Picard season two, episode seven, “Monsters,” is very much a storytelling episode, and it’s got undertones of classic Next Generation all over it. Tallinn ventures inside Picard’s subconscious mind to help wake him from a coma and face both his darkest secrets and his deepest fears. Seven and Raffi go in search of Jurati, whom they fear has succumbed to the monster inside. And Rios struggles to hide the truth of who he really is from Teresa.
In The Next Generation there were often episodes where you went into people’s heads. Data’s head, Riker’s head, Picard’s mind. That’s what we get here.
When last we left Picard, he was in some semblance of what passes for an android coma, or a positronic brain’s version of a coma. If you remember, the doctor whose clinic it is checked him out and realized something wasn’t right. She tried to use the defibrillator. Boom, sparks, a puff of smoke out of the machine, the whole nine yards.
A Counselor Made of Memory
We start with a view of the sun, only to realize it’s actually a simulation, a sort of side table accessory for a psychologist’s office. You see the desk, and the desk has several little artifacts on it, including a combadge of the variety I’ve got right here, which I’ll happily wear when my uniform gets here. Until then you get me in TOS mode.
It’s Picard in his tuxedo, and he’s having a conversation with James Callis, who’s playing what we assume is some form of Betazoid therapist. A counselor, if you will. Why not? That’s what Picard was used to. He had Troi back on the ship, so why wouldn’t he generate some sort of mind version of a counselor to help him work through his problems? Makes sense, totally.
I love the uniform he’s wearing. It’s like a weird mashup between the First Contact uniform and the Deep Space Nine uniforms, in that it doesn’t have any of that ribbing on the yoke. Very cool uniform, and whether it’s just in his head or not, I’m probably going to go ahead and make one.
It’s a very engaging conversation. Picard’s very much of the mind that he doesn’t want to do this. The therapist’s attitude is pretty much, it’s your dime, I’ve got to tell them I was here for an hour, so let’s have a conversation. Why don’t you tell me a story? He hands him the sun, like, here, maybe this will inspire you.
So Picard begins to recite a story, and it’s a fantasy story. We’re immediately introduced to his mother, only she’s the queen in the story, and she’s painting on glass. We see his childlike self again, as the prince this time. What’s great is how quick you realize he’s psychologically transposing events in his life. The story he’s telling is a way to process pain he’s been holding on to for so long.
Little by little the drawings come to life, until what looks like a shadow creature, almost like a Batman figure in the trees she’s painted, opens its eyes. There’s a slight growl, and now we know we’ve been led into some sort of nightmare. The queen takes the prince by the hand, they back out, everything switches, and they’re running through a dungeon.
Not a New Trick, and That’s Fine
After the opening sequence we’re back in the clinic with Seven, Raffi and Rios, getting ready, because Tallinn’s going in. She has a device that lets her inhabit people’s minds. That’s how we met her, remember? The kid with the white eyes, her consciousness jumping from mind to mind to mind. She’s going to reconfigure that same device to go into Picard’s mind.
It’s not a brand new trick by any stretch of the imagination. Anybody who’s watched Star Trek for any period of time is going to be like, oh yeah, I totally get what’s going on here. I’m reminded of the Deep Space Nine episode, and forgive me, I’m not prepared, the title escapes me right now. I could totally pause and cut and go look it up, but I always want to be real with you guys. It’s early in season one, where they first encounter a species from across the wormhole, and it’s the little girl playing hopscotch and the song. I always remember it because of Sisko’s voice when he starts doing the hopscotch game. “Allamaraine, count to four.” “Allamaraine, if you can see, Allamaraine, you’ll come with me.” Oh, it’s so funny.
Rios asks Tallinn, are you sure it’s going to work? And she’s like, nope, I’ve got no kind of clue.
Jurati, and Where the Writing Gets Lazy
Raffi and Seven go back to the ship to find Jurati, because all of a sudden they care about where she went. I don’t know why she suddenly matters. She hasn’t mattered to this point. And now they’re like, you know, she’s acting really weird.
