The first few minutes of Star Trek: Picard’s 9th episode “Et In Arcadia Ego, Pt 1” are some of the most alien Trek we’ve seen to date. It rounds out into more familiar territory but branches out into yet more questions about where this show is headed before the final episode.
In the opening moments we see the crew make their way to the synthetic homeworld through some sub space tunneling Soji manages to calculate. In the last episode, we saw Narek slip into the stream just behind them and were hinted at the possibility of a Borg Cube reunion as well. All three ships make it to the planet but are quickly set upon by giant orchids which immediately pull them down into the planet’s atmosphere. This also triggers Picard’s health problems and he’s forced to come clean to the crew about his terminal illness. This sparks a brief conversation with Raffi where they both confess their love but it seems unclear if platonic or romantic at this juncture.
We discover these are the creations of the synthetic life forms who live on the planet in a monk like harmony. It’s a familiar scene for Trek fans, a sort of utopia where everyone wears robes and works to better themselves in a family orientated society. That’s not all, as Data himself Brent Spiner is also there, though not as Data and instead plays the role of the human and son of Data’s original creator. Based on interactions with the Soong’s in The Next Generation as well as synthetic life forms in this one, it’s easy to be suspicious as to whether he is who he thinks he is or another synthetic form of life.
The synthetic life present in different generations, with older ones still having the golden hues of Data and newer looking much more human like Soji. One older model is Sutra who turns out to be the other half from the Soji look alike killed by Rios’ captain years before. While Soji specialises in Romulans it seems Sutra has an interest in Vulcans and performs a mind mold on Dr Agnus Jerati to see the visions of impending doom that caused her to kill Dr Maddox and drove many insane.
Sutra is able to understand the message, saying she believes it was for synthetic minds and that’s why it caused so much distress. It tells of a unionisation of other synthetic beings that will come to protect them if called by wiping out the organics who will inevitably kill them. Sutra immediately believes the message and given her sister was killed on first contact you can understand why. Soji is torn by the news given her new found friendships but ultimately it looks as though the Synthetics are more likely to listen to Sutra out of fear.
This is exacerbated by Narek’s presence who’s now captive to the Synths. He was able to let others know where the homeworld is and now over 200 ships are headed there. We also learn that there aren’t many more of those Orchids left and many were damaged bringing down the enormous Borg Cube, leaving them defenseless and in need of a saviour.
Sutra sees this and frees Narek. At this point she comes across as straight faced evil rather than trying to save her people out of fear. Because of this, it’s unclear whether he kills his synthetic guard or if Sutra does it in his guise but either way it’s an opportunity for her to prove to her people that organics want them dead. They arrest the crew aside from Dr Jurati who’s been convinced by Soong to continue her work towards synthetic life, who clearly feels a debt after she killing Dr Maddox.
This leaves a lot of questions for part 2 to answer. Will the synthetics truly give into fear and if so, just who is it they’re actually calling – perhaps more importantly, can they even get there before the Romulan forces arrive? What’s going to happen to Elnor and Seven back on the grounded Borg Cube and can they save the others? We also can’t help but wonder if the Synthetics end up having the technology to heal Picard, and perhaps more in question as to whether he will even let them after this is all over.
Ready to read more Star Trek: Picard recaps? Check them out here:
Episode Two: “Maps and Legends”
Episode Three: “The End is The Beginning”
Episode Four: “Absolute Candor”
Episode Five: “Stardust City Rag”
Episode Six: “The Impossible Box”
Episode Eight: “Broken Pieces”
Episode Ten: ‘Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2’
Check out the Star Trek: Picard Premiere in Sydney.
