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Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 3, "Assimilation," Recap & Spoilers

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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 3, "Assimilation," streaming now on Paramount+.

Jean-Luc Picard and his friends got a rude awakening when an explosive standoff with the Borg Queen resulted in the omnipotent Q stepping in to alter the timeline with a snap of his fingers. In Q's rewritten reality, the United Federation of Planets is completely replaced by the brutal Confederation of Earth, with the totalitarian regime conquering and eradicating any alien civilization in their path across the cosmos. Recalling their past lives, Picard and his ragtag ensemble reunited and rescued the Borg Queen from being executed but found themselves being pursued by the Confederation's authorities, resulting in Elnor being shot by a boarding party.

After managing to overpower the First Magistrate and his gunmen, Raffi takes the grievously wounded Elnor to sickbay as Rios goes back to evading the Confederation starships pursuing them. The more serious Q still has time to taunt Picard over he and his friends constantly using violence to win out while Rios and Seven destroy one of the starships chasing them. In the confusion, the Queen is freed of her restraints and quickly takes control of the ship, destroying the remaining Confederation ships before calculating the proper trajectory to slingshot around the sun and travel back in time to the year 2024.

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With the ship's systems damaged by the time-bending commute, Picard manages to crash-land the ship just outside of Los Angeles to avoid detection by the locals. Though he prevents Rios from executing the Queen, Elnor succumbs to his injuries in sickbay, leaving Raffi and the crew to mourn his passing while giving them an additional incentive to undo Q's tampering. Both Seven and Raffi are incensed that Picard has spared the Queen, though Picard shares that she mentioned a being known as the Watcher is the key to restoring the timeline -- and the Watcher exists in Los Angeles in this time period. Raffi, Seven and Rios set out to find the Watcher while Picard and Jurati remain behind on the ship to interrogate the Queen further, hoping to learn more about the altered space-time continuum.

To communicate directly with and repair the Queen, Jurati decides to allow the Borg to partially assimilate her, feeling that the Queen's weakened state and Picard observing her are safeguards enough to prevent this risky process from becoming permanent. The Queen quickly begins probing Jurati's mind, with Picard guiding his friend through the process and how to resist. As the struggle for Jurati becomes more pronounced, Picard pulls the plug to sever the Borg's influence over her. Unfortunately, the Queen is fully revived by the process and demands control of the ship.

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The landing party beams to separate locations around Los Angeles, with Rios teleporting on the edge of a fire escape and faceplanting on the sidewalk below; he is eventually picked up by paramedics and taken to the nearest clinic. Raffi is accosted by a mugger -- whom she immediately and easily subdues -- before she reconnects with Seven and sets out to reach the tallest point in the city in order to pinpoint the Watcher's location. Rios recovers with the help of a kindly, young doctor named Teresa... only for the clinic to be raided by the authorities over suspicions regarding immigration , resulting in Rios and Teresa both being taken into custody.

With the rest of the landing party and crew unaware of what's happening to Rios and unable to contact him, Jurati reveals she obtained the coordinates to the Watcher's location, but she's still determined to gain more from the Queen's consciousness. For her part, the Queen is annoyed at how impressed she is by Jurati being able to withstand interfacing with her mind and gleaning so much information. And while Picard and his friends scramble to track down the Watcher, the worsening situation with Rios officially adds a rescue mission element to their time-travel adventure.

Created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Picard releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

KEEP READING:  Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Evokes Classic Characters from TOS and... Lower Decks?!

• TV Features
• Star Trek: Picard (2020)

'Star Trek: Picard' Season 2 episode 3 offers epic updates to classic storylines

Jean-Luc must travel to the past to fulfill his density … I mean his destiny.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Picard" season 2, episode 3

While the finale of Season 4 of "Star Trek: Discovery" on Paramount Plus was a disappointing cookie-cutter reproduction of Season 3, only showing the most marginal evidence of improvement from the previous season , Season 2 "Star Trek: Picard" on the other hand has already shown massive improvement over the previous one and we're only three episodes in.

Following the recap, we pick up straightaway where we left off last week . Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) are being held at gunpoint on the bridge of La Sirena along with Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) and Elnor (Evan Evagora), by Confederation security forces including Seven's husband in this Q-induced alternative reality. Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) is with the rescued disembodied head of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching). ( Fun fact: the First Magistrate — Seven's "husband" — is played by Jon Jon Briones, father of Isa Briones, who plays Soji.)

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Naturally a struggle ensues and while the security forces are dispatched with, poor Elnor takes one in the chest, while Rios desperately tries to evade Confederation starships that are hot on their heels. Fun fact: according to production designer Dave Blass , the first pursuing ship that Seven is able to destroy in the CSS Dougherty, named after the somewhat shady Admiral played by Anthony Zerbe in "Star Trek: Insurrection." Raffi frantically tries to help Elnor and Jurati is face to face with Borg Queen. The only way to save the situation is to connect the Queen to La Sirena, which she does.

‘Picard’ Director Lea Thompson Proudly Put Her Unique Spin on Time Travel in ‘Star Trek’ Universe https://t.co/mBQClD08Td via @thr today!!! March 17, 2022

The Queen takes charge, destroys the remaining Confederation vessels and takes the gallant crew on their time travelling, slingshot warp maneuver back to the year 2024. It's a tasteful tribute to the last time major characters in "Star Trek" attempted such a bold strategy in the amazing "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." What's particularly interesting about this strong installment of "Picard" is that it's directed by a veteran of time travel movies, Lea Thompson, who starred opposite Michael J. Fox in the "Back to the Future" trilogy. Moreover, she's also recently directed two episodes, so far, of Season 2 of "Resident Alien."

A little worse for wear, La Sirena arrives in Earth orbit and begins an uncontrolled dive. Fortunately Picard has the presence of mind to crash in the vineyards of Château Picard in La Barre, eastern France, rather than risk it near a populated area. Unfortunately, Elnor dies from his injuries. Thus begins a three-strand plot thread for this episode: Raffi, Seven and Rios beam to Los Angeles to look for "the watcher" that the Borg has said is critical to restoring the timeline while Picard and Jurati attempt to restore the Borg Queen back to health and squeeze some more information from her. Obviously that's only two plot threads, but things will become clear in a moment.

