Star Trek: Picard season one, episode 3 recap: The End is The Beginning

Episode three of Star Trek: Picard elaborates on Michelle Hurd’s Raffi Musiker’s backstory and introduces the world to Cristobal Rios and his EMH.

Star Trek: Picard has begun poorly, with its strongest character being Picard himself. So far, all the supporting cast have been two-dimensional caricatures, and story is meandering without direction. In episode three, some of the characters of color finally step into the spotlight, but can they hold our interest?

The End of an Era

The first three episodes of the show have followed the same format – an opening sequence that elucidates on the Romulan evacuation and the devastating fallout of the same. Each sequence has built up to the moment that Picard’s relationship with Starfleet ended. The culmination of the events plays out in this third episode when Picard leaves a board meeting that didn’t go as planned.

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As we know, Picard led the evacuation of the Romulans 14 years previously, but after the synth attack, the evacuation was put on hold. Picard attempted to negotiate with Starfleet command to continue the evacuation – he and Raffi Musiker had come up with alternate plans for Starfleet’s every rebuttal. But Raffi’s ace-in-the-hole was to use synthetic labor to speed up the evacuation. And that’s where their hopes died.

Following the massacre on Mars, all synths were banned in the Federation. According to Starfleet, it was a ‘fatal code error’ that made the synths rise up and kill. Raffi was certain that the Romulans were behind it, though Picard couldn’t understand why they would sabotage their own people’s rescue.

Picard gave command an ultimatum – accept his revised evacuation plan or his resignation. They accepted the latter. Starfleet had become a xenophobic organization; half of them didn’t want to help the Romulans and the other half were just too scared.

Because of Picard’s decision, Raffi was seemingly also fired from Starfleet. We aren’t sure of how Raffi and Picard knew each other, but it seems like she served with him specifically on this evacuation mission. She was part of the tactical science division and, as we discover in the present, has a keen mind that deduces things that others can’t see.

Raffi’s skills haven’t been of use since that fateful day. While Picard retired to his beautiful family chateau and became a writer, Raffi’s home is a makeshift camp in the desert. She is bitter in Picard’s presence because Raffi lost everything 14 years ago and she’s slipped into a kind of rage that’s fuelled by her alcohol and drug abuse. It isn’t clear if the showrunners are attempting to show the stark divide in today’s world where the same tragedy that befalls a white man and a woman of color (especially a black woman in America) leads to such contrasting consequences. Perhaps we’re reading too much into Raffi and Picard’s exchange.

Suffice to say, Raffi is hesitant to join Picard’s foolhardy crusade, but he tasks her with locating Bruce Maddox (supposed creator of Soji and Dahj) anyway. Raffi tells Picard about a pilot who can help him with his clandestine mission.

Finally, a Character Who’s Interesting!

I’ve made it clear that the lack of PoC on this show has been distressing to see. We’re supposed to get more characters of color in upcoming episodes, but why are they always an afterthought? Thankfully, Santiago Cabrera finally makes his debut on Star Trek: Picard in this episode.

Cristobal Rios is the pilot that Raffi sends Picard to. From the outset, we can tell that Rios isn’t like the other characters on this show. For one, he actually has some personality, as is evident from him sarcastically enduring the extraction of a giant piece of shrapnel in his shoulder. Rios also has a dapper EMH modeled on himself. But the EMH has better hair.

Rios’ EMH doesn’t only tend to his medical needs – he’s evolved enough to take care of all the ship’s requirements. Picard has done his homework on Rios. Rios was once Starfleet and served as the XO on the Ibn Majid. But Starfleet erased the ship from its records and this experience soured Rios’ relations with the organization (a recurring theme on the show) so now he’s flying a dinky little ship with a good book, some alcohol and his EMH to keep him company.

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Picard needs Rios more than Rios needs Picard, so he isn’t interested in Picard’s pontificating. He gives Picard the ‘take it or leave it’ option and waits on the former captain’s decision.

Even though Rios is nonchalant about Picard, his EMH is beside himself with excitement. He rattles off Picard’s many accomplishments, teasing Rios that he might be starstruck. But the EMH is dead wrong. Rios doesn’t want to serve with another heroic captain, because his last memory of the previous one – we’re guessing the captain of the Ibn Majid – was his brains and blood splattered across a bulkhead. Rios’ backstory sounds more compelling than the first three episodes of Star Trek: Picard!

Cabrera is already phenomenal in his dual role as the traumatized Rios and the EMH. Even more than Rios’ cigar-smoking, brooding pilot, I am enjoying the EMH. He reminds me of Star Trek: Voyager’s Doctor, which is always a good thing. The EMH begs the question though – does the concept of synths begin and end with synthetic organisms or synthetic life? Because the former would mean only androids were affected by the Federation ban. If it’s the latter, then Rios’ EMH is an illegal alien.

