Well, 2/3rds of the way through the episode I thought this was an entertaining, but kinda schlocky action episode. Relentlessly middlebrow, and just fine, but - as with much of the season - nothing special.
Then the final act started, and it became - easily - the best episode of the season since the first two. Somehow the scripting started feeling like it was written by someone else entirely, so many themes and character arcs present throughout the season came together to some semblance of payoff, and I honestly got a bit misty eyed - a rarity when it comes to Trek.
The emotional core of this episode is clearly Picard finally facing down all of his childhood trauma regarding his mother. While the ending was telegraphed from miles away, I don't have any issue with when endings are telegraphed. As I've said in the past, I think all of the good stories build towards predictable endings (historically we didn't consume stories once and never return to them) and the true enjoyment comes from the path from A to B. Given what came earlier, the execution here was about as perfect as it could have been. Sir Pat's kind of phoned it in in some earlier episodes this season, but here he hits it out of the park during the emotional climax of the episode. I give the writers kudos for remembering the scene from TNG where Picard sees his mom elderly offering tea and giving an explanation that works. You could argue that this entire subplot wasn't needed - that (so far) it doesn't seem to fit with the season as a whole, but I think it reached a satisfying conclusion. Hell, this also arguably helps to explain why Picard ended up with such a toxic relationship with his father (and brother) if they ultimately blamed him for his mother's suicide. Regardless, I cried - almost - which is notable because last night I watched the fifth episode of Moon Night (which has been a much better season of TV overall) which had a very similar episode (dealing with the main character's guilt around accidentally causing his brother's death, which broke down his relationship with his mother), but that made me feel absolutely nothing, while this...did.
Turning to the seeming conclusion of the Borg/Jurati stuff, the execution left a bit more to be desired. I don't have issue with the idea that the Borg fail in all possible universes. They are basically a malignant bot-net, which needs to constantly expand to survive (since Voyager stupidly established they don't breed, just assimilate). With a need for constant assimilation to survive, they'll inevitably either burn themselves out due to lack of new targets or eventually run up against a Species 8742 or something who is powerful enough to destroy them. If coexistence is impossible, that's the only possible conclusion. It was done awkwardly, but I did like that they tried to tie it back with the discussion the Borg Queen had with Jurati earlier in the season as well. And while I fundamentally hate the Borg Queen as a character - even before this season I thought she was usually a comical, vampy, catty mess that reminded me more of Cruella Deville than a genuine threat - once you establish her as a person, that means that within the confines of a story redemption is possible. I wish they planted the seeds of a reverse heel turn a bit earlier in the season, but that's more of a season arc issue, not an episode issue.
The other still surviving main characters get some closure on arcs as well. Rios seemingly turns his back on Teresa for the good of the timeline (though we will see next week if it holds). Raffi gets to work out her feelings involving Elnor with the hologram as a sounding board (I thought holo-Elnor came across as a bit too "real" - but I suppose it's no different than the holograms of Rios last season). Most intriguing however was Seven, who gets back her exact implants when Queen Jurati saves her life. I don't mind the idea that Starfleet rejected her due to her Borg heritage at all (they may have thought they had legitimate concerns about her nanoprobes getting hijacked), and it sort of retroactively created a full character arc for her this season, where she explored what it was to be fully human, but ultimately embraced that her Borg history was a part of her that she needed to stop running from. There was also some finally some sense of forward movement in the Seven/Raffi relationship, with something other than bickering between the two of them. Tallinn remains just a support character/sounding board for Picard unfortunately, but I've given up any hope she'll have real development.
I've not mentioned the action sequences and the stuff with Soong, because I think it was just wheel spinning here. Action scenes were...fine...I guess? I was a little taken out of the experience when the assimilated mercenary started grunting during hand-to-hand combat. Spiner is basically just a giant ham here, and that's okay I guess. It might have been because I was watching the episode on a tablet, and outside waiting for the bus, but I found the action scenes way too dark even when I turned the screen brightness up all the way, so I'm not entirely sure I got everything here.
This is not a perfect episode by any means. Some of the dialogue is still...rough, almost groan inducing. There were some weird leaps of logic. But it was still the best episode I've seen since the second one, and I feel confident they'll tie everything up now.
What remains? Clearly Soong will (apparently solo) try to take down the Europa mission. Somehow Kore will be involved. The whole "two Renees, one must live, and one must die" thing made me wonder if Kore is a clone of someone named Renee. I expect we'll see Guinan again. Q will have to have his great speech with Picard. Maybe there's a more final resolution to the Rios/Teresa thing. And Picard goes back to the future and makes peace with the more benevolent Borg faction formed by Jurati. That seems like a small enough tally for a single episode.