Related: The first 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' trailer is here

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There's been some interesting speculation on who exactly "the watcher" is going to turn out to be, from Data's head, that should currently be a in cave somewhere under San Francisco as we saw in "The Next Generation" two-part episode " Time's Arrow " (S05, E26 & S06, E01), to a member of T'Mir's crew that remained on Earth in the underrated "Enterprise" episode " Carbon Creek " (S02, E02). However, given we've already been reminded of Guinan's presence in the premiere episode, it's seems more than likely to be her, especially given her species' unique ability to traverse time and Q's involvement in the proceedings. And while her return is certainly welcome, it will hardly come as a surprise.

Raffi, Seven and Rios prepare to beam to Los Angeles and Jurati gives a solid set up, reminding everyone — including the viewer — of the dangers of affecting the timeline. The dialogue in this episode is practically perfect and despite some generous exposition to help set up the scene, it surprisingly doesn't feel excessive in any way. Moreover, this episode really allows Alison Pill to shine, more so than any instance in the previous season and she effortlessly steals every scene she's in.

Raffi and Seven beam safely into Los Angeles, however Rios suffers an extremely painful looking accident as he materializes about 30 feet in the air and suffers a very nasty fall, bouncing off a fire escape on his way down. Lucky for him, a kind passer-by takes him to a hospital, but that means he's now separated from Raffi and Seven…and the three-strand plot thread takes shape.

Related: 'Star Trek: Picard' season 2 continues to enthrall with dark timeline

The quality of this episode comes from good writing and solid direction, but it also benefits from great casting and Annie Wersching is deliciously sinister as the Borg Queen. The only way it seems to get the required information about the location of Guinan the all-important "watcher" is for Jurati to plug connect herself to the Queen, which you know, carries the risk of assimilation. And despite the absence of the more traditional method of assimilation, which usually involves having a couple of tubes unceremoniously inserted into your body, releasing a swarm of deadly nanoprobes that rebuild your body from the inside, this battle of wits set piece is written in a such way that still makes every minute enthralling.

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While the Rafi and Seven thread of the story is a little less exciting, it does incorporate some lovely touches that clearly come from the heart. Rios on the other hand finds himself in a hospital that offers treatment to those without identification or money. Santiago Cabrera brings melt-in-the-mouth charm to the character of Rios and he's fast becoming one of my all-time favorite characters from "Star Trek." 

He is helped by Dr. Teresa Ramirez (Sol Rodriguez) and there's instant chemistry, but again, it's handled in a way that doesn't involve a double serving of cheese. During the process of his admittance and treatment however, he's lost his comm badge — the only piece of 25th century technology that they've been permitted to carry beyond the crashed La Sirena. He befriends an adorable little urchin named Ricardo (Steve Gutierrez), who turns out to be the young son of Dr. Ramirez.

Despite one or two little hiccups and probably at least two cracked ribs, the situation seems to be manageable, until that is, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement burst through the door and arrest Rios.

Jurati has the coordinates to find Guinan "the watcher" from the Borg Queen, but Rios is now in the custody of local law enforcement — something everyone was expressly told to avoid at all costs…and of course Elnor is dead. How long he stays dead remains to be seen. We all know that when Q eventually restores the time line, it will also prevent Elnor's death. But a little like Soji, is his character relegated to the background until that happens? Much depends of course how long this story arc remains in 2024 and it's going to be fun watching it unfold.

"Picard" remains the "Trek" aimed at nostalgia aficionados and adopting that strategy incurs a high risk of overkill; nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Season one was guilty of this on many occasions. However — so far — this should be considered a masterclass on how to incorporate it effectively. The dialogue is believable, the story is well paced and the humor is well placed and understated, exactly how it should be. These aren't new ideas in "Star Trek" history, Along with the previously mentioned "Star Trek IV," creating a temporal fissure by slingshotting around the sun at warp speed also featured in "The Original Series" episode " Tomorrow is Yesterday " (S01, E21) and the Borg Queen has been an admired adversary ever since "Star Trek: First Contact," plus of course time travel — regardless of how it's achieved — has been a staple in "Star Trek" from the outset. But...a new, interesting perspective has been applied, making these classic plot lines interesting once again. And few shows do this well.

Rating: 8/10

The first three episodes of "Star Trek: Picard" are now available to watch on Paramount Plus and the premiere season of "Strange New Worlds" begins on May 5. Season 4 of "Star Trek: Discovery" is available to watch now on Paramount+ in the US and CTV Sci-Fi or Crave TV in Canada. Countries outside of North America can watch on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel.

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Den of Geek

Star Trek: Picard – Time Jump and Episode 3 Ending Explained

Patrick Stewart, Santiago Cabrera, and more give us key insights into some of the biggest moments of season 2 episode 3 of Star Trek: Picard.

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The following article contains major Star Trek: Picard spoilers.

After the timeline changing events of last week, Star Trek: Picard kicks off this episode with the team desperately trying to escape the altered future. After they time travel to 2024, Elnor dies and the crew sets out to try and find the “Watcher” Q informed Picard about.

We spoke with several members of the cast and the executive producer to get all kinds of insights into the making of this episode.

Los Angeles: 2024

While Picard himself doesn’t take to the streets of Los Angeles, where the team ends up, this week, star Patrick Stewart found the whole experience fantastic, in part, he jokes, “because I don’t live too far from downtown. It’s very easy to get there.”

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More seriously he sees the choice of going to 2024 and not the current year of 2022 as a significant point of interest.

“It’s not absolute present day,” Stewart says. “It was an extremely bold idea that’s paid off.”

But why 2024 specifically? Executive producer Akiva Goldsman says it was for two reasons. The first is that the team behind the show thought shooting on practical locations would be “really cool.” However COVID restrictions put a damper on that excitement. “Now we can only have three extras and a dog,” Goldsman jokes.

In terms of story however Goldsman wanted to use time travel as a way to do one of the things Star Trek does best, “which is it puts a lens on us. Our society could use a little lensing right now.”

