We have reached the halfway point of Star Trek: Picard, and with a visit to the planet Freecloud finally in the offing, our crew has also reached a breaking point on several fronts.

The series’ latest episode, “Stardust City Rag,” is an interesting mix of tones and motivations that includes three brutal murders sandwiched around some old school Vegas con-game high jinks. The episode’s intriguing confluence of storylines, while not always harmonious, is certainly successful in advancing the season-long narrative arc in shocking leaps and bounds.

It also fills in the recent backstory for one of Trek’s most beloved characters, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) — born Annika Hansen — and her impetus to destroy a nefarious old acquaintance who drives much of the storyline in “Stardust City Rag.” We learn early on that Seven has been working as a Fenris Ranger since the destruction of Romulus and the Federation’s “abandonment” of so many worlds in the wake of the supernova disaster.

The performance from Jeri Ryan is immediately and comfortably Seven of Nine. Her stilted, “functional” tone is slightly softer. Her tilted head and rigid posture when she speaks is slightly more relaxed; and her confidence is more controlled. For Star Trek fans it is the holy grail: Jeri Ryan returns to her iconic, career-defining role, and she is being bolstered with a script by series co-creator and famed Star Trek: Voyager novelist Kirsten Beyer.

The episode opens with a staggering gut-punch that is rightfully guided by Beyer — a flashback revealing the death of Icheb (Casey King, taking over from Manu Intiraymi), the Brunali teenager rescued from the Borg Collective by Seven and the Voyager crew during their time in the Delta Quadrant (“Collective,” et al).

Icheb, who by 2386 earned the rank of Starfleet lieutenant aboard the USS Coleman, is being dismantled — butchered — by Bjayzl’s crew, who mercilessly carve up Borg and ex-Borg alike to profit off the sale of their valuable hardware.

With Icheb just moments from death, Seven comes crashing into the facility where he’s been held in a late rescue attempt, but she’s too late: his injuries are too severe, and rather than allow her to be captured, Icheb asks Seven to end his life on the spot.

She knows it’s the right choice, and with only a moment’s hesitation, she fires her phaser into his chest while embracing him as her “child.”

The traumatic death occurs 13 years prior to Seven’s arrival aboard La Sirena, which puts it seven years after Voyager returned to Federation space. The choice to open the episode with such an out-of-the-blue, sensationalized moment is definitely an interesting one for the production team — and director Jonathan Frakes — as the revelation of Icheb’s identity could have potentially been more emotionally effective later in the story as Seven squares off with Bjayzl in their final showdown.

Coming on the heels of her dramatic beam-in for the last few seconds of the previous episode (“Absolute Candor”), the script for “Stardust City Rag” jumps quickly into the much-anticipated face-to-face meeting between Seven and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). The two former Borg drones have an ease of unspoken acquaintance when they are together – as pointed out by Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera) who assumes they know each other before realizing she is that “ex-Borg Fenris Ranger… from the Delta Quadrant.”

As he is becoming accustomed to in this series, Picard is no longer in a position to be revered and respected by those he encounters. Seven challenges him right away, saying she chose to become a vigilante with the Fenris Rangers to help people who have no one else to help them, because the only thing worse would have been to give up.

It’s a biting rebuke of Picard and the Federation, and a familiar refrain for the famous admiral by now, who has been told by someone in each episode of the series thus far that he shirked his responsibilities by “quitting.”

Picard acknowledges her motives and says he admires the Rangers’ goals, courage and tenacity, but can’t abide that they also act as judge and jury. (He doesn’t add the word “executioner” to that claim, but the viewers will find out later that they do that to.)

Although Seven originally assumes that he is out here on a “misguided diplomatic mission,” she changes her tune when she realizes his goals are more personal and align with hers – he is looking for someone who has no one else to help her. That someone, of course, is Soji, the “daughter” of Data and the creation of Bruce Maddox (John Ales, taking over for original actor Brian Brophy).

Maddox is seen for the first time in the series being snared by Bjayzl, who is looking to trade him for a profit with the Tal Shiar (who have destroyed his current lab and sent him on the run). Being on the run is something he’s accustomed to, as he’s been missing on Earth since the rogue synths attacked Mars in 2385.

Through Raffi’s connections on Freecloud, the crew on La Sirena quickly learn Maddox’s whereabouts and that he is being held by Bjayzl. With her impressive status in Stardust City, though, they also realize they are pretty much out of options since they don’t have enough fire power to spring him nor money to pay for his release.  But Seven has other ideas. Her interest is piqued when she hears the name Bjayzl (Necar Zadegan), and suggests to the crew they can use her as Borg trade bait to get Maddox.

