Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2

I have thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Star Trek: Picard. I found it a graceful gymnastic routine that balanced many competing elements, and featured some truly great moments. But it did not stick the landing -- and it wasn't one of those "little hops that's going to be a deduction." I thought the finale was a big ol' face plant. (As always, SPOILERS follow.)

With Soji helping her sister Sutra build a beacon to call in destructive alien synths, the clock is ticking. Our heroes must stop Sutra, persuade Soji to relent, and stall the coming Romulan armada. And another ticking clock in the background: Picard's brain condition, which threatens to kill him at any moment.

I felt about this season finale the way I've felt about many of the classic Stephen King books I've read over the years -- I'm left trying to figure out how much a bad ending compromises my enjoyment of the whole. Right now, the sting is harsh, but it will probably settle out like my take on those books: it was worth the time to take the ride, despite the disappointment.

There were a lot of moments clearly meant to pack emotional punch, but they wound up feeling pretty hollow to me. Many tears were shed over the "death" of Jean-Luc Picard, with Michelle Hurd and Alison Pill in particular muscling up their performances as Raffi and Jurati to sell the moment. But "Chekhov's Golem" had been set up for us so prominently and explicitly in the previous episode that I found it impossible to be swept up in the feeling. For the death of a character we've known for over 30 years to have any shot at resonance, I think one of the other Next Generation characters needed to be there -- Riker or Troi (or maybe even Brent Spiner at least, as Alton Soong?). The scene didn't play out as a fitting end. Because, of course, it wasn't. It was the moment before Picard's expected return. It seemed structured to be the death of Spock in The Wrath of Khan. It played like the death of Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness.

But then, perhaps the flatness shouldn't have been surprising; Picard's death came after other characters also met their ends in underwhelming ways. After twirling her figurative mustache all season, Narissa Rizzo was dispatched abruptly by Seven of Nine -- who hardly ever interacted with the Romulan agent before this. She did it "for Hugh," which may be the way the audience feels about it, but hardly seems like an emotion Seven would have. Did Seven and Hugh ever even meet? Or would she feel this way avenging the death of any ex-Borg after her history with her adopted son?

After Sutra was set up in part 1 as the big planet-side nemesis to be overcome... Soong just walks up to her, pushes a button, and she collapses. Okay, I guess that's it then. Then there was another unceremonious ending for Narek. What even happened to him? I believe the last we ever see of him, he's being pinned to the ground by a couple of androids -- we get no resolution there, no final meeting between him and Soji, no nothing.

It seems there wasn't time to show us any of that because the episode was interested in bringing in other elements to also not resolve them very satisfyingly. After we parted with Riker a few episodes ago (in the season's best hour), he returned in command of a fleet to... do pretty much nothing. Rather than having him beam down for Picard's ostensibly final moments, he warps away to escort the Romulans out of Federation space. We have recent evidence that putting Riker and Picard together can effectively pull on the heartstrings; why not do it?

Instead, the reunion we get is Picard with Data. The real Data, reconstituted and trapped inside a computer simulation. Yes, this was all telegraphed from episode one, both with Picard's opening dream sequence, and Jurati's casual mention that any android's consciousness could in theory be recovered from a single positron. But it didn't feel especially needed. It's true that Data had an unsatisfying death in the terrible Star Trek: Nemesis. But 5 minutes of screen time was hardly going to be enough to "fix" that. It's barely even enough time to get through the technobabble of why Data is here, or get over the uncanny valley of visuals trying to make Brent Spiner look 20-30 years younger. Of all the stumbles throughout this episode, I do at least feel like I know what they were trying for here -- I just don't think they got there.

All that's to say nothing of the hasty conveniences in the plot. The alien synths turned out to be a dog that didn't bark; turn off your phone call to them, and I guess they just assume it was a butt dial. In part 1, we were told the colony of synths had only 10 orchids remaining. It sure seemed like a lot more this week. In part 1, a synth handed our heroes a fancy widget. This week, it would turn out to be a veritable magic wand capable of doing anything the narrative required -- from impossible repairs to inventions-on-the-fly.

And if you're going to have near-magic that strains credulity, why not use the "magic" already planted in the Star Trek universe? How was La Sirena flying again after a spectacular wreck and not the Borg cube, expressly known for fantastical regenerative powers?

Indeed, writing-wise, I'm hard-pressed to point to anything in the episode I thought was strong. The banter between Raffi and Rios, perhaps? The drinking scene between Seven and Rios? Certainly, I can say the actors were giving it their all -- as they have been all throughout the season, the performances were wonderful. Visual effects too, even if this finale was relying on that overmuch.

I hope that before now, I've made clear enough how much I've enjoyed season one of Star Trek: Picard -- clear enough to now earn the place to be a curmudgeon at the end. I'm not one of those "defending the old guard" Trek fans whining that the new Star Trek "isn't Star Trek." But I am saying that this season finale was a big disappointment. I give it a C-.

All that said... we now seem set up for "the Adventures of La Sirena" for a potential season two. Or really, whatever direction the show wants to go in next. I love the characters, and I'd love to see more of them. It may be a while before we get a season two, but I'll absolutely be looking forward to it. And hoping that whatever glitch in the system led to this finale gets worked out by then.