If you thought last week’s “Assimilation” was all about setting up whatever’s yet to come in Picard Seaosn 2, there’s a good chance you will think the same thing about “Watcher.”
And for sure, a protracted (and not entirely successful) police chase at the center of this installment is here to mostly move the pieces across the 21st century game board, but by the time we pass “Go” at the end of the episode we also get tantalizing threads featuring the history of Chateau Picard, a visit with a surprising old friend and another unpredictable showdown aboard La Sirena, and a mysterious Qliffhanger that will have you snapping for the next episode.
But before breaking down those elements, we would be remiss to not immediately highlight the most important scene in Star Trek history: the delightful return of San Francisco’s most famous bus punk (Kirk Thatcher), this time finding himself facing off with — and apologizing profusely to — Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) for playing his music too loud.
The hilarious nod to Spock and Kirk’s experience in Star Trek VI: The Voyage Home personifies the playful way showrunner Terry Matalas has defined his foray into the Star Trek universe as the boss; Thatcher performed the original Star Trek IV bus song, I Hate You, and the new bus ride features a sequel song called I Still Hate You.
Seven and Raffi are on that bus, making their way to track down Rios (Santiago Cabrera), picked up in an ICE raid along with his new friend Dr. Teresa Ramirez (Sol Rodríguez). The dynamic between those two characters is the highlight of all the scenes involving Seven, Raffi and Rios, especially when Rios rattles off a very meta 45-second breakdown of Picard’s motley crew.
The scenes inside a U.S. Detention Center, as well as the police chase, help to frame an effort by the production team to make a statement about the indiscriminate way in which ICE and U.S. Customs like to label people as illegal (people are not “illegal” – ever) and the message is pure, if not overtly delivered.
No subtle hidden Trek metaphors here (“They make you swear allegiance?”), which in 2022 is probably a good thing.
The car chase banter between Seven and Raffi further harkens back to Kirk and Spock in The Voyage Home, and their last-second beam out to set-up the rescue of Rios (which seemingly is coming next week) is a good time, but the real fun in this episode lies again back at home base.
Aboard the crashed La Sirena, the interplay between “eternally lonely” Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) and the scrappy, street-savvy Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) is sharp and telling. Agnes needs the Queen’s help to get the transporters powered up in a way that will help Seven and Raffi — but the Queen is only willing to assist if Agnes steps up and convinces her to help. Being a fan of their previous “entwinement,” this Borg Queen understands exactly what it takes to get an army to follow you.
When Agnes wonders aloud how she’ll be able to trust her if she releases additional access to the ship’s systems, the Queen chastises her for even using the word, saying “betrayal is just an anagram for ‘believe me.” Jurati fails that test with a quizzical look as the Queen blares out, “Poetry, dear! Flair!” We are all getting an education in the motivations of this particular Borg matriarch, who clearly loves to be challenged by Agnes’ biological distinctiveness.
The playing field for the game these two are playing is incredibly even, with the Borg Queen calling her out again for being alone and Jurati responding with a supreme 25th century diss that it’s the Queen who is desperately “trying to have a slow conversation with me just to have someone to talk to.” Which, of course, is true. And also part of the manipulation.
In the end, Jurati convinces her to help by offering herself up to the Queen so that they can connect and “trade sad sack stories” in exchange for fixing the transporters. Of course, once Seven and Raffi have been saved, she limits the Queen’s access again and tiredly walks away, with the Borg queen calling after her. “Agnes!” And with that, Round 2 ends, but this time without a clear winner. (Looking forward to Round 3.)
The development of the Agnes and Borg Queen relationship is heading places and is the most surprising element of the season, thus far, but this episode will be receiving the most attention for another unexpected appearance of Guinan, following the return of Whoopi Goldberg to the role in the season opener, “The Star Gazer.”
The shock here is that a younger Guinan (Ito Aghayere), seen again at her bar on 10 Forward Street in Los Angeles, but this time in the year 2024, has been recast with a new actress who does a superb job of bringing the venerable character’s wisdom to life. Agheyere has the nuance of Goldberg’s inquisitive stare down pat, and the entire performance just feels right.
(Also, 1994-era Goldberg was not available for filming.)
Although, right off the bat, what doesn’t feel right is that Guinan seems to have no memory of the events of “Time’s Arrow,” where Picard, Data and company travelled back to 1896 San Francisco — where Guinan met them during their adventure.
This seemingly innocuous little fact is very likely to be the outrage of the week on the internet, but as Q made clear earlier this season, this new timeline is the past of the Confederation of Earth future — one that’s replaced the familiar chronology all together.
Picard showrunner Terry Matalas also made this point in post-show interviews published today: this version of Guinan never met the Enterprise-D crew.
This Guinan wouldn’t remember Picard because in this alternate timeline, the TNG episode “Time’s Arrow” never happened. Because there was no Federation, those events did not play out the same. No previous relationship exists.
However, she still was likely traveling to Earth and, as we know, she hung around a bit. So this Guinan is different. But she, of course, can sense something is off. She’s going through a kind of time-sickness thanks to Q’s meddling with the timeline.
