Previously on Star Trek: Picard: The timeline is broken. After the crew is sent to a totalitarian nightmare timeline, they realize Q went back in time to change the present. That timeline’s Borg Queen (BQ) helps them travel to 2024 when the incursion happened. They find out the change has to do with Picard’s ancestor, astronaut Renee Picard.
Last week, Picard made sure Renee made it to pre-mission quarantine but not before getting hit by a car driven by Adam Soong who has made a deal with Q to save his daughter. Now Picard is stuck in his subconscious battling demons from his childhood. Meanwhile, with her own body dead, the Borg Queen (BQ) has begun to assimilate Jurati as her new vessel.
At the end of last week’s episode, Tallinn wants to go into Picard’s brain and help him get unstuck. Ready to explore the end of the road not taken in Star Trek: Picard’s “Two of One?” Let’s engage!
RELATED: Read our full recap of Star Trek: Picard’s episode 6 “Two of One”, here.
Monsters
In Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) ready room, there’s burning sun out the window and also a sculpture of one inside. A psychologist (Jame Callis) sits and waxes philosophical. Picard is in a tux so this is not a flashback. He’s trapped in his mind prison. The doctor says Picard has a fear of enclosed spaces, Picard laughs, “The man who hates enclosed spaces spends his life in the infinite cosmos.” The doctor replies, “But then the man chooses a life on a vessel where his only access to the outside is holographic.”
The relationship is adversarial. The doctor says they have an hour to spend together and until it’s up, “We’re just stuck here.” Another clue we’re in Picard’s head.
The doctor asks for a story. Picard picks up the sun sculpture and tells a story about a queen with fiery red hair. We see the story, a memory. His mother (Madeline Wise), dressed as a queen, paints the windows in their solarium. She paints scary monsters, a galaxy, tree branches, and such. Little Jean-Luc wears a crown. Now she tells the story. It’s of a man whose magic was stolen back (reminiscent of Q losing his magic. Is this memory Q’s doing?) Then she says the lesson is, “There is no better teacher than one’s own enemies.”
She tells Jean-Luc he’s like his father which doesn’t please him. She says, “You’re a prince, you must learn to lift people up in times of grave danger.” Picard tells the doctor the queen always knew when danger was afoot, “that’s what happens when you live in a world where monsters are real.”
The monsters on the window come to life. She tells him she will always be proud of him then they run down to the tunnels. Jean-Luc falls. His mother is dragged away by the monster. This is a variation on the memory Picard has been having all season.
Back in reality, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Seven (Jeri Ryan) beam to the La Sirena so they can track a missing Jurati (Alison Pill) who has her own monster inside of her. They’re locked out of the ship’s computer. Seven finds the encryption is Borg. Uh-oh. This ship is their only way home.
In LA, Tallinn (Orla Brady) puts on the neuro device that will help her enter Picard’s mind. It looks exactly like like a Romulan ear. Hmm. Her eyes turn white and she’s in his head, inside the tunnels underneath the chateau.
This Is Not Real
Picard senses something but continues his psych evaluation. The doctor says he will recommend Picard be relieved of duty because he’s a danger to his crew, “There are a thousand ways to die out there.”
In the tunnels, Tallinn hears voices, all Picard’s, including, “I am Locutus of Borg.” She sees young Jean-Luc with his crown and asks why he’s there. He says he can’t leave or his mother won’t find him, a monster took her. Tallinn says she’ll help. They hear a loud roar and the doors to their dungeon lock.
Picard gets frustrated with the doctor, “Something else is happening here and this is not real.” The doctor pushes, “Say something real. One real thing.” Picard becomes more upset. The doctor tells him he’s “perpetually untethered in ways of the heart.” He asks why it’s so hard for PIciard to let people in. What’s he hiding? A secret shame? Then there’s banging on the door. The doctors getting too close to the truth. The banging increases as the doctor prods him further.
In the tunnels/dungeon, little Jean-Luc says they need to get to the white door, his mother will be there. Then, the monsters we saw last episode, come to life. One grabs little Jean-Luc, the other wraps a chain around Tallinn’s neck.
Back at the clinic, Teresa (Sol Rodriguez) comes back with her son, Ricardo (Steve Gutierrez), who has a shuttle and a play space helmet. Rios (Santiago Cabrera) blocks her from going into Picard’s room. She’s pissed. He finally relents and lets her in. She sees Tallinn with white eyes next to a twitching Picard. She’s scared and Rios says, “I need to explain something to you without breaking time.”
In Picard’s head, a monster tells Tallinn she doesn’t belong, she hits him.
Teresa says Picard will die so Rios has Raffi beam in a neuro-oscillator which really freaks Theresa out. She takes it and places it by Picard’s brain.
You’ll Do So Much With This Pain
This neuro-oscillator helps. Tallinn breaks the chains on young Jean-Luc. Tallinn kicks in a door and they are in the chateau.
On the La Sirena, Seven breaks the Borg encryptions based on an algorithm she knew from the collective. They pull up footage of Jurati implanting the Borg code into the ship’s computer.
