Full spoilers follow for this episode.
“Et in Arcadia Ego” — now that’s a fancy-ass name for an episode of Star Trek. But what does it mean? Et in Arcadia ego is a French Baroque painting by Nicolas Poussin which — to boil it down for you — basically is about the inevitability of death. The title translates to “Even in Arcadia, there am I,” with Arcadia being a utopian land and death being “I.” Essentially, even in paradise, you can’t escape death. (And thanks, Google, for explaining that to me so that I could explain it here!)
So obviously this is a reference to the android utopia that Soji comes from, and that the Picard Squad finally discover in this episode. It’s a land where golden-hued androids hang around in loose-fitting clothes, not unlike the residents of that love-planet in the cringe-worthy Next Generation episode “Justice.” It’s a place where we meet the human “brother” who Data never knew — the son of Dr. Soong — who is also played, of course, by Brent Spiner. And it’s the planet where, finally, there will be a reckoning between the organics and the synthetics. Even death will visit utopia.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=star-trek-picard-photos&captions=true”]
But first, how did we get here? Basically via a space battle between La Sirena’s crew and Narek, which is interrupted first by the awesome arrival of the Borg cube — formerly, at this point I guess, known as the Artifact — and then by giant space orchids reaching out from Planet Android below to put an end to the fight and pull all the ships down to the surface. There are plenty of cool moments here, but the space orchids must be commended for their sheer weirdness. They’re reminiscent, in a way, of the living ship from the Next Gen episode “Tin Man” — non-technology-based space vessels of a sort.
Unfortunately, once we’re planet-bound, things get a little wonky. It’s lovely to see Seven of Nine and Elnor again, and Seven’s decision to show up with the newly re-armed Borg ship to help Picard restores some of her hero cred that was lost when she killed that woman in cold blood a few weeks back. But just as quickly as she’s introduced, we leave her behind. As for Elnor, he’s probably gotten the least development out of all of the Picard Squad, being shuffled from place to place and paired with a different new character every couple of weeks. Surely these two will show up in the season finale next week, probably to save the day at a critical moment, but setting that up here only to drop them seems anticlimactic.
As for the episode Picard has on the bridge of La Sirena, it’s apparently a symptom of his illness, though it’s hard to get why the Squad would be so upset about it (aside from Raffi) since most of them hardly know him anyway. But still, it gives us a great line from Picard, and words to live by: “Anyone who treats me like a dying man will run the risk of pissing me off.”
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/picard-clip-the-picard-squad-returns-to-the-borg-cube”]
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
When we finally find the android colony, it does come dangerously close to veering into “Justice” or first-act Logan’s Run territory, a depiction of a paradise where no one would ever really want to live because it looks so saccharine and boring. And the reveal of Spiner’s new character feels like it could be an interesting turn of events, but he’s quickly put on the backburner with little explanation of how or why he got involved with Maddox. We’re still not even clear, for that matter, on how all these androids were created.
The other dramatic character reveal here is of the other Soji/Dahj-type android, Sutra. For some reason this scene is shot in such a manner that Picard is off by himself while the rest of the Squad are having a meet-and-greet with Soong. This way, a mysterious figure can dramatically approach Picard from behind… before we find out it’s another version of Soji/Dahj. But why wouldn’t Picard be with everyone else, debriefing Soong? It’s just weirdly shot and staged and doesn’t work or make any sense. (Another odd moment comes earlier when Picard and Seven are discussing Hugh’s death and then Picard abruptly changes the subject so they can discuss a control station or some nonsense on the cube. Bye Hugh, nice knowing ya!)
Anyway, Sutra breaks out the Vulcan mind meld and determines that the Admonition that has the Romulans all worked up is actually an offer from some ancient artificial intelligence out there to protect synthetics against the threat of the organics. If you build it, they will come, apparently.
Soji, meanwhile, continues to be a difficult character to get a handle on. She just seems to go from life-altering revelation to life-altering revelation with little character growth. At times she feels like little more than a plot device — a MacGuffin with dialogue. This isn’t the fault of Isa Briones, who gives it her all week after week, reacting best she can to Soji’s changing status quo, but rather a failing of the writing.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=star-trek-picard-explaining-all-the-different-datas&captions=true”]
Interestingly, by episode’s end we’ve reached the point where Sutra is now essentially taking the same stance as Commodore Oh — it’s us or them. And that includes not just the Romulans but also the Federation…
Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:
- Picard says curse words now.
- Why do they keep giving away in the opening credits when someone is making a surprise appearance, like with Brent Spiner here?
- An android using a Vulcan trick is not new; Data broke out the nerve pinch back on Next Generation.
- Is this Dr. Soong also dying? And what was that body he was building in his lab?
- Raffi’s “I love you” moment with Picard is nice, as is Picard’s back-at-you reply. I wouldn’t have bought the Picard of 25 years ago saying that, but here I do.
- Narek is working at optimal sniveling liar mode this week.
- Spot #2! I don’t understand, Counselor. I am happy to see Spot… and yet I am crying.
- Those new Romulan warbirds Oh is commanding are pretty hot.