Hugh’s Back

Aboard the Borg Reclamation Site, Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), the first Borg knew to be liberated from the Collective, is overseeing the liberation of the Borg on the damaged vessel. Why is Hugh here, and why is he working with the Romulans is not revealed. Aside from Picard, none of the other characters’ motivations are clear, in all honesty.

Hugh is impressed by how Soji has a gift for learning about the Romulan language, culture, and people, a gift she uses to ease the liberation of the Romulan Borg. She is particularly interested in one of the ‘disordered’ ex-Bs (former Borgs). Ramdha (Rebecca Wisocky) was an expert on Romulan myths and since Soji is an anthropologist, she believes Ramdha’s knowledge could help build a narrative framework that will help the liberated Borg adapt to society.

Hugh, who is the executive director of this operation, takes Soji to see Ramdha. Ramdha is with a handful of other ‘disordered’ ex-Bs – by this we mean Soji and Hugh walk into a scene that belongs in shlocky 80s films. Likening the ‘disordered’ to the mentally ill, the characters are portrayed as crazy. Not insane but cinematically crazy. This is such a disturbing scene to watch because of how thoughtless it is.

Soji tries to speak to Ramdha, which is made easier by the fact that Soji apparently knows her language and also Ramdha’s history. We realize later that Soji doesn’t know how she has all this information. Ramdha is setting out cards like tarot cards and she comes across one with two sisters. This agitates her and she keeps asking Soji which sister she is. Then suddenly, Ramdha gets hold of a gun and accuses Soji of being ‘the destroyer’. In the nick of time, Ramdha is stopped from shooting herself.

Soji escapes to her room to talk to her mother, but she falls asleep partway through her conversation. There must be a failsafe in Soji’s system so the decoy of her mother doesn’t have to continue the interaction. For all we know, Soji’s chats with her mother always start and end the same way because Soji is calling a recording.

Soji is awoken by Narek and she immediately divulges that she had no idea about how or where she knew about Ramdha’s past. Narek responds by telling her he’s falling in love with her. None of the writing in this episode makes any sense. The back-and-forth dialogue between characters is inauthentic, their actions do not correspond with what’s gone before. It’s all disjointed.

Narek leaves Soji’s room and is stopped by Narissa Rizzo. This character seems to have been created for the sole reason to be vulgar and ‘edgy’ about Narek’s honey pot scheme. Narissa was egging her brother on in the previous episode, but now she’s pretending to be disgusted by his behavior.

The Zhat Vash Attack

Commodore Oh, who was introduced as a secret Romulan operative in Starfleet pays Dr. Jurati in Daystrom a visit. Oh wants to know about Jurati’s encounter with Picard and Jurati doesn’t hold back. This leads to an attack on Picard’s chateau by the masked men who killed Dahj.

Picard, Zhaban, and Laris overpower them, mostly because there are hidden phasers throughout the living room. Is Picard paranoid or are his Romulan companions? Just when it looks like all the attackers are down, one appears with a phaser but he’s killed by Jurati. She came to find Picard after Oh’s interrogation.

Grilling one of the masked men leads nowhere, though he repeats what Ramdha said – that Soji is the destroyer. Then the attacker kills himself with Romulan cyanide. Picard needs to escape now, and Jurati is coming with him. She gives some spiel about being the foremost authority in synths as the reason she’s capable of being on the mission, but it sounds like the writers are trying to convince the audience that we should root for this underdog.

Rios calls Picard to tell him that his ‘sources’ have informed him that Picard needs to leave immediately. Picard and Jurati beam aboard Rios’ ship and find Raffi is there. She’s hitching a ride to Freecloud, where she believes Bruce Maddox is located. Raffi doesn’t reveal her reasons for choosing the same destination. As Raffi and Picard argue about bringing Jurati onboard, Rios just looks like he wants to get out of there. When Picard finally says ‘Engage’, Rios warps out of there to the old Star Trek: The Next Generation theme.

The episode ends on a nostalgic tone that doesn’t wash away the taste of the disjointed mish-mash we witnessed for the 45 minutes leading up to it. None of the sequences connect to each other – it’s like looking at separate pieces of a puzzle in completely different cities and trying to put them together.  Also, there is way too much telling and no showing. Star Trek has never shied away from exposition, but the shows knew how to implement it and develop characters and stories along the way.

There’s no anchor and the writing is so terribly retrograde. If it wasn’t for Cabrera’s vivacity and Hurd’s emotional acting, this episode would be unbearable to sit through. Once the season is over, we’ll have the full picture, but there has to be some method to the character’s actions to keep us invested. So far, there isn’t – we’ve always known Starfleet was a small-minded bureaucracy, this show heightens that concept. And still no Seven of Nine? If it’s revealed that Seven is also working with the Romulans, there’s going to be a mutiny!