Picard hears “There is no better teacher than one’s enemies” again and finds himself in the chateau with Tallinn and Jean-Luc. The banging starts again. Then little Jean-Luc sees the doctor and screams that he is the monster. This doctor is the man we’ve seen restrain his mother in all the previous flashbacks.
The doctor steps up to Picard. His voice is deeper. He is actually Picard’s father. Picard says he was relentless and accuses him of breaking his mother. He replies not in the way he thinks. He references a book with a drawing of the sun – it’s the same as the sculpture. Picard remembers the tunnels and that his dad said not to ever go because there are, “a thousand ways to die down there.” The banging gets louder.
We now see what really happened to young Jean-Luc and his mother. All the memory flashes from previous episodes come together. She gets scared and tells him to grab what he loves. He takes the book. He doesn’t want to go below because he’s scared of the dark. She says she can’t breathe here and promises she won’t be sad and it will be better now. They run Jean-Luc drops his book on the stairs. In the tunnels, he gets his foot caught in a floorboard and yells, “I’m stuck.”
Picard’s father tells him it was hours before he found Jean-Luc. If he hadn’t dropped the book, he wouldn’t have known where they were. His father had to carry his mother away. He says she suffered from “cycles of terrible darkness” and “irrational exhilaration.” She refused help.
Locked in a room with a white door, we hear his mother tell Jean-Luc she’s sorry and to let her out. Picard realizes that perhaps he never really knew his father.
Tallinn sees little Jean-Luc at the white door. She comforts him, “You’ll do so much with this pain. You’ll save worlds with it.” We hear the Picard theme music and honestly, this scene made me weep. But then we hear the mom say, “Let me out, Jean-Luc. Only you can save me.” Little Jean-Luc takes out a key. Tallinn realizes there’s more to this.
But then, back at the clinic, Picard sits up and Tallinn comes to. They share a look.
Rios is with Ricardo drawing ships – of course, he’s drawing his beloved La Sirena. He continues to fall for Theresa and shares that “Picard feels like a father to me even though I’m not a son to him.“ He then beams Theresa and Ricardo to the La Sirena and Ricardo hilariously has the most honest kid reaction, “I’m going to go touch everything!”
There Is No Better Teacher Than One’s Enemy
Raffi and Seven beam back to LA, freaked out by the BQ being loose there. They find CCTV footage of Jurati walking into a nightclub. There’s a band playing with a wonderful singer. (Fun fact: she’s Patrick Stewart’s IRL wife, (Sunny Ozell). Jurati walks up to a window, bangs on it and the glass goes flying. Jurati’s eyes turn momentarily black.
Picard, now fully updated on what’s happening, tells Tallinn, “I feel you and I just made a quantum leap beyond personal boundaries.” To make them even, she uncloaks an ear. She is indeed Romulan. Picard notes that tech could be useful. She says she has to wait eight hours before she can use it again so now she has to walk around all day “hiding my truth.” Even trade.
She’s shocked that Picard experiencing those memories is part of Q’s plan then says there’s more to the story referring to the key but Picard isn’t interested. He’s still thinking of Q. He remembers, “There’s no better teacher than one’s own enemy.” He decides to switch the narrative. He’s been letting Q control the lessons. He wonders why Q is so fixated on Picard so late in his life? Q needs this trial to happen so it’s personal and urgent for him. Once they find out why they can go on the offense.
A Dash of Extra With All This Ordinary
Picard goes to Guinan’s (Ito Aghayere) bar to summon a Q. Guinan talks of a truce El-Aurians struck with the Q continuum. The truce was made over a bottle, “this one.” She places a bottle on the table. She says liquid can catch the half-life of a moment so the moment is in the bottle. It’s an El-Aurian thing. She opens the bottle and the room violently shakes and there are voices. However, no Q shows up. Guinan doesn’t understand.
Outside the nightclub where Jurati/BQ broke the window, Seven realizes that BQ did that for the rush of endorphins. This speeds up nanoprobe multiplying which makes her stronger. Seven says, “We’re witnessing the birth of a new queen.” BQ wants to assimilate Earth and she’s going to use Jurati’s body to do it. As I said two recaps ago, Earth is in so much trouble.
A man enters Guinan’s bar. Unable to get him to leave, she pours him a drink while insulting him. He inserts himself into Guinan and Picard’s conversation. The guy says he likes science fiction. He pointedly says PIcard and Guinana are “not really ‘spacey’ types.” Uh-oh, what’s going on? Is this a Q messing with them?
The man says, “C’mon, we could all use a dash of extra with all this ordinary. You don’t think we’re alone out there?” Then he plays a video that shows Picard beaming to Guinan’s bar. He’s not a Q, he’s a federal agent. The feds burst in and Guinan and Picard are arrested although not before Picard ditches his comm badge on the floor.
RELATED: Keep up with Star Trek: Picard this season with our recaps!
Star Trek: Picard’s “Monsters” was written by Jane Maggs and directed by Joe Menendez.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/guinan-gene-roddenberry-star-trek/
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