Star Trek Picard Episode 6: The Impossible Box

Star Trek Picard Episode 6: The Impossible Box

Spoilers ahead, so beware.

  Breaking the tradition of Picard of starting with flashbacks, we have a dream instead as Soji dreams of walking down the corridor of her childhood home during a dark and stormy night™, and seeing her father before waking up in bed with Narek on the artifact. Narek gets curious about the dream, trying to plant another one of his seeds of doubt, but leaves after Soji starts turning the tables and asks him about his real name that he only uses for family and loved ones. But not before suggesting she calls her mother. As she calls out to him by name he turns and says “that’s not my name” and leaves.  Onboard the La Sirena, Agnes reports to Picard on Maddox's cause of death, leaving out the truth that she killed him by turning off the life support. Picard tries to comfort her as best he can but the issue of the Borg cube comes up and Soji was sent to investigate a possible link to the Synth ban. Picard takes his leave as the memories of his assimilation come back to haunt him some more. Elnor shows he’s pretty good at reading people, pointing out he sees how upset Agnes is, but the way of total candor means he ends up annoying Agnes who storms off.   Inside the holodeck, Picard looks out over the view of his vineyards, much like he did in his ready room on the Enterprise D after his rescue from the Borg. He looks up some research material on the Borg Cube Artifact and sees images of Hugh both as a former drone and in his current state, and then sees himself as Locutus, feeling his face where there used to be Borg tech and clearly visibly upset as the two images seem to merge into one.   Rios is shirtless and kicking a football about and showing a fair bit of skill in the beautiful game. Agnes comes in, still clearly upset over Maddox’s death and the two talk, Rois tries to comfort her and the two kiss, before going off to make a mistake.   Narek meanwhile is enduring another meeting with his sister while also playing with his tan zhekran and trying to stay calm despite his sisters continued abusive behaviour towards him. Her attitude towards him and Soji is still one of disgust, but she seems to truly realise that he has fallen in love with the android girl, whereas before she was just playing and teasing with him, she seems far more disgusted with him. Unlike her brother who has still managed to keep his head somewhat together on his mission despite his feelings towards Soji, he’s realised why she dreams and how he can use that ability to get information out of her without activating her. His sister makes one more remark about the box that she;d rather smash it open to get the prize, propting Narek to show her how to solve it, by gentle manipulation, to show the prize of a dancing figure inside.   La Sierna is about to leave the former Romulan Neutral zone and enter Romulan space itself,~ giving the danger this poses they get Raffi to use her contacts to get Picard some diplomatic status, her contact, Emmy, a still serving Starfleet captain only relents once she learns that the ship is only three hours away from entering Romulan space and a whole load of trouble. Raffi does all of this while absolutely hammered, having fallen off the wagon after meeting, and being rejected by her son.   Narek and Soji talk about her dream again and that she called her mother (off camera) but fell asleep again. Narek asks if this is something that happens a lot and points out that all her communications only ever last the same amount of time, 70 seconds, the Romulans being the Romulans obviously monitor all calls and log anomalies. This confuses Soji who can’t explain it.   Rios helps Raffi back to her quarters and the two talk, with her revealing that she has a son and that was her whole reason for going to Freecloud and he has a wife and child on the way. A grandchild she won’t get to know. Rios Comforts her as best he can and takes her bottle away as he leaves.   Sojis, now eating away at the seed of doubt, tries to contact her mother and tries to keep herself awake by stabbing her hand, which works, for a few seconds but she’s soon off to the land of nod again as the image of her mother repeats her suggestion to go to sleep, that makes a funny face as her image seems to glitch.   In true last second fashion, Picard gets his clearance just as La Sierna pulls up outside the Borg Cube. Raffi makes it clear that only Picard can go onboard and only meet with the director. Picards also makes it very clear to Elnor to stay onboard the ship, much to the young man's annoyance. Picard takes Dahjs necklace with him, holding it in his hands.   Soji wakes up and starts looking over all her stuff, and scans them. Pictures of herself, her sister, their mother, childhood toys, she scans them all but keeps getting the same result, time and time again. Everything she owns is 37 months old.   Picard beams into the Borg cube and is overwhelmed by memories almost immediately. This is the first time he has been inside a cube since his assimilation as Locutus. He wanders along corridors that seem to come to life with sections moving before his eyes. Something we’ve not seen the Cube do with other ex borgs. He wanders almost blinded as flashbacks overwhelmed him and nearly stumbles over the edge of one of the regeneration alcove decks only to be saved by two ex borgs who were using the alcoves. He doesn’t quite realize this until Hugh shows up and tells him what their intentions are.   The two old friends hug and Picard fills Hugh in on some of his mission to meet Soji and Hugh tells him about the Romulan interest in her and his own hunch that she was in danger. The two go looking

