After 17 years, Patrick Stewart finally reprises his role of Jean-Luc Picard, and I was more than a little excited. How do I possibly rate these episodes at all, let alone individually? Each season is a 10-episode story, so do I rate each episode on its own merit, or within the context of the overall story? Am I even capable of giving a 1-star rating to any of these when I'm just so happy to see Jean-Luc again?

There's a good bit to take in for this very first episode. We start with the poker scene in Ten Forward to get all the fanboys squealing right off the bat (myself included). Then Picard has to get some exposition out there by way of a news interview so that we can establish the backdrop of past events. As exposition vehicles go, this interview was a pretty good way to go, I think. Then we have Dahj, a seemingly happy-go-lucky young woman who suddenly turns into an elite fighting machine for the requisite action scenes so that people don't start wandering away out of boredom. I'm fine with that; of course there has to be some action. I'm just glad they didn't double-down and throw in a gratuitous sex scene to garner additional viewership. We get lots of fan service by way of the archive room and all its easter eggs, and then another action scene that unexpectedly kills off what we thought was a main character. Picard goes off to Okinawa so Dr. Agnes Jurati can exposit about androids, with an unintentionally-hilarious cameo by B-4's head, and finally we get the money shot at the end of the Borg cube which made everyone say, “Wait, whaaaat?” so of course they will tune in to the second episode.

The episode feels a little slower than the previous one, probably because it is still filling in a lot of prologue. The interspersed scenes of Laris expositing about the Zhat Vash and their forensic investigation at Dahj's apartment feel like they drag on for too long just to establish only two things: the proverbial boogeyman for the season, and that Dahj's sister isn't on Earth.

The scene with Picard's doctor seems like it might have been meant for a cameo appearance for, say, Dr. Pulaski or something (although a cursory internet search doesn't support that). Instead, we get a character that seems important to Picard but has never been mentioned even once up to this point.

This episode takes its time introducing two new characters, Raffi and Rios. We gather that Raffi hasn't been taking very good care of herself since she and Picard were ousted from Starfleet 14 years prior. Rios, on the other hand... well, he's a little bit more of a mystery. We know he was in Starfleet, and we know something terrible happened to his previous captain, but that's about it. Well, besides the fact that he has holograms of himself helping him to run the ship.

We get a little bit of a fight scene about two-thirds of the way through to break up the monotony of all this introduction. Also, there's a bit of a mystery dangled in front of us in the form of Soji's interview with Ramdha. Still, the episode largely feels like more prologue, setting things up before the real adventure begins. I was relieved when the gang finally set course away from Earth — maybe there will be more plot development in the next episode, finally. (There won't be.)

This episode's purpose is to tell a back story about the planet Vashti, and to introduce Elnor, nothing more. In fact, the scenes on the Borg artifact really aren't even necessary, except to remind us that Soji, Narek, and Narissa still exist.

This episode feels, to me, like the most arduous one as far as furthering the plot of Season One. Part of the reason for that is because at the end of the previous episode, our heroes were warping off to adventure, but their trip to Freecloud is entirely interrupted by this side-quest to pick up Elnor.

And let's talk about Elnor. I honestly think that someone on the show decided that they needed someone to be a sword-slinger to round out the ragtag group so they could have a different type of hand-to-hand action for future episodes, so they made this entire backstory about Vashti and the Qowat Milat just for him. It has little to no connection to any previous art, and I'm not saying that it has to, but it does weaken this story's standing in the universe. I could look back on this episode and forgive it if Elnor were to become a great and beloved character, but his use on the show is pretty much only twofold: swordplay and comedy relief. They frequently play on his naïveté from his sheltered upbringing as a comedy device.

Finally, we're doing something! It seems like people didn't care for this episode, but I thought it was great. I rather enjoyed Seven playing the “straight man” while Picard emoted with his over-the-top French accent. Maybe people didn't care for the opening scene, and I have to agree that it seemed to mostly be there for shock value, but it does successfully convey why Seven would be so hellbent on revenge. Rios' flamboyant persona and Picard's ridiculous accent are a nice, humorous contrast to the gravity of Seven's burden.

Elnor serves no purpose in this episode except to be awkward. Sure, he collects weapons and holds people at bay at one point, but anyone could have done that. And Jurati is mostly just there to have a panic attack about using the transporter. Why didn't Rios just have one of his myriad holograms do it?

On IMDb, this is the lowest-rated episode of the season. Many reviewers object to the gory opening scene, and I agree that they probably could have toned it down a little bit. That objection then seems to spill over into the general feeling of the episode – that it's dark and contrary to the optimism many fans have come to expect from Star Trek. I assume that these critics probably didn't care much for Deep Space Nine, either. I think there's still plenty of optimism to be had in the Federation, but that doesn't mean there aren't parts of the galaxy that are still seedy and pessimistic. But once someone has decided they don't like the episode, that colors their thoughts on other elements of the story, like taking umbrage with Picard's ridiculous French accent which, under different circumstances, they might have found humorous.

I'm not saying they're wrong. It's difficult to be impartial when you feel strongly about something, and I certainly have my own opinions on things that sway my decisions. My only concern, as I've said before, is that sometimes people deny themselves the opportunity to enjoy new Trek for what it is, because they're a little too hung up on what it was.

