Star Trek Picard Episode 7: Nepenthe
Star Trek Picard Episode 7: Nepenthe
Spoilers ahead, so be wary:
This week's flashback takes us right back to the meeting between Agnes and Commodore Oh, confirming what we all knew had happened, and that Agnes had indeed been recruited to spy on Picard and his merry band. We even get to see how Agnes was “shown” the things they had had seen her that she tearfully told Maddox before she killed him. It’s possible she was even under instructions to do so.
Back to the present, which is still the future to us, but is still the present for these characters who live in the future, “Narrisa” has Hugh and a selection of Ex Borgs lined up, trying to get information out of Hugh on where Picard and Soji are. When Hugh refuses, she executes the Ex Borgs, leaving Hugh heartbroken but still refuses to betray Picard. “Narrisa” speaks to her brother who is now preparing to track Rios and his ship who are currently stuck in a Borg tractor beam, Rios blaming Raffi for getting him into this while Agnes angrly suggests they just tell the Romulans they just want to go home. Regardless of the La Sirena crews bickering, “Narrisa'' orders their release to allow them to be tracked. Raffi is suspicious but Rios is happy to leave “They have to catch me”. Agnes asks about Elnor.
Elnor is still alive and comforts Hugh who has been left with the corpses of the dead Ex Borg. When he’s hailed, he tells them he’s staying put to help. Letting him know they think he’s crazy and brave, the crew warp off, followed by Narek.
Picard and Soji materialise on a very Earth-like planet, it even has a rabbit hopping by. Soji collapses to her knees, probably from the emotional roller coaster she’s been on. The two are quickly joined by a third person, a young child with a bow and arrow who Picard recognises and jokingly advises the girl to point it at his head as his heart is artificial, even calling her by name, Kestra. Something she casually does without skipping a beat. He asks if her parents are around and the three go off on their journey to the girls home. Soji and Kestra chat as the young girl plays with a broken compass and tries to figure out how they know each other, eventually asking Picard who Sojis father is after Soji states she doesn’t know Picard and that he claims to know her father. Kestra asks Picard who this is and Picard answers by asking if she's heard of Data. Kesta is shocked and asks Soji if she's an Android, shocking the young woman, which had not been Picards intent at all. He tries to comfort her and even tries to tell her that not everything she recalls was false, something she’s very much convinced of. He tells her Dahj was real, and then realises she didn’t know about the death of her sister and that he’s just caused her more pain, building more a wall between the two of them as Soji thinks this is just another mind game.
Kestra calls out to her parents as they approach the house and Picard is welcomed with open arms by a cheerful Troi and she instantly knows something is wrong with him which he plays down. Riker is busy in his kitchen preparing food and listening to jazz when Kestra calls out to him, only to find Picard past his doorstop and in his living room, and Rikers first act is to smile and greet his old friend in a huge hug. Reading his old captain's face, he quickly realizes he needs to take action and shows he is the ultimate example of the prepper mentality. He raises his house's shield, and after a prompting by Pciard, has scans for cloaking initiated. Three three then do some more catching up while Kestra is showing Soji where the outdoors shower is. Picard fills them in on some details including that he's in over his head, but doesn’t go into too much detail as he doesn't want to stay too long or get them involved. Neither Riker or Troi have any problem with him staying, Troi even offers him a nap in Thads room while Riker makes pizza.
Kestra meanwhile is trying find out what other ways Soji is similar to Data, she can’t play the violin but she does like Sherlock Holmes and has super strength and speed and even have mucus and blood and tears, all things Kestra finds a bit weird but likes the sound of, as it sounds like something Data would do. When Sojis questions why Data would make an android like this Kestra fills her in on Datas desire to be more human and some of the things he learned, like ballroom dancing. However Soji is still upset as she was still clinging to the idea of being human until she’d met Kestra. Kestra tries to comfort her after this, telling her she’s amazing.