With a plan in place, the escapades kick in as the crew plots their Maddox heist, which includes several elaborate costumes, exaggerated accents and flamboyant behavior — and before long, we’ve got “Zoot Suit Rios” running the opening move against reptilian Mr. Vup (Dominic Burgess), and an eyepatched Picard negotiating for Maddox’s release.

Stewart is in full-on Avery-Brooks-as-Hippocrates-Noah scenery-chewing mode while inhabiting Picard’s flamboyant alter ego… but while it’s admittedly a lot of fun, it’s also a bit much for an episode bookended with heavy, tragic material.

One of those heavy scenes centers on Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), who we learn came along to Freecloud in an attempt to reconcile with her estranged son, Gabriel Hwang (Mason Gooding), who she finds waiting for his wife at a reproductive health clinic.

Raffi tells him she is clean and makes a case for being back in his life, but Gabriel is more focused on her often-repeated conspiracy theories surrounding the Mars attack. Despite her break from alcohol and snakeweed, Raffi snaps, telling her son — like she told Picard in “The End is the Beginning” — that she still believes her claims, souring her chances of reconciliation, and sending her back to La Sirena in shame.

This scene might initially feel out of place amidst everything else happening in this episode, but it also successfully links back to Raffi’s downfall; the reference to “the conclave of eight” from her son’s tirade will likely be a big part of solving the mystery of the rogue synths, and may shed some light on why Raffi was “fired” from Starfleet after Picard’s resignation.

The tragic, heaviness of the episode arises again as the crew completes their con to free Maddox from Bjayzl, but only after a few more bombastic lines from Picard in setting up the ruse. Once that is out of the way and Seven and Bjayzl are face-to-face, Picard’s mood turns when he realizes that Seven had actually been conning him. Her goal all along was revenge, and she’s ready to take it by killing Bjayzl, who it is revealed had a very close –and perhaps intimate — friendship with Seven, whom she coerced into revealing details of her life, which led her to Icheb.

With Seven ready to execute her plan, literally, Picard implores her, “Murder is not justice. You’ve had your humanity restored to you. Don’t squander it now.” In the past a speech like this from Picard would have worked, but 2399 is a very different time for Annika Hansen.

To end this standoff, the street-savvy Rios steps in and reminds Seven that a play like this will put a bounty on the whole crew. It’s something he can live with, but something everyone knows would end badly for the others. As he tells Seven this, he slyly signals her by telling her to “look at the math of it” while flipping the transport pattern enhancer in the air that is going to allow them to escape. “You found her once, odds are you can do it again.” Seven catches on and agrees to a new exchange: Maddox for Bjayzl’s life.

The crew beams aboard with Maddox and are seemingly out of harm’s way, but it is immediately clear that Seven is not done. Rios quietly slides the pattern enhancer on to the transporter controls for Seven, who surreptitiously grabs it, while also borrowing a couple of phaser rifles before preparing to beam down.

Picard’s sullen look seems to indicate he knows what she is planning, and before she beams down the two share a moment that can only be described as surreal for any dedicated Trek fan. She responds to his earlier prodding about her humanity by asking him if he honestly feels like he had regained his humanity following his assimilation. He says, “Yes.” But she presses further. “All of it?” A sad, hesitant Picard must admit, “No.” And then they both knowingly acknowledge that they are working on it “every damn day” of their lives.

As the Star Trek: Voyager theme song swells, Seven beams back down to dust Bjayzl, the Stardust City rag. Of course, the scoundrel tries to talk Seven out of it… but now, Seven has run out of mercy and hope. With nary a hesitation, she executes Bjayzl and then blasts her way out of the bar.

The death of Bjayzl is the second merciless murder in the episode, and the final one comes from an unlikely source. During the mission to extract Maddox, Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) remained on board La Sirena to operate the transporter to get everyone back.

But while she was waiting her seemingly normal nervous energy triggered a “psychiatric” check-in from the Emergency Medical Hologram, who she quickly dismissed. Earlier it was revealed through some personal videos, that Jurati’s relationship with Maddox was intimate, making her actions now that much more impactful.

Once in sickbay and “safely” on board La Sirena, Maddox tells Picard that Soji is on the Artifact to try and find the truth about the ban on synths, describing the “lies upon lies” inhabiting both the Federation and the Romulans.