Elnor’s Death

The end of last week’s episode left Elnor’s fate unclear and we weren’t sure if he’d live or die. This week Raffi tries her hardest to keep him alive but after the team travels into the past the power on the ship is drained. The medical systems can’t keep Elnor alive and he dies with Raffi watching, heartbroken.

Last week Evan Evagora spoke to us about the trepidation he had when reading the script for episode 2 but even though episode 3 had him dying it had one major upside.

“Being able to shoot that opposite of Michelle Hurd and with the amazing crew that we have, it felt nothing but safe and secure,” enthuses Evagora, “That’s all you can really feel in intimate situations like that.”

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Evagora was thankful that his first death scene as an actor was on Star Trek but this might not be the last time we see him. Raffi is convinced that if she can change the timeline, Elnor will come back to life. We’ll have to wait and see what happens there.

Chris Stepping into the Spotlight

Santiago Cabrera, who adds a roguish charm to Star Trek: Picard as Chris, finally got a chance to take center stage when he heads out into Los Angeles. A transporter glitch leaves him injured and was taken to a clinic that helps undocumented citizens. At first this is a good thing, with Chris needing to avoid official hospitals in order to prevent contaminations to the timeline, but by episode’s end he and his doctor are taken in by immigration.

Cabrera enjoyed this plot because, compared to the rest of the sci-fi storylines around it, this story is grounded in reality.

“I felt like I was in a different show suddenly,” Cabrera says. “I was still doing Star Trek but it was very much in the present.”

Cabrera most enjoyed the moments where Chris had to pretend he was from 2024, which was shown off this week when Chris attempted to fool immigration into thinking he was a doctor.

Having Chris be faced with such a current issue also accomplished the writer’s goal of keeping things difficult for the characters.

“We didn’t want to have them land here and have it be great for them,” explains Goldsman. “That didn’t seem truthful to the level of storytelling we do now. We have (characters) with no money and no ID moving through Los Angeles. We can’t just be like, ‘and then they had jewels!’”

The Bell Riots

As much intrigue as the time travel aspect of this episode creates it also will leave some hardcore fans a little confused. This isn’t the first time Star Trek has visited 2024. In the Deep Space Nine two-part episode, “Past Tense,” the crew was transported to San Francisco in September 2024. There, Sisko and Bashir were forced into a “Sanctuary District,” an enclosed slum where the American government placed poor people. Sisko specifically states that, “there was a place like this in every major city in the United States.”

Los Angeles is certainly a major city but in this episode we still see homeless camps around the city. Why didn’t we see a Sanctuary District?

Goldsman makes it clear they weren’t trying to evoke the “Bell Riots” (an uprising in the Sanctuary Districts depicted in the Deep Space Nine episode) because the world the crew is facing is “not all horror.”

He goes on to say that focusing on issues like immigration was done to appeal more to casual watchers. It makes sense, since the Bell Riots and Sanctuary Districts would take time to explain on screen. 

It should also be noted that we didn’t see many homeless extras around, just their tents. Perhaps the COVID restricted shooting gave the team behind Star Trek: Picard a possible out when it comes to this continuity issue. Maybe a team from the Sanctuary Districts had just come through and cleared out a large majority of the people in the camp Raffi walks though.

CORRECTION: Thanks to Nicki Perry in the comments for alerting us to the fact that in the background of the homeless camp you can spot a Sanctuary District Regulations sign. It still doesn’t clear up all the continuity questions but it is a great detail!

Stay tuned for more coverage of Star Trek: Picard as the season continues!

Shamus Kelley | @ShamusWrites

For more from Shamus including original TV scripts visit www.ShamusKelley.com. He’s been a TV writer since 2009 when he created and executive produced the 21 JSR…

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Star Trek: Picard – Season 2, Episode 3

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Cast & crew.

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 3 “Assimilation” Review: Hello, Locutus

Review: Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 3 “Assimilation”

Star Trek: Picard revisits a well-worn franchise trope as Admiral Picard and crew travel back in time to prevent the Confederation reality from ever happening — and the personal stakes for this mission are raised in a big way.

After escaping the vile Confederation of Earth, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and the crew of La Sirena use the slingshot-around-the-sun maneuver to get themselves to the Los Angeles of 2024. This is the place and time where the Borg Queen ( Annie Wersching ) says a singular change was made to the timeline that resulted in the Confederation and its atrocities. The voyage home, however, is rough on La Sirena , and the ship ultimately crash lands outside of Los Angeles with a major casualty: Elnor ( Evan Evagora ).

Yes, Elnor succumbs to the injury inflicted upon him by the Confederation magistrate ( Jon Jon Briones ) shortly after leaving Earth, but why exactly he died is interesting. Thanks to the major damage aboard La Sirena , the remaining available power could only be used for one of two things: powering sickbay to save Elnor or giving the Queen enough power to stay alive after her post-time travel stress. Picard asserts the Queen needs to survive if their mission is going to be successful, since she is the only link to the fissure in time, so Elnor’s death is in no small way on Picard’s hands.

While this event should be something that weighs on Picard heavily, unfortunately we don’t really see that grief play out. Raffaela Musiker ( Michelle Hurd ) is the one who takes Elnor’s death the hardest, and holds Picard accountable, especially since it is Picard’s nemesis, Q ( John de Lancie ), who caused all this pain and suffering. We wish we could have seen Picard grieve for the Romulan-evacuee-turned-warrior-nun who was so influenced by Picard; instead, we get one quick look at Picard observing Elnor’s body bag as the older man hangs his head. Perhaps the admiral is just stoic in the face of the overwhelming mission ahead of him?

Speaking of Q, having him pop up in Picard’s mind during La Sirena ‘s warp around the Sun was an unexpected but welcome touch to this episode, as it makes us think he can appear at any point in any episode, not just ones where we know John de Lancie has a guest spot. More interesting still is what Q says to Picard just before they travel to the 21st century: “This is the only kind of life you understand. Shall we see what else has been lost in the wake of your fear?” What exactly is Q referring to in that first sentence? Picard facing immediate danger as he bears responsibility for what happens to those under his command? Q’s line will be an intriguing statement to keep in mind as we see what happens to our heroes in L.A.

