In a season high point for Star Trek: Picard, a trip to “Nepenthe” allows home and family to take center stage with an emotional resonance that touches an array of cornerstones from Trek’s past — while also perfectly setting up the final three episodes and the climax of this standout first-year series.
 
The strength of this fully-formed hour of Star Trek begins with a script from Michael Chabon — this time with a co-writing credit alongside Samantha Humphrey — that features the language of the franchise being celebrated throughout. From a ready room scene in the dining room of the Troi-Riker home, to the important concept of homeworlds in Trek:“Nepenthe” is Picard at its emotional best, and includes beloved characters being lost and advanced in impactful ways.
 
…and if you thought the celebrated return of beloved Next Generation favorites Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) would be nothing more than a souped-up cameo, you were very much mistaken. The couple are now married and living blissfully away from the world of starships and interstellar intrigue, and their appearance is an epiphany for the series. In their scenes, the two legends emphatically support and honor their friend, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), but also refuse to give him a free pass.
 

As we are introduced to their new planet, we see that mastery also translates to their daughter, Kestra Troi-Riker (Lulu Wilson), named after Deanna’s older sister who died as a child. In a scene reminiscent of young René Picard’s “highway robbery” of uncle Jean-Luc back in TNG’s “Family,” the savvy youngster has approached Picard and Soji with a bow-and-arrow as the “wild girl of the woods” — a character who is part of an elaborate fantasy world created by her brother.

Picard recognizes her immediately, and the exchanges between all three characters are delightful, including a conversation about lies, and how we represent ourselves. Kestra’s inquisitiveness about Soji’s connection to the “great captain” ultimately reveals to her she is an android, related in some capacity to Data.

Soji (Isa Briones), though, is not processing any of this well and doesn’t trust anyone, despite Picard’s attempt to explain to her that some of it was “real,” including her sister Dahj. She dismisses all of it by saying, “None of this real. Just get on with the mind game.”

As they reach the Troi-Riker house, Picard and Deanna embrace in an emotional reunion, the second cathartic hug for Picard in two weeks. Troi is thrilled to see him, but when her empathic abilities kick in, her love immediately turns to concern regarding Jean-Luc’s health. He insists that he is fine, in an unspoken reference to the Irumodic Syndrome from which he suffers.

From inside the house, a relaxed Riker is cooking for his family and doesn’t understand all the commotion, until he turns around and sees Picard standing in his home. After a powerful show of emotion — “Oh, man!” — Riker snaps into Starfleet mode when he realizes Picard is potentially in danger and is there to hide out, telling his house, “Shields up! Perimeter scans to max.” The moment is fantastic fun and immediately sets up their new life on their new starship – their home.

Both Sirtis and Frakes are instantly comfortable back in the skin of their famous characters. Their performances are lively and wise, and their new lives feel completely lived in. Another success from showrunner Chabon and his team, including director Doug Aarniokoski, who seamless meshes the action on Nepenthe with accelerated stakes taking place on La Sirena and “the Artifact.”

Those stakes begin with another flashback, this time to that mysterious meeting of Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita) and Agnes Jurati (Agnes Pill) just before she joined Picard’s crew. As expected, Oh has forcibly performed a mind-meld with Jurati — settling that debate about whether she’s Vulcan or Romulan — to show her what life would be like if synthetics are allowed to exist. Jurati is shook and instantaneously agrees to assist Oh, even though it will require a terrible sacrifice on her part.

Now on board La Sirena, Jurati is uneasy in just about every decision taking place on board the ship. She wonders if any one really even wants to go to Nepenthe to meet up with Picard and Soji, and then later declares she just wants to go home and doesn’t care about “that fucking synth.” (Yep, it’s another use of profanity that helps emphasize Jurati’s mental collapse. It’s appropriate and necessary in today’s modern television landscape.)

After that outburst, “Auntie” Raffi (Michelle Hurd) takes Jurati for some one-on-one time on “Planet” Raffi to try and calm her down – with cake. It doesn’t work, as she just gets sick.

