The second season of Star Trek: Picard is just plain fun. If you haven’t already, it is time to set your preconceived notions aside — especially in light of the more cerebral first season of the show, and just embrace the fact that this 10-episode production is having an absolute blast telling one incredibly detailed time travel story. That’s the show. And it’s great!

In “Two of One,” we see a show that knows what it is. A show completely confident in its storytelling process. A show jumping from one mini-cliffhanger to the next. A show tapping into the tapestry of Trek’s past. And a show that is itself a tapestry with one thread unraveling the next story and the next…

In terms of a review/recap of this episode, suffice it to say, the framework of a “gala” (read: party) requiring high-tech infiltration methods for our undercover team to get inside to keep one character out of trouble is about as simple as it gets. Nothing earthshattering there. In fact, framing this simple “plot” around the trope of seeing the events of the evening unfold as flashbacks from a specific result taking place 34 minutes earlier (or 26 or 14), adds even more familiarity to the episode’s structure.

But forget all that — because the beautiful character beats and nuance in the threads of this season is where this episode is at. And the starting point for that is the quiet scene between Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his young ancestor, Renée (Penelope Mitchell), that serves as a predestination paradox for what we saw in the season opener… when Jean-Luc recalls his mother inspiring him to “look up.”

In this key moment of the season, when Picard successfully convinces Renée to proceed with her mission in the face of her personal challenges with anxiety and depression, he asks her to “look up” as they stand inside a museum of historical ships… and above her is the immaculate OV-165 shuttle from the Star Trek: Enterprise opening credits!

The joy for the viewer in seeing this classic and familiar ship is matched by Renée, who lights up at the sight of a ship she affectionately calls “the Spike.”

With her guard down, Picard — posing as a security guard — helps her in the way we’ve seen him help so many characters in need through the years. It’s a Picard speech for the ages as he reminds her of how much she has accomplished even in the face of her “melancholy,” and that she reminds him of his own mother, who also loved the stars – and who also “struggled.”

As many of us are wont to do, she tries to support her self-doubt by saying “sometimes fear is a friendly reminder you aren’t ready for something,” to which Picard reminds her forcefully: “No! Fear is fear… it doesn’t speak in riddles.” He explains that by acknowledging fear is just proof of how smart she is and how she understands the risks. (This is the second time in two seasons that Picard has targeted “fear” in one of his famous speeches, previously telling Rios that “fear is the great destroyer” in “Broken Pieces.”)

The conversation gets deeper and deeper, eventually leading him to tell Renée there is always a light to guide you and find your way, even if sometimes it is only a glimmer. When she says his mother must have been very happy to have you, Jean-Luc is overcome with emotion, and we see another one of the dark flashbacks to his childhood that have permeated the season.

In the end, she is convinced and will proceed with the mission (even joking she wishes she could bring him along to help keep her team calm – little does she know how right she is!). The moment leaves us with little doubt that moving forward, in her personal times of struggle, she will remind herself to “look up” to collect herself or to power through – something that will be passed down through generations of Picard explorers.

In the other very strong character thread running through this episode, it’s time for Agnes v. the Borg Queen, Round 4! (And this just might be the final time we can truly say that, as the friendly foes get closer and closer to becoming “Two of One.”)

Their complex entwinement begins immediately when Agnes (Alison Pill), handcuffed to a chair, realizes she has the strength of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) to literally and figuratively break the chains to get Picard and crew into the party. Once the pair are out of confinement, signified by Agnes taking her hand to say she is ready to work as a team – “50/50,” the Queen begins exuding her influence at every corner (kissing Rios, ignoring hails from Picard, pushing Agnes to understand “good things happen when you lose control,” and providing … a distraction).

And what a distraction it is. In another spine-tingling moment from Terry Matalas and his crew, shot beautifully in a stark, black silhouette, queen Agnes takes the stage at the party to belt out a postmodern jukebox version of “Shadows of the Night.” And it’s official: Pat Benatar is now canon! (And should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, come on people. Look up her oeuvre.)

The performance from Alison Pill is a wonder — remember when we said how much fun this season is? — and the two actors on stage together in their dueling décolleté necklines is a gloriously dramatic image. Overjoyed from the rush and the applause, Agnes takes a bow and is joined by the Queen who reveals she was doing a little more than helping her provide a distraction, she needed those endorphins from the performance to gather enough strength to assume full control of the pairing.

Pill’s face goes from nervous to comfort in the span of a few seconds as her eyes go dark for an instant and she relinquishes any semblance of the control she once thought she had. But the truth is Jurati was never in control in her battle of wits with the Borg Queen, who told her as much two episodes prior in “Watcher.”

During that particular battle, the Queen flaunted her own confidence in saying, “it’s how you get the army to follow you… it’s how you teach the choir to sing.” And now two episodes later, Jurati is literally on stage signing at the behest of the Queen.

That singing distraction was needed to allow Picard a little extra time from the wrath of Adam Soong (Brent Spiner), who we now know is paying off his debt to Q by buying his way onto the Board of the Europa Mission so that he could adversely affect Picard’s ability to get to Renée. (Just go with it. It’s fun!) The quick meeting between Stewart and Spiner — back again after their emotional swan song for Data last season — was an impressive tête-à-tête between the two Trek powerhouse actors.

