STAR TREK: PICARD
SEASON 1, EPISODE 2
SEASON 1, EPISODE 2
Maps and Legends
Series: Star Trek: Picard - (2020 - 2023)Season: 1
Episode #: 2
Original Airdate: January 30th, 2020
Writer(s): Michael Chabon & Akiva Goldsman
Director(s): Hanelle M. Culpepper
Guest Stars
David Paymer as Dr. Moritz Benayoun
Jamie McShane as Zhaban
Tamlyn Tomita as Commodore Oh
Orla Brady as Laris
David Carzell as Dahj's Boyfriend
Wendy Davis as Dr. Kabath
Chelsea Harris as Naáshala Kunamadéstifee
Peyton List as Lt. Narissa Rizzo
Ann Magnuson as Admiral Kirsten Clancy
Marti Matulis as the Checkpoint Supervisor
Co-Stars
Chaka Desilva as Burley Fuelie
Alex Diehl as F8 (also F7 and F5)
Kate Fugley as Kvetchy Fuelie
Harrison Grant as the Ensign
Anthony R. Jones as Pincus
Paul Keeley as Philosophical Fuelie
Jason Liles as Noiro
Meghan Lewis as the Computer Voice
Brit Manor as Tough Fuelie
Zachary James Rukavina as a Nameless Borg
Douglas Tait as the Tellarite FNN Assistant
Uncredited Guest Stars
McKenzie Westmore as Rhomsew
Stardate: Unknown
Synopsis
It’s First Contact Day on Mars circa 2385, and at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards, a group of human workers joke around with F-8, one of the many bald-headed synthetics that help man the station. Two colleagues comment about the inability to offend the synthetics while also agreeing the potential for dangerous actions. As several crewmembers eat, F-8’s eyes flash in a series of colors, making it appear as if a separate entity has taken control of him. F-8 walks over to a control panel and begins to make changes at lightning speed. His actions cause the orbiting satellites overhead to turn toward Mars, thus allowing invading ships to enter the atmosphere and fire on the shipyards. F-8 kills everyone who tries to stop him, and once his mission is complete, he terminates himself with a shot to the head.
Fourteen years later at Château Picard, Picard, Laris, and Zhaban watch video of Dahj’s demise — footage from which Dahj and the Romulan “death squad” have, mysteriously, been erased. Laris deduces this cover-up could only be the work of the Zhat Vash, a cabal of deep-state “boogeyman” that reside within the Romulans’ Tal Shiar secret police. According to Laris, the Zhat Vash’s sole purpose is to keep “a secret so profound and terrible, just learning it would break a person’s mind.”![]()
[ Screencap Index ]
To investigate further, Picard and Laris beam to Dahj’s apartment and use tech to watch a holographic recreation of the night she was attacked and her boyfriend was killed. Unfortunately, that footage has also been scrubbed. Laris asks Picard if he ever noticed that there’s a complete absence of artificial life in Romulan culture, thereby prodding him into realizing that the Zhat Vash have “a hate and fear and pure loathing for every form of synthetic life” – and that their secret must be related to this anti-synthetic sentiment. Further computer analysis leads to the revelation that Soji called Dahj multiple times from somewhere other than Earth.
Elsewhere, Narek and Soji are enjoying post-sex pillow-talk. Narek is surprised that Soji finds the Borg Cube “beautiful.” She corrects him by saying it’s an “Artifact” because “a Borg Cube is mighty and omnipotent while the Artifact is lost, severed from the collective, broken, vulnerable.” Narek teases her about being a subversive and then confesses that, like most Romulans, he’s “a very private person,” suggesting that Narek isn’t necessarily who he claims to be.
