Right, we’re back with Episode 2 of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 and it’s time to explore the very end of The Road Not Taken! This episode gives us a firm re-introduction to John DeLancie as Q,
and boy it’s certainly a return we’ve been looking forward to and waiting for since the announcement ages ago!
SPOILER WARNING, We’re going to be talking about Star Trek: Picard Season 2 in full detail! So if you've not already watched the latest episode, turn away now!
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
This episode of Star Trek: Picard is titled “Penance”, and was written by Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas & Christopher Monfette.
Akiva Goldsman and Terry Matalas are both co-showrunners of the show, but Christopher Monfette is interesting, as he has previously worked with Terry Matalas on his show “Twelve Monkeys”
so definitely is familiar with Matalas and knows how to write time travel stories!
And just as last week, the director for this week’s episode is Doug Aaronioski, who is a veteran Trek director at this point.
FUN FACT, Did you know that only 18% of you watching this video are currently subscribed to the channel here on YouTube?
We’ve got a target of 100K Subscribers than we want to reach, can you help us do it? Hit that Subscribe button to never miss a video on the Star Trek Universe from myself and the team here at Trek Central!
As always, please let us know your thoughts in the comment section below, because if you’re talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear about it!
Okay, engage!
Much like we predicted, Episode Two is about Introducing us to the Alternate Timeline which we find part of Star Trek: Picard Season Two in.
Now just like last week, this was a jam packed episode filled with interesting things to talk about, interesting plot developments and of course, a load of little references which help to ground us in this alternate reality we find our crew inhabiting.
The entry into Alt-Reality is fantastic. It keeps in true to how the second season is going with the launch of episode one.
I will admit that the look at this totalitarian version of Starfleet is rather impressive, I’m really loving this alt-look. Sure, we’ve previously seen versions of a dark-starfleet, much like the Mirror Universe, but this look via Picard is so unique.
I very much liked Q’s reference to the “In A Mirror Darkly”, which is of course a reference to the Mirror Universe.
Many of us originally thought this might be the path the second season takes, but now I might say that this at-reality is much better.
It’s a shame that we’ll likely be leaving it sooner rather than later.
Episode Two is following Episode One really well in keeping the excitement and interest running. Sure, I wish we could have gotten more of a focus on the USS Stargazer and our prime reality,
but I’m also keen to see more of this alt-reality of Starfleet and the Federation.
While It’s a shame we won’t likely see more, as we’re heading to the past of 2024, I’d love to explore more of the alt-timeline.
As a fan of shows like The Man In The High Castle, which explores the idea of alternative history when events did not go as planned, I’m all for things like this in Star Trek.
Now I want to talk about some specific elements of this episode, such as Q, who we spend a bit of time with at the start of Episode Two, but is it enough so far?
So let's start with Q. After seeing him at the very end of the last episode, we’re properly Introduced to him. He is a much more menacing character than we last remember,
which is extremely fascinating considering our understanding of Qs are that they are immortal (except from Q built weapons as we saw in Star Trek: Voyager - I know someone in the comments is typing that right now) but what Picard says,
in that Q “isn’t well” is an interesting way to continue the character and develop him further!
The last time we saw Q he was very happy-go lucky aboard the USS Voyager with Q and Q junior, but now something is wrong.
Like Q even hit Picard in this episode, only Sisko has punched Q before, and now it seems like Q wants revenge and will settle for hitting Picard across the face.
I feel like, if the idea that the Q are testing humans to see if they are the next being to be worthy and ready to be the next Q,
I can see something possibly happening to the Q, and humanity not progressing like they should would really anger Q.
He tries to get humanity to understand that there is more to life than the space we want to explore. Perhaps we’ll see some sort of message about exploring ourselves?
Picard as a series is very drama focussed as a whole, but also focused on the personal aspect of relationships and understanding one's self. If this is Q’s lesson, then it does fit the show rather well so far i would say.
