Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x10 - "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"

[Midquest]

I gave it a 9.

I still think another fifteen minutes spread across the two episodes would have helped ease some of the narrative shorthand, but where the story ends up is extraordinary and beautiful, daring and thoughtful, and I am impressed. I suspect some people will be disappointed that the show

Spoiler

drove past the fireworks factory, as it were, but I think I'd very much rather enjoy the conversation among the passengers than witness a spectacle that might have been.

I'm satisfied.

And whoa, am I excited to see where Seven's story goes from here. Oh my.

 

[MvRojo]

A few things I expected to happen happened. I was worried about Picard being downloaded into the golem. But I'm glad they did it in a way that preserved his mortality and didn't make him into a superpowered android.

I was hoping the show wouldn't have a huge messy battle scene, and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't. I'm glad it was resolved in a very TNG way...diplomacy and discussion. In a way, the Federation and Romulan fleets facing off and the Romulans slinking away reminded me of "The Defector."

I didn't expect that goodbye moment for Data, but it really worked so well. Ever since the moment that Data slapped the emergency transporter on Picard in Nemesis and said goodbye, Picard felt guilt, and he finally got to have that final moment with Data.

 

[cooleddie74]

None of the starships in Riker's armada had registry numbers on their hulls. I'm wondering...could some of them have been holographic projections to fool the Romulan attack fleet? Was Riker in on the plan and have holographic decoys planned?

 

[Wetworth]

I'm not familiar with that ship.

Here's a link: https://sto.gamepedia.com/Avenger_Battlecruiser

There are differences but it's pretty close. Forward swept nacelle pylons, chunky.

Star Trek Online isn't cannon but it's awfully similar, to me at least.

 

[Lord Garth]

None of the starships in Riker's armada had registry numbers on their hulls. I'm wondering...could some of them have been holographic projections to fool the Romulan attack fleet? Was Riker in on the plan and have holographic decoys planned?

Remember Back to the Future, Part II where licence plates were barcodes? Maybe starships in the almost 25th Century are the same way. The registry numbers are no longer visible.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Although I don't think it was ever, ever spoken aloud in dialogue, subtitles identified "Commodore Oh" as "Admiral Nedar".

 

[DaveyNY]

None of the starships in Riker's armada had registry numbers on their hulls. I'm wondering...could some of them have been holographic projections to fool the Romulan attack fleet? Was Riker in on the plan and have holographic decoys planned?

Hummmnn....

 

[Quinton]

Still hoping someone can let me know what happened to Narek. lol I really do wonder if I somehow missed him biting the bullet.

 

[Quinton]

Although I don't think it was ever, ever spoken aloud in dialogue, subtitles identified "Commodore Oh" as "Admiral Nedar".

Hey, I caught that too. Weird way of handing it to us, but whatever works I suppose.

 

[Yistaan]

Still hoping someone can let me know what happened to Narek. lol I really do wonder if I somehow missed him biting the bullet.

He probably got together with Sutra, they deserve each other.

 

[DaveyNY]

Still hoping someone can let me know what happened to Narek. lol I really do wonder if I somehow missed him biting the bullet.

The last we saw him the Synths were carting him back to the cell.

 

[KennyB]

spoilers

Spoiler

Yes, Picard was resurrected in the android golem. He's now an android, albeit with an aging chip and finite lifespan and no android abilities.

You could make the argument that Picard is dead and the android is one that just has Picard's memories and personalities and believes he's Picard. I guess it doesn't make much difference to anyone else as the android would act the way Picard would.

Seriously folks.......it's a spoiler thread marked with a SPOILER TAG IN RED........no need to code it as well.

 

[SolarisOne]

I might not be completely impartial as I'm of Chinese heritage myself, but I'm not sure 2 ships that show up for only a few minutes (Shenzhou and Zheng He, the former of which was destroyed in the pilot) counts as an "obsession".

True. The hero ships have always had Indo-European names: Enterprise, Defiant, Voyager, and La Sirena. Using Chinese names for secondary ships hardly seems like an "obsession" to me.

(An aside: I, for one, would be insanely happy if someone mentioned a U.S.S. Wukong at some point.)

 

[Yistaan]

No mention of how Oh made her escape from Starfleet. No backup plans? No mindmelding Clancy into becoming a Zhat Vash devotee? She can sabotage a whole planet of synths but made no backup plans to sabotage any Starfleet ships that would be sent after her?

 

[KennyB]

No body means he's still around.

I hope Rizzo soft landed as well :-)

 

[DaveyNY]

Actually, you think Riker and Oh would have met before given they are both high ranking Starfleet officers. And Oh would know Starfleet's capabilities.

It's jarring they didn't acknowledge that aspect of it; i.e. Oh is Starfleet so she would recognize the ship Riker is on as the most advanced, and he wouldn't have to explain it to her. But he explained it to her as if she was some Starfleet outsider, which she is very much not.

She knew, she just didn't expect it.
And Will was really enjoying rubbing it in.

 

[Xerxes82]

Hmm. This one was just as bipolar as last week. But I think it ultimately turned out to be the better of the pair.

The character beats are brilliant. Loved just about all of it. The last conversation between Picard and Riker was perfection, and the stuff with Data at the conclusion was very close. Loved Seven, Raffi and Rios got good moments.

But man did the plot absolutely suck. This is tripe, across the board. We even invented a literal deus ex machina device, though at least they didn't give in to the urge to have it completely save the day. It's just one trope after another, hung together like somebody throwing darts at a board labelled with pages from TVTropes.com. The Romulans ensured millions of their own would die just to get synths in the Federation banned, but they are turned away by the threat of war? Despite clearly reading the signal sent by the beacon, the Uber Synth Overlords(TM) just turn around and go home when it's turned off? The entire golem subplot from start to finish?

But unlike last week, where the parts that were brilliant were so weighed down by the terrible narrative choices that the entire thing imploded, this... mostly worked? I still have major problems with it. But my heart strings were tugged. Emotions were elicited, of both the sentimental and the joyous variety. Despite the complete collapse of the plot into nonsense, the emotional core of the story carries the day, and the whole thing just swells with hope and sort of transcends its flaws.

I'm certainly not about to give it a 10. But I had fun. And I think the character writing certainly is worth coming back for. Flawed and sloppy, but very worth watching.

 

[KennyB]

Just so happy that photo that everyone was saying was Q's arm turned out to be bullshit.

 

[SolarisOne]

Just so happy that photo that everyone was saying was Q's arm turned out to be bullshit.

Q knew he wasn't going to stay dead.

I hope Rizzo soft landed as well :-)

No, goddamn it! NO!!!!!!!!!! Let her rest in pieces.

 

[Lord Garth]

There was one thing... but I think they made a nice compromise. I can live with it. I'm not going to be that person. So I'm still going with the 10.

But, at the same time, I'm not going to dispute the people who take issue with that one thing either.