work. That feeling of needing to go to work is exactly what Picard is leaning into. His crew is coming together, the machinery is in place, it’s time to go to work.
Star Trek: Picard season 1, episode 3 recap
Raffi and Picard reunite but don’t reconnect
Kicking off the episode in 2385 in the aftermath of the Mars attack, we get a glimpse of Admiral Picard back in uniform meeting with his executive officer, Commander Raffi Musiker. Riding a data high after spending the past few days digging into how it could be possible that synthetics suddenly woke up and decided to turn on a planet, Raffi looks to Picard for some glimmer of hope for the future of their rescue mission.
She runs through some proposals — take the offer of operating with lower class ships, pull together skeleton crews, use synthetics for the operation. Then the hammer drops — All research and development of androids has been banned. Blaming a fatal code error (which Raffi and Picard are not buying), the organization has decided to draw a hard line that even the great motivator Jean-Luc Picard cannot cross.
Though it is not for a lack of trying. Issuing an ultimatum with the CNC, Picard says that Starfleet either reups its efforts to continue the Romulan relocation efforts or they accept his resignation. As we saw in Picard season 1, episode 2, a new form of leadership has taken hold, and no one is willing to listen to him anymore. Ultimatums do not fly, and even after 14 years of dropping this one, Picard cannot catch a break from the commanding officers.
As we linger on his first moments separated from Starfleet, his defeat seems to drown him. He says, “Mars is burning. Nobody is thinking, nobody is listening. Everyone is just reacting.”
Raffi tries to make sense of the entire situation, taking a giant step back from the internal workings of Starfleet to see the bigger picture. She is almost bouncing with anticipation to dig into the idea that the Tal Shiar is behind the attack. It may not make perfect sense on the surface, but the infiltration, or worse, the cooperation with Starfleet, makes the attack seem like a cover up for something greater.
Pursuing the facts — that rescue efforts must continue to save lives, that the Tal Shiar has been operating with and against the Federation — must be a priority. However, to most they are seen as wild, desperate solutions. Picard’s final plea for a return to leadership of the mission results in not only his dismissal, but that of Raffi.
The shot that lingers on Picard as Raffi sets off to her presumed firing really sets the stage for what occurs in the 14 years that follow. As he hangs his head and lets the waves of listlessness wash over him, it’s the first time we see him out of options.
BUT as Raffi points out, it is kind of hard to feel sorry for Jean-Luc, or, as she calls him (which I love), JL. He set off to a life in isolation, away from the faceless people of the public who knew his name, but not what he lost. Picard also went away from those who knew and understood that deep sense of loss. Those who could have helped him now that the tables were turned. Tucked away among his books, and his vineyard, sleeping in a vast estate, drinking fine wine in the company of dear friends, is not exactly the fate endured by others who were formally on his bridge.
Instead we get a glimpse of Raffi’s life post-Starfleet — drinking, vaping (which probably would have seemed like a much cooler advancement to smoking had the current culture not caught up,) and cycling through paranoia induced by snakeleaf. It’s not luxurious and it is certainly lonely. She describes it as being “one long slide of humiliation and rage.” There is more to her story and what she lost besides her security clearance. With 14 years of practice burying her feelings, it is going to take more than one visit from Picard for us to get the whole story.
Raffi’s disappointment in Picard, the fact that he never once followed up with her after their joint dismissal, she still tosses him a pilot. For what it is worth, Picard does acknowledge her feelings, validates them, and spends the rest of the episode pushing his agenda forward. I would like to believe that he is doing this in a manner that acknowledges how Raffi works — she wants the mission, the work to unpack, the missing piece that will bring her puzzle together.
Proof that she wasn’t chasing ghosts, that her evidence irrefutable, that someone allowed the attack to go forward to put an end to the rescue mission is all that she wants. And Picard needs her clarity of mind and her ability to see what others miss. So, while she proclaims that she will “not go down another rabbit hole with you, JL,” Picard slipping her the files on Maddox is enough to get her at least on the ship.
