Star Trek: Picard episode six, “Two of One,” is another one directed by Jonathan Frakes, and I’m really excited by that, because Frakes knows Star Trek. Let’s just be real about that for a second.
The episode starts with Picard injured on the ground. He’s got blood coming out of his mouth, everybody’s gathered around him, and he’s having these visions again. It’s all part of the through line we’ve been seeing, even though it’s taking them a little while to get there. It’s yet another subplot point in Picard’s personal journey. We keep seeing a man, possibly his father, and light coming out of a room, and he’s a child. A lot of this could just be the thinking of a child, and how children process those kinds of things.
Then we’re welcomed to the title card: 34 minutes earlier.
Point B, Then Back to Point A
So now we already know what kind of episode it’s going to be. It’s a flashback episode, where you start at point B in the story only to go back to point A, and then you have to come back through to point B again, and eventually C, with the story continuing onward. It’s a plot device. It’s just a way of telling stories, and it’s something we’ve seen before, and that’s fine. Handled correctly, it’s not a bad thing. Handled incorrectly, it makes the story feel like it’s slogging along really slowly.
We find ourselves at the exact same party. It’s that whole NASA party, the Europa celebration, the night before everybody goes into quarantine. The point of this entire mission is that Picard is infiltrating the party with the help of his crew and Tallinn, the supervisor, the watcher, the person in charge of watching Renée Picard.
When last we left, Jurati was stuck in the security office, because she wanted to be there. She was trying to get in close enough to the mainframe computer to get them into the system. It’s very Mission: Impossible, very Ocean’s Eleven in terms of heistiness, but that’s about as heisty as it got.
Outside, Tallinn’s telling them this isn’t going to work if they can’t get in quick, so Picard’s trying to get hold of Jurati. We go back to her, and she’s still right there, mano a mano if you will, with the Borg Queen.
The Comments Are Alive With Borg Queen Theories
A lot of fun stuff about the Borg Queen has been happening lately, and the comments are alive with the sounds of Borg Queen speculation and theory crafting. By all means keep that up, because I’m all about having those kinds of conversations.
It’s probably one of the things I miss the most about the old Star Trek fan club I was a part of. Once a week we’d meet at a place called Calistoga, which is kind of like a glorified regional Panera Bread, and we’d literally talk about this kind of stuff and theorycraft all day long. It’s the best part of convention life that isn’t any of the panels or the actual dealer’s room. And if you’ve never been to a convention, trust me, the dealer’s room is awesome.
Sorry. ADD brain first thing in the morning.
Back in the security office, you get that tension. Jurati’s trying to get to this and that, and finally the Borg Queen says give me control and I’ll help you. Jurati says fine, please help us. Sure enough, she pulls her hands and the cuffs come off, because apparently the Borg Queen now magically has powers to undo cuffs. Unless they’re technological cuffs I wasn’t aware of. They look like standard handcuffs. Don’t ask me how I know.
Jurati puts the USB drive in. At first it fails, because you’ve got to have that extra tension in the moment, and then Rios gets his ID approved and everyone’s going through the gate little by little. The Borg Queen says, you know, you can say thank you. Jurati’s answer is no, I’m not going to say thank you, forget you people.
26 Minutes Earlier
We jump to the intro and come right back out of it into the present. Remember, point B in the timeline. Picard’s on a bed with stuff coming off his chest, cables and whatnot, probably EKG type stuff. He looks like he’s in a hospital bed, period.
He’s having more visions. This time it’s more clearly his mother being carried away by someone or something. Some connection point with what’s been going on in his past is eventually going to hit, and they’re going to give it to us. I feel like they’re dragging it out a little bit, especially because we don’t have all that many episodes.
Then you get another piece of timeline information. We’re now 26 minutes earlier, so we’re close, and we’re back at point A. You see Raffi, Seven, Rios, everybody mingling and doing the best they can, and everyone’s watching as Renée is definitely throwing back the drinks. Picard asks Tallinn if that’s normal, and Tallinn says yeah, she’s doing that ear thing, where she pulls on her ear when she’s all nervous.
Jurati is talking to the Borg Queen, and the Borg Queen definitely wants some semblance of her original form back. She implies that when her body wakes up, she’ll be missing something. I’m assuming that means the body isn’t dead per se. It was definitely injured, or made to look injured. It’s kind of fuzzy like that. Tell me in the comments if you think I misinterpreted it, but that’s the hint I got.
