It’s becoming more clear with each passing episode that the biggest problem with thisStar Trekprogram is that the writers had a grand idea for a plot and simply don’t really know what they needed to do in order to get to the end. The same could likely be said of the first season ofStar Trek: Picardand the same problems that haunted that installment is giving the writer’s room fits as this year wraps up. At this point, the show is stacking on plot holes and weird character developments on top of one another in order to explain how people who didn’t need to be put into certain situations get out of them.
In fact, at times, the writers have made it so hard for themselves inSeason 2 ofStar Trek: Picardthat they’re almost telling on themselves. At one point a character in Episode 8, titled “Mercy” seems to voice what the audience is likely thinking. He claims that it appears he’s wasted his life and that his chase didn’t have a point. The character, who could have been an interesting addition if he’d come along earlier, seemed entirely pointless. He was a time-waster. This seems odd considering there simply isn’t that much more time to waste in until the Season Finale.
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“Mercy” picks up right where theprevious episode ofPicardleft off. The Captain and Guinan are being detained by some shadow government agency and a man who it turns out has been hunting aliens for quite some time. While they first attempt to play it off as some sort of sick joke, it becomes obvious that the government agent (whose name is never learned, he’s that unimportant) knows more than they would have liked about their journey to the past, though he believes it’s actually an alien invasion.
Along the way, the audience learns that the government understands there were six trespassers at the Europa gala wherePicard convinced his distant relativeto go to space. It feels like if the government believed that people were trying to stop the Europa mission, there would be more of a focus on finding them, but it appears no one besides the alien hunter really cares all that much.
Elsewhere, Raffi and Seven of Nine are on the hunt forJurati and the Borg Queenwho are one and the same. It appears that the show’s newest villain has been busy, first breaking a window at a bar, killing someone she picked up, and then heading to Adam Soong’s in order to enlist the help of the scientist who the audience has discovered is utterly devoid of any real connection to the woman who is his daughter, other than wanting to verify that his work is successful.
The third plot point in this particular story is centered on Rios and Teresa Ramirez. Oddly enough it seems as if he’s perfectly happy to tell them anything and everything about the future. Including showing them technology that sure seems like it should be far more shocking to people who watched pieces of cake materialize out of nothing. However, instead of voicing their extreme amazement at a machine that can make food out of thin air, they just grab the cake and start eating. It’s honestly amazing how people living in theStar Trek: Picarduniverseare able to accept fantastic scenarios without needing even a modicum of explanation.
Speaking of people in Picard who are willing to accept things at face value when common sense should tell them that something is very, very wrong that appears to be the theme for “Mercy.” The biggest and weirdest demonstration of this is the federal agent, who demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has proofPicard and Guinanare not who they claim, is upended from his mission simply by being told an explanation of a story that’s haunted him for a lifetime.
Thisepisode ofStar Trek: Picardasks the audience to believe that someone who built their entire career on chasing a boogeyman, would then accept that the boogeyman isn’t real after a few hours of conversation with someone. Of course, the show only hints the conversation was hours, it’s entirely possible it was about half an hour. The someone who convinced this haunted man also happens to be someone he knows is a person of interest and he doesn’t really believe is a person. It takes a certain panache to believe that anyone in the world would react that way. It’s also almost insulting that the show would expect its audience to accept that explanation.
Further straining credulity isthe story of Q, a god who appears to be dying and losing his powers while he does it. That particular plot point might actually make about as much sense as anything has so far this season, except for the fact that the show doesn’t really know how to deal with that. It appears the writers want people to believe that it’s easier for Q to travel back in time and across universes, than it is to get from one place to another in 2024 Los Angeles.
Finally, the story of Soong, a scientist who is clearly quite brilliant, in fact appears to be centuries ahead of human technology and played a huge part inStar Trek: The Next Generation’s world, even before he got some help from Q, who the show went out of its way to point out, has been disgraced. Despite being disgraced, he appears to have limitless resources including the ability to just hire a paramilitary fighting force after just one phone call to a “general.” It appears viewers are supposed to know this is because of Q’s influence, but once again, that’s the same Q who has to travel by car from one place to another, but can also fool people into thinking he’s a member of the FBI.
There have been more and more plot points gettingadded toStar Trek: Picard’s storyas the season goes on and they are now starting to crash in on each other at exactly the wrong time. While the mystery should be unraveling at this point, things are just getting more confused and not in a tricksy way that’s fun for the audience.
