Picard episode 4. Spoiler warning. You know the drill.

Ok so I get we are supposed to feel sorry for Shaw now, and I do – kinda. I am reminded of Sisko and how his wife died in Picard (Locutus’) attack. I think I rambled here once about how that was a moment easily lost in the pilot of DS9 but so key.

You see I can’t hate the Borg for what they did – they are the Borg’s first victims, or the second as they are the survivors of the attacks, and then used to attack more. They are stripped of their free will, they are utterly enslaved and violated with all the modifications. In a way they are dead. Picard came back from that but it’s more like a rebirth. I guess with the synth body this is his third life but I digress.

I also can’t hate people like Sisko (and Shaw) for struggling due to the trauma. It’s easy to know something intellectually – that the Borg were basically wearing a Picard suit, and that Picard himself was a victim – but just to see his face and remember the pain. It wasn’t his choice but it was still his hand on the blade.

When trauma turns into prejudice it’s difficult because people’s pain is valid. Saying they should forgive isn’t right as that’s like saying one victim (the XB’s) is more important. But equally it’s not right to use past pain and trauma as an excuse. Shaw hating Picard for the attack he survived (and has survivors guilt from) is reasonable. Shaw using his position to basically bully Seven over months because he had the power to do so, and the pettiness, is wrong. Seven wasn’t anything to do with that Borg attack. Yes she’s an XB but that’s it. If Shaw didn’t want an XB as a first officer then he should have told StarFleet. Given his history if he said he couldn’t work with an XB, I find it difficult to believe they wouldn’t have assigned Seven elsewhere – StarFleet has hundreds of ships! Which to me suggests that Shaw deliberately didn’t say anything so he could work out his vengeance on Seven by abusing his power as her commanding officer.

I loved Seven getting a little dig at him going “Ensign LaForge calls me Commander Seven as a mark of respect”. Good to know the emotional abuse hasn’t dimmed her spirit too much.

To actually talk about Picard and Jack Crusher for a moment I was struck in those flashbacks how much Picard actually likes the adoration/respect. He protested that he wasn’t a storyteller but the cadets didn’t have to do much prompting and he told at least 4 stories. His very expression was just drinking in their attention. It’s little wonder that when Jack saw that, and heard that “StarFleet is the only family Picard needed”, that maybe he was a little… disgusted is too strong a word. But he wasn’t interested in being a fanboy for Picard’s legend, or being a yes sir, no sir, member of the crew. He wanted to see if there was a man there, and instead saw ego. I know in TNG Picard had little patience, especially for children, because his word was law. Not a man to be questioned. A strong leader maybe, but not very approachable for a father.

Anyway the plot continues. The villain lady had a changeling for a hand? Bit confused. I mean she chopped it off and it spoke to her and then reformed as a hand. But if it is her hand how did it not already know everything? Why would another sentient being serve as someone’s hand and how would that even work? Like how would it move when she wanted it to? Unless it wasn’t a changeling, just something similarly gooey. As I said confused.

The “seeking out new life” line was a bit on the nose but the weird eyed space octopuses were very glowy.

You know I thought that Troi and Riker having trouble was weird but I get it now. A lot of couples however much they love one another don’t survive losing a child. Two people, two lots of pain, dealing with it differently. Often they take it out on each other in some ways. In season 1 they seemed happy in their country paradise but we only really saw the visit, and a brave face when unexpected company appears is very understandable. Plus I imagine Troi and Riker tried to keep up appearances during the day for their daughter. Sometimes it takes time for the cracks to grow. The love is very much still there. They will be ok.

No Raffi this episode sadly. I guess that was the trade-off because Seven had a lot more to do. I very much dislike that she had to rely on Shaw so much. The goo bucket was weird. I remember on DS9, Odo’s looked just like that, but that’s because he was given it by the Bajoran’s, growing up in the laboratory. At least that was my understanding. It wasn’t necessary. He regenerated in Troi’s mothers skirts once. It just has to be a container. Any one of those StarFleet packing boxes would have done, or a drawer or something. Why replicate a very specific telltale bucket? Perhaps it was more of a plot device for the audience but I hate that. Audiences aren’t as dumb as I think TV writers think they are.

Not sure what’s going on with Jack’s red flashback/seeing things. I am guessing he touched something, and learned the location of something else (something powerful). It’s a bit MacGuffiny but I’ll go with it. Clearly the portal tech isn’t much. The villain just basically threw it out of the window. I feel bad for Raffi chasing down a plot thread that the writers aren’t even pretending is valuable.

Anyway this episode was much better than last weeks. There was a flow to it. It’s still not great. I’m not quite sure why the praise is so effusive. I’m in this discord server which has some kind of subscription to get a feed of tweets about Picard. I keep seeing ones raving about the best Trek ever, and nope not for me it’s not. I mean Picard as a whole to be honest I feel has been one missed opportunity after another. A lot of potential, a lot of interesting stuff, but executed very poorly, or dropped or ignored. Now I like potential, makes my creator brain hum, but it’s also very frustrating. Definitely not at all satisfying.

Oh! Nearly forgot. Why were they so upset about switching life support off? It’s a big ship. All those corridors and rooms – filled with air. Even if the CO2 isn’t being scrubbed, it would take them several hours at least to breathe through the air the ship contains. So all the “we just have minutes left” had me going ???