Season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard" all led up to this finale, with the deaths of several
characters, surprise new threats and allies, and a ton of reveals that raise more questions
than they answer.
Oh, and Wesley Crusher's back, too.
Caution: more spoilers ahead.
In the previous episode "Hide And Seek," the departing Jurati-Borg Queen hybrid had a final
message for Picard as she left Earth: to restore the timeline: one Renée Picard must live,
while another must die.
"To succeed, there must be two Renées – one who lives, and another who dies."
As the season finale begins, Picard is mystified by the message's meaning, but he soon has
a lightbulb moment, and Tallinn gives him a knowing glance.
The group splits up, with Picard surprising Tallinn by entering her transport window and
going with her to the Europa Mission launch site.
There they must ensure that Renée Picard boards the flight and takes off successfully.
At the launch site, we soon learn just what the Jurati Queen meant, but not before Tallinn
visits Renée and earns her trust.
Tallinn explains how she has watched over Renée all her life, and she must trust her
now: it is critical that she gets on the Europa flight, but her life may be in danger.
And Tallinn is right, because Adam Soong is there to assassinate Renée.
As he bumps into her in a hallway, Soong strikes, using a neurotoxin laced on his palm, and
Renée collapses deep in shock.
We soon learn, however, that this is not Renée at all: Tallinn has used her holographic disguise
to impersonate Picard's ancestor, allowing the real Renée to board the shuttle.
One Renée dies, the other lives.
Discovering Tallinn near death, Picard cradles her as the shuttle takes off, as they fulfill
their mission to ensure the future.
Killing Renée wasn't Soong's only plan to sabotage the launch of the Europa Mission.
While Picard and Tallinn had gone to the launch site to save her, Seven of Nine, Raffi, and
Rios headed to Soong's lab, and discovered his last, desperate failsafe: a series of
drones designed to destroy the shuttle, even if it was in flight.
While they are unable to stop the drones from launching, Raffi works to take manual control
over them and abort their deadly mission.
It's a nail-biting sequence as the drones take off one by one, but in the end Raffi
manages to get control of one of them, while Rios uses his piloting skill to destroy them
all.
With Tallinn having thwarted his assassination attempt of Renée, and Rios destroying the
drones, Soong has failed, and Europa successfully takes off.
Returning to his lab, Soong watches news reports of Renée Picard aboard the shuttle on its
way to Europa.
But as he wallows in frustration, he is shocked to see his computer terminals buzz to life,
as data begins to be deleted.
A system-wide purge of all of Soong's research wipes out any hope that he'll be able to revive
his eugenic research.
Remotely, his daughter Kore has found a way to prevent him from continuing his horrific
genetic experiments.
But just as all hope seems lost, Soong pulls out a paper file, a folder with a sinister
title: Project Khan.
It would seem he has some work ahead of him, perhaps to be fulfilled by his descendant
Arik Soong, seen on "Star Trek: Enterprise" set a hundred years later.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the finale, if not the entire season, is a shocking cameo
from Wil Wheaton reprising his role as Wesley Crusher.
It all happens after Kore has remotely destroyed her father's research — she receives a mysterious
invitation to a Los Angeles address via her tablet computer, to learn more about "what's
next" for her.
She arrives and meets a strange man we recognize as Wesley Crusher, who tells her that he is
a being that travels all of time and space ... and he wants her to join him.
This follows the events of the "Next Generation" Season 7 episode "Journey's End," in which
Wesley left the Enterprise with an enigmatic being called the Traveler after exhibiting
incredible, nearly godlike powers.
In the "Picard" finale, Wesley finally clears up two long-unresolved pieces of franchise
lore, tying together the Traveler from "TNG" and the character of Gary Seven from the original
series.
"That's a lot."
"You have no idea."
It seems the Traveler and those like him — a group that now includes Wesley — have access
to all time and space, and have tasked themselves with ensuring the sanctity and balance of
the universe.
It is these "Travelers" that recruited people like Tallinn and Gary Seven to watch historical
events to ensure their proper outcome.
He refers to himself as watching all of time, meaning the Travelers are the so-called "watchers"
that were referenced by Guinan earlier in the season.
Ultimately, Kore leaves with Wesley, presumably to become a new supervisor or watcher, with
a new mission to keep tabs on the fate of the universe.
"Big job."
"Tell me about it."
While the mission to save history in the 21st century and Jurati's merging with the Borg
Queen were exciting elements of season 2, the real adventure was in Picard facing up
to a dark moment in his past: the death of his mother Yvette when he was a child.
In the final stretch of the season we saw how Picard's mother experienced severe mental
illness, and one fateful evening, her husband locked her in her room to keep her safe.
But the young and naive Jean-Luc, responding to his mother's desperate cries for help,
used an old skeleton key to let her out, after which she ended her own life.
Picard had felt responsible for her death ever since, and in the climax of the finale,
Picard — in the 21st century — finds the skeleton key and places it in the same spot
where he found it as a child, allowing the future to fulfill itself even though it means
the death of his mother.
Q later points out that he could have taken it, hidden it, and changed history, but here
Picard is choosing to be the man that his mother's death helped him become — a lesson
that Trek fans will recall he learned from Q back in the "Next Generation" episode "Tapestry."
