Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x03 - "Assimilation"

[Sakonna]

That [Icheb's death] is literally the only thing I actually liked about that episode. And sorry if it offends you but showing some of the brutality of horrific event (and being clear in the presentation these are horrific events) does impact viewers in a much more visceral and realistic way.

The only thing you liked about the episode was the one minute of torture porn? That might be something to work on in therapy.

Though seriously, I've seen plenty of gore that I thought was well done, dramatically compelling, viscerally frightening, whatever. It does not offend me and I respect it as a tool in the box. I just don't think "Picard" did it well. Icheb's death struck me as hack, cheap, obvious writing, poorly executed on top of that, and tonally jarring with the elements around it.

God, which reminds me of other times I've LOVED a jarring tonal shift! That can truly be one of my favorite things, when it works, precisely because it's so hard to do well -- which this was not. YMMV, of course.

 

[jackoverfull]

Sorry, I meant more recently than that.

Robert and Rene died in 2371.

The Romulans super nova happened in 2387.

That's 16 years that no one was running the vineyard?

I imagine they had staff. We literally see the staff in Picard.

Marie was in no condition after the farm killed her men.

yes, she was a poor helpless woman who couldn’t do a thing without her men.
Ouch.

I say the vineyard ran fallow, and then when Picard needed to retire, he rebuilt his Vinyard in California, because the United Earth had repurposed his ancestral land, because I'm a little stinker.

you surely have a lot of “creative” theories.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I meant that she was distraught, not incompetent.

Maybe she made wine until Picard retired?

Maybe she left immediately and the Vinyard was claimed by eminent domain?

Maybe she went to live with Picard on the Enterprise?

P.S.

Loyal staff who ran the Vinyard for 16 years, with no Picard in sight, lived in the main house, and were fired instantly the second Jean-Luc returned with hundreds of Romulan refugees to replace them?

 

[PR109]

6/10. Like other have echoed its not as strong as the previous two episodes and the pacing is all over the place. I personally don't care for Elnor's death since his character was so wooden and brought nothing interesting to the table. It's hard to sympathize with Raffi since we didn't even see her and Elnor develop a close friendship on screen. That being said I'm looking forward for Raffi's scenes with Seven in future episodes.

 

[1001001]

Not bad. Odd pacing at times. Raffi's anger/grief seems out of proportion to what we saw of their relationship in Season One.

7

 

[Trekker4747]

you surely have a lot of “creative” theories.

Remember:

Okay, Guy. Sure.

 

[jackoverfull]

I meant that she was distraught, not incompetent.

Maybe she made wine until Picard retired?

Maybe she left immediately and the Vinyard was claimed by eminent domain?

Maybe she went to live with Picard on the Enterprise?

Exactly, we simply don’t know.

Loyal staff who ran the Vinyard for 16 years, with no Picard in sight, lived in the main house, and were fired instantly the second Jean-Luc returned with hundreds of Romulan refugees to replace them?

who said they were fired? As far as we know they still work there, alongside the romulans. Also, Picard took over the vineyard some 15 before season 1, people move on in time. And I don’t think anyone else apart from Laris and Picard live in the main house now, with every other member of the staff beaming in as needed, this could have been true in the past as well.

 

[Paul Weaver]

who said they were fired? As far as we know they still work there, alongside the romulans. Also, Picard took over the vineyard some 15 before season 1, people move on in time. And I don’t think anyone else apart from Laris and Picard live in the main house now, with every other member of the staff beaming in as needed, this could have been true in the past as well.

No indication of anyone other than Robert, Marie and Rene living there in Family. I assume Marie retired at some point after Picard came back, maybe she decided to go explore space, or live in a more modern world than Robert liked, after leaving the vineyard to Picard.

 

[Trekker4747]

6/10. Like other have echoed its not as strong as the previous two episodes and the pacing is all over the place. I personally don't care for Elnor's death since his character was so wooden and brought nothing interesting to the table. It's hard to sympathize with Raffi since we didn't even see her and Elnor develop a close friendship on screen. That being said I'm looking forward for Raffi's scenes with Seven in future episodes.

Ah. I didn't finish S1 so I thought maybe I missed some character stuff but Raffi's reaction to Space Legolas' death was out of proportion to the relation we've seen them have up to now?

Really, if any character is going to hurt this for me it's Raffi, her character doesn't fit or work for me at all.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Ah. I didn't finish S1 so I thought maybe I missed some character stuff but Raffi's reaction to Space Legolas' death was out of proportion to the relation we've seen them have up to now?

Really, if any character is going to hurt this fir me it's Raffi, her character doesn't fit or work for me at all.