for her.   In Sojis quarters she explains her findings and Narek tries his best to comfort her, and suggest that she might have had her memories altered with implants. Soji is scared and he suggests a Romulan mediation method, Zhal Makh that might help. Soji shows her knowledge of Romulan culture again pointing out how taboo it is for non Romulans.   Hugh has taken Picard on a tour of the facility. Picard starts to realise from the actions of the two that saved him, and the pain in the faces of the other ex borg being rehabilitated that they truly are free from the Borg influence. Hugh posses the idea that Picard could be a spokesman for the ex Borg showing them as victims, not as monsters as Pciard himself has now came to finally accept they are not. Hugh gets a message that Soji has called in and the two head to her quarters to try to meet her.   Back in Raffi's quarters, Rios has brought her coffee and news that she owes him two strips of latinum as Soji is alive and well according to Picard. This news surprises Raffi who wonders why the Romulans would not have killed her given everything they know and what happened to her sister, finally figuring she has something they need.   Narek leads Soji to the meditation chamber, playing with his puzzle cube all the time, Soji notices the looks she's getting from Romulans as they make their way there. Narek speaks to a Romulan in their own language, even having to threaten him to let them use the chamber, Soji understands every word. Once in and having had Soji remove her boots as part of the ritual, he opens up and explains some of his past actions about not answering questions because it’s not safe out there, but it is in here. All the while being monitored by his sister who can see everything. He even tells her his true name is Hrai Yan and explains more of the ritual. Soji explains the details of her dream, how it always starts and ends and Narek gives her advice on how best to proceed. He advises her to ground herself in details and asks her about what she can see, and even gets her to do things she’s not done before, like look out the window. When Soji gets to the part where her father shouts at her she breaks out of the meditation but Narek offers advice on how to overcome this, getting her to concentrate on things she can see like the flowers and the workbench.   In Soji’s quarters Picard and Hugh are confused by the rockstar level destruction she’s put her own belongings through. Hugh checks on her location and finds she's not on the Cube, which is impossible. But as Picard points out, it’s not impossible if she's being hidden.   In the meditation chamber Soji is having better luck, noticing the skylight is lighting up the tulips her father has in his lab. But she  is shocked to see herself, not as a child but as a life size wooden doll like the one in her quarters for her artwork, but with her adult face, looking right back at her. Narek asks her to look at the skylight and describes what she can see. Two red moons, this along with the lighting is enough for Nareks sister to begin to trace where the “homeworld” is while a confused and somewhat terrified Sojis ask Narek what this all means. Tearfully he kisses her and says it means she found home, and that she was never real. He leaves her in the room with his puzzle box, barely able to compose himself through his tears, clearly hating everything he’s just done, while she calls out his name, his true name through the now locked door. The box slowly opens and fills the room with a red/pink myst that starts hurting Soji who falls to the ground as she tries to escape, apparently activating, and punches her way through the floor, but not before taking one last look at Narek.   Hugh has found Soji again and notices she's between floors, then realises she is traveling at speed. They race toward her destination, arriving just in time to see her smash through a ceiling into a room full of patients. Picard talks to her, telling her he knew her father and that her sister came to him for help, and while it takes some convincing he talks her into coming with him. Hugh takes them to what Picard recognises is the Borg Queens Cell, and Hugh revleas they both know it even though neither of them have been there before. He shows Picard the escape route, a long distance transporter the Borg picked up from a certain Delta Quadrant race and prepares to use it to save Picard and Soji. Soji surprised everyone, herself included when she states how far this thing can travel. Picard contacts his crew to arrange a rendezvous, much to their own surprise at the trouble that seems to be going down in Picard's general location, again. They soon realise however, that they are missing someone else.   