Where do we go when we want to escape our sorrows? Home. Or the closest thing we have to a home – into the arms of those that make us feel at home. In Homer’s Odyssey, Nepenthe is a drug that makes Helen forget her old home, in this week’s episode of Picard, it is a planet that helps Soji trust Picard and reveal her home to him.
1. Dr. Agnes Jurati
“Will these hands ne’er be clean?” Agnes is beginning to channel her inner Lady Macbeth and we see the origins of her downfall as she first meets with Commodore Oh at the Daystrom Institute before she ships off with Picard and his crew. Oh shows Agnes what will happen to all life if synthetics are allowed to exist, through a forced mindmeld, which is portrayed as an attack; she does not ask Agnes for permission. We don’t see much of the meld, but Agnes is so effected by what she sees, she vomits and immediately agrees to assist Oh in whatever subterfuge she proposes. Agnes is a scientist, and as it seems, a woman of principle. One who believes in black and white, right and wrong, and Oh takes advantage of her kind heart. Agnes agrees to be tracked, by Starfleet and, perhaps unbeknownst to her, the Romulans as well.
2. Resistance to the Zhat Vash appears to be futile
Narek’s sister, who seems to function as a straight up villain, interrogates our xB Hugh, after he helps Picard and Soji escape the Artifact; all that patient work she put up with is in ruins. After executing numerous XBs in front of Hugh, he still won’t give up Picard and Soji, but she does catch him verbally committing a treaty violation and this is all she needs to do what she does best – attack Hugh and Elnor. And despite Elnor’s best efforts at protecting our boy Hugh, Narek’s sister mortally wounds him and we lose, dare I say, a sentimental favorite character from TNG.
3. Nepenthe
The pace of this episode is slow; it gives us, the viewer, and Picard and Soji, a chance to slow down and catch our collective breath. It also gives us all a chance to see some of our favorites again, William Riker and Deanna Troi. Just seeing Troi seeing Picard again made me tear up, which is not quite what I expected to happen, but it did. Soji is on a sudden journey of self-discovery she didn’t ask for and most certainly didn’t want. It’s a journey Picard is on with her, as are Troi and Riker since she’s quite obviously linked to someone they once cared for deeply: Data. Riker would recognize Soji’s head tilt anywhere. Not only is Soji trying to figure out who she really is, so are these three former Enterprise crew members; they’re trying to figure out who they were together and how they can best work together to help Soji. But the real star of helping Soji heal, after being betrayed by Narek, is Troi and Riker’s daughter, Kestra. She bonds with Soji the best she can; she obviously is missing her brother, more about him later, and is desperately trying to figure out Soji as only a girl of her age can, authentically and with clear-eyed and altruistic passion. While Troi tries her best to counsel Soji, her counseling also serves to give us backstory on the Troi-Rikers as we hear about their son, Thaddeus, and how he passed away from a disease that could only be cured by synthetic technology – an attempt to show Soji the stuff from which she comes is real, and useful, just as real as the stuff of humans and Betazoids. Once Thaddeus became ill, his family left their life on starships and settled on Nepenthe, finally giving him the homeworld he always wanted. Now that Soji is faced with death, death at the hands of the Romulans, she has the chance to return to her homeworld, and find out the truth behind her own creation.
4. Out, damned spot
Rios’ ship is being tracked by Narek, and despite our captain’s best efforts, he can’t escape the Romulan. Agnes begins to realize it’s not the ship Narek is tracking, it’s her. She’s falling apart and Raffi and Rios attempt to help her the best they can; they think it’s the death of Bruce, and it is, but perhaps they don’t quite know the extent to how his death is affecting her. And they definitely don’t know about the tracker. Agnes is at her wits end. She can’t have Picard followed. She can’t be responsible. She doesn’t quite Lady Macbeth herself, but she does use a neurotoxin in an attempt to get rid herself of the tracker. It seems as if it doesn’t work and she’s put into an induced coma by the ships EMH. But, it does appear this prevents the tracker from working, and Narek is now in the dark, unable to follow Rios’ ship as they travel to Nepenthe to pick up Picard and Soji.
5. The End
This episode spent a good deal of time on Nepenthe. It allowed Picard to reconnect with Troi and Riker and it allowed the audience to do the same. The three way hug they all had before Picard left with Soji was everything. Kestra gives Soji her compass. A compass that doesn’t work, which feels like an important item or plot point that will come in handy again in the future. This episode felt truly comfortable, like a story by itself. Perhaps it was the TNG characters, happily married, warmly welcoming Picard, and falling back into their old roles. I’ll take it. We need a stop at home before we go out into the coldness of the real world.