Trois pauses before entering Thads room, still as it was when he died and obviously a place that holds many memories, happy and not sad for the family. Picard observes that made up language Kestra was speaking and learns more about Thad, including that he would have been 18. He tries to comfort the visibly upset Troi who admits she's not as brave as she used to be. Picards points out that means she's wiser now.
Back on board La Sirena, the crew have found out about Nareks ship. They cut engines and set in a new course, waiting for him to over shoot them in a bid to loose him with a few light years distance. All the while Agnes is still protesting that they should just leave, even saying she doesn’t want to meet the synth and that Picard can take care of himself. Raffi however points out that they aren’t on an outing and that Agnes whole reason for joining was to meet the synth, while Rios states he has a paying client. Agnes breaks down and Aunty Raffi takes her off to get her hooked up with whatever she wants. Agnes asks if it can be cake. To which a somewhat surprised Raffi responds, “Sure”.
Riker is outdoors with his ultimate outdoor kitchen range, which in this case consists of a wood burning pizza oven and his own food preparation table where he’s working on his own recipes for pizza. Picard, apparently never having tasted Rikers home cooking comes out of the house to chat a bit more. Soji and Kestra joined them later, with both speaking one of Thad's made up languages. Something that Riekr points out is over 300 pages long and Kestra states took only a few minutes for Soji to learn. Riker notices the head tilt Soji does when she sees the food he’s prepared and the penny drops. After he introduces himself to her he runs by his suspicions to Picard and advises him he’s trying to deal with Soji like a starfleet officer, rather than a teenger “more or less”.
Soji joins Troi inthe garden and sees a tomato for the first time ever, all food she's ever had has been replicated and when prompted to try the fruit states real is better. Troi goes into counselor mode and without the benefit of being able to use her empathic skills to read the young woman still manages to try to try to comfort her. Soji however is still convinced everything is fake, that’s it's all a mind game. Picard comes in and gives her the tough love approach, angering Soji who violently pushes him away and into Riker, who points out to Picard all he had to say was dinner is read. Troi then gives Picard a dressing down for his behaviour. Nice to Picard on the receiving end of one of those from his former staff. Troi believes that Sojis ability to trust was a programming flaw, one that’s been abused by the Romulans. She suggests he treats the dining room like the ready room, and take onboard the advice they can offer and be more like the Picard of old, compassionate, patient, curious.
At the Borg Cube Hugh and Elnor are hatching a plan to use the Queens Cell to take over the Cube and protect the Ex Borgs, something Hugh was reluctant to do as he was afraid of the power of the cube in this case. “Narrissa” shows up with her death squad from earlier and points out that as she's heard him stating his intentions, he's broken the treaty and she can now kill him. Elnore draws his sword and one fight later it’s just him and “Narrissa” left with Hugh in hiding. “Narrissa '' taunts elnor to one on one combat, holstering her disrupter, but during the fight she pulls out a knife, distracting Elnor from the other knife that she pulls out and throws into Hughs neck. Elnor runs to the ex borg, pulling the blade free and throwing it at “Narissa” whose aiming her disruptor at him, but she beams out at the last second. Hugh dies in Elnors arms but not before telling him he needs an Ex Borg to use the Queen Cell.
On La Sirena Agnes is onto her third bit of cake… before breaking down in tears as Raffi's tries to comfort her, figuring it’s to do with Maddox's death, unaware that it is, but not for the reasons she’s thinking. Rios however has bad news, their tail is back, the identical warp signature being the give away. Agnes, throws up her cake.
Meanwhile at the Rikers, dinner is served, and edible, so edible, no one seems to touch it. Slowly over the course of dinner Picard is able to win Sojis trust. She recounts the mind games played by Narek, and the meditation that lets her find out where she was. And then the old crew are acting like they really are in the ready room. Riker and Trois advice proves invaluable. Kestra quickly realises that Soji has a homeworld, something that cheers her up a good deal, but that it’s in danger and they have no idea where it is. Kestra on the other hand does. She's sent a message to a local ship captain who recognises the description of two red moons and lighting storms.
