In Review: Star Trek: Picard (S2 – EP2) Penance

Synopsis: As a penance given to him by Q. Picard finds himself transported to an alternate timeline in the year 2400 where his longtime nemesis, Q, has orchestrated one final “trial.” Picard searches for his trusted crew as he attempts to find the cause of this dystopian future.

The Story

The trial never ends. And it seems that Q has one more test for Jean Luc Picard and his new crew. Picking the story up from last week. Q has thrown Picard and his crew into a divergent timeline in which. Admiral Picard is a member of a Totalitarian Confederation, which is ruled over by President Hanson aka Seven of Nine. Now Picard must find his crew including Seven of Nine and go back in time to 2024 to track the location of Q’s Divergence.

Acting

John de Lancie makes an absolutely stunning return as Q. But not as we know him. This version of Q is a little crazier and far more unstable than the version that we came to know and love in The Next Generation. At one point in his big scenes with Picard, which are all at the start of the episode. Q actually strikes Picard quite viciously during their conversation. Indeed Patrick Stewart sells the blow brilliantly as his latest encounter with Q is so much more heightened than in previous encounters.

Jeri Ryan also puts in a solid performance as Seven of Nine, who in the new timeline finds that all her borg implants have been removed. The scene where Seven awakes disorientated and checks herself over is a highlight. But it’s her scene when she comes face to face with the captured Borg Queen that is a real highlight. Speaking of which Annie Wersching makes a little more of an impression as the Borg Queen, but my guess is we haven’t seen anything yet.

Overall

Penance makes for a really strong episode as we start to dive into the story. We get some nice easter eggs as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock’s slingshot around the sun from Star Trek 4 gets a mention. But we also get some nice scenic and costume-style easter eggs during the big scene at the end where Picard is about to execute the Borg Queen. Some of the costumes and parts of that setting put me in mind of Q’s original Trial of Picard from Encounter at Far Point.

We get left with a pretty big cliffhanger, which will most likely keep us all guessing until next week’s episode. I look forward to seeing how all of this pans out.