As Picard asserts, the mission must go on: finding the Watcher that the Borg Queen said was on Earth. To help narrow down the location of this person, Raffi, Seven of Nine ( Jeri Ryan ), and Cristóbal Rios ( Santiago Cabrera ) venture into the L.A. of 2024, and this is where Star Trek: Picard ventures into some well-known territory: exploring the show’s contemporary time period.

Commenting on present-day circumstances is not just a Star Trek thing, but it has been done numerous times in the franchise’s history, be it Deep Space Nine ‘s “Past Tense,” Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , Voyager ‘s “Future’s End,” or Star Trek: First Contact , just to name a few. “Assimilation” wastes no time before some of our characters muse on the drawbacks and weaknesses of 21st-century human culture and events. For instance, upon arriving in L.A., Raffi is held at gunpoint (while in a homeless district, no less) for whatever money the perpetrator thinks she has. Furthermore, Seven and Raffi observe a raging wildfire near L.A., a testament to the early 21st century’s out-of-control climate crisis. And Rios, thanks to a series of unfortunate events, finds himself in the middle of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a clinic that serves mainly undocumented immigrants.

Whereas the previous two episodes of Star Trek: Picard felt like pure escapism, seeing our reality in Picard’s reality is sobering. This isn’t a criticism of the show – after all, we couldn’t live in the Easter egg heaven that was the first two episodes forever – but simply a warning. In the end, this kind of societal commentary will feel quite familiar to Star Trek fans, and Picard exercises little tact or narrative temperance in conveying how screwed up our characters think the early 21st century is. Case in point: within minutes of arriving in L.A. and getting held up, Raffi observes this:

“He started it. A wonderful ambassador up against a backdrop of hope meets hopelessness. You’re killing it, 2024. You know, I’ve never been able to understand how a society can exist with so many contradictions and not collapse sooner than it did.” Raffi to Seven, on what she sees in L.A. in 2024.

As our characters explore L.A., Picard and Doctor Agnes Jurati ( Alison Pill ) remain on La Sirena to ensure the Queen gets back to full power so they can learn the exact location of the Watcher. The Queen appears to be trying to communicate in the way Borg often does — non-verbally — and therefore Jurati has a wild idea for her to “hear” these thoughts. Jurati suggests allowing the Queen to begin to assimilate her, which would permit the doctor to communicate with the Queen and bring La Sirena back to full power. This plan alarms Picard, understandably, as he recalls what it was like to be assimilated, but Jurati asserts the Queen won’t fully assimilate her before she gets the information she needs.

The two women connect, and certain “rooms” of Jurati’s psyche open for the Queen to explore while the process completes. Thus, we learn a bit more about Jurati thanks to the Queen’s intrusion and Jurati’s subconscious communication with Picard. We learn that there is a part of Jurati that is overwhelmingly sad – a personality aspect she masks with humor. This isn’t terribly surprising given some one-off asides by Jurati in the previous episode, but what is unexpected is Jurati saying she wishes Picard was her dad; this helps explain both her admiration and stubbornness with Picard. Furthermore, we learn about Jurati’s anger toward Picard and his feelings, or lack thereof. She asserts Picard must be miserable because he keeps himself from feeling feelings, a sensible assessment considering what we know about Picard’s halted romantic life. Picard, to his credit, takes this attack in stride and is more interested in helping Jurati through the quasi-assimilation.

Thanks to Jurati’s mental effort, the Queen regains her power, and with it a personality we haven’t seen yet. “Assimilation” is Wersching’s first chance to explore what the Queen is like outside of being in a Confederation holding tube, and it turns out she is charmingly sinister, slightly humorous, and coldly calculating. The Queen proposes a trade with Picard: his ship for the Watcher’s location. But it turns out Jurati did more than just power up the Queen (and ship) while being partially assimilated: she found the Watcher’s coordinates herself, as well as a vague sense of when the temporal divergence happens. (Although we wonder why Jurati was able to pull coordinate information from the Queen, but not a day and time.) Importantly, Jurati’s abilities impressed the Queen, so it’ll be interesting to see how any potential relationship between these two characters plays out.

That’s certainly not the only question this episode poses to the viewer. Who exactly is the Watcher? Will Raffi’s option of Picard’s poor leadership be remedied after the immediate crisis is over? We suppose that will depend on if Elnor comes back to life through some time travel magic; after all, Picard couldn’t say for sure if fixing the timeline would bring the Romulan back, much to Raffi’s chagrin. Rios’ storyline in this episode also presents its own questions. How much of a role will the clinic doctor ( Sol Rodriguez ) and her son play in his story? Clearly, there is a magnetism between him and the doctor, but to what end? And that’s not even the thing that should be forefront on Rios’ mind, though, as he did leave his combadge in the clinic where he was treated for a concussion upon arriving in Los Angeles; what implications will there be for leaving that technology behind? All this and more makes us really excited for next week’s episode.

Stray Thoughts:

• The starships that attack La Sirena are two Nova-class ships and one Steamrunner -class ship. The former was first seen in Voyager ‘s “Equinox,” and the latter was first seen in Star Trek: First Contact .
• Here’s a wild theory: The tendrils the Borg Queen deploys from her body look a lot like what little we saw of the synth “gods” from the finale of Star Trek: Picard season one. Is there a connection?
• Can you really see Earth that clearly from the Sun? And wow does La Sirena get to Earth quickly after exiting the time warp.
• The coordinates Picard inputs in La Sirena for “home” during its crash-landing points to just north of Angeles National Forest, which is itself just north of L.A. We don’t know why exactly he chose this particular spot, or whose “home” he was referring to. If he was simply referring to Earth being the homeworld of all the characters on La Sirena , why did he need to take control of the ship to land at this particular place?

