La Sirena arrives at the secret homeworld of the synths, where it's promptly taken down by a local defense system -- it, Narek's pursuing fighter, and the arriving Borg cube (!) all crash land on the planet. After confirming the survival of their friends on the cube, Picard and his crew discover a thriving village of androids... and one human, Altan Inigo Soong, son of Data's creator. Revelations follow: Altan asks Dr. Jurati to help develop a neural transfer that can place human consciousness in an android body, Soji's sister Sutra is able to learn the true message of the Admonition, and the village decides on a deadly response to the coming Romulan armada.
To me, much of the "part 1"-ness of this episode came from the elements that got short shrift here, apparently to set up part 2. The story of the Borg cube was the biggest example. After great concern over whether Elnor survived the crash, we learn that he and Seven are doing fine in a rapid-fire little scene. The characters don't remix into different groups after reuniting -- it's just a quick "hey, s'up?" and then everyone goes back to their own stories. It almost felt like the show didn't know what to do with the Borg story line anymore; yet it's far more likely the writers know exactly what they want to do, and had to mark time a little before the season finale.
Meeting Alton Inigo Soong (we knew his father, prepare to die?) seemed a bit off in spots to me too. Set aside that the revelation of a secret son (which really doesn't comport with what we knew of Noonian) who happens to also be a cybernetics wizard (fine) feels quite convenient at this point -- I'll take the convenience to give Brent Spiner a role to play. It's his behavior toward Jurati that felt a bit rushed. Yes, he throws her a little shade over her killing his long-time friend and partner Maddox, but is able to pivot awfully fast into what he needs from her. Maybe living among androids for years has changed the way he processes his own emotions?
Things also seemed unclear surrounding Narek -- though here, I think, because the writers intended it to be a little murky? We see Sutra enter his cell for an up-close-and-personal confrontation... but then a few moments later, it's Saga who Narek has murdered to escape? So, Sutra is using him, letting him loose in pursuit of her own evil, right? I guess we'll find out next episode?
So yeah, there are some rough spots here in my mind -- though some of those could easily be smoothed out by what we see in the coming Part 2. Still, I also found plenty to like in this episode. Bringing Picard's terminal illness back to the forefront of the story led to several great scenes. (Indeed, pairing him with Elnor seemed to be the reason to travel to the Borg cube before going to the city.)
Picard's relationship with Raffi was especially strong here; for a time, she complies with his wishes not to treat him differently, but then finally must express her feelings for him. And, once again demonstrating that this is a different Picard than the man we knew on The Next Generation, Picard expresses his feelings in return. I love how convincingly this series has played this relationship and its history in just a handful of episodes.
The plot twist surrounding the nature of the Admonition -- that it's a warning for synths and not against synths -- was a clever one. Of course, it all comes in service of one of a writer's favorite tropes: that a prophecy will always be fulfilled despite efforts to stop it. Still, I felt it all worked, in part because actress Ira Briones gave a starkly different performance as Sutra. (Indeed, if the gold skin was a gimmick to help us tell her apart from Soji, it hardly seemed necessary. Then again, perhaps it was a deliberate choice to take the "one pretends to be the other" story path off the table.)
And, as always, the production values throughout remain sky high. For example, it's a small detail, but I like how violent the passage through the transwarp conduit felt at the start of the episode. We've seen countless starships pass through countless such phenomena in Treks past, but the union of on-set shaking, visual effects, and sound design all served to make this space oddity feel more dangerous than we usually see. Other accents throughout the episode included an alien landscape with just enough subtle color tweaks to make it feel a bit alien, impressive visuals of crashed ships, the eerie translucence of a not-yet-developed android body, and more.
For the parts of the episode that weren't quite great to me (at least, not without part 2), I think I'll give "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1" a B. But if this is at or near as "bad" as the show has gotten all season, it is certainly a very high bar. I'm looking forward to the finale!
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