While she’s having that conversation, we see the same gentleman from before. I think he’s the head of the Europa mission, and forgive me, I don’t remember his name right this second. He suddenly stops and notices her. Maybe he notices her talking to herself. I tend to think that when you’re from the future, having conversations in the past just willy-nilly is maybe not the best idea. I could be wrong.
The Grass Is Always Greener in the Past
While Jurati’s dealing with the Borg Queen internally, you see Raffi talking to Rios. He’s got the cigar, and it’s this brief little moment where they’re talking about the fact that Rios has a crush on that doctor. He’s hemming and hawing. She tells him he’d better not go back and visit her, and he says he’s not thinking about visiting her. It’s this whole contrived thing that apparently is a thing. Whatever. You know how it is. The grass is always greener in the past.
They point out that Seven is doing really well being little miss socialite, surrounded by people she doesn’t even know, and she’s just carrying on. That goes back to the idea that Seven’s Borg implants come with a lot of baggage. They’re a constant reminder, and if I’m not mistaken, there was an episode of Voyager where you found out that Seven’s always in some semblance of pain. I guess the equivalent would be something like fibromyalgia. The implants kind of dull her to the pain of them being there, but it’s definitely always there in her head.
Raffi looks across the way and sees what looks like Elnor in a tuxedo, and she realizes just how messed up she is. She’s gathering her breath.
Q Is the Therapist
Picard tells Tallinn he’s got to go talk to Renée, because come to find out, Renée’s texting with her therapist, Q. She’s texting that she’s not ready, and Q’s encouraging her to quit. Don’t overdo it, don’t push yourself, you could cause a failure.
So Picard says he has to interact, and Tallinn says that’s not what we do, you’re not allowed, you can’t. He’s got to convince her. I get what you think you have to do, but let me do this, because we can’t fail here. It won’t work. We can’t fail.
Picard’s trying to get hold of Jurati because they need a distraction. He wants her to distract the Europa mission boss so Picard can run interference. Rios comes up to check on her. And what does the Borg Queen have Jurati do? Stop being a big wuss, and lay a big ol’ smacker on Rios.
Yeah, that’s right. So great, now we have to have this emotional relationship tension. Okay. I’m down. It’s fine.
Meanwhile Renée’s drinking and having these big flashbacks about what she can’t do, and about just how badly she failed in the test flight.
Soong Makes His Move
Finally Picard says he can’t wait for Jurati anymore and he’s got to go try. As he’s approaching Renée, he’s met by Adam Soong. Soong shocks and surprises him, and it’s basically: we both know we have a mutual friend, Q, and I have to stop you. I have to stop Renée from going up there no matter what. You don’t know what’s at stake.
Then the lady who runs the entire event comes up and thanks Professor Soong for his contribution. They walk off to the side, and he says, well, you could do something for me. You see this guy here? Security starts coming from all sides, and Picard’s got to run.
We’re now 14 minutes earlier. Rios is following as Renée makes a beeline. She’s going to leave the event, and if she leaves the event and doesn’t go into quarantine, history changes and we’re done. It’s over. The mission’s a big failure. So Rios tells them, you guys have got to do something quick.
The Song, and the Black in Her Eyes
Jurati’s arguing back and forth with the Borg Queen in her head, and finally the Borg Queen says, yeah, I’m going to take control now and make this happen. She initiates some sort of a thing. I don’t know what that means. I’m guessing there’s Borg technology inside Jurati. I thought it was just memory engrams that had gone in, but I guess that gives them the ability to generate a sort of EMP.
The entire place goes black out of nowhere. As Picard’s making it through, you hear singing. The melodic voice of Dr. Agnes Jurati begins singing beautifully through the entire hall. It’s all dark and you see a figure up on the balcony, and it’s very, very picturesque. Then, I don’t know from where, there’s a spotlight, because power has suddenly, magically been restored. Music begins playing, she walks down, and the spotlight follows.
Meanwhile Renée is crying, off privately at a display, and mentally she’s done. Poor Renée. It’s rough. She’s in a bad emotional state.
Jurati finishes the song with the Borg Queen next to her, and the Borg Queen says, yeah, that’s all I needed. Apparently it’s something to do with the endorphins. The serotonin hit, the hormones, are strengthening the Borg Queen’s resolve inside her head. Then there’s a brief moment of black, because black is the color of evil, apparently, and that’s the only way you can tell something’s happening. The black covers Jurati’s eyes, goes into her pupils and disappears.
The Picard Pep Talk
Out in the main hall area, where a lot of the displays and the ships are, Picard has been dressed up to look like a security guy. Earpiece, little name badge. He walks in and Renée says, oh, I’m sorry, I just want to be alone. And he starts talking to her.
