“Disengage” Takes ‘Picard’ to the Literal Next Generation
There’s a giant, evil ship chasing Beverly and Jack Crusher across space. And now it has them. Time for some revelations!
Previously on Star Trek: Picard, Beverly Crusher sent a super secret message to Jean-Luc begging for his help. She leaves only one instruction: trust no one. Naturally, Picard immediately trusts Will Riker. It’s probably fine?
Anyway, Picard and Riker meet up with Seven of Nine on board the new USS Titan and (kind of) trick the captain into going to Beverly’s coordinates. Now Jean-Luc and Will are on board Beverly’s ship with Beverly’s mysterious son. And that giant ship is there with them.
Oh, also Raffi fails to stop some portal-shaped terrorism. Anyway, on with the show!
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To Boldly Recap “Disengage”
Let’s try to keep this quick since we have at least one very big thing to talk about. We pick up where we left off: ship in danger. But with Picard and Riker’s shuttle destroyed and a few enemies aboard easily dispatched, the realization is that it’s not the ship that’s in danger. Just as Picard installs transporter dampeners, the mysterious ship tries to beam Jack Crusher away. So it’s not the Elios or Beverly they’re after: it’s Jack specifically.
And while he’s not happy about it, Captain Shaw is cajoled by Seven of Nine to step in when the Elios finds itself in a tractor beam. And that would be great news if the mysterious ship wasn’t insanely overpowered.
Speaking of the ship, Shaw receives a hail from her captain: Vadic. And Vadic explains that she is collecting a bounty on Jack Crusher’s head. She also knows who Shaw is and basically threatens to kill everyone if they don’t fork Jack over. Also, she throws the Elios at the Titan with her tractor beam.
Shaw is very much inclined to hand over Jack, especially since it turns out that Jack is a criminal with multiple aliases. But Picard goes to the brig anyway to try and sort things out. It goes badly. Jack doesn’t want to talk and definitely does not have a father. No. sir.
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Raffi is Also in This Episode
Hey! Remember how a Starfleet recruitment facility got blown up real good? Raffi does. And she’s pissed. She asks her handler to continue the investigation but they say it’s over. Apparently, a Romulan named Lurak T’Luco is the guilty party.
But Raffi doesn’t buy that so she seeks out a Ferengi gangster named Sneed who actually stole the portal tech. Raffi asks her ex-husband for help. She also wants her ex to reconnect her with their son. The ex says “you can have one” and Raffi chooses Sneed. Scowling commences.
Raffi meets Sneed and tells him she works for T’Luco and that she wants to know who the real terrorist is. Sneed says he’ll spill in exchange for Raffi doing some sick eyeball drugs. Raffi does them. But Sneed is full of beans. And also has a collection of heads, apparently–including T’Luco’s. Just when it seems like Raffi’s days are numbered, her handler appears and kills basically everyone.
Her handler is Worf.
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Back On the Titan
Vadic is having fun. She says “oh btw nbd but my ship is called the Shrike” and also “I’m going to tear you apart, piece by piece — unless you hand over Jack Crusher. And Shaw is basically ready to hand the kid over. In fact, Picard also seems ready. And you know who else is ready? Jack Crusher. He escapes the brig and heads straight to the transporter room.
However, Riker has a plan. And that plan is “wake up Beverly”. That’s it. That’s the whole plan. But Bev does wake up. She and Picard share meaningful glances and Picard figures out the painfully obvious.
Shaw is about to send over Jack but Picard belays the order. Why? “Because he’s my son.” Oh jeez. Alright. Okay. Shaw throws up shields, the Titan fires everything it has, and they head into a nearby nebula. The Shrike gives pursuit. Vadic laughs in homicidal delight. Fade to black.
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To Boldly Review “Disengage”
There are a lot of tense moments in “Disengage,” some that work and some that do not. But we have to start with the headline: Jack Crusher is Jean-Luc Picard’s secret son. The reason Beverly Crusher disappeared over twenty years ago is that she has a kid and doesn’t want anyone to know about it.
I’ve seen a lot of early reviews for this season of Picard. A lot of them say the same thing: “there’s a thing that happens this season that is complicated but works”. And to that I say the following: I don’t know about all of that, homie.
