I thought they managed to stick the landing pretty well. I’m not sure the season was wholly satisfying, but I found my appreciation for season 1 was much higher after binging it just before season 2. I’ll probably do the same with this one just before season 3 lands.
The whole Soong plot felt kind of redundant, but equally there wasn’t enough time spent with Renee Picard, who was supposedly the most important person. But we hardly knew her.
Sad to see Rios go, but I could buy that he’d stay there with Teresa. Similarly Agnes got a great arc and a send-off. I think we all called it weeks ago, but that’s fine. Apparently the Flux found its way from the Doctor Who universe, but fortunately the Jurati-Borg were better able to handle it than the Daleks.
The most important scene with Picard and Q was well-written and beautifully performed, and did give the story some meaning. I thought Orla Brady was great in both her roles this season and has great chemistry with Stewart.
I’m still bummed that they fridged Elnor and apparently he isn’t in season 3. Felt like a waste of a character. Maybe there’s always Starfleet Academy…
The Wesley cameo was just glorious!
So yeah, a bit of a mixed bag but I’m looking forward to season 3.
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My initial thoughts hastily arranged raise a number of concerns about the ending.
How did Soong get back to the US so fast? He didn't have a transporter. He didn't even have a car. He's a 70 year old man in another country in the middle of nowhere. And they make it clear that this episode starts right after the last episode so it's not like Soong had a whole day to call a cab and get in a jet to get back.
Rios had a line about the Borg Queen having access to the La Sirena's transporter but how does that help Soong? He wasn't in control of the Borg Queen. Do the writers not know that France and California are in different time zones? The lighting at the end of the last episode is the same as the start of this episode. So it's still morning in France, which would make it night in California.
How the heck did no one bother to repair or block off that death trap basement in Chateau Picard for 300 years? Did Maurice Picard not think, "hey, I have a mentally ill wife and two young sons, maybe it would be a good idea to seal off that basement where there are a thousand ways to die."
Why do they keep under-utilizing Tallinn's transporter? Tallinn could have just beamed Picard back. They could have beamed the drones away. They could have beamed Soong away. Rios was still a wanted fugitive in the United States right? He's in ICE's system. They even recorded everything he said.
With his escape, he's probably in a lot of law enforcement databases. Also, Rios, Teresa, and her son are in France, they have no passports or money. How are they getting back?
Wesley showing up was such a random cameo. There was nothing in Korey's storyline to even hint that she's interested in exploration or that she had affinity for that kind of thing. It came out of nowhere. Like the writers had no idea what to do with her storyline and went, "let's just put in a cameo."
Heck, might as well have time traveling Dr. Bashir show up and have her join Section 31, that would actually make more sense with her being genetically engineered. If I'm understanding the Q plot correctly, all his manipulations are to get Picard to have that epiphany.
The only reason he helped Soong was so Soong could hit Picard with a car and Picard would go into a coma and have a hallucination about his father and remember more of his past. Soong had to chase Picard through the basement so Picard can remember what happened to his mother. Because there's no other point to the Soong plot other than a Khan reference.
And all the potential timeline changes are fine because it's all a predestination paradox. I guess he also cured Korey because he knew she was going to become a Traveler too. OK, sure, whatever. The season being a predestination paradox makes no sense because then Guinan should still remember Time's Arrow.
The writers tried to BS this and said that because it's a different timeline then Time's Arrow didn't happen. But then in this episode, Picard said that the bullet holes were there so everything in this season was supposed to happen, which makes it the original timeline.
Also, Q decides to spend his last moment with Picard instead of his son? Maybe his son is also dead? That anomaly was not in the center of the quadrant. It's just not. You can see the map and we know from previous shows what the quadrant is supposed to look like. Earth is supposed to be close to the dividing line between the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. The writers don't know what a quadrant is.
Why did they do the "people can see things that are happening light years away with the naked eyes" thing again? The galaxy is not the size of a small town. You cannot instantly see something that is happening hundreds of light years away. Light is not magic, it takes time to travel through space. Not only that, even if you could see it, it wouldn't even be a speck of a speck.
And they had Jurati reveal the big threat in the very last episode, only solving it 10 minutes just to set up the next season? What? Why? What were they thinking?
Overall, this show is just so baffling. They threw so many ideas in without trying to meaningfully connect them or bothering to see if anything made sense. Season 1 had the same problem. The writers seem to even be aware of that problem but then they did it again and made it even worse this time.
Have you ever seen Farscape? Watching Picard feels like having your brain scrambled by a Scarran mind probe. There are ideas and plotlines from previous Trek shows. You see characters that you know. But they act like different people. They’re put in nonsensical situations. Things from previous shows are brought back and used in different and inconsistent way. There’s no rhyme or reason in the progression of the story. Even the basic reality of the world makes no sense.
Why do the descendants look exactly like their ancestors?
How the hell is it morning in both France and California? There should be a 9 hour time difference. It’s like the writers are trying to drive you insane.