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PIC: "Nepenthe" & "Broken Pieces" (s1e7-8)
156 Plays1 month ago
PIZZAS AND ADMONISHMENTS. Picard takes Soji to the Riker Troi's house to chill out and think about their next move. Narissa kills a bunch of Borg... and Rios reveals he has a direct connection to what's happening.
The grades begin at (29:45).
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Trek, Merry, Kill'
00:00:00
Speaker
Next on Trek, Merry, Kill. Troy, Riker, Mucus. Engage. I'm in over my head. You helped Picard and synthetic escape. When I left Earth, i had a plan, i had a ship, I even had a crew. Now I've lost them all. I'm tractor locked to bore cube full of Romulus. They don't want us.
00:00:21
Speaker
They want her. This whole thing, how do I know it's not another game? You can't trust me. Hello, Will.
00:00:37
Speaker
What you are about to experience will drive you mad. We face a powerful enemy. What is happening on this queue? Something far worse is coming.
00:00:52
Speaker
Do you believe in hell? Neither did I until I saw it. Unless we act quickly. Hello.
00:01:09
Speaker
Mary Kill. Hi, I'm Brian. I'm Kristen.
Covering Star Trek Picard Season One
00:01:18
Speaker
Welcome to Trek, Mary Kill, a Star Trek podcast that sometimes speaks in the theme, the language of the wild girls of the woods.
00:01:24
Speaker
Eli, how are you doing, Kristen? Uh, yes. ah yes
00:01:31
Speaker
We press on in our look back at Star Trek Picard season one, as this is the fifth anniversary of its premiere. And as we've been doing all month, we're talking about a about a pair of episodes. Since the season is heavily serialized, I thought, well, just do two at a time. We're going do too much.
00:01:46
Speaker
And Chris and I have found that doing two hour-long episodes... Or sometimes three. it's The one time we did three is is a lot, but we we we press on, like I said. um And we're going to talk about episodes seven and eight of season one. seven Episode seven is Nepenthe, which premiered on Paramount Plus March 5th, 2020, written by Samantha Humphrey and Michael Chabon.
00:02:10
Speaker
They did not write it together. I always like to point that out. The and and the ampersand mean two different things, according to the Writers Guild, if you didn't know. ah Directed by Doug Arnie Akoski. Episode 8 is Broken Pieces, which premiered a week later on Paramount+, plus March 12th, 2020.
00:02:25
Speaker
Written by Michael Chabon, by himself. Directed by Maja Vervillo. Can I just say that it feels like I've lived 30 years since this these episodes premiered? i think we all have.
00:02:38
Speaker
I... I was like, they can't possibly be that long ago. no it was. And it's it. Yeah, it might as well have been a decade.
00:02:49
Speaker
We talked about this before when when we did our Voyager episodes, certain things that they're doing stylistically that are different from Star Trek are still after the peak of a different stylistic.
00:03:02
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, we're going do an episode in black and white. Well, that was a trend that was like three or five years earlier. And even five years after Picard, it's kind of stale TV convention of like the mystery box season long story arc storytelling the way that it was told.
00:03:20
Speaker
It was stale in the moment. It's kind of like now it's kind of not come all the way back around. It's kind of quaint. but It's kind like, oh, they really were just vamping a lot of this thing. ah ah So what happens in Nepenthe and Broken Pieces?
Escape to Nepenthe and Meeting Riker & Troi
00:03:33
Speaker
Well, after escaping the Borg cube via spatial trajectory, Picard and Soji wind up on the planet Nepenthe and virtually at the doorstep of Will Riker and Deanna Troi and their daughter Kestra.
00:03:45
Speaker
And it's here that Picard intends to lay low and get drunk and then think up what to do next. Indirectly putting the Riker Trois in mortal danger. like they Hey, that sounds a lot like what tend to do and I need to have a little think.
00:04:01
Speaker
ah Meanwhile, going on in the La Serena, which has been dispatched to pick them up from Nepenthe by conventional warp, we learn that Commodore O approached Dr. Jurati before Picard left for Earth at all and convinced Jurati to tag along on this adventure by initiating a mind meld in which she foisted upon, let's be honest, the total fucking nerd Dr. Jurati...
00:04:29
Speaker
This thing the Romulans call the the admonition. What is the admonition? Well, the Romulans were exploring space and they found this planet which had basically like advanced, created it synthetic life and then they left a warning behind before they got wiped out completely and they're like, hey, if you do this, if you like cross the synth barrier, you know, where you build it, yeah,
00:04:57
Speaker
the destroyer will come and wipe out all biological life. And it drives, uh, it's basically so serious. It's what caused the Jat Vash to be formed.
00:05:08
Speaker
The Jat Vash's imperative is to snuff out all synthetic life. Commodore O, who is half Vulcan and half Romulan. That's how she's able to actually perform a mind meld.
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah. ah Not something usually Romulans can do. They had to backfill that. That is definitely something they're like, ah, shit. We better Well, made it clear when she first ah on her first appearance, but like it's just in dialogue.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yes. Like ADR. Yeah, she's a part Vulcan. Which was what Savik's situation was, which is what their kind of... That was their cover. What happens on the La Serena is that Rios and Raffi find this out.
00:05:52
Speaker
ah They find out that because of that... ah Jurati is the one who murdered Bruce Maddox, which you already know, but they come upon that. They figure it out. And then... once and you know what you Just to say, they don't really come upon it in the smartest way.
00:06:07
Speaker
No, no, no. Did they put put the pieces together like competent people? No. no. We had to believe that these two people are complete fucking idiots for way too long. but anyway.
00:06:22
Speaker
And I mean... Remember ah poor Eleanor got just ditched on the board keyboard. Actually, he chose to stay. Yeah. Oh, don't get me started. Don't get me started. We have to get started. Hugh dies,
Are the Episodes Filler?
00:06:33
Speaker
everybody. It's very sad. He dies in the penthe.
00:06:35
Speaker
And then Eleanor calls for help. And in broken pieces or yeah broken pieces, seven of nine shows up to rescue him. And the only way they figure out how to get out their situation is for seven of nine.
00:06:45
Speaker
to take over the board cube and become its queen. ah and then there's just a lot of death of board drones by the evil Romulan. It bloodbath.
00:06:58
Speaker
It anticlimactic beyond your wildest dreams. Yeah. in my opinion. They're both vamping kind of episodes, like trying to figure out what to do.
00:07:11
Speaker
ah But before we get into the production notes, which touches on that a little bit, let's talk about Riker and Troy being back. That's the reason to watch. Yeah, then that's the whole thing. And kudos, because I would say that that there was some expectation on that.
00:07:29
Speaker
Really, we're being honest, like people were were looking forward to that. Some people probably tuned in only to see that. Yes, that was reason to do it. It's nice for them to come back. Of course, they have to have a tragic backstory where their son died.
