Star Trek Picard Episode 3 review The End is The Beginning
Star Trek Picard Episode 3 review The End is The Beginning
We open up with a flashback to the martian attack as the attacking vessel lay waste to the red planet's
surface and F-* taking out his colleague and security guards.
We then have another flashback to the day Picard resigned from Starfleet, his last gamble in an attempt
to rescue the Romulan people. Sadly the Starfleet brass called his bluff, something he never believed
they would accept, and Picard made good on his word. He discusses the outcome with Raffi who shows
how cool and calm and collected she is until the news of his resignation hits home which makes her lose
her cool somewhat. She is called away, angrily and correctly predicting she would be fired as she storms
away.
Back to the present and Raffi is listening to Picard breakdown the situation about Data’s daughters
while watering her plants and preparing her own version of futuristic vaping/weed, two things I don’t think
we’ve seen much of with humans in Trek, but have happened with aliens. She berates him for having
gone to Starfleet and his interview with the news which even Picard admits was a disaster.
It is pretty obvious Raffi is envious of Picard’s better status in life, he’s living in luxury he’s inherited from
his family while she lives in relative poverty in the desert in his trailer like home, but has nothing,
highlighting her own issues with drugs and anger and paranoia.
She also points out Picard hasn’t contacted her before and is clearly upset by her lack of support and
walks away, upset by the emotions brought on by the reunion.
Back to the Borg cube, we see the footage of Sojis interactions with the former borg drone unknown
race has attracted the attention of the administrator, aka Hugh, aka Third of Five, now free of most of his
Borg attachments but who still walks in much the same way he did back his Borg drone days. He’s
impressed with her behaviour towards the ex Borgs as most either see them as useful resources or are
afraid and want them stored away, while the Romulans seem to encompass both views. He's even more
impressed with Sojis knowledge of Ramdha, a Romulan ex borg who was an expert in Romukan
mythology that Soji wants to interview, and even more impressed at how Soji’s managed to get a hold of
her files.
He gives her permission to have a 30 minutes session with Ramdha as an experiment.
Picard has managed to find Raffi (possibly fighting flashbacks of Kirk's death) and tried to apologize to
her for not staying in touch, he doesn’t give any reasons for this and she doesn't really buy it, asking him
to leave when he tries to recruit her. Before this, they do discuss further his theory that the Romulan
attack on Dahj might be connected to the Mars attack as Picard is convinced there must be a
collaboration between the Federation and the Romulans. As he does she mentioned she does have a
pilot for him.
Over at the Daystrom Institute, Commodore Oh pays a visit to Dr Jurrati, one wearing sunglasses, the
other listening to music on earphones. Oh wants to have a word about Jurrati’s visit to and from Picard.
Over at the Borg cube Hugh and Soji pay a visit to the daycare room Ramdha is in, filled with other
Romulans who were part of the same ship that was assimilated. All have apparently lost their minds and
the scene before us is rather unsettling to say the least. These are the disordered and are the only
Romulans ever assimilated as far as Hugh knows. They’ve all clearly been free of the collective for some
time as most have full heads of hair and like Hugh have some Borg tech still left on their bodies.
Ramdha is sitting by herself at a table laying out playing cards as if reading the future. Soji approaches
her and tries to talk to her only for Ramdha to turn her attention back to her cards.
Back at Raffi's trailer she’s busy going over notes and records when she gets a facetime from Picard
who knew she wouldn’t be able to resist the challenge and sends her more information on Bruce Maddox
to work with before cutting the call short.
We see the new ship of the series, La Sierena, as Picard beams into the large empty room that seems
to double as transporter room and probably storage for captain Rios, only to be greeted by the ships
EMH, who is in the image of the ship's captain but talks with an english accent and carries himself in a
very different manner to Rios when we meet him.
Rios is sitting in his chair on the bridge shirtless, smoking and waiting for the EMH to treat his wound,
a tritanium shrapnel embedded in his upper body. He refuses dermal regeneration and uses his
replicator to make some strong liquor, either for the pain or just for the hell of it. Picard declines the offer
and sits on a chair and notices Rios’s choice of reading material, “The Tragic sense of life”.
The two men chat about the mission and that Raffis recommends him and Rios lays down his to give a
damn about Starfleet. Picard has got a good feel on Rios pointing out that while the man may have left
Starfleet, he still runs his ship by the regulations. Rios advises him not to try to get inside his head.
Meanwhile at Raffis she’s busty going over more and more files and finds a
“QUANTUMFINGERPRINTING” originating from a place called Freecloud. Given the name and how it
pops up like an ad for a casino, at first I thought she needed a popup blocker. She angrily closes the
screens.
Back up on the ship, Rios is in his cabin, drinking another shot and talking to another hologram of
himself in charge of Navigation, this one has an irish accent and an excitable personality who does a
whole lot of fanboying over Picard, much to Rios annoyance. The hologram does his best to appeal to
Rios' better nature, but whatever happened to Rios' last great hero, his former captain no less, still
haunts him to this day. He angrily deactivates the hologram and goes back to smoking his cigar and
drinking and watches as a shooting star flies across the void of space.
