Story: Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2
Written By: Michael Chabon
Series: Star Trek: Picard
Year: 2020
Picard's first season closes out with a finale I am completely unsure how to feel about. It had some things I predicted (dumb overly choreographed fight scenes, big dumb laser battles in space) but did avoid some dumb things I thought would happen (luckily they didn't feel the need to end on the Enterprise and Worf showing up as a tease)...but that isn't to say it had big sweeping ideas that suck. There are some positives and I will discuss them first.
I had felt that either Riker would return in uniform or Worf would show up. Of the two options, Riker is the better choice, and luckily they went with that. It makes sense given the events of "Nepenthe" and feels rewarding, even if it is accompanied by 1000 starships vs 1000 Romulan Warbirds nonsense that this modern era of Trek seems to believes creates some sort of tension. I am so sick of them pulling this kind of crap. They need to start scaling Trek back or it is going to implode quickly. Granted, the ending of tons of ships and phaser fire wasn't nearly as exhausting or nauseating as Disco's second season closer, but still, I just don't care about a bunch of nameless ships firing at each other. It isn't the kind of thing that drew me into Trek, either as a kid when I first fell for the franchise, or as an adult when I reconnected with it and feel in deep.
I also had come to fear that the latest Soong portrayed by Spiner was going to turn out to be Lore...which would have been an awful turn of events. Granted, the entire Soong family line looking exactly the same is silly too, but having Lore would have been tedious. But they also didn't go this route and also gave this Soong a decent turn at not being the baddie he was set up as last week. So positive. And hey, it may have been a tedious fight sequence, but at least in the end Seven killed that awful sister of Narek.
In general, I was mostly feeling ambivalent about this episode. I wasn't enjoying it, but I wasn't hating it. I was feeling pretty much nothing as we raced towards the end. That's not a great sign. Then they turned Picard into a robot. I started to feel again! I hate this.
The whole episode starts to amp up with Picard deciding to give his life to show Soji that it isn't worth being the destroyer. His brain abnormality starts to truly effect him and he is pushing himself to the limit to get his point across. And he does. And it kills him. Sacrifice for the greater good, proving that hope is stronger and wiser than fear. I can get behind it. Then even though he did this of his own free will, made it clear that he thought it was fine and an okay way to go, they decide to inject his brain into a robot body so he can go on living. Oh they write in convenient nonsense like "we made you just as old and weak as you were before!" so they can continue the show without fans asking how robot Picard doesn't do this or that...but it is just so dumb.
And keep in mind, this reveal comes after a scene in which Picard, before he is awoken in his new robot form, speaks with some stray data of Data's memory within some simulation, and Data speaks about the importance of mortality and how he wants to be erased so he can have that. They essentially have a long scene expressing why mortality is part of the human experience and then tell Picard "hey we decided to make you live longer because mortality is bad and dumb."
This was a dumb dumb way to end this thing. When Picard "died" I felt nothing. A character I have loved since I was 5 sacrificed himself and died, and I FELT NOTHING. Why? Because they announced a second season before this one even premiered. I knew he wasn't dead. I knew they had some dumb escape route. Why should I worry or feel for this? And they did. And it was dumber than I could have possibly imagined. He is a ROBOT NOW. What the fuck. Essentially the character I loved is dead. He doesn't really exist. They've just downloaded a program of his brain into a new robot.
The episode ends with the crew of La Sirena heading off to new adventures. Along with Robo-Picard, Soji, Raffi, Rios, Jurati, and Elnor, it appears Seven is here to stay (also, it appears she is now suddenly in a relationship with Raffi? I suppose Seven has a history of randomly being a in a relationship with another character she barely knows as a series comes to an end). But hey...that's cool. I like Seven more than most of the new characters. A shame Robot Picard has deflated my feelings towards this show completely.
NEXT TIME: Picard Season 1 Recap
Written By: Michael Chabon
Series: Star Trek: Picard
Year: 2020
Picard's first season closes out with a finale I am completely unsure how to feel about. It had some things I predicted (dumb overly choreographed fight scenes, big dumb laser battles in space) but did avoid some dumb things I thought would happen (luckily they didn't feel the need to end on the Enterprise and Worf showing up as a tease)...but that isn't to say it had big sweeping ideas that suck. There are some positives and I will discuss them first.
I also had come to fear that the latest Soong portrayed by Spiner was going to turn out to be Lore...which would have been an awful turn of events. Granted, the entire Soong family line looking exactly the same is silly too, but having Lore would have been tedious. But they also didn't go this route and also gave this Soong a decent turn at not being the baddie he was set up as last week. So positive. And hey, it may have been a tedious fight sequence, but at least in the end Seven killed that awful sister of Narek.
In general, I was mostly feeling ambivalent about this episode. I wasn't enjoying it, but I wasn't hating it. I was feeling pretty much nothing as we raced towards the end. That's not a great sign. Then they turned Picard into a robot. I started to feel again! I hate this.
The whole episode starts to amp up with Picard deciding to give his life to show Soji that it isn't worth being the destroyer. His brain abnormality starts to truly effect him and he is pushing himself to the limit to get his point across. And he does. And it kills him. Sacrifice for the greater good, proving that hope is stronger and wiser than fear. I can get behind it. Then even though he did this of his own free will, made it clear that he thought it was fine and an okay way to go, they decide to inject his brain into a robot body so he can go on living. Oh they write in convenient nonsense like "we made you just as old and weak as you were before!" so they can continue the show without fans asking how robot Picard doesn't do this or that...but it is just so dumb.
And keep in mind, this reveal comes after a scene in which Picard, before he is awoken in his new robot form, speaks with some stray data of Data's memory within some simulation, and Data speaks about the importance of mortality and how he wants to be erased so he can have that. They essentially have a long scene expressing why mortality is part of the human experience and then tell Picard "hey we decided to make you live longer because mortality is bad and dumb."
This was a dumb dumb way to end this thing. When Picard "died" I felt nothing. A character I have loved since I was 5 sacrificed himself and died, and I FELT NOTHING. Why? Because they announced a second season before this one even premiered. I knew he wasn't dead. I knew they had some dumb escape route. Why should I worry or feel for this? And they did. And it was dumber than I could have possibly imagined. He is a ROBOT NOW. What the fuck. Essentially the character I loved is dead. He doesn't really exist. They've just downloaded a program of his brain into a new robot.
The episode ends with the crew of La Sirena heading off to new adventures. Along with Robo-Picard, Soji, Raffi, Rios, Jurati, and Elnor, it appears Seven is here to stay (also, it appears she is now suddenly in a relationship with Raffi? I suppose Seven has a history of randomly being a in a relationship with another character she barely knows as a series comes to an end). But hey...that's cool. I like Seven more than most of the new characters. A shame Robot Picard has deflated my feelings towards this show completely.
NEXT TIME: Picard Season 1 Recap
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