We knew that Raffi would be on that bridge. Trailers and photos have confirmed that as far as the commander knew, the Romulans orchestrated the attack on their own people. But we have to do the work to get there. Trek has a great history of building relationships out of unspoken pasts that come to light over the course of a season or series. Star Trek: Picard is not doing anything new here and it is doing it well. The series smoothed out the delivery of necessary exposition by sprinkling it over three episodes and setting up two established locations and casts of characters.
Patrick Stewart is brilliant at layering Picard’s history into his performance. But without the context of the world he finds himself living in, the events that drove him into isolation and the severed connections that loom over him, we cannot fully appreciate the moment where he delivers the order, “Engage.”
Captain Rios: How a hologram, a book, and a sweater stole my heart
Full disclosure, I am a weak human being. Putting a shirtless Santiago Cabrera as Captain Cristóbal Rios on my screen was already enough for me to sign up to board the starship, La Sirena. But then Star Trek: Picard had the nerve to have Rios don a flattering sweater, settle in for the night with a book from 1912, and get into a tiff with a delightful hologram (also played by Cabrera!), not once, but twice. Naturally, I now find myself willing to lay down my life for a space pilot…again.
To back things up a bit, despite Raffi’s disdain for Picard at this moment in time, she does put him in contact with Rios. Upon entering his ship, Picard notes that not a single item is out of place nor is any part of the ship not up to code. “You are Starfleet to the core,” Picard tells him. We may be dealing with a rogue pilot on an unregistered ship, but this is certainly not the Falcon.
Rios is spending his days alone in space, save for the company of an emergency hologram, Miguel de Unamuno’s Tragic Sense of Life, libations and blues music. Picard leaves him with the pitch that he may not know where he is going, but he could use someone willing to take the job. Unlike Picard who tried to surround himself with things he loved on Earth, Rios kept to the coldness of space. He takes the job.
Now, the hologram. Created in the image of Rios, the hologram reflects some portions of the tired and reserved pilot we may otherwise not gain access to. He serves as a sounding board in both public and private. He also takes on a few accents, British and Irish in this episode.
Though deployed to help Rios tend to a wound in his first introduction, the hologram is dismissed before he can close the wound on Rios’ shoulder. Something tells me he wants the physical pain as a distraction. But later, as he settles down with his book, the hologram returns having just completed his chore of working on the structural integrity of the vessel.
Taking a cue from what I assume is a bit of Rios himself, the hologram lingers despite his programmed task being complete. Almost like Data, though much, much more expressive, the hologram tries to elicit the excitement that comes with Jean-Luc Picard boarding your ship asking for help.
He goes as far as to suggest that Rios is a bit starstruck. Playing down his emotional output, the hologram tries to assure Rios that he is making the right decision. Picard is a man on the side of the angels, and after all, it’s been a long time since Rios was in a position to help someone.
But Rios is not against Picard coming aboard, he is against seeing him as a Captain. We learn that Rios is dutiful to a fault and in his last role, the Captain he served a decade ago was left dead at his feet with blood (and brains) everywhere. Don’t get close, get the money, and get out.
When has that ever worked for a hired pilot with feelings greater than himself? Tried and true, but I am into it. While I am sure that the others on set are having a blast with their characters, and the returning cast members are honored and ecstatic to bring back people from the past, Cabrera is arguably getting the most room to play.
Hugh returns to the Borg cube
And speaking of being into a plot line, welcome back, Hugh! Giving Hugh a backstory with Soji is one of the best reintroductions for a character this series has done. It adds a layer of division between the Romulan interest in her skillset and his own personal investment in her connection, not just to the Borg, but to the galaxy and everyone’s place in it.
He is a mentor of sorts and where Soji has a romantic entanglement with Narek (at least from her point of view), her relationship with Hugh appears to be based on genuine respect. In their first encounter on screen, he speaks to her about her performance in the reclamation bay, “Dr. Rasha, but speaking to a Nameless in his own language. Outstanding.” Hugh laments that the xB are among the most despised in the galaxy, seen as property. We see that attitude from Soji’s coworkers in episode 2.
