Star Trek Picard Season 2 Episode 6 Two of One

CONTAINS SPOILERS

 The Borg are infamous for one thing. Right back in "Q Who?" and at every meeting since then, it's always, "Resistance is futile."  And so it is with this episode: the end is so very inevitable that the episode starts with the conclusion and then cuts to "42 minutes earlier."  The only question is how much damage will be done to the Starfleet crew's plans, and what (and who) will survive?  Will Picard survive the critical injuries he's sustained?  I would imagine so; after all, this series isn't called Star Trek Agnes.

The episode is entitled Two of One, which accurately sums up Agnes's plight. After shooting the Borg Queen last time, she stood too close for too long and is now slowly being assimilated. She's resisting assimilation, but resistance is...   She makes a series of small concessions to the Borg Queen now inside her mind, in order to further the overall mission - to get Renee Picard safely through the gala evening and into pre-flight quarantine.

It all begins in the security office, where Agnes had deliberately allowed herself to be arrested, in order to access security and let the rest of the team in... except she needs the Queen's help to break the handcuffs she's wearing.  And so it begins.

Picard and Tallinn keep close tabs on Renee, who is texting her therapist - Q, no less - about her doubts over the upcoming mission.  Picard attempts to follow her as she heads off to find somewhere quieter to think... and he's intercepted by Adam Soong (the current incarnation of the Soong crackpot dynasty).  So this is what Q demanded from Soong as payment for the cure for his daughter's disease - an attempt to keep the Picards apart.  And this will require further intervention from Agnes and her alter ego.

Picard (Jean-Luc) is able to find Renee and give her a much-needed pep talk.  What does he know about travelling in space? Pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and experience? A little, even if he is a little old to be a security guard.  His talk is inspirational and supportive without being patronising, and Renee agrees to proceed with the flight, commenting that there is something very familiar about him (if this was Back to The Future, she might comment that talking to him feels a lot like she's talking to her brother).

Jean-Luc: "You're Renée Picard, astronaut of the Europa Mission. You must be capable of such great things to have come this far."

However, as Picard escorts Renee back to the gala, we see Dr Soong sitting in the driver's seat of his car, with murder in mind: "Prepare for ramming speed!"  (Worf, Star Trek First Contact).  Picard sees the car coming, pushes Renee aside and takes the impact...  this is very Back To The Future (although to be fair, Picard wasn't a peeping tom who'd just fallen into the path of the car).  The rest of the crew - minus Agnes - appear and take Picard to Teresa's clinic, which ties in nicely with Rios's arc and mini-adventure in the previous episodes.  

Now, Picard is a synthetic life form: how will he respond to 21st century medical treatments?  Good question.  

Teresa: "Does he have any conditions?"
Seven: "He's... had some transplants."

Teresa:  "Some? How many?"

Seven: "All of them."

Teresa hooks him up to a defibrillator, shouts 'clear' and zaps him.  The defibrillator explodes in an array of sparks.  Good answer.  

Nevertheless, Picard's vitals all settle down, but he remains in a coma.  Tallinn has some wondrous brain-scanning gadget which shows Picard reliving a childhood event, and suggests that she enters his brain and helps him live through it and escape from it.  It's all a bit circumstantial but it works.  Raffi thinks it's a crazy idea - I'm inclined to agree - but that's what the story calls for.

Dr Soong, meanwhile, heads home after his failed attempt to kill Renee, where he is quizzed by his daughter Kore.  She's entirely unconvinced, and then revisits his lab to find out more about what he's doing and what he's up to... and the answer is much bigger than she suspected.  We know from previous Star Trek stories (in particular Space Seed from The Original Series, Star Trek II and the Star Trek Enterprise episodes Cold Station 12 and The Augments) that the Soong family have been involved in genetics and eugenics (deliberately making genetic enhancements with dangerous results) for years.  

However, Kore is learning all this for the first time, and - by the looks of it - she herself is the product of genetic manipulation, and the last in a long line of failed experiments (there are various names for the previous children, including Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, but no other names that seem especially significant or important).  Not sure how this will play into this wider series, but it will be interesting to see.

So, with the crew all gathered around Picard in a 21st century clinic, and Tallinn preparing to enter his mind, that just leaves Agnes.  Agnes, all alone once again, and despite her resistance, finding herself succumbing to the Borg Queen's slow and inexorable advance.

Borg: "Oh, I am proud of you, Agnes. Thank you for the flood of endorphins, by the way. Those nasty little stress hormones were getting in my way."

Agnes: "What's happening?"
Borg:  "This was my plan all along. Finally, the endorphins I needed. I think I'll steer this ship for a while."
Agnes:  "No, wait. I-I'm in control."
Borg: "Not any more."

And with a very clever wry smile, and a subtle flick of black in Agnes's irises, we know that the Borg Queen has taken over; the episode concludes with the Borg Agnes heading towards the skyscrapers of LA, preparing to take on (or take over) the entire city.  

And since the Borg Queen no longer needs the Starfleet crew, or their ship, they no longer have a way back home.  Things are looking decidedly dark, and I genuinely fear for Agnes's long-term survival - will she become a new Borg Queen (it's happened before, and I can recommend two Star Trek Voyager novels, Homecoming and The Farther Shore for more details).  I'll let Raffi wrap it up in her own style:

Raffi:  "What could go wrong?  I mean tons, obviously.  But statistically, odds-wise, given everything that's happened to us since we crashed into this planet, how much worse could it possibly get?"