Through all of the above, Rios (Santiago Cabrera) has been trying to shake the Romulan ‘snakehead’ ship that he knows is somehow tracking them. On board that ship, of course, is Narek (Harry Treadaway), who is trying to locate exactly where Soji and Picard jumped to. Rios is trying all the tricks, but can’t seem to shake him, and suspects that perhaps Raffi might be the reason. He confides to Jurati that he thinks Raffi might have a tracking device on her.

Meanwhile, Elnor (Evan Evagora) is back on the cube where he told La Sirena he was needed to stay and fight. He’s working alongside Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), who has sadly had to watch Narissa (Peyton List) massacre half-a-dozen xBs right in front of his eyes. He’s devastated, but even though he refuses to tell her where Picard is, Narissa can’t harm him as he is protected by the Romulan treaty with the Federation.

Finally, something Narissa respects! The rule of law!

Back on Nepenthe, Kestra is becoming more amazing every minute she is on the screen. Lulu Wilson is superb as she confidently grills — and educates — Soji on all things Data. Do you play the violin? Do you like Sherlock Holmes? Can you run really fast and bend steal with your hands?

Kestra’s deconstruction of Data – a being who could do all those amazing things, but only ever wanted to dream and tell jokes and learn how to ballroom dance – will being a tear to your eye. And it’s the perfect introduction for Soji, who is finally coming to grips with the fact she is an android – which brings a tear to her eye as she begins to cry.

The tears have long-since dried up for Troi and Riker, though, who it is slowly revealed throughout the episode, have lost a child in the years since we saw them last — their son, Thad, born during their time in Starfleet after leaving the Enterprise — and it’s the main reason they live on Nepenthe, where the soil is known for its regenerative abilities.

Now Picard is trying to protect their family by being vague on some of the details that has brought him to their doorstep, but Riker intelligently calls him on his bullshit: “How great it would be if the ignorance of danger was all it took to keep it away from the people we love.” Picard knows that Will is right.

As it relates to Soji, both Troi and Riker show they haven’t lost a step and quickly and independently piece together much of the puzzle that Picard has been hesitant to tell them. First Troi can’t read her, and then later Riker confidently breaks it down for Picard as he works over his outdoor oven, saying he figures the Tal Shiar are involved and she’s an android on the run with Data’s robo-DNA.

In the emotional fulcrum of the episode, Deanna and Soji get to the heart of what it means to be “real” by discussing the many made-up worlds of Thaddeus Troi-Riker, raised on starships, but who always wanted a homeworld of his own. A real boy relying on his imagination to create languages (12 of them!) and homeworlds (Ardani – which literally meant ‘home’ in one of those languages) until he got sick and moved to Nepenthe, which became his “real” homeworld.

In contrast, Soji is not a “real” girl and she was “made” — not born — on a homeworld that she doesn’t really remember, and she is doubting everything in front of her as subterfuge and simulation and mind games.

She’s being guided by the code in her positronic matrix that it turns out would have been the key to saving Thad when he was diagnosed with Mandaxic neurosclerosis, a silicon-based virus that is easily curable with an active positronic matrix. But the synth ban made that impossible, and the Troi-Riker’s paid the price.

It’s a beautiful juxtaposition between the real world of a made-up girl and the made-up world of a real boy. And there is no one better than Deanna Troi to break it all down, summarizing it succinctly to Soji that “real” is not always better — except probably when it comes to tomatoes. Throughout the episode, which is one of the best-ever for Troi, the counselor’s well-known empathy is written in a dynamic and intrinsic way. That wasn’t always the case during the Next Gen days, where it frequently was presented as a device to move stories forward. Her empathy is on full display here, one scene after another.

Through it all it is heartbreaking to see Soji not being able to trust anyone, and she even calls out Troi by saying her sensitive and caring actions make her trust her even less. As she storms off, she shoves Picard – hard – after he pushes her to the edge with a few frustratingly, sarcastic lines about his “elaborate plot.”

