The first season of Star Trek: Picard has reached its epic conclusion, as did Picard
himself, at least temporarily. From a familiar catchphrase to a surprisingly sentimental
musical callback, here are all the Easter eggs and references you may have missed in
Picard's season finale, "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2."
After hinting at it all season, Narek finally reveals the full myth that has motivated the
Zhat Vash for generations the story of Ganmadan. It tells the ancient tale of demon twin sisters,
who opened a crack in the sky and rained down destruction upon the living.
The tale of Ganmadan is told to the enthralled crew of La Sirena around a campfire at night,
which is reminiscent of another time on Star Trek that ancient stories were told around
a campfire. In the Next Generation episode "Darmok," Picard finds himself stranded on
a planet with the captain of an alien race who communicates solely through stories. During
one scene around a campfire, Picard draws parallels between the alien captain's stories
of "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" to the Epic of Gilgamesh.
"Gilgamesh, a king, at Uruk."
At the end of "Darmok," the alien captain dies, but considers his sacrifice worthwhile
since he was able to establish meaningful communication with Picard and the Federation.
It's similar to how Picard accelerates his own death at the end of Picard's season finale,
in the hopes that he might be able to convince the Federation, the Romulans, and the synthetics
to finally listen to one another.
We've heard a lot of familiar phrases from Picard's tenure aboard the Enterprise during
the course of Picard's first season.
"Tea, Earl Grey, decaf."
However, one of the former Captain's most well-known catchphrases has been notably absent.
"Make it so."
However, we do finally get to hear someone say "make is so" in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part
2." But it's not Picard; it's Agnes. While we've had no shortage of other verbal callbacks
in Picard, it was impossible not to wonder if Picard would ever utter his own best-known
command. But although we're still waiting to hear "Make it so" from Picard's own lips,
there was something soothing about finally getting to hear it from someone.
As Seven of Nine and Narissa fight on the crashed Borg cube, Narissa taunts Seven with
the memory of her assimilation, saying,
"Sad Queen Annika. Six years old, and all she got for her birthday was assimilated."
The taunt calls back to the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Raven," in which Seven processes
the trauma of her assimilation. During that episode, she recounts the day the Borg attacked
her family's ship, telling Tuvok that her birthday cake had six candles on it, plus
one to grow on. It's a difficult memory for Seven to face, but she still refuses to let
the Romulan get the best of her, sending Narissa to her (supposed) death.
The season finale of Star Trek: Picard references the classic Picard maneuver by name when Picard
and Agnes find themselves facing off against the Romulan fleet. Desperate, Agnes asks Picard
to come up with a brilliant plan, before realizing that she can use the synthetic tool Rios acquired
on Coppelius to execute a new form of the Picard maneuver.
The Picard maneuver 2.0 involves using synthetic technology to replicate hundreds of La Sirenas
in order to trick the Romulans into thinking the opposing fleet has already arrived. Of
course, only the original La Sirena is real, and once the Romulans hit it with their phasers,
the illusion falters. Still, it buys them enough time for the real reinforcements from
Starfleet to arrive, saving the day. Only time will tell if Agnes' tactic does indeed
get recorded in the Federation history books as a new iteration of the Picard maneuver,
or whether we may have just witnessed the first-ever use of the Jurati maneuver.
When Riker shows up at Coppelius in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" leading the Federation
fleet, the flagship he commands is named the Zheng He. This ship is almost certainly named
for Zheng He, a Chinese explorer and diplomat during the early Ming dynasty. However, there
has actually been a Zheng He once before in Star Trek history, although not in any of
the shows or movies. The Zheng He appears in the Star Trek Online video game as a science
vessel, which gets attacked by Gorn forces while on a research mission.
Although Riker brings what looks like every ship in the Federation with him in "Et in
Arcadia Ego, Part 2," he only needs to show the Romulans that he means business when he
holds them accountable to the Treaty of Algeron.
The Treaty of Algeron dates back to the year 2311. It's the agreement that defined the
Romulan Neutral Zone, prohibited the Federation from developing their own cloaking technology,
and classified any violations of the Neutral Zone as an act of war. Riker's own former
commander violated the Treaty of Algeron in the Next Generation episode "The Pegasus,"
in which they were both arrested for developing an illegal cloaking device.
When Picard briefly joins Data in his afterlife simulation before being transferred to his
new synthetic body, Data asks a favor from his former captain: when Picard wakes up,
Data would like for him to terminate his consciousness, not because he wants to die, but because he
thinks that by knowing his existence is finite, he may finally be able to truly live.
In Data's final moments as Picard shuts down the simulation, he listens to "Blue Skies,"
which also opened Picard's first episode. This time, it's sung by Isa Briones, the actress
who plays Soji, Dahj, and Sutra. In Star Trek: Nemesis, Data performs the song for his colleagues,
so it's only fitting that his "daughter" would sing it over him as he dies.
Picard also bids farewell to Data with a quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest: "We are such
stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep." In the play,
this is a line said by Prospero, a character that Data himself played in the Next Generation
episode "Emergence."
"I am not certain I fully understand this Prospero character. I would appreciate any
insight you might have that would improve my performance."
Picard explains how hopefulness helps balance out the tragedy in the character. When Data
dies for good in Picard, those elements are both present again, since his death was unquestionably
sad, but carried with it Data's hope of finally experiencing what it is to be human.
The closing moments of "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" show what appears to be a pile of
metal shards sitting on a table between Seven and Raffi. This is actually a Vulcan game
of logic and strategy known as Kal-toh, in which the object is to turn the seemingly
random rods into a perfect sphere.
"Vulcan kal-toh."
"For a game of logic, you'd be surprised at how addictive it is."
Kal-toh was a frequent pastime for Tuvok on Voyager, which he tended to play with Harry
Kim and Icheb, although it was also possible to play Kal-toh alone. Kim was never able
to beat Tuvok despite numerous attempts, but Seven of Nine managed to beat him in a single
move.
"Impressive."
"Elementary spatial harmonics."
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