Star Trek: Picard – Episode 8, Mercy

Agent Wells, Jay Karnes (“12 Monkeys (TV)”, “The Crossing (TV)”), from the FBI has Jean-Luc Picard, Patrick Stewart (“Logan”, “Green Room”), and young Guinan, Ito Aghayere (“Logan Lucky”, “Carol’s Second Act (TV)”), locked in a basement.

Wells admits it’s all off the books, no-one knows they are there, he wants the truth, he knows they aren’t who they appear to be and he thinks they are here to sabotage the Europa Mission.

We circle back round and end up with Kore Soong, Isa Briones (“Takers”, “Lonely Boy”), as she is still attempting to find out what her father Dr. Adam Soong, Brent Spiner (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (TV)”, “Independence Day: Resurgence”), has been up to

She dons some VR goggles but immediately Q, John de Lancie (“Manipulated”, “When the Train Stops (Short)”), appears, having implanted himself as some code, waiting for her.

He shows her more of what her ‘father’ has done and tells her he will send her something to get her out of this ‘prison’ her ‘father’ has her in. It arrives, it’s more of the serum.

Seven of Nine, Jeri Ryan (“Devil’s Revenge”, “Bosch (TV)”), and Raffi Musiker, Michelle Hurd (“Blindspot (TV)”, “Hawaii Five-0 (TV)”), find a dead body, a man that a bartender told them he saw Dr. Agnes Jurati, Alison Pill (“Them (TV)”, “Devs (TV)”), leave with.

They also find his phone, vandalised, and Seven remembers that the Borg would ingest some stabilising material into humans in order to help with the assimilation, particularly the non-organic parts.

They catch up with Jurati, eating car batteries, as one does, but they are too slow to stop her and she escapes. However, they jump start the man’s phone to see where she’s headed.

Cristóbal Rios’, Santiago Cabrera (“Big Little Lies (TV)”, “The Flight Attendant (TV)”), is on the ship, where he’s brought Dr. Teresa Ramirez, Sol Rodriguez (“Devious Maids (TV)”, “Grachi (TV)”), and her son Ricardo, Steve Gutierrez (“Snowfall (TV)”, “Blue Miracle”). He’s searching the ship for any more rogue code and finds the transporter is down.

Agent Wells splits Guinan and Picard up and Guinan comes face-to-face with Q. She discovers he’s dying and he’s not particularly pleased about the fact. He expected to be elevated up as a being, but he feels nothing, feels like he’s going out in a whimper.

Kore let’s Song know that she knows what she is and what he’s been up to. She walks out on him, after having taken the serum from Q, leaving a very angry Song behind.

But he has his own saviour as Jurati arrives and wants an exchange, she also wants him to stop Picard, stop the Europa Mission, says if they do, Song will be famous in the future, otherwise he’ll die alone. They’re going for the ship and Jurati has begun assimilating.

Not a bad episode, hopefully the next will provide some action which it feels like we’ve been building to for some time now. There’s a few, let’s be kind and say ‘lucky’ moments for certain people. I’m personally not feeling this season as much as the last so far.