In his villa in France, Pciard watches the same shooting star but has his eyes closed as if he is
remembering something. Laris joins him and he reminisces about the harvest season and how he will
miss it all, and herself, her husband number one. But he knows he doesn’t really belong here.
Soji tries unsuccessfully to talk to Ramdha, before figuring out a ritual Ramdha seems to need her to
follow in order to converse.
Zhaban returns to the Picard residence just in time to help counter the a sneak attack by the Romulan
death squad goons #3. He and his wife EXCELL at kicking the living doo dah out of the home invaders
and while Picard tries his best, he is a after all an 80 something human going up against a much younger
Romulan whose got youth and several times the strength Picard would have had in his youth. But
thankfully Picard and co have Phasers stashed all over the place and make short work of their attackers.
Except for the last one that gets taken out by Jurrati who manages to make use of one of the discard
disruptors, killing the last attacker while thinking it was on stun. Turns out Romulans don’t believe in stun
settings.
Jurrati is clearly shaken but talks about her meeting with Oh and Picard states she's supposed to be
very good at her job. Jurrati admits that she's told Oh everything she knows and states she's a terrible
liar. But there's one thing she's not told Oh, but Picard is called away before she can say more.
Sojis is conversing with Ramdha and manages to get her to talk about her cards and how Romulans
have no word for mythology, prefering to think of what she’s doing with them as being more like the news.
Even then the conversation starts to gets odder with Ramdha saying she knows Soji,
The one survivor, a bumpy headed Romulan like Zhaban they try to interrogate won’t talk, even with
the promise of being released, he stays stumm. LAris refers to him being a stubborn northerner like her
husband who gives a knowing look at the prisoner, they’ve both heard that before.
Ramdha, with tears in her eyes, says she remembers Soji from tomorrow, Soji assures her they’ve
never met and tries a different line of questioning. Pointing out,much to Hughs surprise that Ramdha’s
ship was the very last one assimilated by this cube, one of 26 passengers but something went wrong.
As Ramdha looks at a car showing two girls she asks Soji “which one are you?” much to Sojis surprise.
“Which sister?” Completing her cards “The one who dies or the one who lives?”
The prisoner will only say that Sojis is not what Picard thinks she is, and after swearing at Picard is
knocked to the ground and declared Soji to be the destroyer. He tries to take out Zhaban with the spit
from the suicide acid pill but Zhaban is able to take his jacket off fast nough while the Romulan
disintigates while screaming from the pain.
Ramdha has sadly lost her loose grip on reality, eventually referring to Soji as the destroyer and
referencing her sister's death, something Soji is unaware of. It nearly ends with Ramdha stealing a
disruptor and trying to kill herself before Soji moves at a blinding speed to disarm her and the Romulans
secure the area while Hugh manages to take care of Ramdha, obviously feeling a bond to her as a kindred
spirit. The other Ex Borg Romulans have nothing but looks of fear and disgust aimed at Soji.
Soji makes a facetime call to her mother, much like Dahj did, but although she does ask if her sister is ok
as her mother makes small talk and assures her Dahj is fine, Soji seems to fall asleep while her mother
continues to talk apparently oblivious to this.
When Soji wakes up Narek pays her a visit to check she’s ok and she admits she's not sure how she got
a hold of the information she knows about Ramdha. When she asks if he believes her, he tells her he
thinks he’s in love with her and they embrace.
Narek walks down a dark corridor with red lighting to make the air vents look sinister where he bumps into
his now undisguised sister. She pulls him to one side declaring she's back while he looks ready to punch
her due to the old coming-out-of-the-shadows cliche she just pulled, settling instead to point out her ears
are back too. His sister makes a wisecrack about being able to smell Soji on him, much to his own
discomfort. They fill each other in on the latest news and Nareks states he is not sure what Soji consciously
knows, but is sure she doesn’t know what she really is. They argue over their different approaches while
she tells him not to fall in love.
Jurrati quickly manages to get herself accepted as part of the team, after telling Picard the one thing she
didn't tell Oh was that she wanted to join Picard. Rios calls Picard telling him his sources tell him things are
getting hot. Picard and Jurrati beam up and find Raffi is already there, who else would be Rios' source
after all, and she's found Maddox and tells Pciard she won't join him but will hitch a ride to Freecloud.
Presumably she wants to add gambling to her vices. Raffi is less than impressed when Jurrati introduces
herself even after Pciard informs her that Jurrait is the top cybernetic expert. Raffi also states she's not
been asked to perform a basic check on her. Raffi when pressed however won’t say why she wants to go
to Freecloud and as the two ladies seem to be about to butt heads, Rios asks if they can go already, to
which Picard agrees and says the phrase we’ve been waiting to hear for years.