It's Soji's big moment as Narek will finally help her to uncover the truth about who she is. From a strange recurring dream with orchids blocking her view, to her odd conversations with her mother, Soji starts to question everything. The tension builds as she discovers abnormalities about her own belongings. She starts to panic, and Narek helps her through a ritual meditation to unlock the secrets of her dream. As she walks the path, the panic and stress crescendo until she's finally able to push past the orchids for the big reveal...!

...the problem is that we, the audience, already know that Soji is an android. I still think the episode does a very effective job of building the anticipation up to that last moment, but it is ultimately an epiphany for Soji, not the audience. As for the rest, it was nice to see the reunion between Picard and Hugh, and the episode does a pretty good job of addressing Picard's heavy apprehension about stepping foot on a Borg cube again.

There are two things that I didn't care for in this installment. The scene between Rios and Jurati seems very out of place and is kind of annoying. I get that they're trying to display that Jurati has “seen some stuff” and is suffering from some serious psychological trauma, but I think that could have been accomplished much better with a different tactic. I suspect that someone decided that they needed to inject some sex-appeal into the episode, so this is what we ended up with. The other thing I wasn't a huge fan of: after Raffi successfully secures diplomatic credentials for Picard, the theme song from The Next Generation plays triumphantly in the background as if some great victory has been made. But the victory comes at a heavy cost for Raffi, and she had just finished trying to make light of drinking herself to death, as she is actively in the middle of a concerning bender. It doesn't feel like the right time for triumphant music to me.

This episode is delightful, and it's a nice break from the Borg and the Romulans and space and all that stuff. Sometimes it's nice to settle down and just make some wood-fired pizza in the back yard! And do you know why the warmth and love displayed among Picard, Riker, and Troi works so well? It's because the actors are all dear friends and really do love each other. All those hugs were very much sincere.

As for the other two plots, well, *sigh*. Obviously Jurati is tortured because of the events in the opening scene of this episode. Both because of what Commodore Oh showed her in the mind-meld, and also because she is the reason Narek keeps finding them. (You know, when Oh hands her the tracker saying “Take this”, Jurati immediately puts it in her mouth. I was half expecting Oh to be like “No, wha– what are you doing? You don't eat it...”) Anyway, Jurati takes a really long time to come around, and in the meantime we have to watch her eat and throw up cake like an idiot.

And then there's the short Hugh/Elnor plot line, just to get in a little bit of hand-to-hand combat to offset the relaxing woodsy cabin plot. Okay, fine. But was it really necessary to kill off Hugh??? Couldn't he have just continued to live and do good work treating the xBs? What purpose did his death serve the story? Boo!

This is an important episode, with some great moments that actually made it difficult for me to decide which ones to use for the two episode images here. I wanted to include the scene with the five emergency holograms gathered in the château recreation, and also that photograph of Rios and his former captain. Watching Santiago Cabrera (Cris Rios) playing five characters in the same scene was delightful, especially with Raffi trying to wrangle them all to cooperate. Also, the scene with Seven of Nine taking control of the Borg cube was certainly a powerful one.

On my first watch-through of Star Trek: Picard, I had some trouble following certain elements of the story. Now, on my second watch-through, I'm filling in some of the gaps in my mind. It's a little easier now to understand everything that's happening because I already know what is coming, and I have come to realize that my confusion the first time through is justified. The story elements are often told out of order, so even on the second time through it's a little confusing. Some plot points that come up aren't fully explained until future episodes, so if you are only watching one episode per week (like I did, as the episodes were first released), it's easy to forget certain details that might have happened in the weeks prior.

This episode seeks to help with that confusion, by summing up everything that has happened in these first eight episodes and teeing up what you need to know for the two-episode season finale. If you find yourself still confused, just go back and watch that scene toward the end of this episode where Picard, Rios, Raffi, Jurati, and Soji all sit around the table literally explaining everything – as many times as you need.

I am not sure how to describe this episode except weird. We have giant space orchids, we have androids performing mind-melds – which I thought required Vulcan telepathy and wasn't just “something you can learn” – we have a very awkward moment between Picard and Raffi, we have this weird little amphitheater where everyone gathers to further the plot like they're going to watch a little play or something, we have “death by hummingbird brooch to the eye”... and we have a little repeating gif of Maddox and Jurati making out.

The gang spends all of 10 minutes on the Borg cube to confirm that Seven and Elnor are okay, and then they just leave them behind. Soong shows Jurati a “golem” in a strange little scene that is obviously only there to introduce the thing that will be important later. Saga gives Raffi a device to help fix la Sirena – a device which apparently runs on the power of ✨IMAGINATION✨. Do you see what I mean? This episode is weird.

Ooof, okay, let's get into this, shall we? We sort of have the elements of a finale, here. A big bad space fleet is on the way, time is running out, yadda yadda... but somehow it just doesn't quite feel right.

Since this is the series finale, the rest of my thoughts are probably going to be spoilers.First we have Soji, who was at first very skeptical at the idea of contacting the “uber-synths,” but is now hellbent on doing it for some reason. We have Elnor and Narek's really bad plan to do hand-to-hand combat with androids in order to distract them from Rios hesitating to throw a bomb, and they ultimately just fail. We have Jurati who is really angry at Soong for some reason, and who uses a magic ocarina-looking thing to conjure up hundreds of fake ships. And of course we have Soji who changes her mind again at the last moment, saving everyone from certain doom. Even General Oh, who has devoted her life to this very moment, a cause so deeply ingrained one might even call it “spiritual” – even she decides to give up on the culmination of her life's work and just retreat back home. I don't believe that for a second. I believe she would have gone down fighting for her cause.