• Yes, Raffi is grieving, but she is also a Starfleet Officer who surely has been taught to remain composed and as clear-headed as possible during times of crisis, and she also would have learned about Q at the academy. Her anger at Picard is understandable, to an extent, but for her to assert that Picard and Q play their own games at other peoples’ expense for fun is pretty out of line, no?
• Picard and his crew don’t seem concerned at all by 21st century Earth seeing or tracking an alien starship descending to the planet. It’s not like the ship has a cloaking device.
• When Jurati tells Rios he has to “look out for butterflies” when traveling in the past, she is referring to the Butterfly Effect , the theory that says even some incredibly simple change to the past can drastically impact the future.
• Jurati passingly references their native time period using vaccination chips, an idea that has gained traction since the outbreak of COVID-19.
• As the crew breaks up on their various objectives, Picard says, “Let’s go to work!” If you get deja vu during this line, it’s because Picard said the same thing in Nemesis when the Romulans show up to help fight Shinzon.
• Jurati asserts that she still misses her grade-school cat, which is probably the motivation behind creating Spot-73 ( Patton Oswalt) in the previous episode.
• This episode may very well be laying the seeds for a major change for Seven. Before leaving the ship, she appears to relish being implant-less in this time, and she then appears to be “relaxed,” as Raffi observes, in L.A. She also is taken aback when the security officer in the skyscraper seems to take kindly to her charisma. Perhaps she is more comfortable in this time and place than in her own?
• There’s not much we know about 2024 in the Star Trek universe except for one major thing: the Bell Riots, as detailed in Deep Space Nine ‘s “Past Tense.” So that begs the question: will Picard reference that event or its titular leader, Gabrielle Bell?
• This episode canonizes the animated comedy Rick and Morty in the Star Trek universe.
• Jurati, via the Borg Queen, starts to describe the Watcher that Picard and crew are looking for: “Watcher 15…” Is this a designation for the Watcher, as in there are at least 14 other Watchers, or was the 15 part of an address? We suppose we’ll find out in the next episode.
• There are now two realities that are impacted by Picard’s actions: the original Prime Timeline, where the Stargazer was presumably destroyed in the encounter with the Borg ship, and the Confederation reality, where that organization has lost its general and president. Will we see any fallout in those universes, or are they now totally out of focus as our heroes inhabit 21st century Los Angeles?

Star Trek: Picard season two will consist of 10 episodes and will drop weekly on Thursdays. The cast includes Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Orla Brady, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, and Brent Spiner. This season’s cast also includes Annie Wersching and special guest stars Whoopi Goldberg and John de Lancie.

Stay tuned to TrekNews.net for all the latest news on  Star Trek: Picard ,  Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ,  Star Trek: Discovery ,  Star Trek: Lower Decks ,  Star Trek: Prodigy , and more.

You can follow us on  Twitter ,  Facebook , and  Instagram .

Kyle Hadyniak has been a lifelong Star Trek fan, and isn't ashamed to admit that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek: Nemesis are his favorite Star Trek movies. You can follow Kyle on Twitter @khady93 .

March 17, 2022 at 4:33 pm

The coordinates from the queen listed as 34.0488N,-118.2518W (as best as I could make out from the show) are in an intersection of W5th St and S hill St in los Angeles on google earth, Near pershing park with a large sculpture or thing that has a large round “ball” in it.. looks kinda like a “watcher” =)

March 18, 2022 at 8:19 am

Yeah, Star Trek has done time travel to our time before and it’s rarely more annoying when it does. Audiences are increasingly growing tired of being lectured when viewing entertainment and the fact that I knew the minute I found out they would coming back to our time in order to fix a totalitarian future that this adventure was going to lecture us about climate change/racial justice/illegal immigration reframed as immigration did not minimize my irritation at the inevitable condescension our futuristic heroes level at us regularly during these type of episodes.

That being said, talk about a transporter accident that we’ve rarely seen. We’ve seen accidents that make people old, accidents that make people young, accidents that scatter people’s molecules and accidents that divide people into different personalities. The one accident that seems most likely to happen – putting someone not on firm ground – is something I don’t think we’ve ever seen. The shot of poor Rios toppling off of the balcony is one of the most surprising and refreshing snippets of this season.

Good to see Q, even if it is only for a minute. He seems more stable now than in the last episode. Are Q’s problems connected to the altered timeline? Did coming back to before that happened level him off again?

I agree wholeheartedly about Picard’s stoicism in the face of Elnor’s death. So often, mourning is botched in sci-fi. Having Leia hug Rey in The Force Awakens instead of Chewbacca is a good example. Raffi should have more of that Starfleet discipline, true, but she is not Picard and she seems to have come to view Elnor as a surrogate son to replace the one that rejected her. Both Picard and Raffi have emotional baggage. They just handle it differently.

And, of course, in face of this loss, Raffi wasn’t thinking straight when blaming Picard for what Q does, something she should know he has virtually no control over.

Seven is now in a culture that knows nothing of Borg (and will not judge her based on that association) and that values beauty. She’s surprised that her beauty and charm work because it doesn’t work where she comes from – a galaxy where her implants make her a target to be feared and hated. Maybe the 24th century isn’t as enlightened as they like to pretend since Seven is deemed guilty by association for being captured as a little girl and forcibly converted.

Robert Irvin

March 19, 2022 at 8:29 pm

This is, indeed, the way.

March 24, 2022 at 11:14 am

Ice thing way over the top

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‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 2 Episode 3 Increases the Stakes as the Crew Arrives in the Near-Future | Review

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If you thought that being trapped in a twisted timeline with fascist leaders was the worst thing that could happen to the crew of La Sirena , Episode 3 of Star Trek: Picard twists the knife in even deeper. “Assimilation” opens mere moments after the credits rolled last week, with Seven’s ( Jeri Ryan ) faux-husband the First Magistrate ( Jon Jon Briones ) holding them at blaster point while Elnor ( Evan Evagora ) bleeds out on the floor .

Fortunately, the Confederation members aboard La Sirena are easily dispatched without any other casualties. Honestly, what was the First Magistrate thinking when he blaster-whipped Seven with Raffi ( Michelle Hurd ) standing nearby? With Seven and the rest of the crew now safe, Raffi’s attention shifts to Elnor. He is, by all accounts, a son to her and her motherly affection has been on full display over the last two episodes, from Elnor getting accepted into Starfleet to her protecting him from the Confederation. Picard has actively reinforced the bond between them, and now they’re utilizing it to increase the stakes.

