1) "Previously, on Star Trek..." Soji falls over. A kid tries to help her. Rios is bitter about his past. Raffi operates a holographic screen. Hugh and Elnor plot insurrection. Narissa Rizzo does Evil Stuff™. Elnor calls for backup. Jurati kills Maddox. Soji delivers exposition. Narek tails the La Sirena. Jurati does Something Stupid™ (and in the process Alison Pill very nearly busts out of that tank top
good thing her bra was up to the task!).
2) Space sure is pretty.
3) Here comes the plot. Aia, the Grief World.
4) And, of course, it's a flashback.
5) But hey, at least we're getting some explanation for the Zhat Vash paranoia. Narissa Rizzo is there.
6) And it's Oh. Question does still remain - is she a Vulcan allied with the Romulan Zhat Vash, or a Romulan who can can do the Vulcan mind meld?
7) Ramdha (the Romulan xB from the cube played by Rebecca Wisocky) is part of this group. So,
that's interesting.
8) Narissa the only one to stay on her feet through the experience. But, does this mean that she's the sane one or the one who actually went mad?
9) Oh, character development of a sort. Ramdha and Narissa are related.
10) And now we cut to xB-Ramdha in bed, Narissa attending to her.
11) Exposition and backstory. So Ramdha took out the Borg cube when she was assimilated because her despair was so strong after the experience on Aia.
12) Boy am I glad Peyton List has finally been handed something that vaguely approximates decent material to work with.
13) Elnor has been tracked down. So Evagora's stunt double gets another workout.
14) Seven ex machina, I presume?
15) Yep!
16) Elnor glomping Seven is pretty darned cute.
17) Treadaway and List don't get credit spots in the opening titles. But Jeri Ryan does.
18) Rios looking at Soji like he knows her.
19) Or at the very least is affected somehow by her presence.
20) Picard heading back into Captain Mode™.
21) While Raffi is headed off the deep end.
22) But at least Captain Mode™ is still engaged.
23) EMH explaining what Jurati did to herself.
24) Hooray for continuity! The EMH describes the tracker as a viridium compound. The tracking patch Spock slapped on Kirk in "The Undiscovered Country" that allowed him to keep in touch with the movements of Kirk and McCoy on Rura Penthe from sectors away? A viridium patch
25) Picard wanting to believe the best about Jurati here, maybe to the point of holding the Idiot Ball.
26) Raffi still hammering her point home.
27) Picard having a frank-bordering-on-direct conversation with Admiral Clancy (the Starfleet C-in-C). Pausing for a side note - Clancy is played by Ann Magnuson, who fronted a satirical heavy metal band in the '90s. Their name? Vulcan Death Grip
28) Back to overly-gratuitous f-bombs.
29) Seems that Picard has gotten what he wants though. How much am I bet that there's a twist that sends this all kinds of sideways just yet?
30) Raffi talking to the Navigational Hologram, thinking that it's the EMH. Presumably because she's lousy at spotting accents.
31) An
octonary star system? Man, the physics of that have got to be
boggling...
32) ENH as Captain Exposition™.
33) He agrees with me on the physics of it all.
34) He's given Raffi an answer to a question that had been weighing on her after the Mars attack, so he gets a kiss on the forehead.
35) Back to the cube, and Narissa finally made it to the site of Seven's rather dramatic entrance.
36) Seven shutting down Elnor's inquisitiveness with "I can explain, or I can steal this cube."
37) Clearly the Borg assimilated Tony Stark at some point.
38) Oh dear, we've gone back to Narissa doing Evil Stuff To Be Evil™
39) A regenerating Borg cube is a pretty frightening prospect. You'd hope that Seven knew what she was doing.
40) Meal time on the La Sirena, Picard and Soji having a heart-to-heart.
41) Script heads into 'love letter to Data' territory again.
42) "Data's capacity for expressing and processing emotion was limited...I suppose we had that in common." Oh, the feels...
