The Europa Project and Renée Picard remain threatened by Adam Soong, and our heroes must come to the rescue. But if the warning they received is to be believed, someone may die in the process. And a final encounter with Q awaits.
Now that we have the whole of Picard season two and can contrast it with season one, here's how it stacks up for me: I thought season two hit a more consistent, but lower, bar of quality throughout its episodes. Season one reached much higher highs for the bulk of the season... though it did end on a two-part finale that was much weaker than this one.
Not that this finale didn't have its shortcomings -- mostly in the area of questions that were never sufficiently answered. What exactly was the beef between Guinan and Tallinn, and why was our favorite bartender so afraid of someone who turned out to be perfectly nice? Why exactly did Tallinn need to die to save Renée (other than "prophecy")? Was there no way to distract Adam Soong besides dying?
Then there's an entire subcategory of unanswered questions related to Q. Why was he dying now? Why did he seem to spend most of the season earnestly sabotaging the past and playing around with Adam Soong when, in the end, his real intentions were altruistic and benevolent? How is it he recovered any of his powers in the end after apparently having lost them?
But, assuming you could look past the many narrative gaps, this finale did what the season as a whole did pretty well: it brought us emotionally resonant moments that landed thanks to very good performances. Rios didn't have a lot to do this season, but what he did do certainly added up to his permanent departure from the series feeling appropriate. We probably didn't spend enough time with Seven and Raffi in a real valley of their relationship, but it was still enough for us to appreciate the peak they reached in the finale.
And the heart-to-heart conversation between Q and Picard was pretty special. Yes, after all we've seen of Q over the years, the menace and hostility, the playfulness and threats, this confession of genuine fondness was a pretty sharp left turn. Still, it wasn't inconsistent with what we've seen before, and John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart certainly sold the hell out of the scene. My only quibble: after Q tells us point blank that it doesn't always have to be about a problem with galactic stakes, the writers failed to heed their own message and returned everyone to the future to address a suddenly manufactured problem with galactic stakes. Boo.
We even got another surprise bit of emotional closure with the cameo appearance of Wil Wheaton as Traveler Wesley Crusher. Much as I was happy to see him, I was initially disappointed about how insufficient an ending I thought it was for the character of Kore. It felt like they just needed a quick way to tie up her story "once and for all," and this was the best they could do. Quickly, I shifted my perspective into thinking of it as a wrap up for Wesley Crusher. On those terms, the scene works great. Debatably, Wheaton wasn't giving us much of a performance -- he was broad and flippant and jovial, like his real world persona (at least, the one he presents to the public). But that felt like exactly what the moment needed: no longer was Wesley feeling forced by others or himself to fit into a preconceived way of being. He'd found his truest self, and was loving it. The fact that this ending for the character dovetails so well with the life of the actor made it all the more fitting for anyone who has followed Wheaton in real life.
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