Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x08 - "Mercy"

[Ar-Pharazon]

A great "9" episode. Definitely moved things along, in a frightening direction.

I'm still hoping at least one of the remaining two episodes is around a hour long. Right now it feels like two standard length episodes won't be quite enough.

So, not the Carbon Creek Vulcans still hanging about, but some later ones that were poking around. Kind of a shame, it would have been a nice follow up.

 

[Romulan_spy]

what happens on the Stargazer with the Queen calling for Picard.

Seven mentions that Jurati is still in there and giving the Borg a sense of mercy which they don't normally have. My theory is that Jurati-Queen escapes Earth with her ragtag collective but because Jurati has instilled them with a sense of mercy, they can't assimilate whole races. So they are stuck. So after years or decades of wandering the galaxy, unable to grow through wholesale assimilation and desperate to survive, they go through the space anomaly to ask Picard for help since he has experience with the Borg.

As we saw in ep 1, because of their mistrust of the Borg, Picard autodestructs the Stargazer. I suspect when Picard and co return to their time, they will be back at the moment in ep 1 and this time, Picard will trust the Borg Queen and help liberate her. The lesson of this season: the monsters we make for ourselves are not really monsters (Picard's dad, the Borg).

So, Renée discovers a microbe that she believes to be sentient, and that somehow invalidates Soong's research into genetic engineering?

I think they mention climate change and how without Renee's discovery, the government turned to Adam Soong for help. So my guess is that the microbe somehow helped with fighting climate change (maybe it "eats" greenhouse gases?). When Renee fails to discover the microbe, the government turns to Adam Soong for help, desperate to find a solution. Maybe Soong proposes that his research can make humans immune to the effects of climate change (more resistant to heat and dehydration, able to survive with less food etc...)? Or maybe the idea is that with lower birthrates, humans can rely on Soong's cloning process to create the humans they need? But Soong's work takes humanity down a path of genetic cloning and augmentation which feeds humanity's superiority complex as well as authoritarianism where people with the genetic augmentation rule over those who don't have it, and it leads to the Confederation.

 

[eschaton]

That was a good episode...it came close to great, but it was held back by some really odd choices.

It is nice to have some genuine forward movement in the plot. A lot of the questions of the season were answered here, more or less, such as what actually causes the Confederation timeline to come into being, and what the hell is going on with Q. I'm not sure how an entity which was formerly immortal can die at a set time when they can travel through time at will, but I will just presume that the Q Continuum has its own flow of time he normally "lives" in. Alison Pill is incredible now that she's in Borg Queen mode. I have to say I haven't seen her in much else, and playing two distinct characters (the second of which already had an established portrayal) showcases her range. I don't get why the Borg Queen also wants to interrupt Renee Picard's voyage though - seems like assimilation.

Amazingly, almost all of the characters are used well here. They remember that Seven used to be Borg, and it has plot relevance. Raffi actually gets decent use, and a flashback scene with Elnor where he is finally more than an extra (though his skill is still obviously limited). Isa Briones gets her best scenes of the season as Kore (the technobabble gives away she's a clone...but of who?). Picard gets a great inspiring Picard moment with Welles. Rios remains cute with his adoptive family, Spiner is great in his role as always. The only ones which seem a bit off to me here are Guinan and Q, who get good roles, but were better executed elsewhere.

The downside of this episode is mostly the scripting. There's some real groan-worthy lines, and even more which are...um...writerly, to put it nicely. They might work on the stage, but in a hyper-realistic fast-paced kind of modern production, they really pull me out of the experience. The attempt at cute romantic dialogue between Rios and Teresa for example - her hypothetical scenario about their being married for 10 years is just too detailed/drawn out to realistically be something that a character would come up with off the top of their head. There's little bits of that between Soong and Kore, Q and Guinan, Seven and Raffi - overwritten long-winded monologues which are just too "perfect" to be said by real people. I also thought Guinan's appearance during the brown-out when Picard was being interrogated was laughably awful - unneeded to move the plot along, and seemingly establishing an additional power that El-Aurians never had before.

Still, on the whole, it was a good outing.

 

[truthchampion]

That was a good episode...it came close to great, but it was held back by some really odd choices.

It is nice to have some genuine forward movement in the plot. A lot of the questions of the season were answered here, more or less, such as what actually causes the Confederation timeline to come into being, and what the hell is going on with Q. I'm not sure how an entity which was formerly immortal can die at a set time when they can travel through time at will, but I will just presume that the Q Continuum has its own flow of time he normally "lives" in. Alison Pill is incredible now that she's in Borg Queen mode. I have to say I haven't seen her in much else, and playing two distinct characters (the second of which already had an established portrayal) showcases her range. I don't get why the Borg Queen also wants to interrupt Renee Picard's voyage though - seems like assimilation.

