Is This The Beginning Of The End For Picard?

Picard episode 3 “The End is the Beginning” starts answering some questions. Just not as fast as we want them. We see more about the Mars attack. We also go back 14 years ago when Picard offered his resignation from Starfleet. Picard is with Raffi, the woman he went to go see at the end of episode 2. We find out Raffi served with Picard who she affectionately calls “JL”. Raffi is let go from Starfleet after Picard’s resignation. This is because of her ties to Picard and his plan to save the Romulans in the Mars attack. 

Things Are Finally Heating Up

In the present-day Raffi is living in Vasquez Rocks. Kind of funny considering that was the real-life filming location for TNG and other Star Trek episodes. Picard comes to Raffi for help. Raffi is having a rough life after being fired. He holds on to the resentment that Picard went off to live a good life in his chateau and she lost everything. Picard asks Raffi to join him in finding Bruce Maddox but she is reluctant but gives him a pilot with a ship named Rios. 

Since Picard’s visit to Starfleet in the episode didn’t go down so well, they are on to Picard to see if he is, in fact, going to try and go after Maddox alone. Starfleet starts investigating. Starfleet Commodore Oh pays a visit to Dr. Agnes Jurati to discuss the conversation she had with Picard at the Daystrum Institute. Starfleet is on Picard’s heels trying to figure out what he’s planning and how much does he knows about the Romulan assassins on Earth. 

Picard jumps on board to meet Rios, the pilot Raffi hooked him up with. The EMH’s look cooler in Picard, This EMH takes the form of Rios the pilot. As Picard talks to Rios Picard telling him that just by looking at the ship and it’s condition and he knows Rios was at one point Starfleet. So, Raffi can’t help but look at the data Picard left for her.

The Borg Make Their Return

At the Borg reclamation site, we now know that Starfleet has sent up Narek as a spy to keep an eye on Soji, Dahj’s twin and Data’s other daughter. She is busy reclaiming the assimilated Borg to their natural state. She has been talking to some of the species in their native tongues. Soji tells one of the Romulan Borgs shes an anthologist and she tries to find out more about this specific woman.

A Romulan woman with some sort of physic or telepathic powers says she knows Soj. Soji wants to know what this woman saw since she was aboard the very last ship that encountered the cube they are on. The Romulan woman starts to panic and yell as she asks “Which one are you? Which sister are you”. She grabs a phaser and tries to attack Soji. She’s stopped before she can do any damage.

Picard is attacked by the Romulans. The final shot to one of the fighters is from Dr. Agnes who has come to tell Picard about her encounter with Commodore Oh. one of the fighters is alive and held hostage for interrogations. The Romulan fighter states they will find the twin before Picard does he claims the twin is the destroyer like the Romulan woman on the cube. 

Some Major Action in Picard

After the attack against Soji , she runs to her quarters and asks her mother how Dahj is. Her mother says she’s fine and Soji passes out in the middle of the transmission. Narek comes in and asks her what happened and if she knew why the exchange between her and the Romulan woman happened. After his visit, he is stopped by the Starfleet officer who sent him to watch over Soji to see what she knows. Fun twist, this Starfleet officer is his sister. She warns Narek not to fall in love with her. 

In the last part of this episode, Dr. Agnes wants to join Picard on his mission to find the 2nd synth. The beam aboard the ship and Raffi has joined them. She claimes she’s found Bruce Maddox and states he is on Freecloud. Raffi claims Picard is on his own when they arrive there. The episode ends with Picard’s infamous command, “Engage”. The ending music has a hint of that classic TNG theme song mixed in with the modern music. 

Takeaways From Picard Episode 3

The take away from this episode is that we are seeing the parallels between Soji and Dahj. It’s ironic that Soji has a loved one named Dahj. In the first episode Dahj reached out to her mother who turned out to be a Starfleet officer. 

The Starfleet that we used to know and love for being so militant and caring about the prime directive is completely throwing their ideology out the window to help this secret Romulan cabal. What happened to Starfleet is it the entire institution or is this secular to one section? 

We don’t see any former TNG or Voyager cast in this episode. I’m still waiting on Riker and Deanna to show up but itching to see Seven of Nine and Hugh. This season is really starting to heat up, we need answers! 

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