00:07:46
Speaker
He didn't die just any way, though. No, he died of something that the synth band could have, if it hadn't been in place, would have fixed. So there's that.
00:07:58
Speaker
We'll talk about that. I have that specific passage locked in there. But I mean, we've since we've our podcast, we deal with episodes Next Generation. We've watched Riker and Troy a lot.
00:08:11
Speaker
We watched Star Trek Picard season three, which brought them back. much more meaningfully to the plot. Um, so it's kind of a wash, but I have to tell you my first time seeing this, it was such a relief given watching this show week to week, but it was also just a genuine pleasure to see like he was right. Well, how we're talking about happy we were to see Hugh.
00:08:34
Speaker
Um, And it was so nice to see them. And ah Jonathan Frakes was very concerned about his performance. he Yeah, I think we've talked about this on the show before.
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah, he like had a panic attack and all this other stuff. And he was great. Yeah, he's great. That's just like, you know, and like they just picked up where they kind of left off almost. You know what I mean? Like...
00:09:00
Speaker
it did They didn't seem, you know, dusty or out of practice or anything. Absolutely. It just, as Jonathan Frakes talked about it, he was nervous because Patrick Stewart is Patrick Stewart.
00:09:13
Speaker
And Marina Sertius had been doing a play on the West End, eight shows a week. And so she kind of flew out to LA to just do this episode, then go back. and ah And so he was the one who's like, I haven't really done anything serious in like a decade. Yeah.
00:09:28
Speaker
But he also, all all he had to do was play breaker. But been directing yeah some of these episodes, so. Yes. But he hadn't been in it and, like, pretending to be someone else um in a while. And, it you know, what what really helps is that the episode Nepenthe starts, when they get to Nepenthe, the first person we meet is actually Kestra.
00:09:50
Speaker
And I think they did a really good job of casting the daughter. Yeah. Yeah. She's really good. Yeah, it's a shame that Mike Flanagan scooped her up so much that she's in all those Netflix horror shows because she couldn't come back in Star Trek Picard season three. I don't know if they would have been able to even afford to bring her back because the budget was so tight. But anyway, so great. And then then the next person we see is Marina Serres is Troy.
00:10:14
Speaker
And that's Troy immediately. Yeah. It's just... It's great. they're They just they are who they are. And it's a pleasure to see them. ah This was the not the promise of the show. This is actually what Patrick Stewart didn't want.
00:10:26
Speaker
He did not want a TNG reunion. And I guess I'll get into that now. According to Jonathan Franks talking about his whole thing, he told Anthony Pascal at the indispensable trekmovie.com. Basically, this was them.
00:10:41
Speaker
being like, oh crap, we don't know what to do. And it was midway through the season, they sat down and rebroke the rest of the season. So we already talked about this in the development of the show. Episodes one and two got expanded out into episode three.
00:10:56
Speaker
Then they did a mid-season story break to figure out how to do the rest of the season. There was no foresight, folks. Like that there was no best laid plans. And you had a lot of people brought in as a rapid response team to triage who had no experience doing Star Trek, especially with these characters.
00:11:15
Speaker
You know, it'd be one thing if they had brought in like Ron Moore and Brandon Braga, you know, people who had, done these characters for years and years and told star trek stories like okay you have like two weeks to fix five episodes that's like we did that for a living for seven years we can do this uh and this is a little bit different and the pressures are a little bit different so and i think it shows to be perfectly honest as much as it is happy great to see all of them let's see here some production notes about nepenthe Before we get into the grades,
Greek Mythology and Casting Notes
00:11:43
Speaker
the title is a reference to Greek mythology.
00:11:47
Speaker
Nepenthe is a fictional medication that makes sorrows disappear. ah So what's it? It's ketamine. What is it? ah so It's referred to in The Raven by Edgar Allan Boe, where it is a kind concoction which would cause the writer to lose the memory of his lost love. Yeah, that sounds...
00:12:05
Speaker
So they're in a K-hole is what I'm hearing. I feel like people are still doing ketamine. I can't believe the times. i don't know.
00:12:14
Speaker
Kestra Troy Riker, their daughter, is named after Deanna Troy's older sister, Kestra Troy, whose death was detailed in the Next Generation episode, Dark Page. Thaddeus Troy Riker is named after William T. Riker's ancestor, Thaddeus Riker, Old Iron Boots, who was mentioned in Star Trek Voyager episode, Death Wish.
00:12:33
Speaker
A shot of Hugh looking around a corner at Elnor and Nerissa fighting. He already has a knife in his neck that Nerissa will throw shortly to kill him in an apparent missed VFX shot.
00:12:44
Speaker
Hugh dies in this episode. I mean, I'm just going to bemoan the fact that they did that. And it was so unceremonious. it was He dies in the arms of a character he just met that day.
00:12:57
Speaker
That's right. Not an hour before. In the boy nun. he met Yeah, it's very meaningful, you see. He dies in the arms of a character he just met.
00:13:10
Speaker
Two visual effects shots from the Star Trek Discovery episode, If Memory Serves, were recycled and modified to portray the admonition seen during the mind meld between Commodore O and Dr. Agnes Jurati.
00:13:21
Speaker
ah Speaking of Star Trek Discovery, there's two other mentions. Jurati mentions the Gormagander, which was first ah in the episode... magic to make the sanest man go mad from the first season. She's also listening to a piece of music that was created for that. Also that same discovery episode.
00:13:38
Speaker
It is a type of opera for an alien species. And then Picard mentions that his heart is solid duritanium. Remember he has the artificial heart. So that was callback there. ah While telling Soji about commander data, Kestra references several episodes of star Trek next generation data's ability to play the violin data's dreaming subroutine data's desire to understand and master the art of comedy, learning how to dance and his love of Sherlock Holmes.
00:14:04
Speaker
So those are those things. Any comments, any straight thoughts or notes you had about that episode? Yeah. ah No, we can get into it in the grades, I guess.
00:14:15
Speaker
I do want to also mention that the episode is Dr. Jurati pukes twice in the episode. Yeah. I'm pointing a couple of things out. So she pukes twice in the episode, like in the first five minutes and then later on.
00:14:30
Speaker
um And there's I'm going mention this in the next episode as well. There's um an issue with twinning. When you twin an idea, like that's just like something you do, especially if it's in the same hour.
00:14:44
Speaker
And I just want to flag it that we'll talk about in a second. The other thing I want to say, that Hugh's death is bookended by the burnt tomato in the pizza and oven.
00:14:55
Speaker
A famous moment in Star Trek for how corny it is. ah Where Riker is cooking, he's baking pizza in in a stone fire pit. And ah suddenly there's black smoke.