Rios has taken Agnes to the sickbay again despite her protests that he's ok now, but he's really taken there for privacy, to discuss his concerns about their little shadow. He thinks there's a tracking device on Raffi, simply because she left “never to return '' on Freecloud, only to return. Agnes says it’s not here, and Rios jokingly points out it can't be Agnes as she's been on the ship all the time. Before they can discuss anything else Raffi yells out that the shadow is back. Rios runs off and Agnes comes to a decision, using the replicator to create a hypro spray to destroy the tracker, ignoring the warning about side effects given by the computer. She very quickly reacts badly, collapsing and knocking over several items before the EMH finally turns on and freaks out at the sight before him.
Narek swears in Romulan when he realises he’s lost his prey.
Elnor is now alone, his hand covered in Hughs blood and he sees the SOS beacon Seven gave Picard, hanging in front of him. He thinks for a little while, then activates it.
Riker and Picard go off for a stroll, Picard has now made contact with Rios and will be leaving soon. They share a good old chat as they take in the view on the lake before returning to the homestead to beam out. Before they go, Kestra hands over her broken compass to Soji as a parting gift, and the family walk back inside their family home.
Speculations, observations, theories and other things
Another slow episode, but then the whole general tone has been slow so it’s not surprising. But this would have been a much more welcome slower pace if the previous episode had been far, far faster. It does however make me wonder how this arc would have been treated if it had been made in the days of TNG. There’s too much for it to be a single episode, even a fast paced two parter wouldn’t have been doable.
It is however fantastic to see the Riker family, Frakes and Sirtis slip back into their own roles as if they’ve never stopped playing them and their daughter, Kestra is a joy to watch in all her scenes, Hopefully Lulu Wilson will go on to great things.
Kestra is off course named after Trois older sister who died while Deanna was a baby.
Commodore Oh shows Agnes the threat that synths pose by performing a Vulcan mind meld. This implies she really is a Vulcan as we have never seen a Romulan perform this. If she is a Romulan, then this sets an amazing precedent that some Romulans have the ability to perform this act of telepathy.
Information currently missing from Memory Alpha stated that Oh’s costumes were listed as being Romulan.
Oh’s behaviour is also far more Vulcan like in general when she’s speaking to Agnes as compared to when she was speaking to Naraks siter “Narissa” when she was undercover as a human starfleet officer.
It’s curious to note that Oh is wearing sunglasses, making her possibly one of the few, if maybe the first Trek character to be seen wearing them. Vulcans are known to have an inner eyelid to protect from the sun on their homeworld. Romulans presumably also share this feature so Oh wearing these seems to be to try to add a factor of intimidation. Not that Agnes needs much intimidation to fall in line. Oh actually seems somewhat compassionate this time around, even looking in pain during the mindmeld.
“Narrisa” is pretty clearly by this point, a full blown sociopath, enjoying creating pain and anguish in her victims, which doesn’t just include her brother. Probably one reason why Oh was chewing her out.
Riker and Trois late son, Thad appears to have been named after one of Rikers ancestors, and seems to have had an active imagination and a love of languages having created at least eleven spoken offices, and as Troi points out created a language based on butterfly wing patterns. His room was covered in maps and drawings of his own making and his family had learned to speak his invented languages. This all suggests the young boy was a genius akin to Tolkien who was doing much the same.
Soji learns several things about herself and Data, but questions how she could be his daughter as he died long before she believes she was “built”. Who she believes her father is is never addressed at all in this episode. In fact not one of her photos inthe last episode seemed to include images of a father at all. Does she think of Maddox as being her dad? She didn’t seem to react to his name drop by Riker in a way that suggests she does, or that the name is even familiar to her.
Despite her organic nature, and her clear indication of emotions and the pain she's in,Troi cannot sense her at all. This seems to confirm that no matter how organic she is, Soji is still an artificial lifeform. But given Troi could apparently sense Lal having her emotional breakdown before her death, this could mean Sojis brain works in a similar but still very different method to Datas. There are however some species Troi cannot sense at all due to the nature of their brains constructions, so there is still a good chance she’s just got a different brain chemistry to humans and other life forms Troi can sense.
