Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x04 - "Watcher"

The episode was OK.

Like most I was puzzled about events of "Time's Arrow" being ignored but the showrunner's explanation that events of that episode didn't happen in this timeline makes sense.

Guinan played by a different actress was not ideal but understandable.

The 2024 scenes with Seven, Raffi and Rios still not working for me. The social commentary with LAPD and ICE was too heavy handed.

I knew Laris was going to be the watcher toward the end of the episode since the actress was in the opening credits but hadn't appeared yet. This was the most interesting part of the episode. Seems like Laris is specifically watching for Picard and that is why Guinan took Picard to her when he identified himself.

 

I'm not talking about a mono-culture but rather a 'melting pot' where there are some common set of values and principles that people agree on but where people are free to express their cultural identities however they see fit - except where that conflicts with the core. Elements of that core culture would include a respect for individual civil liberties, rule of law and civic responsibility etc.

 

It's a fair point that in order to live together in our world people have to conform to shared codes of conduct.

However, the term "melting pot" implies cultural assimilation. It's right up front in the metaphor, with the use of the word "melting." This has given rise to other metaphors such as "salad bowl" and "mosaic," which imply multiculturalism without the degree of cultural assimilation implied by a "melting pot."

 

Okay, fair enough. I think we're splitting hairs a bit about the implications of the terminology used. The problem I have with being overly concerned using terms that may be momentarily considered 'more correct' is that ultimately people are assimilated across generations and even on an individual basis - perhaps more so than they realize or readily admit

As an immigrant from Southern Europe myself, I've found it curious to see people one or two generations removed from what we may call the "mother country/culture" and yet they strongly identify (far more so than myself) with that heritage despite not speaking the language nor having ever visited there. To me (I came to the US as a youth) they seem completely "Americanized" and display no discernible characteristics of the people that I know from my youth and subsequent visits. It's all a very romanticized notion of what it means to be "of that heritage" and frankly has little to do with reality. Having spoken to other first gens of different backgrounds this seems a reasonably common thing - and a consistent source of amusement to those in our circumstances.

 

Wow.
Slightly more cooperative punk on the bus (was that Thatcher again?), listening to The Edge of Etiquette's latest hit. Guinan looking younger than she did when she was palling around with Mark Twain. Seven doing a slightly better job of driving a stolen car than Kirk did on Iotia. And the Watcher is an Aegis Supervisor who looks like Laris (and not the Doctor's kid)? And Jackson Roykirk Plaza? And Q stripped of power again?

Did I miss anything?

Oh, and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a novel (Voyager sequel, I think) in which the Q Continuum disappears?

 

It was indeed Thatcher.

 

Novels are not canon. And the old novelverse has been deleted out of existence anyway.

 

The explanation doesn't hold up.

Picard is back in his timeline, but Guinan says that she remembered him from when they met in the confederation timeline, before he left for the confederation time line, in the final episode.

Old Guinans memory should have been scrubbed, and Times Arrow should have been part of her past again.

They suck.

 

PIC Season 2 had amazing potential and it wasted almost every bit of it.

 

Yes, the storyline was messy and doesn’t hold up close scrutiny (as doesn’t any new Trek seasonal arc, unfortunately), but I still enjoyed season 2 a lot