00:15:06
Speaker
And don't worry, was just a burnt tomato. Everything's fine. Next scene, Hugh dies. The scene after that, we get a big slice of red velvet cake. So is the show taking any of this seriously? Absolutely not.
00:15:19
Speaker
This is... About the vomiting, I thought it was Agnes trying to get rid of the tracker by making herself vomit a whole bunch.
00:15:29
Speaker
That makes a lot of sense. but That's why she was eating three pieces of red velvet cake. She's probably lactose intolerant like me. That was the only way that she could think to ah get it out of her.
00:15:45
Speaker
ah Maybe she tried the other end and it wasn't going on either. I don't know. That's a good read. That's ah that's a very fair read. That's what I thought. I just want to point out in when the same episode, she pukes twice.
00:15:56
Speaker
and just so I just want to keep that keep that in mind. Well, we're led to believe it's actually more because Rafi's like ah gagging the whole time. That's true. ah And in Broken Pieces, I have some thoughts. A selection of books in Captain Rios' quarters or real world works on the topic of existentialism. Because remember, Rios' whole thing is like, he's this moody guy. And we find out why. Because he watched his captain murder two people and didn't understand.
00:16:22
Speaker
why starfleet ordered his captain to murder these people or else the ship would have been destroyed and it turns out commodore o had intercepted their communique and said kill those people or we're gonna blow up your ship you know and i'm starting to think this commodore o is not a very nice person she's up to something uh picard mentions she's a real jerk
00:16:48
Speaker
Picard mentions Marta Batanidas, a classmate that is featured in the episode Tapestry, which you and I will be talking about later this season. And he refers to her in the past tense, which Memory Alpha takes to mean that she has died by the year 2399. don't know But that's an important person.
00:17:05
Speaker
Just a little tease there, Kristen, the actor who plays her in the episode. It's a This Is Your Life episode where Picard replays Academy days, but it's still Patrick Stewart.
00:17:16
Speaker
Just everyone around him is the cadet age. And so he's basically getting hot and heavy with like a 19 year old actor. Yeah. Anyway, just little tease there. Yeah.
00:17:28
Speaker
let's see look I know they're actors and they're professional and all that, but yes yeah I'm not. A Viridium Tracker, which is what Jurati and Jess, that was the same type of tracker that Spock uses to track Kirk in Star Trek VI. That's how he knows he's on Rorapente.
00:17:45
Speaker
ah The episode puts it out there that the Jat Vash are largely women. like When the admonition starts, they're all women. and This is like their final test to become the Jat Vash.
00:17:56
Speaker
Except, no, but see, except when they need to get the shit kicked out of them, suddenly they're men. Because on Earth, it's Shad Vash that are the stunt guys. So there's this weird twinning idea because it kind of it confuses it with the Quat Malat, which is Elnor's people. Those are the women.
00:18:15
Speaker
Those are the warrior nuns. So again, I'm bringing up twinning because I want to tell everyone that when you see twinning, especially in the same hour, it's Stuff that's due to be revised.
00:18:27
Speaker
So it jumps out at me because now I'm rewatching it. But at the same time, it's kind of like when other stuff is not pleasing, your mind starts to drift. And there's not a lot here to really focus you because in Broken Pieces, which is the episode I'm talking about right now, they sit down and explain the story to you.
Rios's Backstory
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah. Like the only reason we understand what's going on is because finally they have a scene where all they're all sitting around where Jurati had just been puking and explain it all to each other. You know, now that Soji's on the ship, it adds the extra element that Rios gets to bring in, why he is the way that he is.
00:19:02
Speaker
Well, because he killed her sister, you know, many years ago. He watched his captain and kill her sister. Now starting to understand why. Raffi's conspiracy mind is totally verified.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah. Right? like it all Vindicated. ah The admonition itself ah received at the time, so five years ago, a lot of criticism. And of course, a lot of that came from like, you know, neckbeards and Reddit cretins who are, you know, against anything woke or whatever. And they were predisposed to just like a lot of this new Star Trek anyway.
00:19:33
Speaker
But they kind of complained because a lot of the footage is from Shuddershock licensed media. ah yeah. like necessarily offensive but yeah it's a lot of just stock footage I hate to like you guys have no idea how many shots from and like legitimate shows and advertising are from like a stock ah like a footage like a stock footage website but sometimes if have like a higher budget production you can just make it exclusive so then people can't search for it
00:20:07
Speaker
after. or they'll even shoot stuff for you if you have if you don't have a crew And so I think just people recognizing seeing similar clips that they could go and then find as soon as the episode aired.
00:20:21
Speaker
Plus a lot of the story issues, because again, the show, background, we know they were making it up as they went along and then going back and fixing the stuff. They're like, oh, that doesn't work. Like it's all there. Also, this has, I guess, a lot of vaguely similar ideas to the video game Mass Effect, which I and never, never played. I know. Uh-uh.
00:20:39
Speaker
so i know I go outside. so yeah So I think these two episodes kind of were the end of the line for a lot of people being excited about this season.
00:20:52
Speaker
And then I would say another reason is that we get ah another Rios Hollow introduced. Okay. I don't know where else to put this, but I don't think we needed Rios backstory that tied him to the canvas more.
00:21:10
Speaker
it but It's just, it's weird. It's too convenient. It is weird. And i and we had to sit we had we got a scene of all of his hollows in the stupid Chateau office with Rafi asking in question. yeah not It was stupid and I'm fucking sick of this actor now.
00:21:31
Speaker
Like, no, i'm so like not his fault. I mean, you but those characters are annoying. ah Yeah, Santiago Cabrera. So the fifth one is named Ian and he's Scottish, but it's really Santiago Cabrera doing Fat Bastard.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. I'm perfectly honest. And the engineer character doesn't add anything really. No. And it's tough. A navigator can't really navigate. Yes.
00:22:01
Speaker
My last two notes. This episode, I believe, has the highest on-screen body count in of any Star Trek episode ever. Oh, because of the Borg? I guess what I'm saying is... Well, actually, the two episodes together probably combined. But like in Star Trek 2009, the J.J. Abrams movie, Vulcan is destroyed. like we see million like But we don't see the individual bodies dying. And in these two episodes, Nerissa and Narek's sister is just shooting people indiscriminately mowing down our room of helpless people her guards are shooting everybody and then and in broken pieces they vent the Borg into space and it's thousands of bodies we're watching dying so we've never seen this much individual death on screen before empty it's just completely ah gratuitous and it's not even like it's just like oh my god I can't believe we're doing this for no purpose except to break Hugh's heart and then kill him and so And also, oh, she really is evil. Yeah. Like, we knew that.
00:23:02
Speaker
We knew that. Yeah, we knew that. Just like, um have you seen any of the show Outlander? Yes. You know how, like, they kept trying to make the um Tobias Menzies character from the past, like, it has to be as be hammered home that he's a bad guy? And it's pretty obvious. And then they're like, what if we also make a child ah sex abuser?