Speaking of Troi, not only is her abilities as a counselor put to the best use they ever have in the history of Star Trek, between herself and Riker they manage to help Picard and Soji figure out several parts of the puzzle. This all shows that Picard by himself, while a very capable investigator and diplomat and captain, still relied on his crew and their skills to get the best possible results. In his missions. My theory that Picard is making mistakes due to his age and illness still holds some weight as he continues to make poor decisions, such as his approach to trying to help Soji with some tough love, or keep Riker and Troi and Hugh in the dark about his mission.
The fact that Troi and Riker are this much still on top of their game, even while no longer in service, goes to show what a mistake it was by Picard not to ask for their help. Or Worfs or Geordis for that matter. If Riker has a house with shields and scanners (and who knows what else?) both Worf and Geordi (assuming they are still in service) are likely to have very customised starships bult about their own strengths that would have been very useful to Picard given what he’s encountered so far.
The Rikers family home is located on a planet that they moved to presumably to try to help Thads recovery, in all regards it seems to be a paradise planet that suits them perfectly. Pleasant scenery, mountains that Riker presumably climbs every now and then, lakes, an abundance of animals and plants, by all accounts, this is the kind of place I would love to escape to too.
I’d previously believed Riker and Troi would show up in the final episode for Pciard to take advice from regarding the Ex Borg, obviously not the case, but could he still become an envoy for the Ex Borg?
Oddly, Jonathan Frakes get’s special guest star billing in the intro, while Marina Sirtis, who is as much as he is, only gets a co-star billing in the end credits… Erm…
Kestra is played brilliantly by , and her interactions with Sojis are a joy to watch. I can already picture fanfiction of these two when older having adventures together.
Also Trosi is specifically introduced by rank, commander, rather than counselor, while Rikers rank is never mentioned. Did he ever make it to admiral?
Could Kestra and Thad have any empathic abilities like their mother? No mention is ever made of it and Kestra also lacks the large pupils that her mother has that are typical of Betazoids. That said both she and her mother show considerable skill in trying to help Soji out, even if Kestra lacks her mother's training in counseling, or the fact that Troi can’t read Soji and is relying on pure skill and training to help.
Agnes is clearly feeling incredibly guilty at her actions, she's clearly not cut out for the spy business, which does make you wonder why Oh choose her for this. Possibly she was hoping Agnes would be made very easily and end up breaking up Picard's little crew through being disheartened.
Chef Riker burns his pizza at least a little. The last time we saw him cooking on the Enterprise D, only Worf could stomach the food he made. He must have taken a course.
Hughs death is frankly underwhelming, and frankly unnecessary, it would have been far more interesting to have him still around for later episodes, or have him die saving Elnor, indebting the young Romulan to him even more.
Since Elnor has somehow gotten ahold of the SOS beacon Seven gave Picard, I think we can all guess who's going to go into the Queen Cell at some point. But might we end up seeing the Queen herself at some point? And just how did he get it?
If Geordi ever shows up, and learns about Hughs murder, would it be likely he takes out “Narissa”? Even with a phaser on stun? Not that I’m expecting Geordi to show up, but it would be nice to see him do so.
A few reviews I’ve come across have stated Agnes has chosen to put herself in a coma. But there’s no evidence that is the case in the episode. She’s clearly decided to take the hypospray and ignore the possible ramifications, but there’s nothing there to state she was aware she would go into a coma.
Oddly the replicator Agnes and Raffi use looks more like a 3D printer, but the parts never move and unlike the TNG replicator which used the transporter effect to beam in the item being replicated, this is shown being constructed by moving beams, more in line with the fabricators used in survival game Subnautica.
The EMH is so English he interrupts his opening statement with “bloody hell” when he sees Agnes' condition.
Rios and Raffi never mention it in this episode but as they clearly know they've lost their tale they most likely figured out that Agnes was being tracked. I expect there might be some questions for her if she recovers from her coma in the next episode.