Picard seems to realize this Guinan is different from what he expected almost right away, as he slowly drops a few crumbs of knowledge to get her to open up — staying hesitant to say too much, as to avoid adversely affecting her future.
Eventually Guinan relents and tells the admiral that she’s a listener, not a watcher; she’s even in the process of leaving Earth all together. The bartender reveals her deep disappointment in the unrealized potential of humanity, making the astute observation that the hatred on Earth never ends, “it just swaps clothes. This century took off a hood and put on a suit.” (Again, in the year 2022, there’s no time for subtlety.)
With nothing else to lose, Picard tells her his name and says in 400 years she will be his oldest and dearest friend — and after hearing ‘Picard,’ her face softens and Guinan decides to help point him in the right direction.
We aren’t exactly sure why she changed her mind, but it triggers her to finally help him make a connection with a local watcher with which she is acquainted. Guinan says the “watchers” are known as “supervisors,” and think of themselves as “guardian angels.” She sets him on the path to meet up with the one they are looking for, but not before hearing Picard implore her one last time to not give up on humanity.
After a few white-eyed, mind-controlled vessels pass Picard off through a maze across Los Angeles’ famous MacArthur Park, the watcher is revealed to be… someone who looks remarkably like Laris (Orla Brady), the Romulan housekeeper last seen watching over Chateau Picard in the season premiere.
As Picard says her name, she taps him on the shoulder and they are whisked away in a vaguely familiar, doorlike cloud of blue smoke — very similar to the travel method employed by Gary Seven, also known as Supervisor 194.
OBSERVATION LOUNGE
- Since there’s no Treaty of Algeron to prevent them, ships in the Confederation of Earth fleet employ cloaking devices.
- La Sirena landed on Earth on April 12, 2024, more than four months ahead of Benjamin Sisko and crew’s August visit to San Francisco in “Past Tense.”
- Chateau Picard was abandoned during World War II following the German invasion of France, driving the Picard family to England for several generations to follow — and perhaps an ancestral source of Jean-Luc Picard’s decidedly un-French accent.
- Yvette Picard plays Édith Piaf’s rendition of Non, je ne regrette rien to her young son, the same French tune which blasted over the Stargazer bridge moments before the ship’s destruction in “The Star Gazer.”
- Sanctuary District policies are on display at the LAPD precinct which Raffi and Seven visit.
- The episode features two references to Picard’s favorite fictional detective, Dixon Hill, the first in Jurati’s teasing comment to the Admiral in the abandoned Picard mansion. The second comes as a hardcover copy of The Pallid Son at the close of the hour, a Dixon Hill mystery written of course by author Tracy Tormé — the fictional counterpart of the “Big Goodbye” episode writer.
- Guinan experiences a moment of nauseating Af-kelt, an El-Aurian sickness caused by a corruption to the timeline.
- Dale, the man who takes Guinan’s dog Luna, is played by Impractical Jokers star Brian Quinn.
- Outside the 2024-era 10 Forward Avenue bar is a poster advertising a local boxing match featuring the same fighting lineup as seen in “The City on the Edge of Forever,” and located down the street from the bar is Floyd’s Barber Shop and a pop-up 21st Street Mission charitable giving station.
- Rios takes a moment to poke fun at Jean-Luc Picard’s body replacement from the end of last season, calling him “a crusty old admiral who, if I understand correctly, is now a flesh-and-blood robot, [but] I can’t be sure because nobody can explain it to me!”
- Q sits near the Jackson Roykirk Plaza at the end of this episode, a locale named for the 20th century inventor of the Nomad space probe encountered by the Enterprise crew in “The Changeling.”
- A little hard to make out on-screen, but thanks to released publicity photos, we can see that Q’s newspaper is dated January 21, 2024 — setting the final scene (and the start of whatever Q has been up to!) about three months ahead La Sirena’s arrival to the past.
- Along with the first hints of information about the upcoming Europa space flight mission, Q’s newspaper contains a few connections to Star Trek’s version of the 21st century — the headline reading “Brynner fights unionization” is referring to Christopher Brynner, the tech mogul whom Jadzia Dax partnered with during “Past Tense.” (The Brynner article has a byline attributed to Mark Zuelzke, Star Trek: Picard’s supervising art director.)
- In addition, the back page has an article on Sanctuary Districts, a blurb about counterfeit UHC cards, and a line noting that “Transparent aluminum could be an industry gamechanger,” thanks to Scotty sharing the compound’s formula with Dr. Nichols in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
The episode ends with a mysterious look at Q (John de Lancie), doing his own bit of “watching” as he monitors what appears to be a young woman working on a spaceflight mission to Europa; we’ve seen it highlighted on signage in the background of the past few episodes.
Speaking to himself he says under his breath that “she can’t do it,” that “fear is choking her,” and that “fear is the loudest voice in your head.” He then snaps his fingers as if to impart those commands, but nothing happens.
It’s an unexpected problem for Q, but the girl is unaware, laughing at the book she is reading and moving on with her day – oblivious. A memorable, mysterious close to another eventful episode.
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.
Star Trek: Picard returns March 31 with “Fly Me to the Moon” on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Amazon’s Prime Video service in most international locations.