Locutus returns to the cube. Picard confronts his nightmare past. "The Impossible Box" Soji's robot denial expresses itself through dreams and nightmares of her father/creator Bruce Maddox, and her Romulan spy space boyfriend helps her dig into them. He wants to know where she came from, the synth homeworld, because Romulans don't like the robots. Once they get what they need, they'll kill her anyway, so it's okay she's approaching the brink of a nervous breakdown, as long as she doesn't activate. This is a fragile process once she finds evidence her entire existence does not exceed thirty-six months. Will Picard arrive in time to rescue her? Will his first visit to a Borg cube since his assimilation slow him down? Dr. Jurati keeps acting suspicious after euthanizing Maddox last ep, and Elnor senses her troubles but he's too naive to process. Rios just sleeps with her. Raffi cons her old friend using the truth to get them into restricted access. But this episode isn't about them. It's about Picard looking at his reflection in a holographic picture himself when he was Locutus and ominously confronting his past. Star Trek Future History Lesson: It's not a Cube anymore, it's the Borg Reclamation Project. And they aren't drones anymore, they're XB's. Ex-Borg. You see, sometime about fourteen years ago, a Borg cube approached Romulan space, assimilated some Romulans and abruptly has a cascade failure that separated it from the Collective, and the Romulans took it into their custody. A special treaty after the Romulan Star Empire devolved into the Romulan Free State allows scientists to conduct research on the "Artifact." And Hugh, the original ex-Borg (well, Picard is the original original), is the Director of this project. Hugh turns out to be welcome friend and emotional anchor for Picard, one of the few people who, like Seven of Nine, can relate to Picard's experiences. The Borg are a metaphor. Hugh tours Picard around the Cube until we realize all these XB's that they're helping transition through the trauma of the reclamation procedure now represent the immigrant crisis. Kinda maybe?. The Borg used to represent the post-modern loss of identity to the machine-state (a concept oddly more relevant now in the polarized internet disinformation age than ever). They were an easy enemy to dehumanize: un-saveable cyber-zombies that consume all. But even though they can now be rehabilitated from their toxic culture they are still feared and hated by association. This is not unlike the way Syrian refugees are feared and often hated because of the culture they came from, one associated with the toxic extremist culture of terrorists, our own contemporary badguys we're too happy to dehumanize. The Romulan spies get what they need from Soji and accidentally activate her in the process of trying to kill her. Duh. She punches through the floor with her new robot-super-strength and encounters Picard. "My name is Jean-Luc Picard, I'm here to rescue you." They run to a secret room where Hugh activates a secret Spacial Trajector (read: long range teleporting doorway, a reference to an obscure Voyager episode). Elnor pops in to play Space-Legolas with his sword, and immediately offers to stay behind to cover their escape. "My blade is pledged to protect you." But Picard argues, "Then I release you from your pledge." Elnor: "I decline to be released." As Picard ushers Soji through the safety portal, and the door rises to obstruct our view, Elnor warns the approaching guards, "Please my friends, choose to live." Roll credits. This is hokey as hell, but the execution is super badass. Kudos to the editors for nailing the timing on this climactic scene and making it work. Conclusion: This episode truly rocked. Great chemistry among Picard's new crew, even if they're imbalanced, awkward, and unstable. I'm really digging their acting and interacting and under other conditions, I would've loved to see a status quo where they went on more adventures. Ya know, if their ship wasn't so bland-looking. Obviously they will self-destruct in some fashion by season's end. All the psychological torture of the Borg stuff was great this week and Patrick Stewart really rose to the occasion. The plot threads have all coalesced pretty climatically and I'll be curious to see how the story expands into the third act. Fatal Flaw: Raffi says of Picard, "Every part of that guy that's not ego is rampaging id." I get that she's insulting him to curry favor with someone at Starfleet who doesn't hold him in high regard, but... What does this even mean? Is there a single scene in all of Star Trek that depicts this ever? And why is this glorified phone call the moment that warrants a remnant of the old TNG theme music to rouse our excitement? Last Week
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