00:23:29
Speaker
You did not need the child rape. yeah yeah We already knew for a couple seasons we got it. This is the bad guy. yeah and like no you don't understand. He's really bad.
00:23:40
Speaker
got it. no i got it
00:23:44
Speaker
I got it. We got it. And I stopped watching after that. So who knows what happens after that? Maybe he starts, i don't know, animal sacrifice. Who knows? I don't know. I didn't see it. I only saw that like late in the run, there was an episode where the main guy was dying and the main woman gives him a hand job and it brings him back to life. Oh shit.
00:24:05
Speaker
you know That's my recollection. Just from the, you know, from. from the books? No, from seeing the the episodes I've seen, that sounds right up their alley.
00:24:17
Speaker
Did you see the episode where she can't, she she has to start, I don't know, she's in a situation where she starts singing for, oh my God, i don't i don't, I did not. She starts a she starts singing a the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B and it becomes a folk song oh mike in the Scottish Highlands.
00:24:39
Speaker
She travels from town to town singing it and she gets like, people give her money. Is there a temporal discontinuity? Like she can't just like carve a message into a wall saying like, can somebody please call the authorities on this? No, she's not doing it for that.
00:24:58
Speaker
No, I can't remember the convoluted plot, but I think she has to travel and make money or I don't know, whatever. It's not because ah authorities come find me now. I do remember the first, like one of the early internet comments about the show. I remember being like that. was It was really like the first time I encountered the meme of, you know, it smelled crazy at that show.
00:25:20
Speaker
and Oh my God. it smells car crazy in there. but They're literally burning people for being witches and nobody bathes and they're fucking the whole time.
00:25:33
Speaker
I just remember when we went Scotland. clean for a brief period when they go to France. We went to Scotland and the tour was basically like, oh yeah, piss and shit was everywhere. Dude, oh my god. Until very recently.
00:25:47
Speaker
Very, very recently. Like 1950s. Maybe even later. And so I gotta mention this last production note. Okay, sorry. back of everything No, it's alright. This is Outlander chat. We can keep talking. Yeah.
00:26:03
Speaker
Outlander kill. Yeah. yeah out Outland or kill. yeah
00:26:09
Speaker
Yes. I saw eight years ago, like five episodes of, yeah. I just want to put out there just so everyone's keeping tabs. So we've got Soji and Dodge.
00:26:19
Speaker
Dodge dead. Died in the first episode. In Broken Pieces, we learn that there was another sister who looked just like Soji and Dodge. Stupid.
00:26:30
Speaker
Asha. And she is dead. Janna. So what do you think? No, her name's Jana, right? Okay. I thought it was, okay. Yeah, you're right. Probably Jana. Okay.
00:26:41
Speaker
So what do you think, Kristen? Are we going to see Issa Brionis again? Playing, and because that there's twins, right? Every clone, there's two of them. Oh, no. I don't know. I haven't seen the rest of the season, Brian.
00:26:54
Speaker
No, I'm not even spoiling. I'm just saying, like what you think if what if if a brother and a sister were killed by the captain of the Ibn Majid, then and and Soji and Dahj were sisters?
00:27:10
Speaker
So going to see her again. why don't we see the... ah Oh. Could it not be the boy and the girl could be sister, boy brother and sister? Or it has to be twins?
00:27:22
Speaker
Well, i'm gonna say cloy im I'm going to say it because of the cloning. Don't want to be a for another boy. That means there will be another boy. fucking Christ.
00:27:34
Speaker
ah So you create the twinning issue by saying that twins are created every time you clone the positronic neuron. And then your story has twinning in it too.
00:27:46
Speaker
This is what I mean. Like you have to tightly plot this and simplify it. And instead you have added so many bells and whistles
Twinning and Plot Inconsistencies
00:27:55
Speaker
on there. Cause you don't know what story. and del I don't know where else to put this.
00:28:00
Speaker
Why the fuck would Rios have a drawing of them? big to to sell the point we took it know we drew it like well couldn't be like i stole the the security footage in the cut it well by what because i covered it up you would have to create a convincing so starship you would have to cast that up you'd have to do like you have to do so much more instead what if we just what if i stole like the transporter information you can like bring it bring up on the screen what the person looked like sure i feel like that's better anyway that one's in the house guys well wasn't he drawing it because he like saw it and he was like trying to that was his therapy of like dealing with it like i know he said like someone drew it like while they were there or something
00:28:51
Speaker
Oh, like visiting, which doesn't make any fucking sense either. Because right, because it's like it's we're making first contact. Let me go get my sketch pad. And then what was his cover story?
00:29:02
Speaker
He was just like, those people never came on board. He's yeah, hit the transporter. Yeah. And then I was like, he killed himself for no reason. Yep. I was like, okay.
00:29:14
Speaker
None of it makes any sense, but you have to. And again, like you said, why is he attached to the larger story? It doesn't. He doesn't need to be. Doesn't need to be. We already know that they're, we already know that they're twins. We already know that Bruce Maddox sent his twin daughters out for some reason to find out why the synths were banned in the first place.
00:29:34
Speaker
Doesn't make any sense. So, and I don't get, you know, if you're not supposed to get it. You're just supposed to go with it. And so we're going to go with it into the grades. Start with great moments.
00:29:47
Speaker
Kestro's a pacifist that carries bows and arrows. i like it. Typical kid stuff.
00:29:56
Speaker
um And then I have ah Riker greeting cheese and then he hugs Jean-Luc and gets cheese all over the back of his jacket. Oh yeah, that was great. But also stuff he he raised he's raising the oh god They just wanted him to bellow red alert.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah. Like, gotta do it. Picard and Deanna's reunion scene. Yeah. so She's so Troy right there in that first moment that he like, oh, he's Picard again now. Like, we get to see him through her eyes and she's great.
00:30:34
Speaker
I did like the scene where Riker figures out that Soji is Data's daughter, even though we already knew it. But he's like, how am I doing? And he goes, not bad for a pizza chef. But I just appreciated.
00:30:48
Speaker
I think because I'm bringing to bear like Jonathan Frakes knowing before I watched the episode ah five years ago was Frakes knowing that he was so nervous to go back and do it. And then you're watching him and I'm like, he's doing great.
00:31:00
Speaker
What's the problem? I think it's stupid. He's making pizza like Captain Pike or some shit. But, you know, whatever. No, works because he's at home with his family. That's right.
00:31:12
Speaker
And he's like, like semi-retired, not, you know, in the middle of some diplomatic quagmire like Pike is. I'm like, well, I guess I better cut some, you know, slice some mushrooms. just watched a kid get killed to power this planet. Better have a drink and cut some carrots.