This week's flashback takes us right back to the meeting between Agnes and Commodore Oh, confirming what we all knew had happened, and that Agnes had indeed been recruited to spy on Picard and his merry band. We even get to see how Agnes was “shown” the things they had had seen her that she tearfully told Maddox before she killed him. It’s possible she was even under instructions to do so.
Back to the present, which is still the future to us, but is still the present for these characters who live in the future, “Narrisa” has Hugh and a selection of Ex Borgs lined up, trying to get information out of Hugh on where Picard and Soji are. When Hugh refuses, she executes the Ex Borgs, leaving Hugh heartbroken but still refuses to betray Picard. “Narrisa” speaks to her brother who is now preparing to track Rios and his ship who are currently stuck in a Borg tractor beam, Rios blaming Raffi for getting him into this while Agnes angrly suggests they just tell the Romulans they just want to go home. Regardless of the La Sirena crews bickering, “Narrisa'' orders their release to allow them to be tracked. Raffi is suspicious but Rios is happy to leave “They have to catch me”. Agnes asks about Elnor.
Elnor is still alive and comforts Hugh who has been left with the corpses of the dead Ex Borg. When he’s hailed, he tells them he’s staying put to help. Letting him know they think he’s crazy and brave, the crew warp off, followed by Narek.
Picard and Soji materialise on a very Earth-like planet, it even has a rabbit hopping by. Soji collapses to her knees, probably from the emotional roller coaster she’s been on. The two are quickly joined by a third person, a young child with a bow and arrow who Picard recognises and jokingly advises the girl to point it at his head as his heart is artificial, even calling her by name, Kestra. Something she casually does without skipping a beat. He asks if her parents are around and the three go off on their journey to the girls home. Soji and Kestra chat as the young girl plays with a broken compass and tries to figure out how they know each other, eventually asking Picard who Sojis father is after Soji states she doesn’t know Picard and that he claims to know her father. Kestra asks Picard who this is and Picard answers by asking if she's heard of Data. Kesta is shocked and asks Soji if she's an Android, shocking the young woman, which had not been Picards intent at all. He tries to comfort her and even tries to tell her that not everything she recalls was false, something she’s very much convinced of. He tells her Dahj was real, and then realises she didn’t know about the death of her sister and that he’s just caused her more pain, building more a wall between the two of them as Soji thinks this is just another mind game.
Kestra calls out to her parents as they approach the house and Picard is welcomed with open arms by a cheerful Troi and she instantly knows something is wrong with him which he plays down. Riker is busy in his kitchen preparing food and listening to jazz when Kestra calls out to him, only to find Picard past his doorstop and in his living room, and Rikers first act is to smile and greet his old friend in a huge hug. Reading his old captain's face, he quickly realizes he needs to take action and shows he is the ultimate example of the prepper mentality. He raises his house's shield, and after a prompting by Pciard, has scans for cloaking initiated. Three three then do some more catching up while Kestra is showing Soji where the outdoors shower is. Picard fills them in on some details including that he's in over his head, but doesn’t go into too much detail as he doesn't want to stay too long or get them involved. Neither Riker or Troi have any problem with him staying, Troi even offers him a nap in Thads room while Riker makes pizza.
Kestra meanwhile is trying find out what other ways Soji is similar to Data, she can’t play the violin but she does like Sherlock Holmes and has super strength and speed and even have mucus and blood and tears, all things Kestra finds a bit weird but likes the sound of, as it sounds like something Data would do. When Sojis questions why Data would make an android like this Kestra fills her in on Datas desire to be more human and some of the things he learned, like ballroom dancing. However Soji is still upset as she was still clinging to the idea of being human until she’d met Kestra. Kestra tries to comfort her after this, telling her she’s amazing.
Trois pauses before entering Thads room, still as it was when he died and obviously a place that holds many memories, happy and not sad for the family. Picard observes that made up language Kestra was speaking and learns more about Thad, including that he would have been 18. He tries to comfort the visibly upset Troi who admits she's not as brave as she used to be. Picards points out that means she's wiser now.