When Picard leaves to allow Maddox some rest, the cyberneticist proudly acknowledges to Jurati that he had joined the ranks of Dr. Noonian Soong in creating life-like, sentient androids, while pointing out that she was part of that exclusive club, too, since her contributions were essential.

Jurati doesn’t want to hear that, though, and mutters under her breath that it’s “one more thing she has to atone for.” As Maddox slowly fathoms the meaning of those words, Jurati changes the medical settings on his bio-bed so that he’ll be dead in a few seconds. As that happens, the EMH appears again to check on both Jurati’s psychological well-being and Maddox’s deteriorating condition. He is deactivated quickly by Jurati, paving the way for the episode’s third brutal murder.

There had been speculation, based on her off-screen meeting with Commodore Oh in “The End Is the Beginning,” that Jurati might have been under some sort of influence to do the bidding of the Zhat Vash while with Picard, but now it seems like she is acting under her own agency.

She clearly regrets helping Maddox crack the code of the positronic brain and seems to be convinced that what they’ve done is leading to something terrible. “I wish I didn’t know what I know,” she stammers tearfully. “I wish they hadn’t shown me.”

Here’s a few more observations that our sensors picked up on the Freecloud information net:

• In a nice moment of continuity, the dastardly surgeon who rips out Icheb’s implants can’t locate his cortical node… because he donated it to Seven of Nine when her own node began to fail in “Imperfection.”
   
• Icheb’s demise comes on planet Vergessen, located in the Hypatia system; Freecloud is in the Alpha Doradus star system.
   
• In Jurati’s home movie, Maddox describes his dislike of replicated chocolate chip cookies — like Picard and caviar in “Sins of the Father” (among many others), this is another example of humans preferring “the real thing” over replicated foodstuffs.
   
• Gabriel Hwang was born on Hellas Planitia, on Mars, on stardate 52461 — this puts the year of his birth in 2375, during the final year of the Dominion War and four years before the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

• Elnor (Evan Evagora) has a few excellent character beats this week, as he struggles to understand the crew’s actions in the face of his Way of Absolute Candor: “But are you really a ‘facer?,” he innocently asks Rios; trying to “not be Elnor” for the mission; getting confused over not receiving his own holo-advert; and having to ask if their cover has been blown during the confrontation with Bjayzl.
   
• “Mr. Quark of Ferenginar” has continued his business success in the 20-plus yearssince we last saw him on Deep Space 9; the establishment where this week’s undercover mission takes place carries his name, and Mr. Vup references the noble businessman’s issues with the Breen when talking about Rios’ fictional background as a “facer.”
   
• Quark’s Bar in Stardust City carries the slogan “What is Yours is Ours,” a play on the 42nd Rule of Acquisition: “What’s mine is mine — and what’s yours is mine too.”

• Other familiar Stardust City sights include holographic signs advertising dabo tables at Quark’s, a carafe of tranya offered to Maddox, and a neighboring salon called Mr. Mot’s Hair Emporium. (Good to know the Bolian barber survived the Enterprise-D crash!)
   
• Maddox tells Picard that Dahj’s “embedded Mom A.I.” activated — sending the girl to La Barre —  which confirms that the holo-calls we’ve seen her and Soji make are to a fictional woman.
   
• This is the first episode that doesn’t check in on Soji, Narek, and the intrigue aboard the Borg cube, but Maddox calls it “the Artifact,” a term which Picard recognizes quickly enough to tell us that the Romulan prize must not be much of a secret to the galaxy.

“Stardust City Rag” balances itself oddly between brutality and frivolity, and probably does about as well as you can integrating such contrasting and disparate narratives. The death of Icheb in the episode’s first 90 seconds is an absolute gut-punch for anyone looking for a little nostalgia in their new Star Trek, as is Seven’s ‘hopeless’ execution of Bjayzl.

The Vegas-style heist scenes with the new crew are energetic, clever and fun. Together, all the elements make for an odd mix – that somehow works.

Is Jurati’s final line in the episode a reference to Soji, who has been called the Destroyer and the Seb-Cheneb? Is it a hint towards to the “shackled demons” referenced by Ramdha in “Absolute Candor”? Who is the conclave of eight? Will Seven return (we hope)? Let’s hear your theories in the comments below!

Star Trek: Picard returns next week with “The Impossible Box,” debuting February 27 on CBS All Access in the US and CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, and following globally on Amazon Prime Video on February 28.

Jim Moorhouse is the creator of TrekRanks.com and the TrekRanks Podcast. He can be found living and breathing Trek every day on Twitter at @EnterpriseExtra.