Elnor shows up at the Queens Cell taking out three Romulans that had the drop on Picard and co and refuses to come with Picard, opting instead to buy him time and decline to have his sword unbinded. As Picard and Soji step through the portal, Hugh and Elnor stand outside the closing door, and the episode ends with Elnor stating “Please my friends, choose to live.” Speculations, observations, theories and other things Your word of the day, metastasize, (of a cancer) spread to other sites in the body by metastasis. The things you learn. It’s back to being a bit slower paced again after last week's Seven of Nine centric episode. But the episode always quickens up when it needs to and moves at a good speed. This kind of pacing would have benefitted the earlier episodes to help move the story along a bit smoother rather than the sometimes too drawn out pace most have adopted. The episode title is referring to a tan zhekran, the little rubix cube like box Narek is seen using in this episode. One of the Romulan ex borgs was also seen using one when Soji went to talk to Ramdha. It could also of course refer to the Borg Cube they are all in and the “impossible” trick they use to get Picard and Soji off the cube. Somewhat bizarrely the image of Locutus Picards sees is actually a mirror image, of course being a transparent hologram we therefore get to see a “true” image as the two faces merge into one.   Agnes is clearly suffering from the actions she’s been forced to take towards Maddox. The fact that she turns to Rios for comfort and ends up sleeping with him is obviously out of character for her, and probably for him as well, but who knows where this might lead? Either it’ll break both of their hearts when it’s revealed she’s a spy or… well, yeah, it’ll break their hearts because there is no way she is not going to be outed at some point. Soji clearly had no idea at all why she was falling asleep during her calls to her mother. Suggesting her programming wipes out that fact and possibly gives her a fake memory instead to cover it up.   My first thought when Narek suggested a Romulan meditation method was that this might be the introduction of the Romulan version of the Vulcan mindmeld. Given the Romulans are an offshoot of the former and still share a lot of physical attributes to their Vulcan cousins, it's not outside the realm of possibility that some Romulans have telepathic abilities. But would such a method of telepathy even work on Soji? Everything about Nareks behaviour and actions show a man truly conflicted, from the way he’s not told Soji things about himself but has wanted to, to the way he still tries to help her find answers to her questions about herself (that she might have had to some degree anyhow before she met him) and especially his behaviour towards her when he talks her through the Romulan meditation technique, where he both helps her (evidently wanting to give her some closure and realise what she is) and betrays her and is reduced to barely controlled tears when he tries to kill her. Both actors have played their scenes together incredibly well and they have a great chemistry on screen together. Hopefully the two will meet again because this Romance has to go somewhere. Narek revealing his true name to Soji also goes to show how much he really cares about her, but also shows something else we may have all missed. He and his sister never refer to herself by her name at all. This could mean he doesn’t care about her at all, despite being siblings, but then again, he’s never looked comfortable given the way she acts towards him. Hopefully he’s going to betray his sister and try to set things right with Soji. The fact that Romulans have public names and private names is an interesting new addition to the lore of Romulans, expanding the worldbuilding on this OG Trek race in a small but subtle manner.   Staying on the Romulan siblings, her attitude towards the little box, the tan zhekran, and that she would rather break it then figure it out, perfectly shows her attitude towards everything. Which is what Commodore Oh was chewing her out over. She Is a hammer, while Narek is a scalpel. Sojis “homeworld” is clearly not the same world as Freecloud, the environments are vastly different which leads one to wonder if the “homeworld” still exists, and just why Maddox went to set up a lab on Freecloud in the first place. If there is a lab on a “homeworld” could there be other androids there? Soji takes damage to her face that leaves a very similar wound that her sister had before she found Picard. Her ability to punch and tear her way through the wooden and metal floors shows a high degree of strength, whether this is on the same level or not as Data remains to be seen.   Strangely Soji seems to stop being affected by the radiation once she’s activated. This opens up a whole load of questions about how resilient the girls are, and whether the acid attack really would have killed Dahj if it hadn’t been for the exploding disrupter that seems to have ended her That said, in the case of both sisters the Romulans have known they could “activate”. The question here is, how did they know about this? Has there been another similar android or two that the Romulans have already encountered? Sojis dream or nightmare leaves a question about how the girls were created. If the wooden art mannequin of Soji seen at the end is a twisted memory or is just a dream that can be taken literally to some degree, then that might not actually be Soji seeing herself on the table, but Dahj, suggesting the girls may have been built one after the other, or just upgraded separately. The fact that there are