After a blunder of an episode for last week’s STAR TREK: PICARD, with some small redeeming features, does this final episode redeem the second season?
Time has been fractured, this season ultimately as well, but I definitely believe that this final act has redeemed this season, but why?
Let’s take a look at the finale to Season 2 of Star Trek Picard, titled “Farewell”
Welcome to Trek Central! I’m your host, Captain Jack, and let’s get into it!
This episode was Written by Christopher Monfette and Akiva Goldsman, one being the writing partner of Terry Matalas and the other being the co-showrunner with Matalas.
This was directed by Michael Weaver who directed the previous episode as well.
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First off let's talk about time, the bane of every writer and everyone trying to understand what is actually happening.
Tallinn makes it her mission to sacrifice herself in order to fulfil the prophecy.
I think this was a really cool way to do this. Tallinn finally got to see Renee and say how much she meant to her, and sacrificed herself to save Renees life.
These scenes made me hate Soong even more than I previously did, he is just a douche to everyone in his way.
But Picard comforting Tallinn in her final moments, and Tallinn telling Picard to accept his own life and move forward and to tell the people he loves that he loves them, was really touching. Tallinn even gets to see the Europa mission launch off.
And talking about the Europa mission, it is nice how they link how important the Europa mission is, and why it destroys Soongs legacy.
The Europa mission finds an organism on Io, and brings it back, and then the plant loving kid Ricardo, uses said organism from his “Auntie Renee” to help heal the oceans, maybe the organism eats plastics and cools the oceans in the process?
Who knows. But if the Europa mission didn’t happen, and this organism wasn't found, the world turns to Dr Soong, who has the brilliant idea of using his drone technology to create a field around the earth, which possibly lets out heat, or decreases the amount of heat that enters the earth's atmosphere.
It is also interesting that one of these methods is healing, and another is just living with the pain. Two choices that lead to two different futures, just like Picard with his trauma.
So now with Soong dealt with, without his legacy from Kore, or from the confederation future, Soong has to find his legacy in another way, and it seems like he has found it, as he picks up a confidential file tucked in his drawer called “Project Khan”.
It definitely seems like they are moving the Eugenics wars from previously believed to be in the 1990s, to the 21st century.
Though I am kind of confused with the project khan being dated in 1996, when it was previously said the eugenics war happened.
Perhaps this was a project done after the eugenics war. Maybe making eugenic embryos from khan,
learning from khan and the eugenics war, and leading to the embryos we see in Star Trek Enterprise.
If It does mean the eugenics war has moved, I am okay with this, the eugenics wars and world war 3 were always a nebulous period in Star Trek history,
and as we’ve had more time travel episodes going to 20th and 21st century Earth, in Voyager, DS9 and Enterprise,
it makes sense to move them together as none of these have mentioned a eugenics war happening, and looked just like modern day, including unfortunately Deep Space Nine's “Past Tense” which were meant to be a warning.
We had a feeling this was coming, considering the soundtrack for season 3 released a little while ago with a track titled “The Traveller”, but to see it on screen is great.
WE GET THE RETURN OF WESLEY CRUSHER. Now even though he doesn’t interact with Picard or anyone, his interaction with Kore was sweet.
What is interesting is that we find out that the Travellers are actually the ones who distribute the Supervisors across the galaxy,
which does make sense, as to protect the destiny of the galaxy, the people dispatching the supervisors must have some time travel ability. So in a sense, we did get some form of the Time Police, part of me can die happy now.
There isn't much else to say with this scene, other than it's nice to see Will back as Wesley, or the Traveller now, and I wonder if we will see him in season 3.
Obviously he wasn't included in the announcement with the rest of the TNG cast, but perhaps this was why. Though I do have to question why they beamed up.
Maybe Wesley just likes to have a ship and moves that, instead of just himself.
Picard placing the skeleton key back behind the wall shows that Picard is now accepting what happened with his mother, which is sad but nice that he finally is moving on and not being stuck in the past.
He may have saved so many people with this guilt behind him, but now he has to save himself, and he has.
The Q content of this episode was superb, and tied together so much from Q for this season. All he wanted was for Picard to finally accept what had happened, and move on with his life.
A final gift to his friend, and we even get to see just how much Picard means to Q, saying “Even Gods have favourites”. In the scene before Q sends our gang back to the future, Picard even embraces his old friend Q in a hug, which is just so sweet.
They may have started this season angry at one another, but in the end they find acceptance and companionship between one another. I think this says a lot about Q as a character.
It was really really touching to have that heartfelt goodbye with Q, but is this really goodbye? I mean we know John De Lancie will be back in the third season of Star Trek: Picard.