Back on board La Sirena, the crew have found out about Nareks ship. They cut engines and set in a new course, waiting for him to over shoot them in a bid to loose him with a few light years distance. All the while Agnes is still protesting that they should just leave, even saying she doesn’t want to meet the synth and that Picard can take care of himself. Raffi however points out that they aren’t on an outing and that Agnes whole reason for joining was to meet the synth, while Rios states he has a paying client. Agnes breaks down and Aunty Raffi takes her off to get her hooked up with whatever she wants. Agnes asks if it can be cake. To which a somewhat surprised Raffi responds, “Sure”.
Riker is outdoors with his ultimate outdoor kitchen range, which in this case consists of a wood burning pizza oven and his own food preparation table where he’s working on his own recipes for pizza. Picard, apparently never having tasted Rikers home cooking comes out of the house to chat a bit more. Soji and Kestra joined them later, with both speaking one of Thad's made up languages. Something that Riekr points out is over 300 pages long and Kestra states took only a few minutes for Soji to learn. Riker notices the head tilt Soji does when she sees the food he’s prepared and the penny drops. After he introduces himself to her he runs by his suspicions to Picard and advises him he’s trying to deal with Soji like a starfleet officer, rather than a teenger “more or less”.
Soji joins Troi inthe garden and sees a tomato for the first time ever, all food she's ever had has been replicated and when prompted to try the fruit states real is better. Troi goes into counselor mode and without the benefit of being able to use her empathic skills to read the young woman still manages to try to try to comfort her. Soji however is still convinced everything is fake, that’s it's all a mind game. Picard comes in and gives her the tough love approach, angering Soji who violently pushes him away and into Riker, who points out to Picard all he had to say was dinner is read. Troi then gives Picard a dressing down for his behaviour. Nice to Picard on the receiving end of one of those from his former staff. Troi believes that Sojis ability to trust was a programming flaw, one that’s been abused by the Romulans. She suggests he treats the dining room like the ready room, and take onboard the advice they can offer and be more like the Picard of old, compassionate, patient, curious.
At the Borg Cube Hugh and Elnor are hatching a plan to use the Queens Cell to take over the Cube and protect the Ex Borgs, something Hugh was reluctant to do as he was afraid of the power of the cube in this case. “Narrissa” shows up with her death squad from earlier and points out that as she's heard him stating his intentions, he's broken the treaty and she can now kill him. Elnore draws his sword and one fight later it’s just him and “Narrissa” left with Hugh in hiding. “Narrissa '' taunts elnor to one on one combat, holstering her disrupter, but during the fight she pulls out a knife, distracting Elnor from the other knife that she pulls out and throws into Hughs neck. Elnor runs to the ex borg, pulling the blade free and throwing it at “Narissa” whose aiming her disruptor at him, but she beams out at the last second. Hugh dies in Elnors arms but not before telling him he needs an Ex Borg to use the Queen Cell.
On La Sirena Agnes is onto her third bit of cake… before breaking down in tears as Raffi's tries to comfort her, figuring it’s to do with Maddox's death, unaware that it is, but not for the reasons she’s thinking. Rios however has bad news, their tail is back, the identical warp signature being the give away. Agnes, throws up her cake.
Meanwhile at the Rikers, dinner is served, and edible, so edible, no one seems to touch it. Slowly over the course of dinner Picard is able to win Sojis trust. She recounts the mind games played by Narek, and the meditation that lets her find out where she was. And then the old crew are acting like they really are in the ready room. Riker and Trois advice proves invaluable. Kestra quickly realises that Soji has a homeworld, something that cheers her up a good deal, but that it’s in danger and they have no idea where it is. Kestra on the other hand does. She's sent a message to a local ship captain who recognises the description of two red moons and lighting storms.