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah. Where's my apron? Yeah, that's right. And then these aren't great. We're not doing great scenes for these, for these pairs of episodes. We're doing doing great moments like we do in our animated spotlights. And I promise I'm not a sucker. I promise is just because Marina Surte is, is so good.
00:31:47
Speaker
i appreciate it. And I thought it was a great moment when she's explaining to, Soji, how they got to Nepenthe, that Thad, rest in peace, was fascinated by homeworlds because he grew up on starships.
00:32:00
Speaker
So he invented Now here's Twinning. He invented his own Ardani. And then they went to Nepenthe. So now we're like, there's just, and we've got the, we've got the,
00:32:10
Speaker
the language in the forest.
Thad Riker's Fascination
00:32:12
Speaker
He created a dozen languages though. So now we're throwing around different languages and that you're saying, you know, it's just like so many competing ideas and it's just like, it's pretty simple.
00:32:24
Speaker
He is and fascinated by having a place to call home, like a planet. Then they came to Nepenthe and he did. Like, why do we need Ardani? So that at the end, Soji says to Kestra, Ardani, like, I'm going to return to my Ardani.
00:32:42
Speaker
ah Couldn't the Ardani just be the word home in this yeah made up language? The one language she made? You know i mean? Like, it's just too much. But I still liked her explaining all that. And then it is the most, the only person. I also put that but scene down.
00:32:59
Speaker
yeah But and that's the same scene where we get the explanation what happened to Thad. And i when I watch this initially, i remember it very clearly. guffawed and I couldn't fucking believe what the condition was and why he died.
00:33:17
Speaker
but I'm like, but the only reason barely works is because Marina Sirtis is so used to saying this shit. that she delivers it convincingly. And I'm going to repeat the line. Mandaxic Neurosclerosis. It's a silicon-based virus.
00:33:31
Speaker
It's very rare and in theory completely curable. You just have to culture the infected cells in an active positronic matrix. But by the time that came down with them and there were no active positronic matrices and no one was allowed to develop new ones because of that synth band.
00:33:50
Speaker
But I just thought it was so ridiculous to put those words battle and she sold them. So yeah, other actors would not, I mean, other actors who had not done star Trek, a whole bunch would have just been like, it would have been a calamity.
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, So I appreciate that. All right. Any other great moments from the Penthe for you? Uh, not from the Penthe. I will say in Nepenthe, the co-storyline going on is Rios, Raffi, and Jurati on the La Sirena.
00:34:25
Speaker
And they're trying to evade Narek, who's clearly following them to wherever they're going to pick up a card. He knows they're going to get him. And at the time, I was very much like, this is your chance to do a classic Star Trek like balance of terror, where it's like, now we get to see why Rios made it all the way to First Officer.
00:34:46
Speaker
You know what Like he gets to take his ship and do cool shit and they get to evade. And he and Rafi can use all their Starfleet experience to like either destroy the ship or evade him and it'd be something cool. And ah I think this is the problem with this show was that they went into every idea with first deconstruct Star Trek.
00:35:04
Speaker
What's something that's not Star Trek? So Picard's on the planet talking about how he's old and he's tired and he needs help, which that's, as you know. And at the end, he's emboldened because he's helped by his friends. He's like, well, nothing's going to stop me now.
00:35:19
Speaker
So they broke him down, build them back up. That's what deconstruction is. And so they resisted the obvious and easier storyline of like, we're trying to evade the ship. Why is it so hard? They get into all this talking.
00:35:31
Speaker
And then that's how they figure out there must be a tracker. And then that's it. And it's about Jurati's guilt is what that storyline's about. But you had to make us care about Jurati and her emotional problems from the outset.
00:35:43
Speaker
And I don't think they did a good job of doing that. Especially since the moment after she kills Bruce Maddox, whose body I think is on board still, right? Or do they jettison down in space? don't know.
00:35:54
Speaker
But, you know, as soon as she kills him, she's she's fucking Rios. You know what I mean? like So it's like, she's not a good person. We don't like her. Even if we get the flashback at the beginning to show why. and I almost put that as a great moment, but I'll save that for later. Anyway, um yeah, that's all that's all i had for For Nepenthe. Any broken pieces?
00:36:14
Speaker
Great moments? Yeah, when a Seven of Nine shows up and goes, what is happening on this cube? So, Elnor has the little, you know, bat signal thing that he can activate. To get the Fenris Rangers, yeah. Yeah, and she shows up and kills all those redshirt Romulans. Romulans.
00:36:40
Speaker
And then she's like, going to steal this cube. But then it's very anticlimactic because um she's like, I'm going to activate the board. Yeah. yeah And then they just open the vents and let them all out. Like the Romulans just kill them all. So we don't even get to see that part.
00:36:59
Speaker
The only cool part is at the end, the XBs literally tear apart. don't even remember her name. Narissa. Narissa. Yeah. Narick and Narissa. Yep.
00:37:12
Speaker
ah For Broken Pieces, i didn't have any of that. I'm still upset about Hugh dying in Nepezi. That was terrible. I mean, I like Elnor he sells it well enough, but like, yeah, dying in his arms is just very dumb. I don't know. yeah And in Broken Pieces, he's like, set when Seven of Nines got the Borg Queen wires in her and she's trying to power up the cube, he's like, are you going to assimilate me now?
00:37:35
Speaker
I can't do exactly that. He's right? He's like a little child. yeah I don't know what that was. He's Australian. I don't know what I was doing. But i though one great moment I put from this episode... was the scene where at towards the end where Picard's on the bridge with Rios, it's just the two of them, and Picard's telling him about when he was ah on the bridge of the Stargazer, and how he felt like it was just him, and he was alone, and and had all these feelings and all that stuff.
00:38:00
Speaker
But it was like a way for them to connect, and it was Patrick Stewart being being very real, and then kind of building Rios back up. He was being... Captain Picard at that moment.
00:38:11
Speaker
And he came in and he, he's like, listen, he's got some great lines there. It's like, we've, we've now that we know why we've been through these terrible things, we have the choice to do something with this information that can change the future positively.
00:38:28
Speaker
you know he's like it's he's He's reaffirming their mission to him and also reaffirming Rios' faith in Starfleet and I guess who he is. So I thought it was a pretty great moment between them.
00:38:38
Speaker
and um And to Frank's point, I think Patrick Stewart
Picard's Leadership and Rios Interaction
00:38:42
Speaker
is kind of cooking in these two episodes. yeah he's glad He's got stuff to do, to be honest, more to do than just run around and being like, hugh what? yeah ah Or falling on a catwalk and struggling to get back up.
00:38:56
Speaker
or or trying to like so I mean, he's still trying to, and a penthe anyway, he's still trying to convince Soji to trust him. Yeah, not convincingly. But my whole... networks Yeah, but it's like, girl, if you can't trust him, you've already made the mistake of going that going with him. So, i don't know.
