TL;DR – It is the beginning of the end, and I don’t think I am ready

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

Oh wow, I can’t believe that we are already at the penultimate of Star Trek Picard. It is a show that feels like it was always with us, and also one that has gone in a blink of an eye. Well, today we get all out horses into line because the apocalypse is upon us and someone better stop it.  

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s Broken Pieces, the crew of La Sirena was about to do something monumentally stupid and that was to jump into the Borg’s transwarp network to get to Coppelius before the Romulans can blow it out of the sky. Well, this week we open with them doing just that, only they didn’t know that Narek (Harry Treadaway) was following them, oh and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) has her own Borg cube now. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

This episode feels like the culmination of nearly all of Star Trek Picard’s moving parts up to this point. We have finally found the synth’s home planet, and low and behold a Soong is floating around so we get to see some more Brent Spiner in his sixth different Soong persona. I do like that they are continuing the tradition confirmed in Enterprise (in its best season) that all the men in the Soong family just look like Brent Spiner. We also get Seven arriving with her Cube and still being the most badass thing in the show.

One of the really interesting parts of the episode is the revelation that the message the Romulans had been poisoning themselves looking at this message because it was not designed for organic brains. Depending on how long ago they found it (and the show references it being known in antiquity) this could be the reason behind the large shifts in Romulan society. Another interesting thing is that it is clear that Janeway didn’t completely kill off the Borg at the end of Endgame and did anyone else get a Species 8472 vibe from the orchids?

At the core of this episode is the decision as to should the synths wipe out all organic life to save themselves. This leads to some interesting pontifications, and I think the point that Soji (Isa Briones) ends up at the end of the episode is a believable one given everything she has been through. This was also the episode that let Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) come to the forefront “There’s a difference between killing an attacking enemy and watching a wounded one die.” It is also where for the first time I think we got everyone coming together to be a crew, and that is my jam.

The question now is, what happens next week. Well, you have to think that the fact that they reference Picard’s terminal illness this week that the extra body just lying around might be used for something. Also while there is a strong chance that the fleet of Romulan ships and that fleet of Starfleet ships at Deep Space 12 might have a ruckus (oh please let this happen). I would expect that it will be diplomacy that will win at the end of the day.

In the end, do we recommend Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1? Yes, we do. As the show comes to the end of its first season each episode has been gold. I will miss it when it is gone, but then bring on Season Two.              

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Star Trek: Picard yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Star Trek: Picard
Directed by – Akiva Goldsman
Written by – Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman & Akiva Goldsman
Created by – Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer & Alex Kurtzman
Based on – Star Trek: The Next Generation created by Gene Roddenberry
Production/Distribution Companies – CBS Studios & Amazon Prime
Starring – Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Isa Briones, Evan Evagora, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera & Harry Treadaway with Jeri Ryan, Brent Spiner, Tamlyn Tomita, Brian DeRozan,  Matt Perfetuo, Mike Perfetuo, Jade Ramsey & Nikita Ramsey