Yup, this is a real problem. As some have noted here, it’s particularly egregious given that Beverly has taken Jack out onto the front lines into extreme danger, while Jean-Luc was basically retired at his vineyard for however many years. Who would he really have been safer with? Her framing it as some kind of PTSD in which she seemed to outright blame Picard both for the death of her husband and, more inexplicably, for Wesley becoming a Traveller and evidently never bothering to stop home for a visit (unless someone is holding a wedding reception) is …a stretch; and not in keeping with anything we saw of their relationship in the past. It’s messy messy, but I’m willing to set it aside and see how the story and character dynamics unfold.
So far, anything raised in an episode has been addressed to a certain extent in the next. Clumsy writing would have meant the exchange between Beverly and Jean-Luc either not happening, or being light. (And likely directly presenting him as in some way responsible) Instead it’s a full, well acted scene, where the logic of each position holds well enough for the story to unfold. (Crushers litany of events that literally happened while she was pregnant, making it hold much more water than it would have otherwise - there’s even a hint that she was pregnant during the events of Nemesis itself ‘when you were sent to personally negotiate with the praetor’ could be read as the events of Nemesis) Neither ‘wins’ the argument, but neither has to for the story to work — it’s important that the argument is *had* though, and shown.
The same is true of the situation with Riker — enough is shown, and has been shown, and it ties up enough neatly *for now* until further things are dealt with. That Picard does to Riker what he had accused Beverly of earlier in the episode does not have neon signs all over it, barely even a lingering shot on Rikers face, but it’s in the performances and in the script, and it makes sense. If members of the audience miss it, that can’t be helped. Disco spoon feeds emotions, force feeds them even, on a regular basis — TNG does not do that so much (see: Data at the end of Offspring, Riker at the end of BOBW part one, so on and so forth) instead it is more subtle unless the story really benefits. (See again, the Offspring, and the Admirals speech) It works, it’s there, and *so far* nothing has really cheated the audience.
There’s even enough around why Shaw is/isn’t an asshole. All in the script and performance, without going off on one.
I do think the de-aged flashback is a bit off — but I need to rewatch the scenes with the Rikers in S1 to work out if it’s implied Picard was still close enough to the Trois, and to work out where Picard was in *his* life when that happened. It hangs together though, just. I do not know if I fully respect these ‘flashbacks to give you context’ as a flourish that works — last week, Jack being a naughty boy, this week, Picard talking about fatherhood with New Dad Riker. It’s a bit wobbly. Did love seeing Riker talk about parenthood, and Deanna’s call, both perfectly pitched, but better if it had not been in the bar I think, and Deanna had been present. (Sirtis is easier to de-age for a start, and the lighting on board ship would have been easier for digital de-aging than that of the bar. Which didn’t hide the makeup as well as I think Frakes had hoped.)