So let's talk about the skulls, a very effective way to let us know where this new timeline lies, by introducing us to the skulls of this Picard's timeline enemies, but our timelines allies… well maybe not Gul Dukat.
But yeah, we get the Skull of Gul Dukat, who actually managed to harm evil Picard and get him his Synth body, which establishes that this timeline’s Picard also has a synth body.
Some fans speculated that Picard looked quite old in some scenes seen in preview clips for this episode, but we do have to remind you that this Golem synth is built to age and grow old.
It may be synthetic but it's virtually identical to his old body, just minus the brain defect.
Other Skulls on display in this scene are, Martok, Sarek and what looks to be the Grand Nagus, but whether this is Zek, or another Grand Nagus is unknown.
Even saying that Sarek was murdered alongside his wife and son, is morbid and very much tells us about the Alt-Timeline Picard finds himself in.
I know some people think this might be too self-referential, but they were used effectively to establish this world, and Picard as a character, which was really well done.
It tells us that this Confederation isn’t just about subjugating worlds, like the Terran Empire, but actually eradicating them, to have an only human galaxy.
Which is extremely distressing and very very dark for Star Trek.
Even the Enterprise has had a new name in this Confederation, named the CSS World Razer, which sounds like something out of warhammer. We have to note that the design of this ship was done by Sean Tourangeau
the illustration concept art was done by Laurent Ben-Mimoun, Daniel Dochterman and painted by Andrea Dopaso.
Just goes to show how so many elements of this show really came together from a team, and for assembling that team we have to thank Dave Blass, the Production Designer,
who if you don’t know has been posting so many behind the scenes pictures from the shows, so we definitely recommend giving him a follow!
As we’ve said previously the Federation in this timeline is called the Confederation. And instead of an interplanetary alliance, it is a human centric empire.
They eradicate aliens they deem undesireably and take the rest as slaves. The fact they even have an Eradication Day, a day where they eradicate people live on stage in front of a crowd to show just how evil they are!
The crew eventually work out, via slight help from the Borg Queen, that a single divergence in time has broken the timeline and presents the future Picard and crew now find themselves in.
A single point in the past, year 2024, at a specific location, Los Angeles, changed the timeline and Q was the apparent cause of it.
So not only is Picard scattered to his equivalent in this alternate timeline, but everyone else from our ragtag Picard crew is as well.
However so far, Soji has not been seen. Now this could be that Soji was never created in this alternate timeline. With this evil Colonel Picard,
and was disassembled by Bruce Maddox to create these Servitor androids, who are reprised by the same actor who played the A500 last season, Alex Diehl.
Considering Isa Briones is still a main cast of this show, I am sure she will show up somewhere, perhaps as the original inspiration for Soji and Dahj, since she originates from paintings made by Data, and Data may have drawn them of a long lost soong relative?
Not the furthest reach to be made, but is possible.
The only footage of Isa I can remember in trailers is when she is at the Deltan diplomatic Dinner, which was in episode one, and one scene where we see her in more casual modern clothes next to a pool.
So perhaps we will somehow see her, whenever the crew jumps to 2024. Though, there is a reference to Adam Soong, if you watch closely.
Seven is President of this Confederation, which is something I don’t think anyone expected.
We get some good scenes from Seven, acted out by Jeri Ryan, of Seven playing her part quite well, with little notice of how she isn’t President Annika Hansen, and manages to make contact with Rios in a good way which is great.
We even get a reference to a “General Sisko” which is great to know that he is in this alternate future, but sad to know he is not our Sisko, and someone who possibly became the emissary of the Pah Wraiths or something like that.
Rios seems to be a Privateer who heads up a small fleet of F17 Kaplan Freighters, the same ship as the La Sirena, and is stationed on the Vulcan Front, where there currently seems to be a Vulcan Rebelion.
The ships the Vulcans are flying, those we can see, are the Scout ships seen in the Discovery episode “Lethe”.
It actually kind of makes sense in this instance that Discovery vessels are in use, considering that the Confederation has probably stunted their ship build capabilities and they are stuck with extremely old ships, fighting for their lives.
