‘Star Trek: Picard’ Says “Farewell” to Its Potential
It’s the season 2 finale of Star Trek: Picard “Farewell”. What is everyone’s fate? Will any of it make sense? And how does this lead into season 3?
Previously on Star Trek: Picard the team met a new version of the Borg. Q traps the squad in an alternate, fascist timeline by altering the past. And we’ve spent the rest of the season finding out what was changed and how to course correct. That includes Picard meeting past Guinan and a supervisor named Tallinn watching over his ancestor Renee. We also meet Adam Soong, a eugenicist whose future as Earth’s most influential douchebag is assured if he prevents Renee from going on a space mission to Europa.
Also, the Borg Queen and Agnes Jurati are the same person now. And Rios is in love with a doctor named Teresa. The last thing we heard from Jurati before she (as the new Borg Queen) disappears into the sunset is that there are two Renees – one who will live and one who will die. So Team Picard has to protect at least one Renee from Adam Soong while figuring out why Q set all this in motion in the first place. On with the show.
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To Boldly Recap
“Farewell” begins at Chateau Picard where the party decides to split up. One team will go to Soong’s compound while Tallinn goes to the shuttle launch. However, Picard senses that Tallinn is about to get terminally heroic and travels with her at the last moment.
At Soong’s compound, there are four drones set to stagger their release and destroy the Europa rocket. Raffi cannot easily disarm them because Soong rigged them to blow. That is the back-up plan. At the Europa mission, Picard and Tallinn spot Soong attempting to meet up with the astronauts. The drones fly towards their target, but Rios is able to control one of them and use it to destroy the others.
Meanwhile, Tallinn introduces herself to Renee after having watched her for decades. It seems as though their meeting goes badly at first. Renee runs to Soong complaining about a crazed stalker. Soong touches her face and ushers her away. It turns out that in touching Renee’s face, he transfers a neuro toxin to her which will kill her.
However, as we see Picard cradling “Renee” we also see the rocket launch. This Renee is actually Tallinn in disguise. Tallinn tells Picard that she and Renee needed to connect in order for their missions to truly be worthwhile. She also tells Picard that he must forgive himself for the death of his mother. She believes he deserves love.
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About the Soongs
Wrapping up “Farewell,” we see Adam Soong in his compound drinking as he watches Renee on the news. Suddenly, we see his computer activate and delete all his research. We see Kore in a library using a VR headset to destroy her father’s data remotely before getting a mysterious message she assumes is from Q. Before leaving Soong permanently, we see him pull out an envelope with the words “Project Khan” on it.
Kore meets Wesley Crusher. Yes, really. It turns out that Wesley Crusher still works with the Travelers who keep an eye on all of time and space. The Travelers employ supervisors like Tallinn to ensure key moments in history go as they should. Wesley offers Kore the chance to join the team and she accepts. Boy are we ever going to talk about that in a little bit.
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Q and Picard and the Future
Back at Chateau Picard, the team prepares to live the rest of their lives in the 21st century. This includes Raffi and Seven kissing after an entire season of build-up. Meanwhile, Picard places the skeleton behind a brick for his younger, future self to find. We hear Q’s voice commending Picard’s decision. It turns out that this entire proceeding happens because Q wants Picard to forgive himself for his mother’s death. Q knows he will die alone and he doesn’t want the same for Picard.
Q has exactly enough power left before he dies to take everyone back to the 25th century, but Rios decides to stay behind with Teresa. So much for the timeline! Picard embraces Q so that Q doesn’t truly die alone and the remainder of the team is transported back to where they started on the Stargazer. Once there, Picard cancels ship-wide self-destruct and allows the Borg Queen to take control of the fleet. As you probably guessed, this Queen is Jurati, 400 years later.
Jurati wants to control the fleet and combine them with her Borg ship to protect the sector from a rapidly appearing anomaly. By harmonizing the shielding they should collectively be able to protect everyone from the impending threat. We find out at this point that Q used the last of his power to bring Elnor back to life. Anyway, the shielding works and the anomaly transforms into an enormous transwarp conduit.
Who created this conduit? Agnes says she does not know but requests that the Borg provisionally join Starfleet and guard the proverbial gate.
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And In the End
With all said and done, the remaining crew head back to Ten Forward. Guinan apologizes to Picard for not telling him all about the future past. Wait, she knew all along? But that doesn’t make any sense! Sigh… we’ll get back to that in a moment. Picard raises a glass for his new, found family. Guinan tells Picard all about Rios and Teresa. The two of them started a medical movement and (mostly) live happily ever after. It also turns out that Ricardo grows up and uses the alien life Renee discovers on Europa to bring Earth back from the brink of climate collapse.
Picard returns to the Chateau just in time. Laris is all packed up and ready to leave, but he convinces her that she should stay. They hold hands, he touches her face, and they do NOT kiss. The camera pans out and the season ends. Hoo. Boy. Let’s dig in, shall we?
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To Boldly Review
Folks, I have done my level best to strike a balance and find nice things to say about Star Trek: Picard even when it frustrated me. The internet is already packed to the gills with people who despise modern Star Trek and I desperately do not want to add to an already loud and obnoxious choir. But “Farewell” is such a mess. One or two things that don’t quite add up I can live with. But so many things made so little sense that I found myself repeatedly yelling “WHAT?!” and “BUT WHY?!” at the screen.