So now with a return to the 25th century, we finally find out that the Borg Queen we saw all the way in episode 1 is Jurati and the Borg Queen.
Even the playing of that french song, which I originally believed was Q, and Jurati telling Picard to Look Up, were in an effort to relieve Picard of his tension and allow the Borg Queen to get command of the fleet for a good reason.
Obviously we have a lot of questions on this new borg collective, whether it is a subset of the borg collective, or just what they have been doing for 400 years.
With the La Sirena, it should have only taken around 70 years maybe to get from Earth to Borg Space. We’ve also got the questions of what is next.
This galactic level event which is prevented by the Borg and Starfleet does remain a mystery.
What actually is it, and where does it go?
As revealed, it does appear to be some type of Transwarp Conduit. Aka a fast way of travelling across vast distances of space.
However, only the Borg have been seen using them before? Other species have used them here and there, but mainly it is the borg.
Clearly this Transwarp conduit is a plot device for the upcoming Season 3.
So we’ll have some theorising on what is going on with that.
I’ve got a fair few theories on what this might be, or who or what might be on the other side. But we’ll come back to that at a later date, though, if you have a theory, comment it down below!
Just as it was talked about last episode, with Seven not being at first allowed into starfleet, and she just gave up instead of fighting it, Picard actually gives her a field commission and places her in command of the Stargazer.
This is actually amazing, and having Seven eventually captaining the ship which has borg technology recovered from the Artifact is great.
Hopefully this role continues into season 3, because we know we are getting more Stargazer content, and unfortunately that is not with Captain Rios, but I am more than happy with Captain Seven.
Elnor also comes back, seemingly as a gift from the excess energy Q has from not needing to transport Rios into the future.
I’m disappointed that Elnor didn’t feature more heavily this season, but I enjoyed what we got of him,
and now we are back in the present, Starfleet Cadet Elnor interests me more than back in time Elnor does. So hopefully we get some good stuff with him in Season 3.
What is really nice, is that the excelsiors shield harmonics are off for the big fleet shield scene,
and it is elnor who fixes it, and it was Raffi who taught elnor how to do such a thing in the flashback during episode 8, which is very nice to see.
Now that Picard has finally accepted what happened in his past, he goes to Laris, who has had the solarium fixed.
This is such a nice touch as well, as the solarium was also representative of Picard being stuck in the past, not having it be fixed, and now it is fixed and he can move past it.
Picard can finally let himself be loved, and asks for a second chance from laris, who accepts. Either they get engaged quickly, or we will see another small time jump into Season 3,
as from the teaser trailer for season 3, it looks like Picard is writing wedding invites. We definitely have a lot to look forward to next season!
Time for our final thoughts on Star Trek: Picard Season 2! While this season has been a somewhat hard watch for some, overall, it has been enjoyable.
Yes, it has been awkward at certain times, but when we reach this episode, things do feel complete in a sense.
Well, almost. We have got this tease for what is next in the overall series of Picard, but that is for another day really.
I think overall this season has done well as a deep character study of Jean-Luc Picard. That’s what Star Trek; Picard is all about when you think about it.
The series from the get go was about taking a look at the life of Jean-Luc and understanding the character deeper. How that will play going into the third season remains to be seen. However It would seem like Picard has a new lease of life.
Personally, I still think this season dragged on a bit.
However, perhaps if we watch the whole season as a mini movie in a sense, then maybe it will correct itself and feel more like it flows better.
Who knows, when we do our full season two review, we’ll see how it goes. For now, I think we can enjoy some of the highlights of the second season, as there are a lot.
One of my complaints for the second season is we’ve said goodbye to some of our cast. This had to be expected at some point in time.
However, Rios does have a good ending, if not a sad one. Jurati’s ending does make sense and you’d think that perhaps we would see her in the third season.
However, actress Alison Pill recently confirmed she was not going to be in the upcoming season.
How this leaves the Borg and Guardian at the Gate situation is something we’ll come back to at a later date.
Right now, Picard season 2 is done and done. Trekkies turn their focus to the next step into the Star Trek Universe, that being Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which aired the same day of Star Trek: Picard’s Season 2 Finale.
So, what did you think of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 10? Did the finale episode live up to your expectations or did it fall short?
Regardless, let us know what you thought about it in the video comment sections below, because if you’re talking about Star Trek, then we want to hear about it!
If you want to keep up to date on all the latest Star Trek news, lore and more, then make sure to hit that subscribe button to never miss a video from the team here at Trek Central!
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For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!