00:39:16
Speaker
ah So that was my great moment from Broken Pieces. Let's get into best Trek tropes. I have ah four. I don't have that many. um Let's see here. We got a mind meld right out of the gate yeah on Nepenthe.
00:39:29
Speaker
ah By the way, I think, again, I don't know what happens. But I feel like... come was it commandant? Commodore O. co Like from, you know, Hogan's Heroes is just making all this stuff up.
00:39:48
Speaker
Like, I think she's just like mind melded with all these other Jad Vash to be like, yeah, like she has some kind of personal axe to grind or whatever.
00:39:59
Speaker
Well, the whole thing is... is like I mean, like many ancient prophecies, most of it's bullshit, so I just assume it's bullshit. Well, the the scene, the flashback we get where they all where a lot of the Jat-Fash candidates go insane oh when they receive the admonition, it gets backed up with that scene with Nerissa, with Ramda.
00:40:21
Speaker
and No, I'm saying they saw that, but I'm saying she's the one who put it in their mind and... you know, it's, it's not real. You're, you're being yours. Okay. she So it's just Commodore O has an ax to grind with just her. Like she's the one who's like, who started this whole, ah you know, came up with this prophecy and this whole lore and yeah, that's, and she's just full shit. Basically. That's what you think is happening.
00:40:49
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. All right. We'll find out I mean, it's more likely than not at least. No, i like that. There's some bullshit afloat. Like, for sure. yeah Okay.
00:41:01
Speaker
But yeah, I have the mind meld too. I, you know, I didn't need the puking, not because I'm, I'm squeamish about that stuff, but it's gross. Yeah. You're all you're really trying to do in that moment.
00:41:12
Speaker
And I think the problem is that Jurati is not a character. They're really just like, Alison, can you bring something to this? And credit to Alison Pillow. She's doing the best she can, but she's got nothing to work with with Jurati because the point is she's supposed to be like not so compliant when faced with authority.
00:41:28
Speaker
She's like, oh, a G man's here to tell me what to do. It wasn't bad enough that you like banned synths and my life's works over. And now you want me to cooperate? like, you know, fuck off. And then, oh, does the mind meld.
00:41:42
Speaker
And then she changed like her her whole body, like her whole attitude is supposed to change, which is kind of there, which is why I think it works. But I mean, like the problem is that we don't know Jurati at all. So we don't, the change doesn't quite hit as hardly as it could have as intended. But anyway.
00:41:57
Speaker
All right. I don't know why I put this in best, but so Soji is revealed that she has mucus and saliva. Yeah. So that goes back to our earlier discussion of like, she's just out your fucking and nobody can tell the difference, but that's why. Well, data was fully functional and he did talk about if you prick me, do I not bleed? But yes, it's not quite the same. He didn't have mucus and saliva, we learn.
00:42:21
Speaker
That's right. He didn't have all the fluids.
00:42:28
Speaker
uh, Troy's empathic abilities. So she can obviously tell that Picard is not all smiles underneath the surface there. Uh, and she can also, and I like that she and Picard have always had a different relationship.
00:42:41
Speaker
ah versus the other characters especially in like seasons two through four ish or so you have a lot of scenes where like they'd come out of the ready room together and it's like but they get each other better and the way it was conceived of in the show bible is she is supposed to be like one of his top advisors and it certainly helps that she's an empath and can help him a little bit but so i like that um i also put romulan cloaking device like off for the ships Yeah, it is interesting when they bring in the Star Trek characters, the show starts to feel a lot more like Star Trek.
00:43:15
Speaker
Yeah, funny. um I put ah ordering people to get some rest. I usually put this as a worst Trek trope just because it annoys me. But look, you know, it the spatial trajectory catapulted Picard from the drab, schlocky, ill-considered, poorly plotted and written show he was in back into Star Trek.
00:43:36
Speaker
So I was very happy to be able to mark down the best Trek trope of like Troy telling him to get some rest. Which Dr. Crusher, remember, that's always Dr. Crusher's solution. Have you been getting rest? And he's like, no, i've been I'm abducted by aliens every night.
00:43:50
Speaker
She's like, I think you need more rest. Someone sounds cranky. um yeah so ah Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed. That's right. And then Troy being a bad counselor in a way, just because Soji gets so mad at her.
00:44:03
Speaker
She doesn't trust and rejects her kindness. I'm like, that's a good Trek trope. Troy is doing her best and people are pissed off about it. yeah I appreciate that. and I didn't have any from Broken Pieces. I had ah Evil Admiral Turns Good, although I don't remember which episode that is from.
00:44:20
Speaker
No, that was Broken Pieces where he finally contacts Clancy. And I love that Clancy is even like, I'm too tired to stand up and do this hollow projection. and Standing up, so I'll just sit in a chair across from him. But she just tells she's Admiral Fluck because she tells him to shut the fuck up. so um Okay, what else you have? That's it.
00:44:43
Speaker
I kind of want Picard giving an inspirational speech, I guess, is yeah when he talks up Rios there. right Worst Trek tropes. So Dr. Jurati has never been off earth before. That was strange.
00:44:59
Speaker
A world renowned doctor. It's like saying that they've never been on an airplane before. Yeah. Like, if it's if there's such a thing as safe space travel that can take you to new, fun places, I would be all over that.
00:45:14
Speaker
And especially since, like, it doesn't cost anything, right? like Yeah, there's no... She's never been to the moon? You know what I mean? like there's Like, there's 500,000 people on the moon or whatever. in Like, i've I've never done it. yeah Like, that is...
00:45:29
Speaker
crazy. Like she's just in a basement somewhere making up fake people. i mean, I guess that track, she's making like sex dolls. And yeah, that's right. That's right. Hey, everyone. I go out and to space. Why would I want to do that?
00:45:42
Speaker
It's also confusing because then, She still had video from her relationship with Bruce Maddox on Earth 14 or 15 years ago.
00:45:52
Speaker
And then he left and found another planet. And that's where he built some androids, finished his work in secret. That's like that is a that is a sad person.
00:46:04
Speaker
Yeah, they don't call it. I think they call it out in season two. They don't call it out when the Borg Queen comes around and they they have share minds. But that's pretty sad. It's pretty sad. All right. So my next one is Dr. Jurati instantly is on board for murder and all this suffuge right after the mind meld.
00:46:25
Speaker
Well, I think that's why the mind meld works, but yeah I get it. You're just being like heel turn. i must and then yeah And then later she's like, i think about suicide as a way of comforting myself. It's like she just went straight psychopath.
00:46:40
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a it's like not only was your work your life's work banned, but here is a ah psychic image, a trauma to show that if you had succeeded, you would have brought about the end of all biological life in the universe or the galaxy. And then she meets Sojin and is just like, yeah, well, you're far out, man.