Rios has taken Agnes to the sickbay again despite her protests that he's ok now, but he's really taken there for privacy, to discuss his concerns about their little shadow. He thinks there's a tracking device on Raffi, simply because she left “never to return '' on Freecloud, only to return. Agnes says it’s not here, and Rios jokingly points out it can't be Agnes as she's been on the ship all the time. Before they can discuss anything else Raffi yells out that the shadow is back. Rios runs off and Agnes comes to a decision, using the replicator to create a hypro spray to destroy the tracker, ignoring the warning about side effects given by the computer. She very quickly reacts badly, collapsing and knocking over several items before the EMH finally turns on and freaks out at the sight before him.
Narek swears in Romulan when he realises he’s lost his prey.
Elnor is now alone, his hand covered in Hughs blood and he sees the SOS beacon Seven gave Picard, hanging in front of him. He thinks for a little while, then activates it.
Riker and Picard go off for a stroll, Picard has now made contact with Rios and will be leaving soon. They share a good old chat as they take in the view on the lake before returning to the homestead to beam out. Before they go, Kestra hands over her broken compass to Soji as a parting gift, and the family walk back inside their family home.
Speculations, observations, theories and other things
Another slow episode, but then the whole general tone has been slow so it’s not surprising. But this would have been a much more welcome slower pace if the previous episode had been far, far faster. It does however make me wonder how this arc would have been treated if it had been made in the days of TNG. There’s too much for it to be a single episode, even a fast paced two parter wouldn’t have been doable.
It is however fantastic to see the Riker family, Frakes and Sirtis slip back into their own roles as if they’ve never stopped playing them and their daughter, Kestra is a joy to watch in all her scenes, Hopefully Lulu Wilson will go on to great things.
Kestra is off course named after Trois older sister who died while Deanna was a baby.
Commodore Oh shows Agnes the threat that synths pose by performing a Vulcan mind meld. This implies she really is a Vulcan as we have never seen a Romulan perform this. If she is a Romulan, then this sets an amazing precedent that some Romulans have the ability to perform this act of telepathy.
Information currently missing from Memory Alpha stated that Oh’s costumes were listed as being Romulan.
Oh’s behaviour is also far more Vulcan like in general when she’s speaking to Agnes as compared to when she was speaking to Naraks siter “Narissa” when she was undercover as a human starfleet officer.
It’s curious to note that Oh is wearing sunglasses, making her possibly one of the few, if maybe the first Trek character to be seen wearing them. Vulcans are known to have an inner eyelid to protect from the sun on their homeworld. Romulans presumably also share this feature so Oh wearing these seems to be to try to add a factor of intimidation. Not that Agnes needs much intimidation to fall in line. Oh actually seems somewhat compassionate this time around, even looking in pain during the mindmeld.
“Narrisa” is pretty clearly by this point, a full blown sociopath, enjoying creating pain and anguish in her victims, which doesn’t just include her brother. Probably one reason why Oh was chewing her out.
Riker and Trois late son, Thad appears to have been named after one of Rikers ancestors, and seems to have had an active imagination and a love of languages having created at least eleven spoken offices, and as Troi points out created a language based on butterfly wing patterns. His room was covered in maps and drawings of his own making and his family had learned to speak his invented languages. This all suggests the young boy was a genius akin to Tolkien who was doing much the same.
Soji learns several things about herself and Data, but questions how she could be his daughter as he died long before she believes she was “built”. Who she believes her father is is never addressed at all in this episode. In fact not one of her photos inthe last episode seemed to include images of a father at all. Does she think of Maddox as being her dad? She didn’t seem to react to his name drop by Riker in a way that suggests she does, or that the name is even familiar to her.
Despite her organic nature, and her clear indication of emotions and the pain she's in,Troi cannot sense her at all. This seems to confirm that no matter how organic she is, Soji is still an artificial lifeform. But given Troi could apparently sense Lal having her emotional breakdown before her death, this could mean Sojis brain works in a similar but still very different method to Datas. There are however some species Troi cannot sense at all due to the nature of their brains constructions, so there is still a good chance she’s just got a different brain chemistry to humans and other life forms Troi can sense.