Deanna immediately tells Picard that he had it coming, and that he’s missing the big picture of what the Romulans have done to Soji. She says Soji has no idea what is real and that her very consciousness has been violated. Now in full counselor mode, she helps remind Picard to be himself with her: compassionate, patient and curious.

Back on board La Sirena, Jurati’s instability seems to be teetering toward her coming clean to Rios that it isn’t Raffi who is being tracked, it’s her — as Commodore Oh made her ingest a tracking device back on Earth. With guilt coming at her from all angles, she doesn’t tell Rios what is happening, but instead decides to inject herself with a hypospray that puts herself into a coma, thus knocking out the tracking device so Narek can no longer follow their ship.

It’s not quite clear if that was a straight act of contrition or a suicide attempt, or maybe a little of both, but Jurati’s mental and physical well-being is perilous, to say the least.

Also perilous is the challenge facing Hugh and Elnor on the Artifact, as they plot a counter move against Narissa. Of course, she’s monitoring them closely and hears Hugh talking about taking back the cube from Romulan control — which for her is citing open insurrection, a treaty violation that allows her to eliminate him after all. Elnor, though, is there to fight for him, taking his Qowat Milat training to the limit in a showdown with his ultimate Zhat Vash opponent.

The young warrior does well, but in a shocking moment that is going to devastate fans of Jonathan Del Arco and his healing return to the role of the beloved Hugh, Narissa gets the best of Elnor and kills Hugh before beaming to safety in advance of Elnor’s retaliatory strike.

The death is an emotional one and will be polarizing among viewers. It’s hard to take, but there is one last moment of glory for Hugh who instructs Elnor on exactly what it will take to continue the fight against Narissa – an xB. As he dies, he slips something into Elnor’s hand and sadly says, “All of this for a lost cause. I was that much of a hopeful fool again for a minute. Thanks for that.” It’s a poignant demise that will be remembered alongside the saddest deaths in Trek history.

Peyton List has been chewing the scenery all season long as Narissa, and with this episode she has now fully earned her ‘Big Bad’ status. She’s deliciously evil. No need to look at it any harder than that. She’s just a fun, oversized villain who sashays her way from one scene to the next with grandiose language and gothic leatherwear. And it’s a blast.

As for that item that Hugh slipped to Elnor, it appears to be one of Seven of Nine’s Fenris Ranger calling cards, which the young Romulan activates while hiding and thinking pensively about his next move. The signal on the chip lights up, and Elnor is left alone to await the arrival of everyone’s favorite Borg to potentially guide the other xBs… as their queen.

After imploring Picard to let them help him, the group on Nepenthe settle down for dinner in the Troi-Riker makeshift “ready room” to come up with a next step for Picard and Soji, who opens up about the “home” she revealed to Narek when he got inside her head.

She realizes trying to find it is probably the way to go, but she still doesn’t trust anyone or anything.

In classic Jean-Luc Picard style, he takes Deanna’s earlier advice and speaks to Soji with compassion, patience and curiosity. He explains that she was created from their friend, Data, who gave his life to save Picard’s, and that Dahj was instrumental in helping him regain purpose in his life. He tells her that no one is going to stop him from his mission to help her.

Kestra asks Soji if she believes him, and she says she only knows that he doesn’t believe he’s lying. It’s a start, and she proceeds to tell them what Narek had discovered about the two red moons and a sky full of lightning in her implanted memory of a real place. Hearing that, Riker and Troi immediately surmise it must be Maddox’s home base where he went into hiding to continue his work creating synthetic lifeforms.

It’s literally a ready room scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Kestra then turns to Soji with a smile to make sure she knows she has that all important homeworld that everyone needs, and Soji simply says, “My Ardani,” a gesture that touches Riker and Troi immensely.

Kestra, of course, figures out the location of Soji’s homeworld and as Picard and Soji begin discussing what it would take for them to get there, both Troi and Riker remind them the Romulans are going to be a problem.

One problem that has finally solved itself, is that Picard has heard from Rios who is arriving at Nepenthe shortly with La Sirena. In a final, beautiful scene with Riker on a bench by the lake, Picard tells him about his new crew and their extra baggage, and thanks Riker for “so many things.”

