Star Trek: Picard 2.7: The Bread was Tastier than the Meat

Star Trek: Picard 2.7 was a bit of a turkey, more specifically the Picard in a coma on a couch part, but the rest, including the last scene with Picard with Guinan in her bar, was well worth watching.

Let's start with the psychoanalysis or whatever it was with Renee going inside Picard's head. If I was up for a story like that, I'd watch In Treatment, any season.  It was good to James Callis, aka Baltar of Battlestar Galactica as the shrink, though, and let's just leave it at that.

Among the highlights of the rest [Spoilers ahead]:

• Rios and the doctor and her son -- both their relationship and his beaming them up to the ship -- were all fun and good to see.
• Agnes under the control of the Borg Queen is always good to see -- that is, it's bad, very bad, for all our characters, especially poor Agnes, not to the mention the Universe, but it's great for the narrative.  I say that even though breaking the window to boost her control of Agnes was a little on the weak side to see (especially given the damage that anyone under Borg control can likely do).
• And then there's that last scene in the bar.  First, it was good to see Jay Karnes (The Shield, 12 Monkeys) back in action, even if he does only play an FBI guy (which he did in 12 Monkeys). And, actually, though he may be an FBI agent, I think it's a pretty good guess that he's another member of the Q Continuum.  After all, Guinan was trying to summon Q, and the character who walked down those stairs had a Q-like feel, didn't he?   (By the way, I don't know what Star Trek can do about this, but whenever I hear anything about Q, I think of QAnon in our reality, which I'd really rather not).

Anyway, I'm up for the next episode, and I'll see you here next week with my review.

See also Picard 2.6: Borg and Soong .. Picard 2.5: Don't Walk Away Renee ... Picard 2.4: 2024 LA ... Picard 2.3: Agnes, Borg, Badge ... Picard 2.2: Q and Borg ...  Star Trek: Picard 2.1: Cameos and Time Travel ...  Star Trek: Picard (Season One): Non-Pareil 

                                                        a little time travel story -- free

Last Resort 1.5: Executive Gunplay

Last Resort continues to impress as the best new show on television - taking nothing away from Revolution - and episode 1.5 was the best since the pilot.

There were two powerful stories in this episode.  One featured Grace Shepard in charge of the sub on a dangerous mission.   Although the ending was predictable - of course Grace and the sub survive - the way to the ending had some good twists and results.  James survives, and Prosser finally comes to see that Grace has what it takes.

The second story was one of the best to come down the pike in an earlly episode of a new series in quite some time.   The Secretary of Defense (Curry, played by The Shield's Jay Karnes) comes to the island for negotiation, along with Admirable Shepard (Grace's father) and Presidential assistant Amanda Straugh.  Two surprises ensue -

Sam sure looks like he's accepting the President's amended, generous offer - to Chaplin's dismay.  But it turns out that's what Chaplin wanted all along.  Pretty good twist, but the next surprise is the stunner:  when Straugh suddenly withdraws the peace offer (when she's informed of Grace's mission), and orders the US ships in the area to take the Colorado (with Grace and crew) out, Admirable Shepard shoots her dead before she's completed her command, and wounds the Secretary of Defense in the process.

Not only a brilliant, classic, punch-in-the-plexus Shawn Ryan scene, but it gets precisely at what makes Last Resort so good:  gunplay involving the Secretary of Defense, Presidential assistants shot dead, nukes aimed and sometimes fired at Washington.   You just can't find that anyplace else, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Last Resort: Best New Show on Television

V 2.4 at the Vatican and Mossad

V 2.4 continues to move into risky, controversial territory, with an episode that brings Anna to the Vatican, and just for good measure, thrusts Erica into an uneasy alliance with a former Mossad (Israeli intelligence) agent.

The Vatican trip continues Anna's quest to learn all she can about the human soul, so she can exterminate it, and with it the presumed source of human emotion, which she is afraid will infect her.  In round one of her visit, the College of Cardinals rejects Anna's request that the Vatican restrain priests like Father Jack, who has been speaking out against the Visitors.   In round two, Anna blackmails the College into supporting her request, by threatening to dazzle the human species with daily or more often "miracles" such as blue energy.   Not a very flattering portrayal of the Church, thus far.

But there is a priest at the Vatican who see things differently - turns out he's a Visitor from a few years back, tasked by Diana to find out about the human soul, and what he's discovered is that the soul could be the most wonderful gift that humans could give to the Visitors.   Rather than attempting to eradicate the soul, the Visitors should nurture it in humans and do what they can to cultivate it in themselves.   Anna has no intention of doing this, and plans to torture the Visitor priest into telling her all he knows about human beings.  But before she has a chance to do this, Diane mercy-him kills him, to keep him out of Anna's hands.   So the contest between Anna and her mother Diana continues, with Diana  becoming an ever more sympathetic character.  I see an alliance between Diana and her grand daughter Lisa in the not-too-distant future.

Meanwhile, Tyler and Visitor-loyal humans trash Father Jack's Church while he's on a mission upstate.  This provided me with an important piece of knowledge: the older priest, Father Travis, is almost certainly not a Visitor.  I was a little concerned, last season, that he was.

Father Jack's mission in upstate New York brings him into contact with Eli Cohn (played by Oded Fehr  of Sleeper Cell), the former Mossad agent.   Erica and the rest of our good guys are there, and the result is an alliance, for the time being, which will enable Erica to account for Malik's disappearance.  But not all's well that ends well here, especially with Erica now partnered with Chris Bolling (played by Jay Karnes of The Shield), on assignment to find out exactly what Erica's up to.

V continues to keep the pot simmering with stories that reach ever further into the diverse paths of human existence.

See also:  V is Back and Badler ... V 2.2: Do Beings from Planets Have Souls? ... V 2.3 Meets 24

And reviews of Season 1:  V Returns to TV ... V 1.2: The Effects and The Characters ... V 1.3: Multiple Twists and Lizard Visions ... V 1.4: Good Medicine for Television ... V's Back in 1.5 ... V 1.6: Floating Witches ... V 1.7: Ryan's Story ... V 1.8: Is Lisa Becoming 5th Column? ... V 1.9: Moral Complexity and NonStop Action ... V 1.11:  Lisa's Loyalties ... V 1.12: Complex Chess and Red Cloud

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The Plot to Save Socrates




"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book