Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 2x07 - "Monsters"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
I don't know what to think of this one.
If this was a non-serialized show, I would love it. I like slow episodes with a lot of character stuff.
But since this isn't a non-serialized show and we still haven't gotten much answers to almost all of the plotlines, I'm afraid we're going to get some kind of rushed finale with a lot of plotlines unanswered and I hate that!
It feels we're stuck and we have been for a long time.
Season 4 of Discovery should have been told in 3 or 4 episodes and it seems season 2 of Picard is a three-parter at best as well...
The writing on Kurtzman-Trek is all over the place. Stop doing serialized shows if you can't handle it!
I felt Guinan was more Guinan this week. That's a plus.
If this was a non-serialized show, I would love it. I like slow episodes with a lot of character stuff.
But since this isn't a non-serialized show and we still haven't gotten much answers to almost all of the plotlines, I'm afraid we're going to get some kind of rushed finale with a lot of plotlines unanswered and I hate that!
It feels we're stuck and we have been for a long time.
Season 4 of Discovery should have been told in 3 or 4 episodes and it seems season 2 of Picard is a three-parter at best as well...
The writing on Kurtzman-Trek is all over the place. Stop doing serialized shows if you can't handle it!
I felt Guinan was more Guinan this week. That's a plus.
Rios isn’t a doctor, and the doctor isn’t a 24th century one. Get a grip, it’s realistic dialogue for the scene.
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I'm not sure but if this whole arc is supposed to reflect Sir Patrick's life arc... he had to overcome his fear because it was based on him not letting out all the anger inside him that his childhood had produced. He always held back that anger (for good reason IMO, I know exactly what that anger is like due to my own personal experiences, you do NOT want to unleash it because you can't control it anymore after a certain point) and kept it bottled up because he feared someone would notice it and he would lose control etc. It even affected his acting, directors would get frustrated because he couldn't act out anger properly. Maybe this is what's going on for Jean-Luc, too. I mean even though we now know things weren't the way he thought they were and that his father tried to HELP his mother, he still perceived it as his father being abusive. And he couldn't "protect" his mother.
Based on all this, I would not be surprised to learn that Jean-Luc's fear is based on an uncontrollable rage inside him that he doesn't want for anyone to know about (would fit with the whole "hiding a darker version of yourself" suggestion and the whole "you want for people to say you're righteous" and all). Maybe the Borg play into it as well because used that very rage in some way when he was assimilated, adding to his already extensive Borg trauma and PTSD. (Remember, Locutus was never meant to be an ordinary drone.) I'm just speculating here of course but knowing Sir Patrick's story, all of this might turn out to be relevant to Jean-Luc's story as well.
EDIT: Maybe the anger also affects Q in some way since we all know how Jean-Luc is Q's favorite and Q is "fixated" on him. This would actually fit well with Q actually slapping Jean-Luc and the aggressiveness towards him and Q being shocked at his own actions. It's Jean-Luc's own rage being reflected back at him through Q. (Sir Patrick has often said that Q is Jean-Luc's "other side".)
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As someone who has a mental disability, I am really disliking how they treat anyone with mental disabilities. They are a problem, so we move them somewhere where they can't be seen. Hell, we will lock them up in a room. They are cursed with a monster. What the hell kind of writing is this? Where is the 24th century sensibility on mental illness? There wasn't a time so long ago when people like me on the spectrum were relegated to mental asylums or into segregated workplaces because other people did not how to treat us fairly and equitably. Fuck these writers.
I think you misunderstood the scenes.
This was Picard’s childhood brain interpreting what he experienced. Not what literally happened.
I liked this episode a little more than I thought I would, because I usually groan at those "inside your head" episodes. They did a nice job intercutting to the other cast members to keep the episode flowing.
I didn't know what to make of James Callis's psychiatrist/psychologist at first. It was like ST: Picard was going all Matrix Resurrections. When the doctor was talking about Picard's dark side, I was hoping we would get some kind of nod to Shinzon. I wasn't expecting the twist with the shrink, though I had read somewhere on this board-I think-that Picard's mother had mental issues, so whoever said that was spot on. I was thinking they would just go with the father was the monster in Picard's imagination, but they made things a bit more complicated than that and I think that was for the good.
I can't say I liked the inside of Picard's mind. It doesn't jibe with how I see him, but I guess that's the point. We all have facades and there's a lot of things people don't see about each of us. That said, I still don't buy that Picard has been so driven by his childhood pain. I don't buy that's the reason for a lot of the heroic acts we saw on TNG. I think the series is attempting to break him, to deconstruct him because that's the in thing now instead of him taking actions that are organic to his character as established on TNG.
I also liked Callis's 2399-style uniform. The subtle changes made the suit way more acceptable and less thrown together than in the first season. I liked that we learned that Talinn was Romulan, though I was really hoping she was Laris and that her job was to look after the Picard bloodline.
I thought it was nice bringing Guinan back into the mix, but the way the El-Aurians can summon the Q was too horror movie schlocky for my tastes. As was some of Picard's dreamscape. I was happy to see Jay Karnes, but I was really hoping he was the same character from VOY. Also, I think it would've been neat to get another Q to show up, if Guinan hadn't been able to summon De Lancie's Q.