We’ll see Soong two more times in the episode, when he runs down Picard in a car, after the admiral pushes Renée out of harm’s way, setting up next week’s continuation with Picard in a coma, and then again with his daughter who the experimental geneticist has been working his whole life to save. (At least, that is how he would like people to see him.)

In reality, the “mad scientist label” that Soong has earned seems to be pretty accurate when Kore finds a stash of files on his computer that indicate he has been creating and losing daughters (that all look like her) at an alarming rate throughout his life. He is clearly a bad guy, capable of anything.

At this point, the Soong reveal is mildly interesting, but it seems like a good bet that this writers’ room is going somewhere with this that will connect to Trek in some interesting ways.

Throughout this season, there have been hints of some parallel storytelling, as the story structure heavily resembles Season 1’s mileposts: a reveal of a Borg ship in Episode 1 (“Remembrance” vs “The Star Gazer”), undercover party crashing in Episode 5 (“Stardust City Rag” vs “Fly Me to the Moon”), now it seems clear that many of these similarities must be by design.

In “The Impossible Box” (Season 1, Episode 6) Agnes is under an alien influence hiding her true motives and decisions from her shipmates, and here in “Two of One” (Season 2, Episode 6) she is again under alien influence and keeping a secret from her crew — this time, however, she’s a much larger threat as she harbors the Borg Queen’s consciousness (and nanoprobes, it seems)… calling her decision to lie to everyone an “impossible choice.”

Similarly, Kore (Isa Briones) is coming to grips with her unorthodox origins and asking the question, “What am I?” At the same point in Season 1, Soji was asking an identical question — resulting in her understanding that she’s a scientifically-created life form, much like how this episode seems to present Kore as a genetically-engineered creation of Adam Soong.

Ultimately, what these parallels might mean in the scope of the entire storyline for Picard remains a mystery.

Elsewhere in this episode we also get further developments between Picard and Tallinn (Orla Brady) — who he keeps calling Laris — and obviously has feelings for, asking the watcher, “Who is watching over you?” Her silent response speaks volumes. Additionally, Raffi (Michelle Hurd) has yet another mirage glimpse of Elnor (Evan Evagora) while at the party, and we see a happy and energized Rios (Santiago Cabrera) bouncing around the gala.

Rios loves the 21st century — especially the food and the honking! And it’s through Rios that Picard ends up in the urgent care facility run by Dr. Teresa Ramirez (Sol Rodriguez) after being hit by Soong. (“He’s had some transplants.” “How many?” “All of them.”)

Ramirez spends her time in the episode channeling her best Rain Robinson impersonation — this is a compliment of the highest order — and immediately knows something is off with her patient, even before she blows up her defibrillator while trying to jumpstart Picard’s heart.

OBSERVATION LOUNGE

• As noted by Tuskin38 in the comments below, the failed ID scan displayed when Rios first attempts to access the party is “Karl Leonard Kelley” — named for DeForest Kelley and Karl Urban, the two actors who’ve played Leonard McCoy — from El Paso, Texas,  birthplace of Gene Roddenberry.
   
  The birth date listed on the badge (March 11, 1964) is the date of the famous “Star Trek is…” pitch letter, and the issue date of January 23, 2020 signifies Star Trek: Picard’s series premiere.
   
• Rios’ alias, Villalobos Xavier Vicente, shares a birthday with actor Santiago Cabrera: May 5, 1978.
   
• Renée Picard nicknames the OV-165 shuttle “Spike” based on its unique aerospike engine design. In perhaps a sly double-meaning, “Spike” was also the original name for the character we later knew as Charles “Trip” Tucker.
   
• As we first showed you on Monday, a pre-sentient model and display of the Nomad space probe is on display in the ‘history of spaceflight’ exhibit; the probe was of course first seen in the Original Series episode “The Changeling.”
   
• Besides his lack of Irumodic Syndrome, the explosive feedback given off by his defibrillator shock is the first physical alternation we’ve seen from Picard’s synthetic new body.
   
• Rios tells Dr. Ramirez that “We’re the good guys,” in the same way Tom Paris once told Rain Robinson, “Look, we saved your life. Isn’t it obvious we’re on your side?”
   
• In a very rare instance for Star Trek, at least mid-season, the music during the opening credits has mysteriously changed for this episode. The differences are subtle but also clear, especially in the opening notes. It must mean something, but your guess is as good as ours.

It’s Tallinn, though, who sets the stage for the storyline’s continuation in the next episode, as she recommends a “jury-rigged mind meld” to burrow into Picard’s psyche and help him break out of his mentally active — yet comatose — state. This set-up is another classic Star Trek trope, this one along the lines of “Dark Page” and “Extreme Measures,” and should go a long way in revealing some of the internal demons that Picard has been battling.

The procedure is not without risk, but at this point even exasperated Raffi must ask herself, “How much worse can it get?” as the camera cuts to a Borg-Queen-controlled Agnes Jurati walking the streets of Los Angeles in her stunning red dress, carrying her shoes. It’s the ultimate stride of pride for a character who has struggled to find her footing throughout the series’ first two seasons, and it is accompanied by an audible undercurrent of voices from the collective.

Powerful stuff — and probably not a great thing for the citizens of 2024.

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 for its next episode April 14 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.