The time travel story of Season 2, of course, was kicked off with the arrival of Q, who
altered history and changed the timeline, forcing Picard to travel back in time and
fix all of history.
We learned that this final test was instigated because Q was slowly dying, a shocking twist
for a self-described immortal being.
Q forced Picard not just to save the future, but to confront his past, and forgive himself
for the death of his mother.
To seek absolution, and learn that the fate of others isn't always his responsibility.
This turned out to be a central theme of the season, mirrored by Raffi and the death of
Elnor.
After history has been set right, Picard meets with Q one final time.
He tells Picard that the legendary Starfleet officer has never allowed himself to truly
love another person, and now perhaps he will.
"Perhaps you will now be worthy enough for someone else to choose.
Maybe this time you'll even give him the chance to be loved."
Q wants Picard to be happy and fulfilled after he is gone, and he explains why – Picard
matters to him.
"Even gods have favorites, Jean-Luc.
You've always been one of mine."
Q then says that he doesn't want to die alone, and he has chosen one last visit to be with
his friend Picard.
He wanted to impart one final lesson, to set his heart free, and to leave him "unshackled
from the past."
In a touching final moment, Picard hugs Q before he moves on.
"Farewell, mon capitan."
It's time for me to go.
The "Picard" Season 2 finale moves at warp speed, wrapping up every character's journey
and tying off every loose plot thread.
After Q and Picard speak one final time, Q reveals that he's going to use the last of
his powers to send Picard and his friends back home to the 25th century.
But they're not all going back: Rios announces that he intends to stay behind, saying he
never really felt at home in the future, and the 21st century is where he belongs.
Though Picard is concerned, he ultimately supports his friend in his decision to build
a life in 2024.
Later, when Picard gets home to the 25th century, Guinan tells him about what happened to Rios
after they left: He and Teresa started a medical movement together called the Mariposas.
Teresa's son, Ricardo, grew up to become a leader who helped develop new technologies
that cleaned the oceans and healed the sky.
Over the years, the three became friends with Guinan, and she had always kept a photo of
them in her bar... that she was surprised Picard had never noticed.
But that's not the only twist: With Rios left behind, Q says he has energy left for one
more surprise, and we get it when Picard, Raffi, and Seven return to the bridge of the
Stargazer.
Raffi sends a message to the USS Excelsior, and it is Cadet Elnor who responds.
Resurrected by Q with his dying breath, Raffi and Elnor are finally reunited.
The first plot line to begin the season saw Admiral Picard brought back into service to
respond to a mysterious alien signal that was calling his name.
A fleet of Federation starships arrived at the scene of a massive anomaly where a strange
Borg vessel emerged with a request to join the United Federation of Planets.
Before Picard could decide how to respond, a new kind of Borg Queen materialized on the
bridge and attempted to take control of the ship.
But just as Picard ordered the Stargazer to self-destruct, he was hurtled into an alternate
reality by Q.
Now back in the present and in the proper reality, we learn the truth about this new
Borg: they are led by the Jurati hybrid queen created in 2024, and she has spent 400 years
forming a new, better Borg collective.
They've come for Picard's help because a dangerous threat has emerged, one that can only be stopped
by the combined efforts of the Borg and the Federation fleet.
Jurati takes control of the fleet, and together they avert a catastrophe that would have killed
billions.
But in the wake of their victory, a new danger emerges: the anomaly gives birth to a strange
transwarp conduit, but its purpose — and who created it — remains a mystery.
In her parting words to Picard, Jurati asks for provisional Federation membership so they
can monitor this new threat, perhaps laying the groundwork for the third and final season
of "Picard."
Throughout the second season of "Picard" we follow the fate of Picard's ancestor Renée,
an astronaut on the verge of an important spaceflight that is key to Earth's history
in the future.
While Picard had stated in earlier episodes that historical records from the 21st century
were spotty, and nobody quite knows why the Europa Mission was so important, it became
clear that without it, Earth would become a totalitarian nightmare.
In the finale, we get some answers as to why, and the importance Renée Picard's mission
had on the fate of planet Earth.
On her mission to Europa, Guinan reveals that Picard's ancestor Renée would help discover
a unique alien organism that would prove instrumental to solving Earth's problems.
Picard learns many lessons in Season 2 of the series, mostly thanks to his old nemesis
Q. In finally accepting that his mother's death was not his fault, he has found absolution
within himself, the one thing that has been keeping him from getting close to people in
his life.
It explains why he so often kept his distance from both friends and lovers, never pursuing
a serious romance, whether it was with Dr. Crusher, Lt. Daren, or the rabble-rousing
relic hunter Vash.
In the premiere, Picard and Laris made clear a mutual romantic interest.
Unfortunately, Picard wasn't ready.
But now, in the finale, having accepted himself as he is thanks to his adventure in time — and
worked through his past trauma — he returns to the 25th century a renewed man.
Ready to love, he meets with Laris, who is preparing to leave Picard's vineyard.
He stops her, asking in his own way for a second chance.
It remains to be seen where this relationship will go, but after all these years, it appears
Jean-Luc Picard is finally ready to fully embrace loving another.
As the episode closes, we see Picard and Laris holding hands, embarking on a new romantic
journey together.
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