He has one of those wonderful Picard pep talk conversations, and he says a whole bunch of really, really awesome, wise stuff. It’s funny. I have a hard time sometimes separating the characters from the writers. So I’m saying Picard says these wonderful things. They wrote a wonderful monologue for him, he talks her down, and Patrick Stewart delivers it wonderfully. I love Patrick Stewart, and as swan songs go for Picard, the series is definitely firing on those cylinders.
She says something about how his mother must be a very lucky person to have had him. He gives some advice about his mother, and we get to see an image of her. Then he stands up and says he’s supposed to come collect her for quarantine, and they want her to take a picture. Are you coming? And she says, yeah, I guess I’m going to.
He’s successfully made sure she’s going where she’s supposed to go, which is great.
Back to Point B
Then we get Adam Soong in a car, waiting, stewing on his emotions. He sees images of his daughter and everything she’s been through. Sure enough, as Picard and Renée walk out, Soong goes to hit her with the car. Picard pushes her out of the way and ends up taking the hit.
That fully brings us from A back to B, where we started, with Renée, Tallinn and Rios all looking down at Picard. And Rios says, yeah, I know someplace we can go.
So we’re at the clinic, where his new doctor friend is taking care of Picard. He’s going into some sort of an arrest, and she ends up having to use the defibrillator on him. The defibrillator pops, there’s smoke, and she’s looking at Rios all suspiciously.
Brent Spiner at the End of His Rope
Then we cut to Soong, who’s come home to his lab, and Brent Spiner does this wonderful thing. Soong is very down and dour, and he begins to reveal things. You know, I really wanted you to survive. It’s very weird. It sounds like the drunk ravings of a guy who’s very, very down and at the end of his rope. It doesn’t carry a hardcore implication for anything that’s about to happen, but it definitely raises the curiosity level of his daughter.
Back at the clinic, the doctor tells them they can come in and see him. She knows for a fact something’s up, as anybody good should. But she leaves Picard with his crew, because she’s got to go home. Her son’s going to realize she’s missing again.
Now we cut to (I wanted to say Data) Soong’s daughter. She’s in her father’s lab, and she gets on his computer and starts looking up articles and searching for things. She finds out that Adam is a disgraced scientist. “Mad scientist” is even bandied about. And she begins to find videos. They’re videos of her, seemingly, as a child, but she doesn’t recognize any of them. There are videos and pictures of a life that’s completely alien to her.
They did an excellent job, by the way, photoshopping the kids together with old pictures of Brent Spiner.
Then she hears him talking about all the various genetic failures. I’m guessing she’s a clone, because his daughter died of a rare disease and he’s trying to fix it. She goes through the videos and you hear all these various names, these Greek style names. Eventually she finds a video where he says she’s the last. I can’t go further. I have to stop here, because I can’t keep doing this. And it’s her.
So she knows she’s artificial in some way, shape or form. I think she’s flat out just a clone, no android, no cyborg, and she’s a clone whose medical problem he can’t solve.
We cut back to Picard and the crew, still at the clinic, and they’re looking around. What’s going on? Where’s Agnes? And you see Jurati walking down the street. It’s such a dominant image. You’re looking at it thinking, oh, so much trouble.
So there you go. Now you know, and if knowing is half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Picard “Two of One” gets an eight and a half out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
I dug it. They’re continuing the narrative. They’re continuing the through line. There are little minor mistakes, and some stupid nonsense, but ultimately I’m sticking the landing at eight and a half. I enjoyed the heck out of that.
One more piece of business. There’ve been an awful lot of comments I want to respond to, and the number of them having to do with certain things about the show is going to require that I get a little more in depth. I don’t want to waste time on the channel if that’s not what you want to see.
On last week’s video, episode five, there was a really, really good comment that listed out thirty-some-odd, fifty-eleven items. I don’t know if they’re plot holes or what. There’s always been this exercise I talk about, where I believe that as fans we can justify anything. Comic fans have done it forever. As fans of a thing, we can really walk through it and try to justify some things. There are also some things you can’t.
So here’s the deal I put on the video. The last one had 1,200 views. If 100 of those views like this one, I’ll do a full-blown response video where I walk through systematically and answer all of those questions, because I feel like they’re good questions. I pinned that comment on the episode five video, so go see the one I’m talking about and decide.
Never forget, everyone loves a know-it-all.
Did I misread the Borg Queen’s line about her body waking up missing something? And do you want the full response to that pinned list from episode five? The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
