Full spoilers follow for this episode.
Now that’s how you bring back the Enterprise crewmembers.
The return of Will Riker and Deanna Troi in Picard Episode 7, “Nepenthe,” is pretty much a flawless affair, upending expectations and avoiding clichés while also packing the emotional wallop that this show has finally started to figure out how to do in the back half of its first season.
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While Star Trek: Picard has purposely sent Patrick Stewart’s title character off in a very non-Next Generation direction, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis’ guest-spins as Jean-Luc’s beloved (former) first officer and counselor, respectively, provide a perfect reunion, sad at times, uplifting at others, and often just plain funny too.
That we only get to meet one of the Troi-Riker children is the melancholy part here, as it slowly becomes apparent that their son Thaddeus has already died at some point in the past. His illness is what led the family, apparently, to leave Starfleet, seeking the restorative powers of this planet they’ve settled on, Nepenthe. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and the only time we see Thaddeus is in a photo of Admiral Picard holding him when he was a baby. This photo sits in the boy’s room, where his belongings remain apparently untouched since his death. Heartbreaking.
And then there’s Kestra, the daughter. Making it her mission to carry on her brother’s legacy of language creation and world-building — and what a great touch that is, that the boy who was born on a starship so yearned for a homeworld of his own that he made one up — she nonetheless still “aches” over his death, as her mother puts it. But she finds a friend in Soji, who after all would be a much more appealing figure to a teenage girl than an old man like Picard. And Kestra turns out to be the best thing that could’ve happened to Soji in the wake of what she’s just discovered about herself.
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The dynamic between Stewart and his old friends, Frakes and Sirtis, super-charges this episode. Sirtis’ first scene is simply beautiful as Troi’s empathic abilities enable her to wordlessly understand not just that Picard is in trouble, but that he is gravely ill as well. It’s never said out loud in the scene, but we know exactly what is going on. And Riker, despite having no Betazoid powers, can also read much of what’s happening with his old captain without a word being said. They just know each other that well. And yet, as much as Troi and Riker want to help Picard, there’s only so far they can go now. They have Kestra to worry about as well. “I’m not as brave as I used to be,” Deanna tells Jean-Luc.
There’s a familiarity between these three characters now that was rarely seen on Next Generation, with hugs and embraces and shoulder pats and all the rest of it. I completely buy that they would’ve reached this point by now, and I love it.
Also terrific is the B-story with the unlikely pairing of Jonathan Del Arco’s Hugh and Evan Evagora’s Elnor, who are attempting to stoke a rebellion from inside the Borg Artifact. That Hugh doesn’t survive the first day of this uprising was perhaps inevitable — this show is happy to kill off supporting characters for the emotional gain of its lead cast — but it works, as the former Borg drone has maybe, just maybe, never lived as much as he did in those final moments with Elnor. “I was that much of a hopeful fool again for a minute… thanks for that,” he says with his final breath. His death scene is the stuff that inspires fan fiction the world over, and both Del Arco and Evagora sell it in spades.
And then we have another B-story (I’m not sure that either of these count as C-stories) over on La Sirena with Rios, Raffi, and Agnes trying to shake the in-pursuit puzzle boy Narek, even while Agnes winds up attempting suicide because of what she did to Maddox… and perhaps also because of what we now know Commodore Oh showed her back on Earth. (Suicide in Roddenberry’s perfect Federation? Whoa.) The episode opens with another flashback to that meeting, depicting the Vulcan mind meld that Oh performed on Agnes… which apparently indicated that the world will end if the synths are allowed to “live.” How or why that would come to be remains a mystery. But the question for the comatose Agnes is now whether or not that knowledge is enough to give the character a pass for the murder she committed?
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Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:
- The names of both of the Troi-Riker children have their origins in old Star Trek episodes. Thaddius Riker (different spelling, yes) was an ancestor of Will’s who fought in the American Civil War (and was saved by a Q — long story!). And Kestra was the older sister Deanna never really knew. The year Deanna was born, Kestra drowned in a tragic accident when she was only a girl.
- It does seem a tad contrived that the cure for Thaddeus’ illness became unobtainable because of the synth massacre.
- The open floor plan of La Sirena is certainly an interesting approach to starship design, if one doesn’t mind a lack of privacy.
- Riker and Troi’s house is all tricked out with shields and everything!
- It’s great that Data’s memory has lived on via the stories his friends have told to their children.
- Why does Picard call Captain Riker Commander Riker?!
- “What about Elnor?” At least Agnes remembered the kid! But man, the Picard Squad weren’t together for too long, were they, before scattering?
- Raffi’s sober again?
- Is Kestra home-schooled?
- And now it looks like we’ll be seeing Seven of Nine again…