00:47:03
Speaker
Instantly again. like What was I so upset about? ah What was I doing all those murders for?
00:47:13
Speaker
I put Earth-based accents. I'm calling it, Kristen. Star Trek has mangled the human... language with actors non-native lee using accents.
00:47:28
Speaker
ah Santiago Cabrera's accent work is the worst that Star Trek has ever seen. I'm saying worse than James Doohan. it's um It's way worse than James Doohan. worse than Walter Koenig.
00:47:42
Speaker
It is far the worst. At least for the time, that was convincing for an American audience at the time. My Irish ancestors, Kristen, visited me in my dreams and they demanded that I at least be slightly offended by his
Rios's Accents Authenticity
00:48:02
Speaker
Irish accent.
00:48:03
Speaker
That's yeah sandthia and and it, And it's awful and it takes you completely out of the show. And then the time they give to explaining why this is happening at all, this really not funny running gag,
00:48:18
Speaker
um is is also painful. It just adds to accents and starch. It's not funny. painfulful It's not cute. It's just annoying.
00:48:29
Speaker
Yeah, but I guess in the tradition, this one takes the cake. Yeah. um You can replicate poison.
00:48:40
Speaker
So Dr. Girardi asks the replicator to replicate some poison. And it's just like, yep, no, no problem. Doc, here you go. She injects herself with it to get rid of the valyrium, whatever poison, whatever it is, the tracker.
00:48:57
Speaker
And I also put the Javash lore is so stupid and I don't care at all. Just ah in real time, that's what I wrote down. The whole, we have, we saw prophecy and it'll make you insane to even know it.
00:49:13
Speaker
Yeah. It's, but yeah, only a few people can know it. You'll rip your face off. You'll bash your head in. You'll shoot yourself. Ah, you'll rip your head out. Ah. Yo, come at mass murder.
00:49:27
Speaker
i do like though that Radma Ramda whatever, the woman who's assimilated, the one that was calling Soji the Destroyer back in the Borg cube, the and she eventually kills herself.
00:49:38
Speaker
But I do love that because she had this admonition in her head when the Borg assimilated her ship and her, they were like, what the fuck? No. And that's why the Borg cube, the the artifact exists at all. actually think that's very cool. And they should have...
00:49:54
Speaker
but Made a bigger deal about that. That should have been a way bigger plot point because that's really fucking cool. Because it makes way more sense and it should not just been in dialogue to nobody.
00:50:05
Speaker
Nobody knows that. Yep. It's very cool and funny and yeah, you should have made you written the episode like that should have been least a plot point, not a throwaway line.
00:50:19
Speaker
Not saying should have been story, but it should have been in there somewhere. um I also have, ah oh, so now the EMH can tell everyone that Agnes killed ah Dr. Bruce Maddox?
00:50:33
Speaker
That information would have been more useful yesterday.
00:50:41
Speaker
ah Most cosplayable character or a moment? Um, I guess the, the Jat Vash, the, the Coven outfits, you know, when they're all in the circle receiving the admonition.
00:50:53
Speaker
Would you do outfits are cool. Would you do part of the makeup where you'd like do the fingernails in your face? Maybe. no. yeah I put Pizza Chef Riker, or if you're going to be gendered cosplayers, like you're a couple, one person goes as Riker and the other goes as grieving mother Troy. Because she's got the pink top, but she's also got the blue top. And for some reason, even though she's gardening, she's wearing high heels.
00:51:17
Speaker
like Yeah. ah But I thought that would work. But yours yours is more fun. I mean, I struggled with this one, though. So I'm willing to hear... No, it's good. You can also do seven of nine as the board queen with the things in her back and the black contact lenses.
00:51:36
Speaker
Now it's time for the line must be drawn. Great lines.
00:51:43
Speaker
Greatest captain of all time. Where did you hear that? I must have been drinking.
00:51:49
Speaker
That's Riker. Yeah, that's Riker. And then um just Admiral Clancy saying, shut the fuck up.
00:51:57
Speaker
ah true And then my last one is Dr. Girardi saying, well, I'm done murdering people. God, so please sit right down.
00:52:08
Speaker
Let's just share. I'm going to turn myself in when I've learned my lesson. Yeah.
00:52:15
Speaker
I'm not insane anymore, you guys. yeah Right. I'm all better now. ah So from Nepenthe, I'm not as brave as I used to be Jean-Luc, Troy's line. When they're like, we'll help you, but like we're kind of limited in how much we can help. i i like that idea. you know it's like you're it's kind of The Enterprise was both like a day in the office, but also it was space adventures. And I like the idea that there's just a time where you're like, well, that's behind me now. I don't want to do that anymore.
00:52:41
Speaker
Good again, showing that time has passed. It fits with the tone of the show that they were initially aiming for. I think it works. And then the last two great lines that I had were from broken pieces, uh,
00:52:53
Speaker
Picard's line, part of his line to Rios to pep talk him. The past is written, but the future is left for us to write. So I thought that was good. And then also when Soji's kind of telling them how it's going to be, Picard interjects and says, she's done it Maddox's way. She's done it my way.
00:53:11
Speaker
Let's try doing it her way, which I thought was good. ah I think we've got a moment for an Asherberger Award here, Kristen. Oh, we absolutely have a couple actually. Hit me. I have the burnt tomato and the pizza.
00:53:26
Speaker
and Hold on. What about those gigantic pomegranate-sized tomatoes and the idea that Troy hands Soji one and just says, here, take a bite out of this thing that I just want you? A tomato's going to just be a juicy mess if you bite it. Yeah.
00:53:45
Speaker
That was very funny. um We also have, of course, Agnes eating three slices of replicated cake. And then we have... which i think i should take I think maybe this one wins.
00:54:00
Speaker
A disgusting plate of french fries and peppermint ice cream because Janna liked to eat that. And somehow Rios has remembered that all these years.
00:54:13
Speaker
I don't think that the Rios thing has happened. it's ah The Rios thing, it feels like it's happened within the last five or six years, right? But that's a long time to remember... Well, if I can remember my... A person you just met that, oh, their favorite thing to eat was french fries dipped in peppermint ice cream.
00:54:34
Speaker
And then right after And then they were murdered. Yes, that's what I'm saying. It's connected to like, I remember going, that's interesting. And then immediately they were murdered. I can see that. That doesn't make sense.
00:54:46
Speaker
But is it's still funny all the same. um Would this have been a fun holo novel to play out? Either episode. Okay. I'm going to say mostly no because there's a lot of vomiting and a lot of people going insane and a lot of death.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of unarmed, helpless people who are trying to get their life back in order, just being gunned down in cold blood. Yeah. um And it's just like in other Star Treks, they just seal the room and fill it with poisonous gas. Remember, they just tried to do that to Soji in the previous episode.
