March 18, 2020 - Recap/Review on Episode 8 of Star Trek: Picard

 Aia, the Grief World was the site of a sacred Romulan ritual 14 years ago, a ritual that Commodore Oh seemed to be in charge of conducting. Narissa Rizzo was part of it and involved gaining foresight, which most were destroyed trying to seek. Narissa, however, remained on her feet and lucid enough to talk to Oh. Oh was the one who engineered the attack on Mars and ended up getting Narissa, who was trying to comfort her damaged aunt, to help with this treachery. In the present day, Narissa communicates with her comatose aunt about the past and it was the same woman who Soji communicated with in an earlier episode, the woman who was doing the puzzle when Hugh brough Soji to her. It is clear that Narissa loves her aunt very much, but loves her thirst for vengeance against the past more.

Elsewhere in the Cube, Elnor is in hiding and is blinded before being unexpectedly attacked by Romulan assailants. He is, fortunately, rescued by Seven’s unexpected arrival and they share a brief, but tender moment of grief over the loss of Hugh. Eventually, Narissa finds the dead Romulans while Seven and Elnor go to a cell where Seven ends up linking herself to the cube. She actually reactivates the dormant cube and admits to Elnor that she is afraid of re-creating a collective in the Cube because the Borg will not want to go back to being free; she is also afraid that she might not want to let them. After much thought, Seven decides to link herself to the Cube and make herself into an artificially created Borg Queen. Narissa and the Centurion are ready, however, and launch the Borg into space to die. As Narissa and her fleet prepare to leave the Cube, however, they are attacked by Borg. Unfortunately, the Romulans escape and Seven quickly disconnects herself from the Cube after Elnor asks if he too will be assimilated. Seven says that “Annika still has work to do” and it makes me wonder if she eventually intends to return to the Collective; if she intends to reclaim her ‘Seven of Nine’ status?

On La Sirena, Rios meets with Picard and Soji, but is briefly deafened by hate over Soji’s presence. Rios ends up telling Picard he will take them to the nearest starbase and then he is on his own. Raffi tries to shoot Picard and Soji, but Picard talks her down only to learn that Jurati is a Romulan/Federation spy who killed Bruce Maddox. Raffi, and the EMH argue about Jurati and Soji before Raffi walks away. Picard later contacts Admiral Clancy via holo-transmission in his office and tells them about the sentients, who have a right to life just like Data did, are in extreme danger. Clancy says she will send a squadron to rendezvous with La Sirena at Starbase 12 and Picard is PLEASED that he is finally being taken seriously.

Raffi, meanwhile, spends time arguing with holographic crew she thinks are Rios before she realizes she is simply talking with holograms. The ENH then shares with Raffi about a sedentary system known as an octenary. Raffi kisses the ENH for his wisdom! Raffi keeps interrogating the holographic crew about where Rios is and what he knows and she realizes that the octenary system was built, not created naturally. Rios turns out to be hiding in his quarters, nursing a bottle of liquor and looking at his old Starfleet gear. As he pulls a box out, Raffi comms him and he tells her to piss off. Rios then grieves over old memorabilia and the memories they bring. Raffi eventually meets with all of the holograms in Picard’s office and digs for information about ‘Jana’, eventually getting that the information has to do with Rios’s past with Captain Vandermeer. The ibn Majid, Raffi reasons, is where something happened that sent Rios into a breakdown. Raffi eventually finds a heavily intoxicated Rios in his quarters and gets him to begin talking by bringing up Vandermeer. Rios, however, says Vandermeer is a murderer. Rios tells Raffi the story of how Starfleet ordered cold-blooded murder/suicide and also ordered it covered up so they could protect their ‘perfection.’ They erased all evidence of their wrongdoing and cashiered Rios out with trauma as his only companion. Rios then shares that the girl is identical to Soji.

Picard and Soji do get some alone time on La Sirena and bond over a meal. Soji shares her feelings and emotions with Picard and Picard admits that while he doesn’t know everything, he wants to understand her. Picard reminds Soji that even though her memories are false, she has Data and his life to claim as her own history; he shares what Data was like and how although they expressed emotions similarly, they had a familial love for each other. Picard opens up to Soji about Data with such great emotion that a level of trust develops between them. Soji tells Picard that Data loved him and Picard is so overcome with emotion that he cannot speak.

Jurati eventually awakens to Picard standing over her and learns she neutralized the tracker, but she is also forced to listen as he tells her that she WILL surrender herself to the authorities for the murder of Bruce Maddox once they reach Starbase 12. Picard’s anger is quiet, but evident and he simply wants to know WHY. Jurati tells Picard that Commodore Oh poisoned her with a tracker and forced both a mind meld and a psychic block on her to keep her compliant. Picard asks about the vision and Jurati shares that the chaos she saw in the vision happened because of synthetic life, so they need to destroy it. Soji interrupts them and admits that it comes because of her, the destroyer. Jurati eventually talks to Soji and is truly fascinated by what Soji can do; she is fascinated by what Maddox’s work turned into. Jurati expresses fascination over what Soji is, but Soji is cautious and asks Jurati, “Do you consider me to be a person?” Soji also says she knows that Commodore Oh gave the order for her to be killed, frightening Jurati into silence.

Soji brings Jurati face to face with Picard, Rios, and Raffi and Jurati says she is done murdering people; she will turn herself in once they get to Deep Space 12. She also apologizes for her actions and admits she considers them a crew. The silence is deafening, as nobody knows what to say. The crew, guided by Raffi, discusses the creation and evolution of synthetic lifeforms. Picard reveals that the Zhat Vash was created to find and terminate all synethetic life and that Oh was sent to infiltrate Starfleet, force them to stop their research into synthetic lifeforms, and make a situation that would make that appropriate.

The Romulans were ultimately responsible for the attack on Mars, the crew determines, and Soji ends up unleashing a brief moment of anger before walking away. She is upset that the Romulans found her world and she chooses to hijack La Sirena so she can get to her homeworld to save her ‘family’ faster. Rios, however, knows a lullaby and takes control back, but Picard is on Soji’s side and wants to help. Picard can’t figure out how to operate Rios’s ship, so they are briefly stalled before Soji quietly asks Rios to take her home for Jana’s sake. Rios allows Soji to take control and get them underway. During the journey, Picard admits he forgot how much he loved exploring space and shares that he knew Vandermeer. Rios and Picard chat about Vandermeer and Picard says that Starfleet betrayed themselves long before any of this came to be. Starfleet, Picard, gave way to fear and Rios admits he too is fearful. Picard says that the future is still there for them to write and they cannot allow fear to serve as the great destroyer. La Sirena goes into a wormhole to Soji’s homeworld, but they are followed by Narek.