WiC Watches: Star Trek: Picard
CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: StarTrek.com/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Episode 108: “Broken Pieces”
As Star Trek: Picard heads into its final three episodes, “Broken Pieces” slows down and focuses on character development with little to no real action.
The episode opens with Picard and Soji being beamed aboard the La Sirena. Rios takes one look at Soji and freaks the f**k out. He activates all the emergency holograms that look exactly like him and nopes out to his quarters where he locks himself in, gets hammered, and looks at a sketch of a younger version of himself sitting next to a person who looks just like Soji.
While Raffi makes it her mission to speak to each one of the holograms to figure out why Rios is acting so strangely, Picard introduces Soji to Dr. Jurati. Jurati is taken aback at how lifelike Soji is, and after an intense round of questioning, the two decide to become best friends forever.
CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: StarTrek.com/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Meanwhile, aboard the Borg cube, Elnor activates an emergency distress signal that summons the Fenris Rangers. When Seven of Nine beams aboard, she saves his bacon and kills all the Romulan bad guys trying to kill him. Then the pair scamper off to the Borg Queen’s quarters where Seven of Nine allows herself to be plugged into the Queen’s interface with the ship, effectively becoming the new Borg Queen. Her plan is to activate all the hibernating Borg, as well as calling the Ex-Bs (ex-Borg) to action in order to expel the Romulans from the ship.
However, Narissa is prepared, and after slaughtering a bunch of Ex-Bs, she has her people open the airlocks on the Borg ship, sucking all of the newly awakened Borg out into the cold void. Then Narissa has her people evacuate the Cube because she now knows where the Synth world is, and she’s taking the Romulan army there to eradicate all the innocent little robots.
“Broken Pieces” — Episode #108 — Pictured (l-r): Santiago Cabrera as Crist–bal Rios; Isa Briones as Soji; Michelle Hurd as Raffi; of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Matt Kennedy/CBS ©2019 CBS
Why do I say innocent? Weren’t the Synths responsible for the attack on Mars? Well, no. You see, it’s revealed throughout the episode that the Romulans — about 300,000 years ago — very nearly created a sentient android, and that resulted in an apocalypse of sorts. So, in order to keep history from repeating itself, the Romulans attacked Mars and manipulated the situation to make it look like the Synths were to blame.
Picard was right the whole time.
With Starfleet now on his side, Picard orders Rios to take the La Sirena to the space station Deep Space 12, where a Starfleet squadron will meet him and begin protecting him and Soji. But wait, there’s more…
…remember that sketch of young Rios and a woman who looked like Soji? As it turns out, that woman was an ambassador from Soji’s homeworld, a planet inhabited by the Synths. When Rios was a young Starfleet officer, his captain ordered him to track a distress signal to a small ship where Soji’s brother and sister were aimlessly floating through space.
“Broken Pieces” — Episode #108 — Pictured: (counterclockwise): Santiago Cabrera as Crist–bal Rios; Michelle Hurd as Raffi; Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard; Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati; Isa Briones as Soji; f the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Trae Patton/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Rios’ captain has them beamed aboard the ship where they share french fries and peppermint ice-cream. When the captain sends a message to Starfleet about what he found, the head of Starfleet security, one Admiral Oh, orders him to kill both of the strangers. He does so right in front of Rios, then turns the phaser on himself. He couldn’t handle the guilt of killing two innocent people, regardless of the fact that Oh had told him they were dangerous Synths on the run after destroying Mars.
Oh yeah, and it’s revealed that Admiral Oh is actually half Vulcan and half Romulan, and along with Narissa had infiltrated Starfleet in order to carry out the destruction of Mars. Wow.
“Broken Pieces” — Episode #108 — Pictured: Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: PICARD. Photo Cr: Matt Kennedy/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Oooookay, so…here’s the deal: I really want to say I liked this episode because of everything we learned about Star Trek Lore. However, this was Episode 8, and it felt like a bad choice to spend nearly the entire episode simply talking about past events, rather than punching up what could have been some very solid action with Elnor and Seven of Nine vs Narissa on the Borg ship.
Oh well, there are two episodes left, and I very much hope the show sticks the landing. If not, I can’t imagine I’ll be looking forward to a second season next year.