Upon learning that Bruce Maddox is being held prisoner on Freecloud by local crime boss Bjayzl, the crew of La Sirena need a plan to get him out. Seven of Nine is only too happy to help, looking to settle an old score.
I found this to be the strongest episode of the series yet, and I have only a couple of the smallest of quibbles with it. For one, Bjayzl is a quite goofy name for someone meant to be a quite intimidating criminal mastermind. For the other, this episode made me realize that I'm a good deal less engaged in the Soji/Narek story line than I knew; those characters didn't appear at all in this episode, and I didn't miss them for a moment, or even realize they hadn't been shown until the end credits were rolling.
Much of this week was pure fun, light and breezy. Patrick Stewart got to chew the scenery with a eye patch and a ridiculous accent. The character of Rios also got to cut loose and have fun. And after a super-serious introduction last episode, Elnor became the comic relief this time out. He displayed a Data-like naivete, but with the intense, joyful emotion of someone discovering something for the first time that he couldn't even imagine before. That he found lying so mind-blowing and fun was fun for the rest of us too.
But it was the heavier moments, packing a powerful punch, that made me really enjoy the episode. Raffi's personal reason for joining Picard on this wild ride turned out to be quite intense. One might imagine that on Earth in the future of no poverty, no one would ever suffer from addiction. But as with addiction in the real world, a person has to want help first. In just the few episodes we've known her, it's been made clear that Raffi would rather escape reality than deal with it as she knew it to be.
Of course, there's a long and proud Star Trek tradition of characters having strained relationships with their parents. This time, though, it was not a fracture destined to be healed in the course of a single episode with just the right words. That honesty and realism was refreshing, and I look forward to seeing Raffi throw herself into another cause now that her own has hit a wall.
This was a fantastic episode for Seven of Nine, and actress Jeri Ryan. It also felt to me like a great subversion of a Hollywood trope. Time and again, we've seen the love interest killed off in the opening act to motivate the vengeance story of a male protagonist. This time, not only has the gender been changed, but the nature of the love was changed to something other than romantic. Fans of Star Trek: Voyager might be sad to see Icheb again after two decades only to be "fridged" before the teaser, but it did make a powerful story arc for Seven of Nine.
And intriguingly, that arc ended with only a minor change. Seven steered away from her thirst for vengeance only long enough to give Picard "hope." But then she did what one would imagine someone working for a group called the "Fernis rangers" would do: she went back and killed in cold blood. One could mourn that loss of morality for Seven, but it's clear she lost herself long ago. Her powerful exchange with Picard about their lost humanity -- one of the most human moments in the show so far -- was enough to make us understand the choice.
But the dramatic punch we ended on was the big twist: Jurati is on the opposite side. She murdered Maddox almost as soon as we found him, leaving us to speculate what has happened to her. My guess: the reason for that highly unusual visual of a Vulcan in sunglasses from a few episodes ago was crafted to be deliberately memorable -- that's the moment when Commodore Oh persuaded or brainwashed Jurati to the anti-synth cause.
It now seems especially brilliant casting to put Alison Pill in the role of Jurati. Between her quirky innocence and the early revelation this episode that she had a deeper relationship with Bruce Maddox, it seems impossible to me that anyone could have anticipated this twist coming. The show could be so confident in the surprise, in fact, that director Jonathan Frakes did some none-too-subtle camera work in the scene without giving it away. Closeups on Jurati during the conversation between Maddox and Picard seemed meant to indicate her concern at Maddox's health. In retrospect, we recognize an entirely different purpose there.
That wasn't the only great directorial work from Frakes this episode. Besides getting great performances from all the actors, he once again shows how to put the money on the screen. The bar at Freecloud was a fantastic environment, and astounding in comparison to past Star Trek. I found myself thinking of a Next Generation episode where Riker waltzes into a bar the size of my living room, with perhaps three patrons. This massive space was filled with at least 30 extras, many in full alien makeup. (And speaking of aliens, the super-sniffer goon was a fun creation.) The production crew made all this possible, and Frakes staged it all in a way that made sure to highlight the effort.
I give "Stardust City Rag" an A-. It's sad to think we're already halfway through this first season of Star Trek: Picard, but it sure showed that a lot is going to be packed into the time we have.
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