WiC Watches: Star Trek: Picard
“The End Is The Beginning” — Episode #103 — Pictured: Patrick Stewart as Picard of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Episode 103: “The End is the Beginning”
The third episode of Picard opens with another flashback. This time, we see dejected Admiral Picard meet with Raffi at Starfleet headquarters, both wearing their Starfleet uniforms. Raffi is anxious to talk about how they are going to evacuate millions of Romulans off of the planet Romulus before it explodes.
Picard tells her that after the synthetic uprising on Mars, Starfleet command halted all rescue missions to Romulus. He then tendered his resignation and they accepted. With no Admiral Picard there to shield her, Raffi was immediately fired by Starfleet, and because he didn’t warn her or protect her, she quickly became bitter toward him.
“The End Is The Beginning” — Episode #103 — Pictured (l-r): Michelle Hurd as Raffi; Patrick Stewart as Picard of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Raffi calls Jean-Luc “J.L.,” which suggests they were very close at some point because I don’t think I’ve ever heard another Star Trek character be so familiar with him.
This is another slow-burn episode, which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I can appreciate a show that leans heavily on chemistry and dialogue between the characters. On the other hand, if you came to Star Trek: Picard hoping for the banter and constant action of the kind you’ll get on a show like Star Trek: Discovery, then you’re probably disappointed.
“The End Is The Beginning” — Episode #103 — Pictured: Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Speaking of action, “The End is the Beginning” had the most of this inaugural season so far, but every time Patrick Stewart needed to get involved in a fight scene, it ended up looking clunky and awkward. I guess when you’re 79 years old, delivering punches and kicks while ducking and diving around the room isn’t something you can do easily.
Episode 3 did see movement on Picard cobbling together his ragtag crew, which is definitely welcome. I really like Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera), who seems like have the right amount of crazy to help punch-up the rest of the season.
As to new characters, a familiar face from The Next Generation pops up on the decommissioned Borg Cube/Romulan Reclamation Site. It seems Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) was able to be rescued by the Romulans and had most of his Borg cybernetic implants removed, and now he’s the executive officer in charge of the entire project.
“The End Is The Beginning” — Episode #103 — Pictured: (l-r): Isa Briones as Soji; Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh; of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Hugh takes a liking to Soji and allows her access to a handful of Romulans who were rescued from the Borg Collective. They’re all very creepy and seem to know that Soji is a synthetic. In fact, during an extremely intense scene, one of the formerly-Borg Romulans begins to scream that she knows who and what Soji is, disarming a guard and nearly shooting herself in the head. But Soji goes into super-android mode and uses super-speed to disarm her before any damage was done.
I don’t think anyone noticed, but Narek and his sister are on the Cube, and if they watch the footage from that incident, then Soji’s secret might be revealed. Also, there’s something strange going on with Soji’s mom, because after she contacted her through the hologram-phone thing and asked where her sister was, her mom began slowly talking about her day, which put Soji to sleep. I’m guessing that means her mother isn’t real, and someone who knows who and what Soji actually is is playing her.
“The End Is The Beginning” — Episode #103 — Pictured (l-r): Santiago Cabrera as Rios; Patrick Stewart as Picard of the the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
In the final moments, Picard and his new crew get ready to jump into warp speed in a very cool-looking ship, and the last thing we hear is Picard uttering his famous words from The Next Generation: “Engage.”
“The End is the Beginning” was an improvement from last week’s episode, but there is still a whole lot of talk and not a lot of action. In fact, I found myself a bit bored halfway through, which I didn’t expect. Hopefully Episode 4 will pick up as Picard finds a sword-wielding Romulan bodyguard to join his crew. Bring on the action.