Raffi was abandoned by her son, and is not allowed in her grandchild's life, because she's an unreliable drug addict married to Starfleet.

Transference.

 

[Llywela]

Not bad. Odd pacing at times. Raffi's anger/grief seems out of proportion to what we saw of their relationship in Season One.

That's because the first episode of this season told us that after Elnor turned to Raffi for comfort in the S1 finale, they then spent the intervening couple of years building a strong parent-child bond off-screen, which we didn't get to see. Season two is doing better with the characters overall than S1 did, building on foundations laid, but it is hurt by the fact that S1 didn't put much effort at all into laying those foundations. It isn't hard to imagine, though, that Raffi has been projecting onto Elnor all the motherly affection she has had stored up all these years, since her relationship with her son broke down. Her grandchild will have been born by now and she has probably never even seen her, might not even know her name. So she projects all that onto Elnor, who was raised by warrior women and latched onto her as a surrogate to take their place, each of them giving the other something they sorely needed. It's an interesting relationship, just a shame we didn't get to see all that development on-screen!

Also interesting (to me, anyway) is that one of the few relationships given much space in S1, the fraternal bond between Raffi and Rios, is all but non-existent this season, sacrificed to the nascent Raffi-Seven relationship. There's been more friendship on display between Rios and Seven than Rios and Raffi, who've barely interacted at all. Must have been in different shooting bubbles!

 

[eschaton]

A big issues is Elnor is just an underbaked character in general. Season 1, Episode 4 did a great job introducing him and then...they did jack shit with him. I don't know if this was driven by the limited range of the actor (he is awful) or they just don't know how to use him, but his use this season has essentially been a prop for Raffi rather than a real character, which is no great step forward.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

I just assumed he crashed in France

They did. You can see Chateau Picard on the bridge screen / window at 21:36, for example. What I'm wondering is how they're going to hide the crashed spaceship in the middle of a vineyard. Even my daughter said "In the whale one, didn't they have some kind of energy field to hide the ship?".

I guessJLP is relying on his French to talk down his hysterical ancestors. "Bonjour. Je m'appelle Jean Luc Picard. Vous ètes mon arrière arrière arrière arrière grand mère!"

 

[Trekker4747]

They could've just said Fascist Rio's version of the ship had a cloak.

 

[fireproof78]

They could've just said Fascist Rio's version of the ship had a cloak.

How would regular Rios know?

 

[Trekker4747]

A big issues is Elnor is just an underbaked character in general. Season 1, Episode 4 did a great job introducing him and then...they did jack shit with him. I don't know if this was driven by the limited range of the actor (he is awful) or they just don't know how to use him, but his use this season has essentially been a prop for Raffi rather than a real character, which is no great step forward.

Wait... Did they put Elnor in a refrigerator?

 

[Trekker4747]

How would regular Rios know?

The Borg Queen finds out and tells them? He sees a button in the HUD that says "cloak."

 

[fireproof78]

The Borg Queen finds out and tells them? He sees a button in the HUD that says "cloak."

Ok.

 

[Llywela]

A big issues is Elnor is just an underbaked character in general. Season 1, Episode 4 did a great job introducing him and then...they did jack shit with him. I don't know if this was driven by the limited range of the actor (he is awful) or they just don't know how to use him, but his use this season has essentially been a prop for Raffi rather than a real character, which is no great step forward.

The actor is doing okay, he is playing the character he's been given. Trouble is, he's not really getting much material to work with, so we're not getting to see what he could actually do, if stretched. Season one was patchy with the characters all round, which I put down to a) the intense focus of the show on Picard as an individual, leaving little space for anyone else, and b) the inexperience of the showrunner, who seemed to have loads of big ideas but struggled to incorporate them all into the overall story. Season two is doing better overall, but again doesn't seem to have much use for Elnor, who could easily have been left at the Academy if he wasn't needed for this jaunt to the past, like Soji was left on her diplomatic tour. Elnor seems to have come along for the ride purely to drive Raffi's story, which...well, it makes a refreshing change, I guess, to see a male character killed off so that a female character can be sad about it, instead of the other way round!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They absolutely should not have killed a major recurring character in a throwaway manner just as motivation for Seven.

This season so far they’ve been writing characters more like they should have to begin with.

I wonder why they chose to bring Elnor along just to dispatch him. There’s no reason he couldn’t still be alive in the restored prime timeline but again seeming to treat good characters as disposable anger widgets.

If you kill established characters, it should be done in a way that befits their own character and has to do with their own choices, not just as cheap motivation for another character.