43) Because of course the Emergency Engineering Hologram is Scottish
44) EEH throwing some more fuel on Raffi's investigatory fire.
45) Raffi disabled her replicator's ability to produce alcoholic drinks, and now she regrets it!
46) The EHH explaining just how thoroughly out of luck she is
47) Hologram backstory of sorts.
48) Interesting library choices. Kierkegaard's "The Concept of Dread", Spanos' "Case Book on Existentialism", de Unamuno's "The Tragic Sense of Life"...
49) Hopefully this is that Rios backstory that I've been waiting for, he's getting out a storage chest full of memories.
50) Pausing there, because we get a glimpse of the outline of the ship that he served on - the USS Ibn Majid, NCC 75710. Reg number puts it as being commissioned after Voyager (NCC 74656, launched in 2371). The outline also seems to place it as being in the Sovereign class era (2370s). Clearly the ship was named for
Ahmad ibn Majid, an explorer during the 15th century.
51) Rios bluntly shooting down Raffi's attempt to come see him.
52) A photo of him and his former CO.
53) And amongst the other tragic keepsakes, a drawing that is very clearly Rios and someone who looks an awful lot like Soji (!).
54) Meanwhile, on the cube. Seven still working her magic.
55) Hmm. Because when has creating a micro-collective not worked out, eh Seven? I mean, apart from
every time...
56) At least she has a keen awareness of how bad the idea is.
57) Raffi calling a meeting of the holograms. I bet this one was fun to direct
58) Episode title drop.
59) Hooray for continuity! "Medusan astronavigation techniques." The Medusans were introduced to Trek in the third season of TOS's "Is There No Truth In Beauty?" - exceptionally brilliant navigators, but so different to humanoid life that to even glance at one would send you insane. Telepaths can communicate with them, and Vulcans can look at them provided they wear a protective visor.
60) Some more exposition from the holograms, including Rios' old CO's name - Alonso Vandermeer.
61) Oh. Vandermeer committed suicide. Oh boy.
62) The EMH notes that in the aftermath of 'the whole thing', Rios suffered a breakdown and was discharged.
63) It's this 'whole thing' that Raffi needs to get to the bottom of.
64) "I mean, it's not even a language." Oi, we'll have no prejudice against the Gaelic dialects here thank-you very much!
65) Jurati waking up to Picard.
66) Who is doing his level best to both look and sound stern, when he clearly wants to be concerned and grandfatherly.
67) Picard heaping a bit more misery on her, telling her that she'll be surrendering herself for arrest when they get to Deep Space 12. And now wondering how she could have done it.
68) Jurati telling Picard what she can.
69) Nice
70) And the dramatic button on the scene from Soji.
71) Raffi now returning the favour with Rios, getting him coffee.
72) Oof. So it was a broken pedestal job between Rios and Vandermeer.
73) Back in sickbay, Jurati face-to-face with Soji, and the burning question. "Do you sleep?" Probably
not the first question I'd have asked, but then I'm not Earth's foremost authority on synthetic life so...*shrug*
74) We're doing that whole 'cut from location to location with two conversations in progress' thing again, aren't we? Hey ho.
75) Rios laying it all out for Raffi.
76) Jurati still gushing about Soji right to her face.
77) Noonien Soong (the man who created Data) getting a mention.
78) Soji asking the armour-piercing question after Jurati is done proclaiming her to be an incredible construct and a work of art. "Am I a person?"
79) Rios still telling Raffi what happened.
80) The back-and-forth speeding up a bit. We're back to Soji reiterating her question.
81) Starfleet Security was involved in why Vandermeer committed murder. They threatened to destroy the Ibn Majid with all hands if he disobeyed the order. Sounds very much like Oh's work, or at least the work of someone like her.
82) Rios "went at [Vandermeer] hard...That's when he put the phaser in his mouth and pulled the trigger." Yeah. So, no wonder Rios is a bit of a mess after that.