Back at his French vineyard, Picard is visited by Dr. Moritz Benayoun, who references their earlier adventures together aboard Picard’s first ship, the Stargazer. Benayoun reports that “for a relic, you’re in excellent shape.” It’s not all good news on the medical front, however; Picard does have some parietal lobe abnormality, and while further tests are required, the prognosis is that they’ll eventually kill him. Given this bombshell, and hearing that Picard seeks clearance for an upcoming mission, Benayoun asks him if he really wants to go back out into the cold of space, knowing his condition Picard resolutely responds, “More than ever. Knowing.”
Picard beams to Starfleet, where he meets with Admiral Kirsten Clancy and tells her everything that’s taken place involving Dahj, Data, Maddox and the Romulans. He asks for temporary reinstatement, a small-scale ship and a light crew for one last mission — a request that doesn’t go over well. In the face of Picard’s “hubris,” Clancy rips the former Starfleet hero for his TV-interview criticism of the Federation’s handling of synthetics and the Romulans. When Picard defends himself by saying that the Federation doesn’t get to decide which species live or die, Clancy counters by asserting that’s precisely its role — and that it had to sacrifice the Romulan refugees in order to keep the Federation intact.
Picard warns Clancy about ignoring him, to which she sneers that he should do what he does best: “Go home.”
Back on the Borg Cube/Artifact, Soji chats with new recruit Dr. Naashala at the Borg Artifact Research Institute. Nashaala asks Narek if the Borg collective might decide to reconnect to this Cube. He assures her that’s not going to happen, because as far as the Borg are concerned, this abandoned vessel is akin to a graveyard, populated only by those who feed on the dead, ghosts, and individuals — like Soji — who are hoping for resurrection. Narek accompanies Soji to work, where she oversees the dissection of a Borg male. Soji objects to the Romulan surgeon referring to these patients as “The Nameless,” and after the creature’s ocular processing core is removed, she gazes at the corpse, whispering “You are free now, my friend.”
In his chateau study, Picard finds Dr. Jurati flipping through an Isaac Asimov book. After he remarks on her taste for the classics, he confesses to never appreciating science fiction, stating that he “…just didn’t get it…” Over a cup of Earl Grey tea, Jurati informs Picard that all of Dahj’s personal and school records are fabrications, and were probably created within the past three years.
Back at Starfleet, Admiral Clancy reports her meeting with Picard to Starfleet Commodore Oh, a Vulcan who says that if Romulans were running secret operations on Earth, it would amount to an act of war. The Commodore calls for Lieutenant Rizzo, and shows her video of the aforementioned Dahj ambush. As it turns out that, Commodore Oh was the mastermind behind the attack, not the Romulans, and she’s furious that Rizzo’s team killed Dahj instead of capturing her for interrogation. Revealing that she knows about Dahj’s twin Soji, she warms Rizzo not to squander their one last opportunity. As Oh promises to take care of Picard herself, while Rizzo assures the Commodore that she already has her best man on the job – Narek.
Having donned his combadge late at night to call old comrade Raffi Musiker, asking for help and a ship, Picard is now yelled at by Laris for his stupid plan, which she implies is really motivated by his ego. Zhaban suggests Picard enlist his old crew for the mission, but Picard — in the aftermath of Data’s death — doesn’t want to once more be responsible for those loyal to him. He subsequently taxis out to a rocky desert home, where Raffi greets him with a pointed gun. Nonetheless, upon hearing he’s there because secret Romulan assassins are operating on Earth — and seeing the vintage wine he’s brought — she reluctantly invites him inside.
Back on the Borg Cube, a meeting between Narek and a hologram of Rizzo, who turns out to be Narek’s sister, and the person behind his secretive surveillance of Soji on the Artifact. Gazing at Narek’s unkempt bed, Rizzo says that she can see her brother is “on top of it.” Rizzo asks if the Artifact has given up the location of its “fellow abominations” — meaning their orders involve finding the Borg. Rizzo warns Narek that if his undercover approach doesn’t get them their coveted intel by the time she arrives on the Artifact, they’ll try her method instead — or face a disaster that will consume them both.
Trailer
Posters courtesy of J.J. Lendl and Laz Marquez
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