Speaking of Troi, not only is her abilities as a counselor put to the best use they ever have in the history of Star Trek, between herself and Riker they manage to help Picard and Soji figure out several parts of the puzzle. This all shows that Picard by himself, while a very capable investigator and diplomat and captain, still relied on his crew and their skills to get the best possible results. In his missions. My theory that Picard is making mistakes due to his age and illness still holds some weight as he continues to make poor decisions, such as his approach to trying to help Soji with some tough love, or keep Riker and Troi and Hugh in the dark about his mission.
The fact that Troi and Riker are this much still on top of their game, even while no longer in service, goes to show what a mistake it was by Picard not to ask for their help. Or Worfs or Geordis for that matter. If Riker has a house with shields and scanners (and who knows what else?) both Worf and Geordi (assuming they are still in service) are likely to have very customised starships bult about their own strengths that would have been very useful to Picard given what he’s encountered so far.
The Rikers family home is located on a planet that they moved to presumably to try to help Thads recovery, in all regards it seems to be a paradise planet that suits them perfectly. Pleasant scenery, mountains that Riker presumably climbs every now and then, lakes, an abundance of animals and plants, by all accounts, this is the kind of place I would love to escape to too.
I’d previously believed Riker and Troi would show up in the final episode for Pciard to take advice from regarding the Ex Borg, obviously not the case, but could he still become an envoy for the Ex Borg?
Oddly, Jonathan Frakes get’s special guest star billing in the intro, while Marina Sirtis, who is as much as he is, only gets a co-star billing in the end credits… Erm…
Kestra is played brilliantly by , and her interactions with Sojis are a joy to watch. I can already picture fanfiction of these two when older having adventures together.
Also Trosi is specifically introduced by rank, commander, rather than counselor, while Rikers rank is never mentioned. Did he ever make it to admiral?
Could Kestra and Thad have any empathic abilities like their mother? No mention is ever made of it and Kestra also lacks the large pupils that her mother has that are typical of Betazoids. That said both she and her mother show considerable skill in trying to help Soji out, even if Kestra lacks her mother's training in counseling, or the fact that Troi can’t read Soji and is relying on pure skill and training to help.
Agnes is clearly feeling incredibly guilty at her actions, she's clearly not cut out for the spy business, which does make you wonder why Oh choose her for this. Possibly she was hoping Agnes would be made very easily and end up breaking up Picard's little crew through being disheartened.
Chef Riker burns his pizza at least a little. The last time we saw him cooking on the Enterprise D, only Worf could stomach the food he made. He must have taken a course.
Hughs death is frankly underwhelming, and frankly unnecessary, it would have been far more interesting to have him still around for later episodes, or have him die saving Elnor, indebting the young Romulan to him even more.
Since Elnor has somehow gotten ahold of the SOS beacon Seven gave Picard, I think we can all guess who's going to go into the Queen Cell at some point. But might we end up seeing the Queen herself at some point? And just how did he get it?
If Geordi ever shows up, and learns about Hughs murder, would it be likely he takes out “Narissa”? Even with a phaser on stun? Not that I’m expecting Geordi to show up, but it would be nice to see him do so.
A few reviews I’ve come across have stated Agnes has chosen to put herself in a coma. But there’s no evidence that is the case in the episode. She’s clearly decided to take the hypospray and ignore the possible ramifications, but there’s nothing there to state she was aware she would go into a coma.
Oddly the replicator Agnes and Raffi use looks more like a 3D printer, but the parts never move and unlike the TNG replicator which used the transporter effect to beam in the item being replicated, this is shown being constructed by moving beams, more in line with the fabricators used in survival game Subnautica.
The EMH is so English he interrupts his opening statement with “bloody hell” when he sees Agnes' condition.
Rios and Raffi never mention it in this episode but as they clearly know they've lost their tale they most likely figured out that Agnes was being tracked. I expect there might be some questions for her if she recovers from her coma in the next episode.
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