83) And then he covered up the murders, to protect the ship and crew.
84) The two people who the Ibn Majid found were indeed synths, for those who weren't already here about forever ago.
85) Back with Jurati and Soji. Soji noting that Oh wanted Jurati to kill her, and that she wouldn't give her the opportunity. Jurati replying that she wouldn't take the opportunity if she had it now. Some progress made there then.
86) Alarms going off on the Borg cube, Narissa stalking down the corridor.
87) And she's going on a rampage, killing the xBs.
88) Elnor sharp as a tack
89) If Seven has a better plan than 'become temporary queen to the dormant Borg', she'd better come up with it quick.
90) Narissa noting to the centurion that something worse than a whole bunch of Borg is coming if she fails her mission.
91) Looks like Seven didn't, in fact, have a better plan.
92) And too late was the cry...Out into the void they all go.
93) I imagine Seven might be a tiny bit peeved about that.
94) Looks like the crew of the La Sirena are all up-and-about again.
95) "Well...I'm done murdering people." Good to hear, Jurati. Not sure that it'll spare you any jail time, though. Not unless you can prove that Oh 'Manchurian Candidate-d' you.
96) Shades of The Doctor (the Gallifreyan one) and their occasional weird tastes there, peppermint ice-cream and french fries. Rios knows that Soji likes the combo.
97) Raffi now holding the exposition ball.
98) With assists from Jurati.
99) And Picard getting in on the act.
100) Oh stated to be half-and-half Romulan and Vulcan. So, one mystery solved.
101) It's certainly a coldly Romulan approach - engineer the attack on Mars, even though it will doom much of the population of the Romulan Star Empire to death and make certain the end of said Empire. The ends justifying the means in the eyes of the Zhat Vash. Trek As Social Commentary part...oh, wherever the hell we're up to now.
102) Now Rios' turn. And Soji already instinctively knows what the synth emissaries who met up with the Ibn Majid were called - Beautiful Flower and Jana.
103) "How do I know that?" "The same way I know you like to dip french fries in peppermint ice-cream." That really is a grotty habit that the Asha-type synths apparently share.
104) You get the impression that if Narek ever gets within a couple of parsecs of Soji again, she might just decide to see what he looks like inside out...
105) Ah. Soji headed straight for the bridge. And, in a very Data move, anticipated Rios and Raffi coming after her by putting a forcefield up.
106) At least some of the Borg transwarp network is still around then, in spite of the damage that the Voyager crew did to it in that series' finale.
107) Picard noting that maybe it's time to do things Soji's way.
108) Well now. That was a fun moment. Picard plonks himself down in the captains chair, cracks his knuckles and sets to work, the soundtrack goes full Goldsmith...and then he remembers that he doesn't know how to work the computer interface aboard the La Sirena
109) Dirty pool Soji, invoking the memory of Jana to get Rios to do what you're asking.
110) Narissa just failed a spot check there. And is piled upon by the remaining xBs. Good thing for her that transporters exist I guess.
111) Off goes the Zhat Vash armada.
112) Seven-as-Borg still in control of the cube.
113) Elnor - "So...are you going to assimilate me now?" Seven - "Annika still has work to do." A rather cool moment. And Seven disconnects from the cube.
114) Picard and Rios doing some reminiscing. And hooray for continuity! Marta Batanides gets referenced. She was a classmate of Picard and Cortan Zweller, they're both seen in the episode "Tapestry". Zweller gets them into a bar fight with some Nausicaans not long after graduating from the Academy, a fight in which Picard was stabbed. Hence his artificial heart.
115) A bit more of Trek As Social Commentary.
116) For those wondering where the optimistic spirit of the classic Trek shows had gone, it's alive and well here with Jean-Luc Picard.
117) Soji still has Kestra's compass in her pocket.
118) Into the transwarp conduit they go. And it looks like Narek caught up.
119) "Next time..." "Brace yourselves!"
