I'm glad I've watched these two episodes almost back-to-back because it really felt like it should've been one episode, and perhaps this is a reason why both parts were so short. I would've padded out the heist-like nature of infiltrating the gala a bit more, because it really felt like they were speedwalking through the story. Most of the episode went as expected, other than Picard taking the hit for Renée and falling into a coma, but it had quite some enjoyable moments that made it an enjoyable speedwalk, though I must confess I was the most intrigued by Jurati's ordeals with the Borg Queen who had successfully manipulated her into giving up control. Alison Pill and Annie Wersching continue to be an absolute delight together and play perfectly off each other with Jurati masking her absolute terror with annoyed sarcasm and the Queen practically acting like a slimy, manipulative, emotionally abusive girlfriend to her. And, well, Pill in that dress, something that Jurati remarked upon herself... and that glorious musical number, and Queen-in-Jurati walking unflinching and barefoot into the LA night... why is this series so determined to make me develop a crush on Alison Pill? Either that, or it's just pure gender envy, I could never tell them apart ever since I realized I was trans. Oh well. Not to mention Seven in that dress, Renée in that dress, and Kore and Teresa, and ruggedly handsome Rios in a suit... there are way too many pretty people in this series and I can't cope with that.
The episode seemed to foreshadow Rios deciding to go native at the end quite a bit, with his almost childlike awe at the 21st century, his budding feelings towards Teresa as well as him clearly being conflicted about being unable to tell her who he is. I'm not sure I'd be happy with him staying in the past, but they still have four episodes' time left to build it up properly if they decide to make this his grand exit. With Jurati being taken over by the Borg Queen, I'm beginning to feel like they're actually setting the stage for slimming down the cast to make space for the returning TNG veterans next year, and I'm still torn quite a bit about this. I've grown to like the new cast, especially Jurati and Rios, and as happy as I am for the chance to see Sir Patrick act together with his old cast for a glorious swan song, I'd be sad to see the new people go.
At first I was excited at the episode seemingly confirming my suspicion that Soong used research or even material from the Augment program to create not one, but several daughters, but overall I found the scene where Kore realizes to be very similar to Soji realizing she was an android, so I kept feeling this was something I've already seen. I understand this is possible a thematic connection, a recurrence of the Soongs creating life through questionable methods, but I found it to be quite repetitive. With all the talk about cloning, I'm also subscribing to the theory of all the male Soongs being clones of
Adam, which would be a very fitting name for the progenitor of the bloodline.
Random observations:
- I'm glad for all the people pointing out the various series and movie airdates being used as dates for the IDs of various characters because I never would've thought of googling them myself.
- I think this might have been the shortest "X earlier" period I've ever seen in a series cold open. I'm used to several hours or even days.
- I loved how Picard saw Renée constantly checking her phone as a possible sign of her distress and Tallinn just casually dismissed it as a 21st century thing. Though I find the concept of Q sending instant messages through the phone way funnier than I probably should. He does have a voicemail though, so who knows, maybe he finds it fun.
- Picard's pep talk to Renée was quite nice to hear. I kept thinking about the old TNG-era Picard and seeing how much wiser and more grandfatherly he's become since getting a reality check from the Rikers and working through his arrogance in Nepenthe.
- I might have developed an obsession with Resident Evil Village over the last year, so this might be a reason for this (as the game's mad scientist main villain did the same), but I somehow get the feeling that Soong is trying to recreate a daughter who died, trying every single genetic engineering trick under the sun to bring her back. Well, if it's true, I'm at least glad he didn't use a fungal zombie plague to create clones that invariably turn out to be creepy monsters. But it's funny how I've spent several hours idly fantasizing about Bashir or maybe the EMH trying to figure out just what the hell Lady Dimitrescu's sentient-fungal-fly-swarm daughters are and now I'm actually finding what seems to be a similar basic plotline in Trek.