Rios ( Santiago Cabrera ), Picard ( Patrick Stewart ), and Seven head to the bridge to work on taking out the Confederation ships that are pursuing them, while Raffi takes Elnor to a sorely unprepared sickbay. The crew gets unexpected assistance from the Borg Queen ( Annie Wersching ) who escapes her containment and takes over the ship to “assist” in neutralizing the threats. In addition to wiping out the Confederation ships in hot pursuit, the Borg Queen begins siphoning power from the ship to push them well beyond Warp 9 and propel them back into the past. However, her actions come at a price. In order to harness enough power, she begins diverting energy from the medbay, cutting off the only thing keeping Elnor alive and, despite Raffi’s best efforts, he succumbs to his injuries.

Raffi is heartbroken and wants nothing to do with Picard’s rallying speech in the face of their uncertain futures–or pasts–and she lashes out at him, criticizing his leadership and blaming him for Elnor’s death because they’re all casualties in his decades-long game with Q ( John de Lancie ). What she doesn’t understand is that Q is impossible to contend with, his actions are unpredictable, but she’s hurt and Picard seems willing to let himself be the target of her ire.

RELATED: ‘Star Trek: Picard’s Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, and Evan Evagora on Season 2 and Geeking Out with Patrick Stewart

Now that they have managed to travel back in time, they have an opportunity to stop the future from happening and prevent Elnor’s death from coming to fruition. At least, that’s what Raffi has convinced herself of. There is always the potential that they won’t be able to succeed in reversing Q’s actions, and they will all be stuck either in 2024 or further up in the twisted Confederation timeline.

The crew makes the decision to use the last remaining energy aboard La Sirena to beam down to Los Angeles to track down the ominous Watcher. Raffi, Seven, and Rios agree to venture down to Earth, while Picard, on the other hand, opts to stay aboard the ship with Agnes ( Alison Pill ) who concocts a plan to halfway assimilate herself in order to get more information out of the Borg Queen.

Despite the heavy tone in the wake of Elnor’s death, there is a great moment where Raffi, Seven, and Rios are finding new clothes to wear—because they can’t cause any butterfly effects with their current attire. Rios asks Seven if he looks less like a “fascist bastard,” and while she agrees that he looks a lot less fascist, she can’t agree on the bastard part. It’s a fun little moment that really pokes at Rios’ roguish charms.

Aboard La Sirena , Picard cautions Agnes about the risks associated with assimilating, halfway or otherwise, with the Borg, but she is insistent that she can safely get the information out of the Borg Queen. It’s a little touch-and-go, with the Borg Queen forcing Agnes to reveal a few things—her loneliness, the fact she views Picard as a father figure—but they do ultimately get through to the Borg Queen, even though they are no closer to locating the Watcher than they were at the start of the episode.

The trip to earth is uneventful for Raffi and Seven, but Rios has a pretty traumatic reentry into earth’s atmosphere. Raffi and Seven both land on their feet, but Rios is beamed down mid-air and ends up on a crash course with a fire escape. He is taken into a free clinic that deals with the “no hospitals, no cops” types, which makes his lack of identification easy to explain. He is pretty banged up, but the doctor (Sol Rodriguez) patches him and doesn’t ask too many questions about his situation. However, her son does steal his combadge, which effectively cuts him off from the crew. This subplot provides a refreshing change of pace and allows Rios to be a little more unrestrained, he shares a story about his childhood, he flirts with the doctor, and Santiago Cabrera gets to do what he has done best for nearly two decades: charm audiences.

Rios is such a fun character and I highly recommend that anyone who loves Star Trek: Picard should read John Jackson Miller ’s Star Trek: Picard: Rogue Elements if they want a deeper look into who this character is. He might be a little rough around the edges at times, but he has a good heart and that’s put on full display in “Assimilation.” Given the nature of the clinic, the police show up towards the end of the episode to bust the place for caring for undocumented immigrants, and Rios is given the opportunity to run away with the rest of the patients. While he is partially driven by the need to get his combadge back, so it doesn’t cause butterfly effects, he seems genuinely concerned about what might happen to the doctor. So, rather than running, he dons a lab coat and tries to bluff their way out of trouble. It goes disastrously, and he is hauled off by the police.

Star Trek: Picard has been littered with Easter Eggs, from Picard gifting Spock’s book to Elnor to the character posters that all featured little hidden details, it should really come as no surprise that elements of the series feel reminiscent of stories that have come before. While watching “Assimilation,” I realized that Rio’s storyline in 21st century Los Angeles reminded me of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The City on the Edge of Forever,” in which Kirk ( William Shatner ) and Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) end up going back in time to 1930s New York City. While the plot is certainly not a carbon copy, the two do make for a nice shot-and-chaser scenario, especially since Picard mentions how Kirk’s crew dealt with time travel.

Star Trek has never shied away from getting political and the franchise has traveled to the near-future before, but something about seeing a Los Angeles set just two years in the future was sobering. From the forest fires to the homeless to the police going after immigrants— Star Trek: Picard is connecting thematically with the present in unexpected ways.

Rating : A+

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is streaming now on Paramount+.

• Star Trek: Picard (2020)

Star Trek: Picard season 2 episode 3 review: "An antagonist to savor"

GamesRadar+ Verdict

The latest incarnation of the Borg Queen is an antagonist to savor, but some jarring tonal shifts ensure that Picard’s second trip back to the 21st century isn’t quite as memorable as First Contact.

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Warning: This Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 3 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk…

There’s no humpback whales or maiden warp speed flights to save, but the influence of The Voyage Home and First Contact is unmistakable in the latest episode of Star Trek: Picard. Of course, if you’re going to take inspiration from any of the Trek movies, the much-loved fourth and eighth entries in the series are a good place to start – and there’s something refreshingly familiar about a Starfleet crew playing fish-out-of-water in present-day California. Besides, even the oddities of our world must feel like a breeze after last week’s misadventures in the totalitarian Confederation .