Before they depart, Kestra wisely explains to Soji that her mom and dad had helped her through a bad time in her life, and since she doesn’t have a mom and dad, she could have Picard. And he could have her. And together they could have each other. It’s a beautiful summation to a beautiful episode of discovery for Soji and her new friend, Kestra Troi-Riker.

Below are a few more highlights that we uncovered inside the forest of Viveen, home of the wild girl of the woods!

• Commodore Oh details the size of Jurati’s data transfer to Picard as “300 gigabytes” of information on Bruce Maddox; typically in 24th century Star Trek, the measurement for data storage is in units of “quads,” a fictional descriptor not directly analogous to modern-day file sizes.
• Two of the images of planetary destruction seen during the Oh-Jurati mind-meld are reused visual effects from Discovery‘s “If Memory Serves,” from Control’s destructive attacks on Earth and Tellar (as seen in Spock’s dark Red Angel vision). Whether this is meant to be an implied connection — or just a simple set of repurposed CGI images — is yet to be determined.
• As Raffi works to free La Sirena from the Borg tractor beam, she refers to the cube’s systems as “freaky Borg machine language,” which resembles Soji’s drawings of interlocking rings — the symbol of her necklace, representing fractal neuronic cloning.
• One of the native species on Nepenthe is a venomous horned rabbit called a “bunnicorn,” which may be an homage to the Alfa 177 canine seen in “The Enemy Within.” (They apparently make an excellent sausage.)

• Picard refers to his “solid duratanium” heart, a replacement implant last addressed in TNG’s “Tapestry.”
• It wouldn’t be a visit with Will Riker if he didn’t get to call for “Shields up!” — and this time, he’s concerned about recent trouble with the Kzinti, the cat-like warrior race created by famed science-fiction author Larry Niven… which made two appearances back in The Animated Series.
• Thaddeus Troi-Riker, Will and Deanna’s late son, is named for Colonel Thaddius “Old Iron Boots” Riker, the Civil War-era Riker ancestor mentioned during Will’s visit to the USS Voyager in “Death Wish.”
• Deanna mentions that Thad’s 18th birthday just passed, placing his date of birth in 2381, just two years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis.

• Jurati makes reference to a gormagander, the type of alien “space whale” encountered by the USS Discovery in “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.”
• Like the deadly affliction encountered by the crew of the Enterprise NX-01 in “Observer Effect,” Thad was infected by a silicon-based virus.
• Captain Rupert Crandall — the disreputable starship captain who lives across the lake from the Troi-Riker home — claims to have traveled to Tyken’s Rift, the anomaly encountered by the Enterprise in “Night Terrors.”
• Soji’s homeworld is in the Vayt sector, in the Ghulion system, information Kestra obtains from the galactic wanderings of Captain Crandall.
• The replicator found in La Sirena’s sickbay looks to be a repurposed Monoprice MP Voxel 3D printer.

“Nepenthe” is a wonderful affirmation of homeworlds, and the confidence we put in our environments — and the people in our life. Ultimately, it’s not about what’s real. It’s all real. It’s about trust.

In the end, when paired with “The Impossible Box,” “Nepenthe” is the perfect back-to-back companion piece to “The Best of Both Worlds” and “Family” from The Next Generation. The episode allows a damaged Picard to take stock of his experiences of the past three weeks, while also resetting on his end game as he rejoins his new crew with Soji in tow.

For a series that is clearly not a sequel to Next Gen or Voyager, it connects to what has come before in smart, inspiring and rewarding ways.

Is Seven going to show up to rescue Elnor next week? What’s going to go down once everyone arrives at Soji’s homeworld? What does Narissa have up her leather-clad sleeve next? File your report in the comments below.

Star Trek: Picard returns next week with “Broken Pieces,” debuting March 12 on CBS All Access in the US and CTV Sci-Fi Channel in Canada, and following globally on Amazon Prime Video on March 13.

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.