This is where I feel like the writing becomes lazy. A lot of you commented on the last episode that no one’s noticing Jurati and the Borg Queen, and it’s such garbage, and you’re not wrong. None of you are wrong.
I’m very much of the mindset, though, that I take these things as they come. I have to judge each thing on its own merit. I don’t judge Picard based on what The Next Generation was. They’re different creatures completely, from how they’re shot to how they tell stories. Was it better back then? That’s arguable. I don’t know. And don’t get me wrong, these aren’t perfect. My rose-colored glasses from back in the day are starting to wear off, and the nostalgia factor isn’t as big an influence on my outlook as you might think, or as it used to be. But I’m also not going to go down the road of being one of those fatalists who are like, that’s not Trek, this is the only Trek. Look, man. Star Trek’s Star Trek. I’ve said it before.
On the ship, as Seven’s touching the controls, it goes dark, and an encryption notification pops up. Seven’s immediately wary, because it’s Borg encryption. They have to crack it or they won’t be able to find Jurati, and potentially they might not be able to get home.
Seven remembers a little bit of Borg code and she’s able to decode some of it, and she finds the security footage of Jurati in the control room. You see her touch something, and there’s the Borg code. It’s Jurati who put it in. They’re finally starting to realize what’s going on, and a little later Seven says what we’ve all been saying: we’re watching the birth of a Borg Queen.
It’s pretty exciting in terms of what the story’s trying to tell. Mind you, I feel like it’s a little bit late in the game. If this isn’t the penultimate episode, I think next week is, or next week is the last episode. I’m pretty sure it’s eight episodes. I could be wrong. Either way, I want to see that storyline resolved.
“No, I’m From Chile”
Tallinn sits down with the device on her ear, which, funny enough, looks a little bit pointy, like a Vulcan ear. She activates it, boom, eyes go white.
Inside, Picard’s telling the therapist this is childish, and then he suddenly realizes he wasn’t alone, and the story continues. This time Tallinn is in the dungeon. She comes across the little kid, who’s crying, and he tells her they have to find the queen, she’s being held captive, and there are monsters here.
Picard starts confronting his therapist, and the therapist comes right back at him. Where do you think we are? Dude, you’ve been through what he’s been through, trust me, you start to realize some things. That’s when the banging starts. Picard’s like, what is that noise? And James Callis is very calm. I don’t know. What do you think is going on?
In the dungeon, knights and soldiers come through, then smoke rolls in and the monsters appear, and Tallinn gets attacked by this zombie thing that starts choking her.
Then the clinic, and this is such a great moment. The doctor comes back and notices a locked door, and she’s like, oh no no no, there will be no locked doors in my clinic. She’s awesome. I love her so much. Rios says, okay, keep an open mind. She stalks in, and the first thing she sees is Tallinn with the white eyes. He starts approaching her with his hands up, and she backs up and says, why are you coming at me like a serial killer? Right on.
Rios realizes he’s not equipped for this. He calls Raffi and says he’s got to have something to help stabilize Picard, and they transport a device right into his hand. Are we just throwing protocol out the window? I guess to save people’s lives, yes, of course. In Star Trek we always do. He tells Teresa, you’re a doctor, this is going to help his brain, use it on him. And she takes it on faith.
As soon as Picard starts to get better, she looks at Rios and goes, “Are you from outer space?” I had a feeling he was going to say one line, and then he does his version of the entire line. “No, I’m from Chile. I only work in outer space.”
Come on. Riffing on Star Trek IV. “No, I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.” All the nostalgia feels.
I can see how people are going to say it’s cheap. I love it. Give me all the feels and the good stuff and remind me of the things I love the most. I love original things as well, but I don’t have a problem with callbacks. To me that’s fan service of the highest order, if you can do it while giving us a good story. There are definite holes in this story, and I’m not in any way, shape or form trying to say otherwise. But I’m able to enjoy this in spite of them.
The White Door
The kid says they have to find the white door. A line of light appears, the door opens, and when they go through they’re not in the dungeon anymore. They’re in Picard’s old house. The therapy room has changed too. He turns around and it’s his house as well.