When I said this season of Star Trek: Picard is better but it’s still Star Trek: Picard, this is a big reason why. On Star Trek: The Next Generation people talked to each other. They communicated. Now Beverly’s keeping Picard’s love child a secret for two decades? Balderdash. Baloney. A third “B” word I won’t say because we try not to cuss on this website too much.
Obviously, we’ll get an explanation for this in the future, but in “Disengage” this is a major sticking point for me.
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Did I Mention Raffi is Still in This Episode?
Bold claim: the Raffi plotline works in “Disengage”. In fact, this is might be the first time Raffi’s whole tragic backstory has ever worked. It helps that she is chasing down an obvious and immediate threat. But what really helps is that we can an honest conversation between two adults: Raffi and her ex-husband Jay.
Last season on Picard I got pretty mad when Jean-Luc’s mentally ill mother got locked in a bedroom and committed suicide. I’m pretty sure they have therapists in the 24th century. Like.. come on, bro.
But do I believe that women still face unfair double standards in the far-flung future? Yeah, I buy that. And that’s what “Disengage” deals with very well in this instance. Raffi is expected to always be “mom” first and that’s not fair. She has a life. She is trying to save other lives. Sometimes “mom” is the secondary gig.
Obviously, though we have got to talk about Worf. Remember in those trailers where he’s all “I’m a pacifist blah blah blah”? I guess that hits later, eh? Because the man slices through everyone. I assume this episode is called “Disengage” because Worf disengages Sneed’s head from his body.
So my personal headline is: Jack Crusher is Picard’s son. Yeah. Sure. Whatever. But, YO, MTV RAPS did you see Raffi and Worf?! Damn!
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Vadic is Bad in “Disengage” and That is Good
You have to respect someone who loves their job, don’t you? Well, Vadic’s job is to scare the heck out of me and she excels at it. I mean… you saw the part where she literally throws a ship at the Titan, right? Khan could never! I think what I love most though is this weird cadence and meter Amanda Plummer speaks with. She sounds completely unhinged and it’s great.
And credit also to Shaw again in this episode. He’s still the best new character in the history of Star Trek: Picard. The certainty with which he basically says “yes, I will throw this dude out an airlock to save my crew” is only outclassed by Shaw’s willingness to save Jack because of the family aspect. The dichotomy here speaks volumes about a complex character I want to know more and more about.
Jack Crusher gets a good scene, too. The one in the brig where he talks about being a doctor and a thief in order to save lives. He’s handling a heavy load being a character no one asked for and he’s doing it well. Ed Speleers is the person who might be able to sell me on the whole “Jack Crusher is Picard’s kid” angle.
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Stray Observation Deck
There are a few Easter eggs, but one that I’m personally hanging onto in particular. There’s a mention of Andoria and Binar 3. Sneed has a baseball and mentions Section 31. All that is fine and dandy but let’s talk about the cold open for a minute.
I didn’t mention it earlier because it’s mostly irrelevant, except right here right now. So in a flashback we see Jack Crusher interact with some Fenris Rangers. He offers them weapons in order to put down some warlords. But before the Rangers leave, their leader messages someone and basically says “I found him”.
The big question is: who is chasing Jack Crusher and why. Because Rangers, Klingons, and Starfleet are all somehow involved. How is that possible? What would unify them? Unclear.
But here’s a fun fact: apparently the Elios is connected to Mariposa. The Mariposa colony, for the non-dweebs in the crowd, appears in an episode called “Up the Long Ladder” where the Enterprise-D encounters stereotypical Irish people IN SPACE! And they also meet the people in the Mariposa colony–who all just so happen to be clones.
Is Jack Crusher really Picard’s son? Or is he the original Jack Crusher’s clone? Maybe that’s a shot in the dark but “Mariposa” is a very specific reference, isn’t it?
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Questions, Queries, Quibbles
Ay, ay, ay. Too many of all of the above to count. What species is Vadic? Does her ship have a portal weapon installed? What might that look like in space? Is Jack Crusher really Picard’s son? How did Riker figure it out before everyone else?
But mostly I have got to ask: why does Jack Crusher have an English accent? Because accents are not genetic. Maybe we’ll find out why next week. In the meantime, “Disengage” has some nice tension but, divorced of the rest of the season, has this one element that doesn’t quite pass the sniff test.
3/5 stars
Until next time, this is your humble recapper signing off. Computer: End Program.
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