00:55:18
Speaker
Yeah. And so they didn't do that here, which was strange because they wanted to really hang the label on Narissa of like she deserves to die. But I feel like the mission was completed on that pretty quickly.
00:55:32
Speaker
Yeah. I also found it confusing that the episode, the previous episode ended um with ah the impossible box ended with Picard and ah sorry, with Elnor and Hugh holding the line while they went away. And then the episode starts with them separated.
00:55:50
Speaker
And Hugh has been captured and he's watching all these XBs lined up and shot until he reveals. It's like, where were you Elnor? And then Elnor comes to his rescue way later. and it's just like, what's going on here? Did they forget that they did that?
00:56:05
Speaker
And do you know what? Given the development the show, it's yeah probably. My answer is no to both. I don't know. What's the fun of the Nepenthe episode? To go there and take a nap? No, just to, you know, pal around with your old friends.
00:56:20
Speaker
Okay. Making some pizza. All right. I mean i'll give it I'll give them credit. Like, the Troy Rikers seem... They seem like a fun hang. Yeah. Kestra seems kind of cool. She's just shy of being obnoxious. She's, like, precocious in a way that's, like, charming.
00:56:35
Speaker
Got it.
00:56:38
Speaker
What part of this will teach at Starfleet Academy? Um, you can use a certain poison to get rid of a tracker. Um,
00:56:54
Speaker
ah uh, you can take over a board cube and just, but disconnect it from the other collective. I don't know. I don't know.
00:57:05
Speaker
I think there's some discussions of treaties because it seems like the Romulan reclamation project
00:57:13
Speaker
taking a lot of ah security actions with a lot of scientists around there and kind of abandoning abandoning the cube when there are a lot of, like, that seems like ah an issue. and A lot of international laws seem to have been broken.
00:57:26
Speaker
Like, I can't, well, i can't kill you, your Starfleet. Right. But she can kill everyone else. And then like, oh, this looks like a violation of the treaty. So now I can kill That's right.
00:57:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, but like, who... So did you document that violation? Also, is no one on Earth asking, hey, where's Lieutenant... I think it was like Russo or something. Rizzo.
00:57:52
Speaker
Lieutenant Rizzo from Starfleet Security. she Did she... Oh, PTO? She's on a leave of absence. Okay. Because she's like... Remember, she's a double agent. Yeah.
00:58:03
Speaker
Where'd she go? She's murdering a bunch of people in the Romulan sector. um I would also say Picard is following some sort of procedure by reporting back to... Well, we get it in Nepenthe and we get it in Broken Pieces.
00:58:18
Speaker
So Nepenthe, Commodore O informs Jurati that Picard, even though he was denied access to a ship by Starfleet, remember... that he still, when he was about to hire Rios, was like, I'm going anyway. Like he still informed Starfleet he intended to pursue. And then in Broken Pieces, he's actually reporting back to command what he's found.
00:58:43
Speaker
and And he's asking for help and he's going to receive it. So I guess it's like there are the following procedure has tremendous value. Like the reason why we do this at all is ah is very important.
00:58:56
Speaker
ah what What part of these episodes might Picard embellish and or omit from his memoirs?
Picard's Memoirs - What Would He Embellish?
00:59:03
Speaker
I think he might say that he instantly knew how to ah operate Rios's ship.
00:59:10
Speaker
Because at the end, he's like, I don't know how to work any of this. And it's cute and funny, but like, he might either downplay that or... paa I don't know. He could ah maybe say he knew he was onto Jurati from the start.
00:59:25
Speaker
That's a tough one to sell, though. I think the ship thing, he might might be more likely. That's right, because Raffi the whole time is being like, I knew something was up with her the whole time. Yeah. And were so trusting. Yeah.
00:59:37
Speaker
yeah And of course, he's like, of course, I always suspected something with her, but I couldn't let Rafi know that. And it was enough for her to create the tension. And i decided not to play into it. Yes, I agree. He's totally embellishing. and I knew something's up with her.
00:59:53
Speaker
So trek, marry, or kill Nepenthe. Okay, Nepenthe is getting a trek from me because I liked seeing our old friends there.
Final Thoughts on 'Nepenthe' and 'Broken Pieces'
01:00:02
Speaker
um i um I'm with you, but they did kill Hugh in the episode. and They did.
01:00:09
Speaker
One of the most awful on-screen deaths in Star Trek history, not in terms of how gruesome it is, but how pointless it is. And it's not even like Tasha Yar's death where that's the point.
01:00:22
Speaker
It's just like, oh yeah. And it's like everything in these two episodes. Oh yeah. And then this, and then this, but I'm with you. Barely a track broken pieces. ah think to have to kill this one.
01:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, i'm going to kill it too. I did like the moment with Picard and Rios at the end. And I did like that we finally, it's coalescing about what the mission is. We've got to get to Soji's home planet where potentially all the other synths are. And we've got to protect them against the oncoming Romulan onslaught who have somehow figured it out where the planet is.
01:00:55
Speaker
Yeah. um I think that makes sense. Yeah. But it's a kill. And again, i think I went into these episodes very open minded and open hearted to revisit after all this. Listen, by at the end of Broken Peace, was like, how much longer is this fucking episode? I felt like it was going on and on. And and i was expecting the credits to come at any minute and it just kept going.
01:01:17
Speaker
Yeah. And again, from the very start, Akiva Goldsman derided the show for having 10 episodes. He didn't think they had 10 episodes worth of story. Episode seven, Nepenthe was conceived as like a pause and a regrouping both for for Picard, the character, but also for the story itself.
01:01:36
Speaker
So it is like ah not a reboot, but it's like a, it is like to set us up for the final act basically. And as an interlude, If you're subscribing to a streaming service, that's great for the network, right? Oh, you're staying subscribed.
01:01:50
Speaker
But for like a person who, I don't know, lives a life, your time is and is valuable. hello and and If you're telling a story that cannot be told in an hour because it has to serve a larger story, it has to still be compelling on its own.
01:02:07
Speaker
And I kind of feel like as it reflects the trend that a lot of like your time and and patience has been taken advantage of. You're like, you're going to watch it because you want to know how it ends.
01:02:18
Speaker
But Better Call Saul was the story that told a bigger story in increments in each chapter, if you want to look at an episode as a chapter, was compelling in its own right. Like, this is the episode where this happens, and it tells us this.
01:02:31
Speaker
And maybe it moves the story forward, or it tells us something more about the character, recontextualizes things. And these two episodes especially were just like, Here's what you need to know to set up the last two episodes.
01:02:44
Speaker
And yeah, great to see Jonathan Frakes and Maria Sertis though. yeah We will not be seeing them next week in the finale. No, we will not. We will be concluding Trek Picard season one ah with the final two episodes of, of its first season.
01:03:02
Speaker
We're on social media, check Mary K pod and check Mary kill pod.com on the web. So until next week,