Star Trek: Picard’s Season Finale May Be One of the Most Unhinged Hours of Television This Year

Reader, I’ve to confess: it has been a number of days since I first noticed the Star Trek: Picard season two finale by the point you’re studying this. And I nonetheless can’t let you know if I imply to say “unhinged” right here as both or a foul factor.

“Farewell” is, after all, an episode of goodbyes—farewell to the sequence’ time journey plotline, farewell to some fairly main characters, farewell to many concepts about how an episode of tv ought to have paltry components like “coherence between scenes” and “a plot that lasts most, if not all, of the episode.” After the again half of season two has meandered right here and there in its time journey story, the episode is a madcap sprint to shut off each dangling plotline that’s left, whereas additionally establishing some fascinating hints for the present’s ultimate season. And in some respects, in sure moments, “Farewell” hits, anchored in some actually great performances and a few emotional character work. In others, it’s, uh… frankly type of insane, this weird dash to a end line that includes flinging scenes at a wall and seeing in the event that they stick—and in the event that they don’t simply sprinting on to that end line anyway, penalties or coherence be damned.

This unhinged feeling begins comparatively early on within the episode, once you out of the blue notice that “Farewell” is a 50-minute episode of TV that someway solely has about 20 minutes of plot—and all of it’s entrance loaded. With the Borg Queen handled final week (nicely… at this level it’s not a spoiler to say extra on that later), Picard, Tallinn, Rios, Seven, and Raffi shortly hatch a sport plan to make sure that Dr. Soong can’t stop Renee Picard from launching the Europa house mission and securing the long run they’ve spent a lot of this season breaking each rule of time journey to safeguard. While the latter trio are left to go examine simply what Soong goes to do precisely—as a result of for a disgraced scientist he has an absurd quantity of pull over the Europa mission and, uh, apparently armed weapon methods out of nowhere?—Tallinn and Picard make a touch for the Europa launch website, lastly deciding that Renee wants to fulfill her guardian angel if she has an opportunity of getting on the mission alive.

And… actually, that’s it. Tallinn reveals herself to Renee in an emotional scene, Soong runs across the base being hilariously assholish for no actual motive apart from that we know he needs to be an evil asshole, Picard meanders about too, after which within the background Rios, Raffi, and Seven attempt to disable a quartet of killer drones Soong has launched to assassinate Renee. How does he have drones? It doesn’t matter, as a result of as quickly as we study of their existence they’re handled, and so they’re not even Soong’s solely assassination plan—he additionally has snuck in a toxin graft hooked up to considered one of his palms, which he makes use of to seemingly poison Renee when he bumps into her in a hall. But shock! It’s Tallinn in disguise! And she dies in Picard’s arms and we’re all very unhappy, however comfortable too, as a result of the actual Renee acquired onboard the ship whereas Tallinn was busy getting poisoned, and the day is saved.

Once once more: I can’t stress sufficient that every one of that is delivered within the first 20 minutes of the episode. And that’s it. The large menace of the season that has taken about seven episodes of build-up has a climax hyper-condensed right down to this opening act, and it makes every thing about it really feel so bizarre. There’s some good things in there—the emotional farewell between Tallinn and Picard the place each of them every realizes that they’ve discovered peace in sharing themselves with the individuals they care about is splendidly carried out. But it looks like such an absurd method to finish a sequence that has struggled with problems with tempo by wrapping up this main arc with a breathless, nearly uncaring degree of haste.

But it’s not that that makes “Farewell” such a weird, rollercoaster of an episode. If that is all it was, it might be completely tremendous—a little bit demure, however stable. Instead, “Farewell” spends its remaining runtime with an… it’d be too diplomatic to name it an epilogue contemplating it’s the majority of the episode, however that’s actually what it’s. A group of scenes that almost barely flows from one to the textual content, as if the script was developed by throwing a dart at a board labeled “A Big List of Things We Should Probably Deal With/Set Up This Season.” And it begins large, as a result of no earlier than we’re carried out with the Europa plot… Wesley Crusher reveals up.

Yes. He wasn’t in that large Picard season three TNG reunion information a couple of weeks again, however Wil Wheaton is right here, out of nowhere, to barge proper into considered one of Picard season two‘s most underdeveloped plot threads: Korre, Soong’s daughter. She’s largely been out of the highlight because the reveal that Soong artificially constructed her as the newest in a protracted line of genetic experiments, however her position is made all of the extra incomprehensible by the truth that, simply as she’s carried out enacting vengeance in opposition to her dad by remotely deleting all his analysis, Wesley arranges a gathering together with her. And… recruits her to hitch the Travelers, the thriller transdimensional beings Wesley left the Enterprise-D to hitch all the best way again in “Journey’s End” almost 30 years in the past? Don’t fear concerning the reality we noticed him again in Starfleet for Nemesis, as a result of Picard actually doesn’t care, and doesn’t spend the time to clarify: Wesley Crusher is right here, he scoops up Korre (hopefully that means Isa Briones will truly get one thing to do subsequent season, as her time on this one was a significant injustice in comparison with her position in season one), and that’s it. Boop, onto the following plot level to take care of out of nowhere!