As for the rest of the crew, I really thought Rios gave away way too much about who he is, especially to the doctor's son. How can he really expect a child to not say anything about that? This development has be setting up Rios either to stay behind or take them to the future. I'm leaning toward staying behind because it appears Rios has less ties to the future than the doctor does to the present. The doctor has more of a purpose in the future than Rios does IMO, even though he is a Starfleet captain now. The doctor is helping people desperately in need and I could see Rios wanting to stay behind, for her, and also to help her help others.
I'm glad that Raffi and Seven explained Borg Queen possessed Jurati's actions.
While I got some answers, I still don't think enough has been explained, and now there's only three episodes to go. It appears that the Renee storyline is done, but we still have to resolve the Soongs, Q, and now the Borg Queen. I don't know if we are ever going to get to the trigger that caused the Confederation reality or not.
I didn't know what to make of James Callis's psychiatrist/psychologist at first. It was like ST: Picard was going all Matrix Resurrections. When the doctor was talking about Picard's dark side, I was hoping we would get some kind of nod to Shinzon. I wasn't expecting the twist with the shrink, though I had read somewhere on this board-I think-that Picard's mother had mental issues, so whoever said that was spot on. I was thinking they would just go with the father was the monster in Picard's imagination, but they made things a bit more complicated than that and I think that was for the good.
I can't say I liked the inside of Picard's mind. It doesn't jibe with how I see him, but I guess that's the point. We all have facades and there's a lot of things people don't see about each of us. That said, I still don't buy that Picard has been so driven by his childhood pain. I don't buy that's the reason for a lot of the heroic acts we saw on TNG. I think the series is attempting to break him, to deconstruct him because that's the in thing now instead of him taking actions that are organic to his character as established on TNG.
I also liked Callis's 2399-style uniform. The subtle changes made the suit way more acceptable and less thrown together than in the first season. I liked that we learned that Talinn was Romulan, though I was really hoping she was Laris and that her job was to look after the Picard bloodline.
I thought it was nice bringing Guinan back into the mix, but the way the El-Aurians can summon the Q was too horror movie schlocky for my tastes. As was some of Picard's dreamscape. I was happy to see Jay Karnes, but I was really hoping he was the same character from VOY. Also, I think it would've been neat to get another Q to show up, if Guinan hadn't been able to summon De Lancie's Q.
As for the rest of the crew, I really thought Rios gave away way too much about who he is, especially to the doctor's son. How can he really expect a child to not say anything about that? This development has be setting up Rios either to stay behind or take them to the future. I'm leaning toward staying behind because it appears Rios has less ties to the future than the doctor does to the present. The doctor has more of a purpose in the future than Rios does IMO, even though he is a Starfleet captain now. The doctor is helping people desperately in need and I could see Rios wanting to stay behind, for her, and also to help her help others.
I'm glad that Raffi and Seven explained Borg Queen possessed Jurati's actions.
While I got some answers, I still don't think enough has been explained, and now there's only three episodes to go. It appears that the Renee storyline is done, but we still have to resolve the Soongs, Q, and now the Borg Queen. I don't know if we are ever going to get to the trigger that caused the Confederation reality or not.
I hope you are right, Tuskin38, but I don't trust these writers.
Honestly Rios is moving way too fast to the point he literally violated the temporal prime directive that he as a Starfleet officer swore to uphold just... to increase his chances of a relationship with Teresa. Yeah. If he literally were not looking like handsome Santiago Cabrera then Teresa would have already called for a restraining order on Rios.
As it is, even if Teresa now knows the whole truth I don't think she would accept Rios staying behind just for her. Everything we've seen on her shows her to be the kind of person who would be like "We've only known each other for a few days, and this is way too soon and I don't want the burden of being responsible for you never being able to go home again."
If anything I find this episode contradictory to past info (in spirit, no hard continuity errors). If Yvette was in such a bad mental state, why did Maurice forbid technology rather than allow it to make things easier for her (like getting a replicator even, something TNG said he was against), and also why didn't he allow modern medicine to try to help her (unless he somehow blames medicine for making her state worse, i.e. I've seen drugs cause horrific mental side effects in my family but I'd assume that had improved by 24th century).
Why was Maurice so set against Jean-Luc going to Starfleet? You'd think he'd want his son to get away from a miserable environment if he's really the "good guy".
Maybe less a "good guy" and just not a monster and "bad guy".
We don't have answers yet, but that doesn't mean there wont be some. It is possible he believed (truthfully or erroneously) the illness was exacerbated by technology. There could even be a trait of manic or depressive genes in the female line of the Picards. That could tie Rene and Yvette's stories together.
Perhaps his mother's "flights of fancy" and dreaming of the stars - was something he saw in Jean-Luc as he was growing up, and feared what may happen if he left Earth, and left his "control".
Can’t see the episode until tomorrow. But does it involve a cellular peptide cake with mint frosting?