Picard – Monsters Review

For the first time this season, an episode of Picard felt more like it was spinning its wheels than providing us with something new and worth watching. I certainly don’t begrudge a series the right to take a breath and take stock of just where all the pieces lay on the board as it dives into its home stretch (we have a mere three episodes left this season in which to wrap the key plot points up – more on those in a moment), but I just wish we could have had a bit less of the quippy (or at least the attempts at being quippy) and more of actual narrative movement in “Monsters.”

First, the good. As a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, I never pass up the chance to watch the great James Callis play a morally questionable character, and the choice of casting him as Picard’s subconscious shrink/actual father felt like a stroke of brilliance and a hat tip to sci-fi fans. Offering up just the right amount of menace, Callis made sure not to tip his hand too soon, before the reveal that – as we all likely suspected – Picard’s memories of his mother and father were tinted by the mental capacity of a child who didn’t really understand all that was happening around him. Yes, his mother loved him and her loss to institutionalization was a painful moment in his young life. But her untreated mental illness also meant that she was unpredictable and that she made choices that placed young Jean-Luc in danger – something his father found unacceptable and something that he needed to rectify to protect his son. So, as is often the case, Jean-Luc’s father wasn’t a monster, just a flawed man who made a choice he thought was right to help his family, albeit one that his young son couldn’t understand. Although, the choice of young Jean-Luc to use his key to open the door in Picard’s mind to let his mother out felt a bit ominous – even if I can’t figure out if that choice was what released Picard from his subconscious or if it means we’ll revisit this particular bit of storytelling down the line.

Also fun? The series finally circling back to the question of just what went down between the Q and the El-Aurians (the source of the delightful interaction between Q and Guinan back on Next Generation that was sadly never followed up on during that series). Of course there was a truce between the two powerful races and of course the El-Aurians maintained the ability to summon any Q nearby in case something was going pear shaped (a break glass in case of emergency fail safe can’t be a bad idea with the Q). It was hardly shocking that Guinan’s attempts to summon Q failed – it’s been clear all season that something isn’t quite right with him. Now the question truly becomes what that is. Is it illness? Was he banished from the Continuum? Is he going rogue and getting reined back in by his fellow Q? Less successful? Having Picard and Guinan get picked up by random FBI agents. If it turns out there’s something Q-related with their presence, well, I’ll forgive this plot point. But if it’s just another hurdle to jump over? That’s a waste of everyone’s time. Whatever the case, I suspect this mystery will get solved in short order, as the series now has a much more pressing apocalypse on the horizon.

Ah yes, the Jurati of it all. Where last week was a true showcase for Alison Pill, this episode gave her some much earned time on the sidelines. Unfortunately, that meant that we got a lot of Seven and Raffi talking about her – what it means that the Queen is living in her mind, what the Queen’s endgame appears to be, what Jurati’s strange actions have meant in terms of the Queen gaining more control – rather than allowing us to experience this huge revelation via Jurati herself. Yes, when it comes to high level plot points, some verbal explanations are often required. But this felt a lot like the writers saying, “Ok, we need to make sure everyone watching understands the magnitude of this threat we’ve created, so let’s just have Seven explain it all.” So, instead of feeling organic – and seeing Jurati’s internal fear over who she is becoming (because she has to still feel that fear or else there’s no point in having this storyline – we need to understand the stakes to the character we care about) – we got a point-by-point plan as to just what we can expect in the final three episodes. It wasn’t a great choice, even if it did finally give Seven and Raffi something to do other than pointlessly bicker. Oh, and it was nice for Seven to finally get to use her Borg knowledge, after we spent most of the season pretending she didn’t have it.

And then there’s the Rios of it all. Sir, you’ve known this woman for all of a week and you’re breaking the temporal prime directive to show her and her son your space ship? Ok, then. It’s looking more and more like he’s going to be faced with the choice of staying in the past or leaving his chance at a real family when he returns home. As I mentioned in last week’s review – and with the reveal that Jurati is essentially becoming the Borg Queen – it certainly appears that the final thrust of this season of Picard will be one of creating endings for the remaining characters that allow the series to branch off into a more Next Generation-centric story for the third season.

While there’s every chance Q (or some other omnipotent being) will snap things back the way they were once the final confrontations are complete, that would feel like such a cheat for the great writing and character development that has occurred thus far that I actively hope the writers don’t go down that path. Considering Picard has (FINALLY) come to the realization that Q has always wanted him to look within to solve these riddles – both within himself and within Q – the writers don’t seem like they want to take the easy way out of their own writing conundrums. After all, without real-life stakes in play, there’s no reason to even put these characters in these situations. There’s a final lesson Q is trying to teach Picard – even if his addled brain can’t quite see it at this point – and that doesn’t happen without real loss along the journey.