The problem with revisiting old ground, however, is that ‘Assimilation’ – a clever title that works on more and more levels as the episode progresses – too often falls back on old Trek clichés. The first well-worn trope appears as early as the opening scene, when last week’s cliffhanger is resolved ridiculously quickly. Indeed, after Seven’s Eradication Day cheerleader/husband the Magistrate – played, coincidentally, by Jon Jon Briones, father of Dahj/Soji actor Isa – is dispatched with remarkable ease, you can’t help feeling his brief jaunt to La Sirena was more about giving us a reason to tune in for this episode as advancing the story arc.

That said, the Magistrate’s actions have major consequences, with a phaser blast to Elnor’s chest putting serious pressure on the production team’s supplies of green Romulan blood. Raffi’s doing her best to stop him bleeding out, but with ruthless Confederation forces pursuing La Sirena with extreme prejudice, the rest of the crew have more pressing matters to deal with.

Salvation comes in the unlikely form of the Borg Queen who – after the stasis field holding her captive proves it’s not fit for purpose – is now very much at large. Using her techno-tentacles – techtacles? – she takes mere seconds to commandeer the ship, obliterating enemies and rolling out pithy catchphrases like “the past is now”, before initiating the complex slingshot maneuver that will transport the crew back to the 21st century. It’s a spectacular sequence, though fans of Star Trek 4 may be disappointed that Picard and co don’t get the surreal clay head treatment experienced by Kirk and the crew in The Voyage Home. 

The high-speed trip around the Sun is successful, but the “targeted crash” of a severely damaged La Sirena has left a pair of the passengers in critical condition. Rather than disconnecting the comatose Borg Queen to divert the ship’s power to saving Elnor in Sickbay, Picard argues that keeping the Queen alive is paramount – after all, she’s the only link they have with the “fissure in time” they’ve traveled back to repair.

When Elnor ultimately passes away – a genuine shock in a franchise that rarely kills off lead characters – it’s impossible to know if the admiral has made the right choice. While there’s a chance the idealistic Romulan will be brought back to life, if and when the original timeline is restored, the unknown “causality loop’ mechanics of the situation mean there are no guarantees.

Raffi makes no effort to hide her feelings about her commanding officer’s choice describing an “intense, sharp disappointment in leadership, before blaming Picard’s decades-long sparring match with Q for Elnor’s death. She poses an intriguing question: how much is Jean-Luc addicted to his tussle with the omnipotent entity? Is his perpetual state of annoyance at the trickster’s actions really just a front for an epic confrontation he can’t get enough of? In an episode that limits Q’s involvement to some dangerous whispers in Jean-Luc’s ear, it’s a shame we don’t learn more about the rules of the game.

But with the fate of the future at stake there’s little room for debate or grieving, and a field trip into the 21st century gives Raffi the perfect excuse to get away from JL. Along with Seven and Rios, she makes sure her clothes are era-appropriate – “fascist bastard” chic is definitely out – and beams into 2024 LA. They’re looking for evidence of future tech that might signify the presence of the elusive “Watcher”, while making every effort to avoid the Ray Bradbury-style “butterflies” that might have a catastrophic effect on the timeline.

Having played Marty’s mum in the Back to the Future trilogy, ‘Assimilations director Lea Thompson has time travel in her blood. And while this isn’t quite as accomplished as Marty and Doc Brown’s adventures through time – what is? – there’s an undeniable sense of fun as La Sirena’s crew find themselves in a truly alien world. Though there’s nothing quite as memorable as Spock using a neck pinch to mute an antisocial punk on a bus in Star Trek 4, Seven does get to tell a kid she’s a superhero when she arrives by transporter. Meanwhile, a billboard advertises The Europa Project, seemingly a TV show whose "To Boldly Go" catchphrase is remarkably familiar…

If Raffi and Seven seemingly get the fun end of the assignment – lying about their engagement to blag their way to the top of the tallest building in LA – Rios’s bad landing leaves him face down on a sidewalk and running the gauntlet of 21st-century medicine. (Echoes of Chekov in The Voyage Home.)

Although his scenes with an altruistic doctor are among the strongest in the episode – sowing the seeds of romance in a season where love will presumably be in the air for Jean-Luc as well – they also jar with the more comedic elements of the 21st-century culture clash. From Rios’s arrest by Homeland Security officials to Raffi’s historical assessment of the era – “I’ve never been able to understand how a society could exist with so many contradictions and not collapse sooner than it did” – the episode displays an admirable level of social conscience. But these moments plunge the episode into a hinterland between comedy and quasi-realism that the script isn’t quite smart enough to integrate.

It does, however, get the Borg Queen totally, chillingly right. Having been used sparingly and intelligently in The Next Generation, the Collective popped up so often in Voyager that they lost a lot of their mystique. Annie Wersching’s portrayal of the Big Bad, however, adds intriguing new dimensions (first, second, third, and fourth) to a character originated so memorably by Alice Krige in First Contact.

Her evolution across the episode s remarkable, channeling classic horror as her torso eerily hauls itself across La Sirena, before spending most of the running time in a Borg recovery mode, as if she’s a PC. And yet even when she’s silent, she remains a threat, like a coiled cybernetically-enhanced cobra waiting to pounce.

Dr. Jurati volunteers to face the monster head-on, hooking herself up to the Queen in an effort to reactivate key systems, before the Queen can assimilate her. The sequence is deceptively simple, its three-actor set-up giving it the feel of a stage play with a colossal production design budget. But despite the lack of simulated memory palaces or other VFX fireworks, the scene is remarkably gripping and tense, as Jurati goes through all the emotions trying to stay one step ahead of the invader in her subconscious.

Stealing information about the Watcher the Queen was using as a bargaining chip gives Jurati an unexpected upper hand, but she may have opened up a can of worms she isn’t prepared for. “What you have done is more difficult and vastly more dangerous than you realise,” the Queen says ominously. “You’ve impressed me.”

If we’ve learned anything about the Borg, it’s that brushes with assimilation tend to leave a mark – don’t be surprised if Jurati isn’t quite herself next week…

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard season 2 beam onto Paramount Plus (US) and Crave (Canada) on Thursdays. Viewers elsewhere can watch the show on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays. For more Trek action, check out our reviews of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 .