Jurati is a lab technician preparing the Borg Queen for the “Eradication day” ceremony, but I have to say this season, particularly the scenes in this episode with Jurati have done so much for this character I was kind of meh on during season 1.
She is funny, witty, and it works in the universe and at least for me doesn’t take me out. Even her making up a story of when she calls Seven, Seven in front of this timeline’s husband, who knows her as Annika, is hilarious.
And you thought having Spot II in the first season was cool, wait until you see the talking AI Spot 73, who is voiced by Patton Oswald which is just amazing.
Elnor and Raffi are in an interesting location, as they are both in Okinawa, which we have visited quite a lot in the current trek, which is interesting.
Romulans are rising up in Okinawa, and that includes Elnor, but the uprising is handled by a team lead by Raffi. There is a cool scene of Raffi taking out a handful of armed guards with some pistols,
which is great to see her competent at handling herself, and she “restrains” Elnor so they can play their part and understand what is going on.
Though we don’t have Isa Briones in this episode, we do have her father Jon Jon Briones playing the role of the Magistrate, also known as the First Husband to Seven’s President of the Confederation.
He does a really effective job of kinda suspicious over the actions of his wife, who is now Seven, and I look forward to seeing more of him.
Jon Jon Briones is best known for his theatre work, which his daughter Isa followed in, so it is really nice and sweet to see him follow in his daughters footsteps and work on Star Trek.
The crew eventually get back together, and go to someone they know can also sense Time Travel has occurred, the Borg Queen.
We learned a while ago that Annie Wersching was brought on to play the Borg Queen, and we have gotten some good shots of her in the trailers.
But this episode was her introduction and what an introduction it was. She is essentially stuck in a cage, ready to be executed publicly at the eradication day ceremony, as the last of the Borg!
It is wild to know that the Borg in this timeline have been eradicated by the Confederation, where usually it is the Federation on the back foot against the borg.
Evil Picard might have actually gone ahead with putting the logic virus in Hugh, the abandoned Borg Drone, and helped to cripple the Borg Collective through that. They adapted, as the Borg tend to do, but it was too late and the CSS World Razer was able to mop up the remaining borg.
A new bit of info from Borg Queens, which we probably shouldn't be surprised about, is that Borg Queens are able to sense their adjacent timelines.
The portrayal of this Borg Queen, as a maddended queen without her hive, flipping straight to classic Borg is amazing, and I cannot wait to see more of this queen.
Though with the idea of Borg from other timelines able to communicate and sense other timelines, this could be why the other Borg Queen from Episode one, if she is from a different time, was able to quote Picard’s mom.
As she would have access to the memories of Locutus. This ability does seem a little overpowered, but I guess the power required to jump between timelines is greater than simply travelling through time.
I also have to say the Borg Queen being silenced from her collective, silenced from her harmony of innumerous voices, and then brought out on stage to a cacophony of voices out of harmony, was actually quite hauntingly beautiful.
If this was intentional, it is great, and if it is not, the fact we can look at this scene in such a way is amazing.
Hijinks ensue, and our La Sirena crew manage to escape the Eradication day ceremony, Picard shooting Confederation officers and Elnor going all Qowat Milat on some as well.
Though I have to say Elnor pretending to allow himself to get beat up, and then accidentally switching to beating said guys up was great! Not only do they beam up the crew, but also beam aboard the Borg Queen, who they promptly plug into the La Sirena. Which I am sure won’t go wrong!
The episode ends with the First Husband and a group of Confederation goons beam aboard the La Sirena, with the First Husband shooting Elnor in the chest.
Considering Elnor is a fan favourite of the show, and a leading character of the series, we doubt he will be killed off, but the fact we have to say that still doubts us whether they would do it or not.
We haven't seen much of him from trailer footage in the past, so either he dies, makes a good recovery and goes on the mission in scenes we haven't seen, or is recovering in sickbay during the mission.
Though hopefully he isn’t stumbled on by a skittering Borg Queen on the loose!