“Make it so”, is not it, but we do get the classic Picard command of “Engage” as the musical score TNG
and The Motion Picture playus us out...
SPECULATIONS
Quite a few this week.
Raffi refers to the synths in the Mars attack as being part of a series called A500. This wasn’t mentioned
in the previous episode but does suggest a long term series of production before it was halted. Could there
have been more advanced models waiting to replace the A500s?
Raffi seems to have left Starfleet in disgrace and then gets the 24th century answer to a trailer park home
all by herself on a desert on Earth. Which seems a bit odd given the Utopia Earth is supposed to be. Mind
you we are seeing some of the facade of this Utopia being pulled away in this series as it’s possible that
elements of the Federation have been infiltrated or are simply working with the Romulans.
Raffi was never contacted by Picard before suggesting he’s not been a good friend or staying in touch
with former colleagues might not have been high on his list of priorities. This might explain why we've not
seen him contact the old gang, and might very well be a hint of things to come. Picards mistakes coming
back to haunt him
Hugh refers to Ex Borgs as “Ex Bs” and how despised they are. Some people have speculated that the
main issue that Star Trek Picard will touch on will be imigration, possibly referring to the Romulans refuges.
Could it be the imigration aspect is more to do with the Ex Bs?
Even Hugh doesn’t seem to know the names of the nameless species that are being freed from the
collective, which seems odd given he should still have the knowledge of the Borg in his head. As we’ve
not
interacted with them much at this point, it remains to be seen how much they recall about their own
species
and homes and own lives, or if that will be even explored.
Could the fate of the Romulans be a reflection of the climate change issues we ourselves face today?
After all, who could have seen the destruction of the Romulans' homeworld?
I’m really hoping we see Maddox at some point, if he shows up dead it’ll be very disappointing to say the
least. We need to see him interact with Soji to explain things to her. But does he actually have anything to
do with her creation at all, or if he does, has control of her been taking away from him by someone else?
Rios' second hologram mentions Picards connection with the Q continuum, his role of arbiter of
succession for the Klingons, saving the Earth from Borg attacks, captain of two Enterprises, and working
with Spock. As the holograms seem based on himself, could Rios actually be a Picard fanboy?
How many holograms does Rios have? And how many accents will they go through? Are any not in his
image?
Given the nature of how the holograms talk and act, could they be sentient in the same way Voyagers
EMH was?
Rios and Picard both unknowingly watching the same shooting star could be a reference to both men
having lost their way or having the same aim in life, a life of exploration. Or possibly even both.
Hugh observes that Soji is a bit of a knowitall when she figures out the way to speak to Ramdha through
her card game, this seems to be a reference to her father's ability to work things out, though neither
character could be aware of the connection. Soji herself seems surprised at the knowledge she has that
just seems to come to her. This suggests that like Data, she has encyclopedic knowledge, and that’s
without having been “activated”.
Why on Earth of all places, a paradise planet in the 24th century with little if any crime, would Picard feel
the need to hide weapons under his tables? Most likely this was because he was aware that the Romulans
might be coming to get him and wanted to be prepared.
Do not Fuck with the Talshiar Live In Home Help staff. I do hope they find a way to get these two to
reunite with Picard on his mission. They are too good to be wasted in the vineyard.
It would seem that Romulans with bumpy foreheads are from the north, whether this is from the north of
the planet or a northern region isn’t clear. Yet. But neither is it clear why they have Irish, English and
American accents. But should that matter? It all adds more and more colour to the Romulans as a people
when the most we’ve normally seen is their military.
Is Jurrati a spy for Oh? Even if she’s been coerced? Could that attack have been a way to get her
onboard team Picard? She did claim she didn’t tell Oh her plans to join Picard but then she never said
anything about such a desire before that. Time might tell.
While Hugh clearly shows every sign of caring for his fellow Ex Borg on the cubes, as we’ve not yet seen
Seven of Nine, it’s going to be very interesting to see how the two of them react to each other, if they have
an existing relationship and how either of them might react to Picards presence.
Soji's mother is probably not a real person, most likely she's a computer generated image being used to
keep both girls reassured about their situations. It’s also odd that the sisters don't seem to have tried to
contact each other during the show's timeline, or made any contact with their dad. Could Maddox not have
any way to contact them himself? Either for their own safety or his own? Or is he out of the picture and the
girls are being manipulated by someone else?
It’s not clear what Freecloud is from dialogue alone, but once Picard finds out that Maddox is there he seems to know the reason why straight away. All we do know is that they have dice. I’m guessing it’s a gambling planet, and maybe, just maybe Raffi is so wasted and angry with Picard she might just be leading them all on a dead end joy ride to go and lose herself in the craps tables.
Dahj is pretty much certainly dead given what we see of the full effects of the Romulan suicide acid pill, a rather painfull and very effective way to go.
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