Richard is a freelancer journalist and editor, and was once a physicist. Rich is the former editor of SFX Magazine, but has since gone freelance, writing for websites and publications including GamesRadar+, SFX, Total Film, and more. He also co-hosts the podcast, Robby the Robot's Waiting, which is focused on sci-fi and fantasy. 

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Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 3 Review: Assimilation

By: Author Diana Keng

• X (Twitter)

When TV Fanatic spoke with showrunner Akiva Goldsman , he commented that Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 3 is when the action really lands and the season starts to take off.

By all appearances, he was not over-selling the event.

We watch Jurati and the Borg queen having a weirdly intimate dance of consciousnesses on the crashed ship, while Seven and Raffi explore 2024 and Rios gets himself arrested.

Escaping the Confederation forces led by the First Husband is about as exciting a fight scene as we've seen in the series, considering Elnor and his sword are out of commission.

It's not lost on me that Raffi gets to disintegrate Seven's husband. Seems extremely fitting.

Grief makes monsters of everyone, and Raffi is no exception.

Considering Seven featured in a very similar scenario on Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 5 where she not only witnessed Icheb's brutalized body, she had to put him out of his suffering herself, Raffi seems unaware of how Elnor's death affects others.

In typical Raffi fashion, she immediately fixates on a solution. Find the Watcher, fix time, save Elnor.

No one's going to tell her otherwise. Even Jurati can't say whether or not it'll work.

My only thought as the three head out on their away mission is that they're all pretty over-dressed for the heat of Los Angeles.

Their arrival in 2024 is about as delightful a fish-out-of-water scenario as we could have anticipated.

Well, maybe not for Rios.

Does anyone else suspect that Jurati purposely transported him into midair, where she was able to pop the others onto solid ground?

It bothers me to no small extent that Jurati's character is meant to be seen as both brilliant and incredibly petty. (Also fully capable of murder in case you'd forgotten how Bruce Maddox met his end.)

Borg queen: What you have just done here is more difficult and vastly more dangerous than you realize. Jurati: And what is that? Borg queen: You’ve impressed me. 🔗 permalink: You’ve impressed me.

So when the Borg queen gets all intense and intrigued with her pickpocketing the coordinates of The Watcher while their consciousnesses were doing the tango, my Spidey-senses are tingling.

There are a LOT of theories out there about the masked Borg queen from Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 1 . I know where I'm laying my money—just saying.

It comes down to names.

The Borg queen on the premiere addresses him as "Picard." The Borg queen here addresses him as "Locutus."

For those who insist on arguing the premiere queen is somehow his mother (really, seriously?), I'd point out that she would have addressed him as "Jean-Luc."

Picard: Agnes, can you hear me? Jurati: Picard. So many warm feelings. Admiration, respect. Sometimes I want to disobey you just for spite, but that’s cause I wish you were my dad. Picard: I see we’re diving into the deep end. 🔗 permalink: I see we’re diving into the deep end.

I've made completely wrong predictions before, but I'm pretty sure I've got it right here.

They've begun to foreshadow a complication with the mission in that Seven is becoming more and more comfortable with life as a never-assimilated human.

I mean, I'm sure she doesn't want to be the president of a fascist, xenophobic Confederation in 2401, but perhaps she'll try to stay in 2024?

Seven: Strangers don’t usually like me. Raffi: You and 2024 should get a room. 🔗 permalink: You and 2024 should get a room.

Meanwhile, Raffi's fixation on solving the time fissure doesn't blind her to the injustices of 2024.

Raffi: You know, I’ve never been able to understand how a society could exist with so many contradictions and not collapse sooner than it did. 🔗 permalink: You know, I’ve never been able to understand how a society could exist with so many…

The online fandom has been quick to note that 2024 is the same year Sisko, Bashir, and Dax took part in the Bell Riots in San Francisco on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 3 Episodes 11 and 12.

Whether or not there will be a cross-over, the Sanctuary Districts (where homeless people were detained) are marked out in Los Angeles. Raffi and Seven pass a sign as they head for the tower.

In the Wake-Up World of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 2 , a "General Sisko" was also mentioned. Is it just fan service, or will this season delve into other Star Trek: Deep Space Nine references?

Rios's adventure is the most immersive in 2024 life as he experiences the deprivation the poor and undocumented live with when he is brought to Dr. Teresa's free clinic.

Dr. Teresa is a great character to bring onboard early. She's intelligent, brave, and funny, to boot. She'll make a good ally, although I'd be wary of having her show up on Jurati's radar.

The Season 2 trailer showed Seven breaking Rios out of a prison transport bus. I'll assume that happens soon, probably after they track down his com badge and maybe after they meet Teresa's son, who's also a lot of fun.

It's a tall order whenever our heroes are called upon to fix time.

As Jurati points out, their presence there is already a disruption to time. The hope is they can find The Watcher and solve the primary fissure without causing more.

Rios: So, to be clear, wake a queen that could kill us all, beam from a ship with no power, and find a Watcher who may or may not exist. 🔗 permalink: So, to be clear, wake a queen that could kill us all, beam from a ship with no power, and…

With the Borg queen in play, and Jurati incredibly drawn to her presence, things onboard La Sirena could get just as messy as things in Los Angeles.

By the way, does anyone have a good idea where Picard targets their crash? He says he's taking them "home," and the only theory I have is that it's the desert where Raffi lives in her trailer in the future.

My other question relates to Q's brief appearance at Picard's side just before they travel back in time.

As at the Chateau Picard in the Wake-Up World, no one else sees Q.

I only remember him being invisible to others on Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 Episode 15, "Tapestry," when he torments Picard in his alternate past.

Curioser and curioser. Is it possible that Q is only a figment of Picard's mind on this adventure? A manifestation of blame and regret?

It's far-fetched, I know, but I'd like to understand why others don't see him. Why do you think that is?

While we're postulating the possibilities, however slight, who is The Watcher?

How will they return to the future? And while we're on that topic, how cool is it that Lea Thompson (yeah, Back the Future Lea Thompson) directs this episode?

Let's see your best theories in our comments, Fanatics! Make it so!

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