Amazingly, almost all of the characters are used well here. They remember that Seven used to be Borg, and it has plot relevance. Raffi actually gets decent use, and a flashback scene with Elnor where he is finally more than an extra (though his skill is still obviously limited). Isa Briones gets her best scenes of the season as Kore (the technobabble gives away she's a clone...but of who?). Picard gets a great inspiring Picard moment with Welles. Rios remains cute with his adoptive family, Spiner is great in his role as always. The only ones which seem a bit off to me here are Guinan and Q, who get good roles, but were better executed elsewhere.

The downside of this episode is mostly the scripting. There's some real groan-worthy lines, and even more which are...um...writerly, to put it nicely. They might work on the stage, but in a hyper-realistic fast-paced kind of modern production, they really pull me out of the experience. The attempt at cute romantic dialogue between Rios and Teresa for example - her hypothetical scenario about their being married for 10 years is just too detailed/drawn out to realistically be something that a character would come up with off the top of their head. There's little bits of that between Soong and Kore, Q and Guinan, Seven and Raffi - overwritten long-winded monologues which are just too "perfect" to be said by real people. I also thought Guinan's appearance during the brown-out when Picard was being interrogated was laughably awful - unneeded to move the plot along, and seemingly establishing an additional power that El-Aurians never had before.

Still, on the whole, it was a good outing.

Sooooo as Jurati is walking away Raffi's phaser is lying close by Seven. You would think Seven -- given her ability to take hard hits in combat -- like when she was on the Borg cube -- would scramble over to the Phaser and shoot Jurati in the back.

And also Jurati just walks away from Raffi and Seven without taking any evasive action -- and in clear line of sight. But nooooooooooo. Man, even with the stiff reactions of the TOS Animated series -- the reactions were faster than this

 

[Lord Garth]

I haven't been able to watch this yet. I was too tired to watch it overnight (long story) and I have an electrician over right now. Then I've got work. So it's going to be over 12 hours before I'm able to watch this.

But, based on the reactions, this sounds like the uptick I was hoping for.

 

[Campe]

Sooooo as Jurati is walking away Raffi's phaser is lying close by Seven. You would think Seven -- given her ability to take hard hits in combat -- like when she was on the Borg cube -- would scramble over to the Phaser and shoot Jurati in the back.

Seven said it earlier in the episode. She has no Borg implants at the moment.

 

[Tuskin38]

I thought in the first 2024 ep they said no phasers?

Did you forget Raffi took hers anyways?

The trek timeline is so wibbly wobbly and timey wimey like if the Eugenics Wars happened before where's the chaos from it?

Where was it in Voyager?

I legit thought the mercs were actually augments that remained behind. So imagine that now we have an augmented Borg group...that's something that's going to be high risk in the last couple episodes now, and the goal, it sounds like, is defending the La Sirena. Makes me wonder if that trailer for S3 is actually teasing us appearances in the last couple episodes for S2 before the finale.

These are the troops he experimented on, mentioned in his first episode

 

[gvn2fly]

I haven't been able to watch this yet. I was too tired to watch it overnight (long story) and I have an electrician over right now. Then I've got work. So it's going to be over 12 hours before I'm able to watch this.

But, based on the reactions, this sounds like the uptick I was hoping for.

I think so. I gave last week a 1 and I would probably give this a 7.5 or so...maybe a 7 for the sake of the poll. There wasn't anything I outright disliked about the episode.

 

[eschaton]

Sooooo as Jurati is walking away Raffi's phaser is lying close by Seven. You would think Seven -- given her ability to take hard hits in combat -- like when she was on the Borg cube -- would scramble over to the Phaser and shoot Jurati in the back.

And also Jurati just walks away from Raffi and Seven without taking any evasive action -- and in clear line of sight. But nooooooooooo. Man, even with the stiff reactions of the TOS Animated series -- the reactions were faster than this

Two normal, 50-something women up against someone augmented with Borg tech.

 

[gvn2fly]

Two normal, 50-something women up against someone augmented with Borg tech.

Yup. Seven was obviously in pain and having trouble moving.

 

[gweeps]

Did anybody else think it was Q coming to pay Soong another visit?

 

[gweeps]

Two normal, 50-something women up against someone augmented with Borg tech.

Also, Seven isn't exactly excited at being near the Borg Queen again.

 

[gvn2fly]

Just some random thoughts. I'm sure I'll add more later:

I glanced at some comments here and elsewhere before watching and read some complaints about the FBI plot. It may not seem relevant to the larger plot (at least not yet) and served as another obstacle, but unlike last week in Picard's mind I didn't really have any issues. Maybe by the last scene it felt a bit drawn out though. Jay Karnes was great at the end when Picard was telling him the truth.