Tallinn shows up with the prince, and Picard’s just mad at the therapist. You were a horrible beast, you were all these things. He’s telling him off. And the therapist looks at him and says he is a monster, but not the kind you think. He calls him son.
Now we get the full memory we’ve been seeing in flashbacks all season. All those threads have culminated here.
His mother was disturbed. She suffered from some sort of mental illness, which I find interesting, because in Star Trek they’ve always done their best to deal with those kinds of things early. I’m not going to call it eugenics, but they tend to catch the imbalances, and by the 24th or 25th century I would’ve expected a lot of that to be solved.
They went underneath the house. His mother was trying to escape some imagined danger, and underneath the house there’s a thousand ways to die, which is what Picard’s father had told him. Young Picard’s foot gets stuck, and hours later his father finds him. That’s why the man’s terrified. Had that foot not gotten stuck, there’s every possibility the kid could’ve been down there a long, long time.
Then his father’s dragging her out, and eventually, for her own safety, they have to lock her in a room with a white door. You see Picard fully grasping all of it. He turns, and the James Callis character says, yeah, I just tried to do my best to help her.
It’s a very heartbreaking scenario. It’s also a very good twist, very worthy of a Star Trek twist. A little neat and a little quick, but I still like what they did with it. It harkens back to the classic Next Generation storylines that made that show so great.
Tallinn, Guinan, and the FBI
Tallinn wakes up, Picard wakes up, and everybody’s there with Rios, the doctor and her son. She looks at Rios and says, I can’t believe I introduced you to my son, you’d better not be lying. He then apparently decides, why not, screw all the rules, Temporal Prime Directive, whatever. They transport onto the ship and he’s showing them around. Okay. So that’s a thing.
Seven and Raffi track Jurati through CCTV footage to a bar called Deacon’s or something, which I think is actually a callback to something in the show. There’s a singer in there, and that singer is none other than Patrick Stewart’s real life wife. This is her cameo, and she does wonderful. She looks great, she’s gorgeous. Jurati walks in, and then Jurati breaks the window, which is pretty interesting. CGI window, CGI whatever. When they find the bar, Seven says there’s the possibility this is going to go bad. We may have just endangered the future.
Back at the clinic, Tallinn walks up to Picard, gets rid of the device, and reveals she’s a Romulan. There it is. Laris is Tallinn. At least that’s what I believe. She’s an ancestor, possibly, but I feel like that’s too neat. I’ve always hated the notion that there are this many convenient temporal clones, and the Soongs are the exact example. Chances are it’s exactly that. Her people watch over areas, and every now and again they’re given the job of watching someone who’s not Romulan. So that’s the answer. I still think she’s going to eventually be Laris. I could be totally wrong.
Then Picard does his Sherlock Holmes thing. I say that because a couple episodes back he suddenly just put the pieces together on Jurati and the number 15. Same thing here. I went on a journey of self-discovery, and finally: what if Q did all this so that I could understand him better?
So he needs somebody who can get a hold of one, and he goes back to Guinan. She’s got a bottle that was there when the El-Aurians and the Q Continuum made their pact. The El-Aurians get their power from the drinks and the food and the aromatics in the air, it plays like psychic whatever, and she tries to summon one. There’s a brief earthquake. I mean, they’re in California, so I think it’s probably a natural cause versus a supernatural one, but whatever. She tried, and nothing happened.
Then a guy walks in, sort of an annoying customer, talking about how he enjoys sci-fi stories. He shows them a phone, and on the phone you see Picard beaming into the alley. That’s when the police show up. They’re FBI, and they’re very much of the mind that we’re going to take you in.
So here we are, second to last episode, or in the last throes of these episodes, or who knows, it could be ten episodes, in which case we have three more. Either way, a whole new set of issues.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 7 lands at an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I enjoy the storytelling. It’s a little bit sloppy in some places. No episode is perfect, but I’m finding myself enjoying the story, even if some parts of it feel pedantic.
Let me know what you thought of “Monsters,” because I’d really love to have that conversation. It lives in the comments on the video above.