This is at least an truly good second nonetheless, as a substitute of an out of nowhere “what the what??” like Wesley. Back at Chateau Picard, the Admiral and his associates are all getting ready for what their lives will now appear like in 2024, contemplating the Borg Queen took their ship final episode. They’re content material they’ve secured their future, however there’s additionally an odd melancholy—Raffi and Seven have one another, and Rios now has Teresa and her son, however Picard, after studying to be so open with the individuals he loves from Tallinn, is on their lonesome… till Q reveals up, that’s. And what we get just isn’t one final commerce of barbs, however arguably one of many strongest scenes not simply on this season, however within the entirety of the present.

It’s a splendidly tender and loving efficiency from John de Lancie, who conducts what are to be Q’s ultimate moments with Picard with a sublime grace—revealing to the person the rationale for all these video games was to not check, however to show Picard to like himself as a lot as these round him, Q included, love him. He doesn’t say love, after all, however the scene completely performs out as one thing extremely intimate and romantic between the 2 males. That in confronting his household’s previous and his trauma together with his mom, Q believes, he can now face demise figuring out that Picard, considered one of his favourite individuals in all the cosmos, has an opportunity at a cheerful future. Q decides he’ll us what little stays of his vitality to die in an act that may transport Picard, Raffi, and Seven again to the twenty fourth Century within the course of—after Rios decides to remain again in 2024 to be with the particular person Picard’s mentorship allowed him to seek out, and love—and it’s a genuinely touching finale for a personality that’s continued principally as a little bit of comedic aid over many years and many years of Star Trek appearances.

And but, as soon as once more, Picard isn’t over simply but—and it’s arguably saved a few of its most batshit moments for final. Seven, Raffi, and Picard all discover themselves transported by Q’s sacrifice again on the Stargazer the place they left it on the finish of the season premiere: about to seemingly die by the hands of the Borg Queen. But then, at a breakneck tempo, the scene simply explodes: it’s not the Queen, it’s Borg Jurati! She’s right here to not be evil, however to warn the Federation of an impending large house gap that’s gonna kill billions of individuals with a blast! But additionally the house gap might be fastened by the truly not really-that-big Starfleet taskforce linking their shields as much as cease the blast! Seven of Nine will get a Starfleet area fee to turn out to be a Captain! Oh, and Elnor’s again too! But they gotta cease the blast! And they do! The Federation is saved! And that is… 5 minutes of display screen time, perhaps? On the one hand, sure it does conveniently tie all the season again collectively because of a causal loop, and it’s a enjoyable method to have the choice for Jurati and the Borg to merge to show over a brand new leaf final episode have a direct ramification, for the higher. But all of it occurs so quick that you simply simply can’t take it in correctly, particularly proper after the tender, emotional farewell between Picard and Q simply earlier than this.

You don’t even have time to relish in that, both, as a result of the episode ends on an excellent wilder reveal: the house gap and its related fallout was truly the creation of a brand new Transwarp Conduit—the strategy of FTL journey by means of interconnected subspace tunnels the Borg closely utilized in Voyager—however, the Borg don’t know who made it. So, Queen-Jurati affords a proposal: the Borg Collective desires an alliance and short-term membership into the Federation whereas they take care of whoever and no matter made the conduit, collectively. It’s wild. Last week I mentioned I used to be uncertain simply how Star Trek might presumably ship on the daring thought of basically negating considered one of its most iconic villains in all the franchise’s historical past—it’s just like the transition the Klingons made between TOS and TNG, however on an element of 10 contemplating how for much longer the Borg had been the final evil of the franchise—and but, right here we’re, it’s seemingly doing it an episode later. Obviously, there’s caveats: Queen-Jurati makes it clear this isn’t a wholly everlasting establishment, however on the similar time, her demeanor as the brand new chief of the Borg Collective is in contrast to something we’ve seen from the Borg up to now. There is, seemingly, real evolution right here—and that’s an extremely thrilling set-up going into Picard’s third and ultimate season. When you truly get a couple of minutes to breathe and give it some thought because the episode concludes, it’s a fairly pretty method to tie collectively this season’s themes about connection and openness with different individuals.

But that’s actually “Farewell” writ massive. When you get an opportunity to hone in on particular person moments and concepts, they work, and in some circumstances, are even truly actually fairly good and filled with potential. But the episode itself doesn’t provide the probability to hone in on these moments, as a result of as an entire it’s completely and totally weird. The pacing and tonal disconnect because it flitters from one unconnected second to the following is such a rollercoaster that it, taken as that complete, can’t be something apart from an entire mess. It’s identical to somebody proverbially dumping what was left to take care of this season on the ground after which yelling “HEY REMEMBER WHEN WE SAID THE TNG CREW WAS BACK NEXT SEASON YEAH SEE YOU THEN BYEEEE!” as they ran out the door.

Was that stuff handled? Yeah. But it’s simply handled so weirdly that the nice concepts and the promise of it will get misplaced within the muddiness of simply what a wild episode of TV this was. We’ll need to see the way it all performs out, now that we all know that Picard’s third and ultimate season has some actually large concepts and ramifications to play with—and that’s even earlier than all of Jean-Luc’s associates come again for one final huzzah. Hopefully although, subsequent season being the final signifies that we are able to ask for one factor: perhaps tempo issues a little bit higher so we don’t need to have such a bananas finale once more?

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