Soji replies to Hugh’s assessment of her work, “You taught me that a few words in the mother tongue can be soothing, even in an unconscious state.” It’s evident from their candor with one another that Soji has worked closely with Hugh in his capacity as Executive Director of the Reclamation Project. She uses that bond to request, for what is apparently the nth time, to see Ramdha, the foremost source on an ancient Romulan myth.
But Ramdha belongs to a collective of people aboard the ship who were assimilated by the Borg and then cut off from the Collective. They are shells of their former selves, but Soji believes that she can build a bridge to Ramdha by employing the use of not only her language, but her beliefs. Her goal in speaking to Ramdha is to discover if there is a possibility that a shared mythical framework can have therapeutic utility.
Soji’s interactions with Ramdha are tense, especially as she begins to get some answers and insight into how the Romulans view what we would call mythology. Ramdha compares it more to “news” rather than mythology, a word that does not exist in their language.
Soji believes that using this shared form of narrative might be the key to offering former Borg a way to connect and integrate, something as relevant as the day’s news. But in the midst of her brain burst, Ramdha says, “I know you.” And the party is over.
The shared narrative
The mystery of how Soji and Dhaj are known in the world and to the Zhat Vash is beginning to unwind. In setting up the cards, Ramdha pulls one that depicts a set of twins. “Which one are you?” she asks Soji. Something goes off in Soji’s mind at that moment that allows her to call up tons of Romulan classified files — that Ramdha was on the last ship taken by the cube that they are currently inhabiting, that she was present when the events that made the submatrix collapse.
As she places the card with the twins at the center of her puzzle, the connection that we’ve inferred is made clear — the daughters of Maddox, of Data, are marked as Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer. One will live and one will die, but with one already dead, all the weight of this title rests on Soji, the one who is feared most by the Romulans.
This information is played out across two scenes — one with Picard being attacked by agents of Zhat Vash and the other in the cube. Laris and Zhaban reveal their training in the chateau as they take out several operatives with the final one being shot down by a rattled Dr. Jurati.
The inquiry happening off planet has pushed Ramdha to turn on Soji. But like her sister, Soji skillfully disarms Ramdha. Hugh does not discipline anyone other than a guard, protecting both Soji and Ramdha and revealing a bit more about how his character has adapted over the past 25 years.
Another fantastic episode brings together a great deal of information and more vital players, but perhaps most importantly, it gets Picard back among the stars.
Final thoughts on ‘Picard’ 1×03
- As Soji was spewing off classified information, I did not get the sense that Hugh has any idea about her true identity. I hope that he doesn’t as it would be a nice arc for him to explore.
- “Well someone is experiencing an acute moodiness overload.” I am not worthy enough to deserve this hologram’s sass on screen.
- Umm… that Vulcan should not be wearing sunglasses. Something is up. But, we already knew that.
- Dr. Jurati is not telling us everything. Commodore Oh is very skilled at her job and she certainly can get Jurati not only on Picard’s ship, but keep her as an informant.
- I agree with Raffi, Picard and Jurati telling everyone their ENTIRE PLAN is not a great idea.
- It is VERY interesting that Soji is aware of Dahj. The programming, or assumed programming, that is acting as her mother is definitely set to ease any questioning and literally shut her down if needed. The protocol we see enacted here is evident of that.
- I know last week I was all in on evil brother and sister duo, but this week they did more to creep me out.
We are finally off to find Bruce Maddox, but it looks like we still have a few stops to make. This is obvious not just from the promo, but the fact that Picard has yet to see Will Riker, a staple of the promotional materials and clips we saw at Comic Cons. At this point, I feel that Seven of Nine’s appearance is going to be much later than originally anticipated.
Star Trek: Picard will release new episodes on CBS All Access in the U.S. on Thursdays, on CTV Sci-Fi channel in Canada on Thursdays, and on Amazon Prime elsewhere on Fridays.
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