Soong treats the director of the Europa mission like garbage – and she takes it! That alone had me scratching my head. Why would this woman put up with such a ding dong unless it’s in service of the plot? But it’s far worse that Adam Soong believes he can get away with murder. Whether he kills Renee in the moment or just blows up a rocket, it feels like he would eventually get caught, no? And while we’re talking about the drone strike in particular, how is it that the one drone Rios controls isn’t destroyed until it conveniently takes out the other two? It doesn’t shoot anything at the other drones – it just collides into them.
After Kore destroys all of Soong’s research he pulls out that file on Khan. Out of curiosity: why does that one project have a hard copy but everything else is solely digital? Answer: because it suits the plot and the Easter egg. And on the topic of sloppy Easter eggs…
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Wesley Crusher and Guinan
Wil Wheaton is on Star Trek: Picard and that would be cool if it made any sense. But why does he meet with Kore specifically in “Farewell” and not at any point earlier in the season? Why did the writers connect the Travelers and the supervisors out of nowhere in an info dump rather than by incorporating them into the story?
I don’t mean to lay it on too thick, but all this comes out of nowhere and Wil Wheaton does not bring the level of acting chops needed to sell this eleventh hour concept. He delivers his lines the same way he talks at the camera for the YouTube series The Ready Room. That’s not acting – that’s presenting.
And can we talk about Guinan for a second? Because in the end it turns out she does know about this version of events even though past her doesn’t know about that time she met Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Time’s Arrow”. How do all these timelines connect? Why is Rios able to stay in the past without causing a temporal paradox? Is it solely because Q can do whatever he wants? If that’s the case then were there ever any real stakes in the first place? Well, there is at least one stake, but there’s a problem.
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A Mystery (Borg) Box
Just one more complaint and then I promise I’ll say something nice. So, when we get back to the 25th century Borg Jurati and Picard work together to save the sector from some kind of artificially created spatial anomaly, right? So, in a way, there are technically stakes here. If the whole time travel thing hadn’t happened the way it did, the Borg would never team up with Starfleet to save the day.
But who did they save the day from? Because there’s a pretty big catch here – Jurati doesn’t know! A transwarp conduit is formed and everyone shrugs. Who made that thing? Gosh, we’d love to tell you, but it’s going to have to wait until next season!
This is Star Trek. This is not Lost. Nobody signed up for mystery boxes. And the way Star Trek: Picard keeps blowing good set ups (both seasons 1 and 2 start out great), why should anyone trust that this latest mystery will be satisfactorily resolved?
Also, after all that Laris and Picard don’t even hook up? Okay, I’m done, I’m done. Now for the good stuff.
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Q and Picard and Raffi and Seven
At the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Q tells Picard that the exploration which awaits him is not in the mapping of stars or studying nebulas, but in charting the unknown possibilities of existence. And for one, brief moment in “Farewell,” they both do. I maintain that it is unnecessary to explain why Picard is a good man who does good things. I don’t think he needs a tragic backstory at all, but I love that Q would use his dying breath to help Picard find some measure of catharsis.
Picard and Q go back a long ways. After all, Q is the first adversary Picard ever faces on TNG. Data once posited that Q cares for Picard the way someone might care for a loyal dog. But in “Farewell” we see that the connection goes much deeper. Q loves Picard as an equal and the feeling, despite everything, seems reciprocated. John de Lancie’s performance in this finale is so good it brought tears to my eyes. If this is truly the last we see of Q, it’s a lovely send-off.
And you know what else? I am glad Seven and Raffi are together. I still don’t know what exactly it is that they see in each other, but I’m happy for those queens anyway. Not even going to sugar coat it: the more gays in Star Trek, the better.
Although, how is it that Picard gives Seven the field commission of captain when she isn’t even a part of Starfleet? I’m sorry! It’s just that so many things don’t make sense that even the nice stuff is wrapped up in frustrating confusion!
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Stray Observation Deck
Obviously Project Khan is a reference to Khan Noonien-Singh. That means Adam Soong’s research is the genesis of the Eugenics Wars.
So. Wesley Crusher. Okay. The deal is that he met the Traveler way back in the season one TNG episode “Where No One Has Gone Before”. In that episode we find out that Wesley has an understanding of the nature of time and space that almost no one does. On two other occasions Wesley meets the Traveler again. Ultimately Wesley basically disappears from time and space to become a Traveler. The Star Trek novels dealing with Riker’s ship the Titan bring Wesley back if you decide you want to dig a little deeper into the unofficial Traveler lore.
Q’s final words in “Farewell” are “See you out there”. Those are also his final words in the series finale of TNG “All Good Things”.
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Questions, Queries, Quibbles
The quibbles are mostly covered at this point. As for remaining questions, obviously the big one is connected to that transwarp conduit. The only species we’ve seen use that technology in the past is the Borg. But since Agnes doesn’t know what’s going on, it’s safe to say someone else is responsible. We also know, weirdly, that Allison Pill is not back for Star Trek: Picard season 3. But since Wil Wheaton turned up in “Farewell,” does that mean he will be a part of season 3? Let us know your theories about where the show is headed. And tell us what you liked and didn’t like about season 2.
Until next time, this is your humble recapper signing off. Computer: End Program.
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