Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 6
Any episode of Star Trek: Picard that features the La Sirena crew gussied up in formal wear, finds an excuse for a random musical interlude, and features Patrick Stewart giving a heartfelt pep talk to a young woman doubting her own strength is automatically going to be an instant classic in my book. Is “Two for One” a perfect hour? Nope. Does everything that happens in it even fully make sense? Not really! But, this episode is full of that magical alchemy of heart and hope that is so purely Star Trek that it’s impossible to look away from, even during its most head-scratching moments. Of course, the setting helps a great deal. Picard and friends must infiltrate a swanky gala that’s taking place to honor the Europa mission astronauts, which naturally involves a complicated plan to hack their way into the security base with several near-misses and almost-discoveries along the way. (Dress ranking: Jurati’s red number is killer, but that teal color looks great on Seven.) The secret mission vibes are lots of fun, and offer plenty of opportunities for the sort of light-hearted moments we haven’t had the chance to see a lot this season, what with all the encroaching authoritarianism and alien genocide. From Rios’s love of non-replicator-made food to Jurati’s snarky arguments with the Borg Queen that’s apparently taken up permanent residence in her head, I honestly wouldn’t have minded watching the gang drink and spy on Picard’s great-great-cousin Renee for a bit longer. The episode’s framing device of a countdown to the moment Picard is hit by a car is…a choice, particularly given that we all already know he’s not in any real danger—after all, the news that most of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast is joining Picard Season 3 was just announced this week! Why does Soong decide to tell Picard he’s been tasked with stopping Renee? Why does he just go home after his murder attempt fails? How come Rios’s nice doctor friend doesn’t seem to really notice that Picard doesn’t exactly have a standard-issue human body anymore? And who drives a possibly dying man across town in Los Angeles traffic? These are all weird things that happen! Elsewhere, the revelation that Dr. Adam Soong is perhaps the darkest branch of his admittedly very messed up family tree is disturbing on multiple levels. According to the articles Kore finds, he’s had his medical license revoked on the basis of multiple ethics violations and been accused of conducting illegal genetic experiments on homeless veterans. It’s not clear whether he’s somehow been cloning the different versions of Kore who came before her, genetically altering embryos, or what, exactly, but given the sheer volume of files on his desktop, whatever he’s been doing has been going on for a very long time. Kore, by the way, is another name for the goddess Persephone, who appears to have been the namesake of Soong’s first “child”. There’s something darkly fitting that he’s come full circle with this one, that he seems for some reason to assume is his last attempt. What his ultimate goal is—with Kore specifically or all the other experiments that came before her—is unclear. Why does she look exactly like Dahj and Soji Asha? Does Adam Soong’s work connect to that of his descendants in some way? Is his failure to clone/make/create humans the reason later generations of the Soong family turned to androids and synthetics? (Props to Brent Spiner though, who does seem to be having a fantastic time playing a Soong that’s very quickly unraveling.)