Very convenient how Seven/Raffi found Agnes so fast considering she left the bar hours ago, but that's television.

Others had guessed Q was dying earlier in the season so it felt more like confirmation than reveal, but his scene was good. I wonder if this Q is the first to be dying or its affecting others in the continuum as well?

Q no longer has his powers as we saw at the end of 2.4, but he had them in 2.1/2.2 when moving Picard and crew to the altered timeline and appearing, disappearing. So did he have powers/change the timeline, used his powers to save Picard in 2.1 and he had them in 2.2, then he went back to the past to stop Picard from fixing the timeline..and then lost his powers? Just curious about the timeline of Q here.

The Rios/Teresa stuff didn't bother me. Why did the transporters just go down now though when they worked in previous episodes after Agnes had beamed down? Seems like a clunky plot reason so that the crew couldn't quickly get to Soong's place or get back to the ship.

Raffi/Seven were better written in this episode. I felt like I understood both characters a bit better. When Seven was talking about connection not working and taking it out on people I wonder if that's what happened between her and the Voyager crew after they arrived back in the AQ?

The timeline at the end threw me off. How much time passed between Agnes arriving at Soongs and him having the mercenaries? Felt too fast on screen, but it would have to be hours in real time?

Liked getting confirmation of what caused the confederation timeline, although it's a bit underwhelming.

I was underwhelmed by young Guinan in 2.4 and last week, but thought she was great here. I didn't really like that power of appearing somewhere else though, but that's not on the actress.

Overall I think I would give this one a 7. It feels like some of this should have happened earlier in the season instead of 2.8

 

[gvn2fly]

Another thought I had while watching this episode. I wonder if Picard's plot last week and this week had anything to do with Patrick's age? I know he is in great shape for his age and I don't mean this in any kind of negative way, but I noticed he was sitting down in almost all his scenes this week and last week he was laying down / sitting in most of his scenes as well. Not a criticism, just an observation.

 

[Charles Phipps]

I got strong Terminatrix and Tricia Helfer's Six from the "Super-Blonde Robot Jurati"

 

[Romulan_spy]

This episode had some really good moments and advanced the plot. We learn how the Europa Mission, Renee Picard and Adam Soong fit into the Confederation timeline, we learn what is happening to Q and Jurati-Queen has assembled her mini Collective. This episode felt like a penultimate episode, settings things up for the finale.

The scene with Picard explaining to Wells that the Vulcan was not trying to kill him but was actually just trying to wipe his memory was really nice. And I feel it will play into the theme of this season of "the monsters we make are not really monsters".

I really liked the scene with Guinan and Q. I will have to rewatch the scene but is Q basically just messing with Picard for one last bit of fun before he dies? It seemed that way. Or maybe Q is trying to teach Picard one last lesson before he dies?

The Rios scenes were cute but a bit weak IMO. I suspect the scenes are meant to set up Rios staying in 2024 or Theresa and her kid coming with Rios to the future.

 

[eschaton]

I glanced at some comments here and elsewhere before watching and read some complaints about the FBI plot. It may not seem relevant to the larger plot (at least not yet) and served as another obstacle, but unlike last week in Picard's mind I didn't really have any issues. Maybe by the last scene it felt a bit drawn out though. Jay Karnes was great at the end when Picard was telling him the truth.

I don't think we've seen the last of him. Picard openly said he needed his help. Guinan's comment to him about time working in mysterious ways made me wonder if they're holding the door open a crack for him to be rejuvenated/recruited in the 29th century - that he eventually becomes Ducane.

Liked getting confirmation of what caused the confederation timeline, although it's a bit underwhelming.

The Borg Queen is clearly not giving us the entire picture. As amoral as Soong is here, he would probably balk if he found out what the Confederation turned into - though admittedly if she gets her way, the Confederation would never exist anyway.

 

[Bgt]

For me definitely the best episode of the 2024 bunch so far.
I am not sure what Borgati's plan is, but Alison Pill rocks, as Spinner and De Lancie also did in this episode.
We also had the Best Guinan.

Rios is so not time travel friendly that he deserves a place in DC's Legends of Tomorrow crew.

All the FBI subplot made me crave so much for an X-FILES crossover. I just want Mulder and Scully interrogate Picard.

Oh, I still think Seven is underused. I just hope for a spinoff after Picards ends.

 

[fireproof78]

Sooooo as Jurati is walking away Raffi's phaser is lying close by Seven. You would think Seven -- given her ability to take hard hits in combat -- like when she was on the Borg cube -- would scramble over to the Phaser and shoot Jurati in the back.

She was not Borg. At least according to this timeline.

 

[Tuskin38]

Did the Vulcans have transporter technology?