pictures of the two girls at various ages, and even pictures of their mother suggest that they might have been born in a more traditional way and even grew up, but given that everything Soji owns is about three years old, that might mean the girls have aged at an advanced rate. Could this mean the girls might have shorter lifespans as well as they are organic? And just how are they “built”? The fact that we cannot see Maddox's face does leave room for interpretation as well, even when he is facing the camera and it’s just an indistinct blurred face, could that actually be Maddox, or someone else? Was this just a dream, was it a memory, was it something else? If she keeps going back to that dream, would she see Bruce, or Data? And like Data, Soji seems to be a fountain of knowledge, even when it comes to things she's never had any first hand experience on, like the  emergency transporter in the Borg Queens Cell. Raffi managing to use her contacts to get a one day pass while still clearly wrecked shows her powers of negotiation and persuasion perfectly. But is she owed any more favours by anyone else? Or was this just Starfleet trying to prevent harm coming from Picard? Could they still value the old man after all? Or are they just trying to prevent another incident with the Romulans?   Also while talking about Raffi, it’s pretty clear she and Rios have known each other for years, and yet she never told him she has a son.   Picards experiences with the Borg still clearly haunt him, from the early discussion about them on the La Sirena, to the scene where he does some research on the artifact, each scene is played to perfection with the last lingering shot of Picards and Locutus faces merging showing the nightmare of his assimilation has never left him. In the past, Picards was able to bury himself in his work to overcome these issues, or rather forget them without coming to terms with them. Now, he’s obviously put them to one side and buried it, only for it to be unearthed and with nothing to shelter him from them, the onslaught of memory and pain was almost too much, until he saw Hugh again, who returned the favour Picard did him so many years ago, and showed hm life could go on. The reunion between both men is also incredibly heartwarming, enough to bring a smile to your face and a tear in the eye. The behaviour between Picard and the other ex borg,even though it's only eye contact and smiles is pretty appropriate, they are all victims whose only need to do that bare minimum to show solidarity with each other. Hugh mentions that they now have a new queen, and she's a Romulan, Picard doesn’t ask who this is, but the implication seems to be that the Romulans might just have a Queen of their own in charge now. This could just be a throwaway line but it would be interesting to see how it might tie into anything. That said the scenes where Picard is viewing the Ex Borgs being restored as best as possible gives him a good bit of closure to the horrors he committed as Locutus. Picard still retains a good deal of memories of the Borg structures, even if he’s not been in this cube before. But he doesn’t have knowledge of things the Borg have assimilated since his time with them. Seven retaining Borg Knowledge after being restored to humanity was another indicator of this ability to recall information and memory. Oddly the apparent damage to the Borg Cube is not addressed at all. Even Picard never queries this, so is this a matter of public record what happened to it and no one is going to raise the issue at all? Was the missing damage due to the Romulans taking parts of it out for some reason? And ultimately, what is the plan with the Cube itself? Borg tech, especially the weapons, could truly make the Romulans one of the most tactically superior forces again. Has Soji fully activated? It’s hard to tell for sure, but one difference between the sisters is that Dahj saw imagery of Picard as she activated, Soji doesn’t recognize Picard at all and needs some convincing, such as him showing her sisters necklace to win her over. This begs the question, how different are the two girls programming? Soji’s credentials included being a doctor while Dahj had apparently only just gotten her degree. This seems to lend a little credence to the idea that Soji is the older sibling, or perhaps their respective degrees took different amounts of time to earn to go with their cover stories. Elnor stays behind with Hugh to cover Picard, Hugh clearly is willing to sacrifice himself for the man who gave him his freedom, Elnor seems to be willing to die for Picard too, but it's not so clear why he’d do so. They’ve not really had much of a change to repair the damage done to their relationship. I can only hope that somehow they both survive and make a seperate escape. Of course, with Picard's actions on the Borg Cube and some dead Romulans thanks to his bodyguard, this could all lead to a bit of a diplomatic incident Starfleet is going to have to clean up. This was after all in Romulan space. Of course as we’ve still not seenRiker or Troi, an idea comes to mind now because of Hughs request for Picard to speak on behalf of ex borg, could that be what Picard will be doing in future? Could that be the reason for his visit to the Rikers? And if you’ve read this far, who would agree with me, Narek and Soji, still a better love story than Twilight?