CONTAINS SPOILERS
I can't quite believe I missed the single biggest plot development from last week's episode - namely that at the end of the episode, Picard and Guinan were arrested by the FBI after Picard's beam-in to Forward Street was picked up by a CCTV camera. Well, it's time to correct that oversight, because this episode features the subsequent interrogation by an FBI agent who really doesn't seem to know what he's doing.
The pre-credits sequence at the start shows a young boy (I guessed Picard again, still running from some monsters or other) running through a forest night, chased by apparently imaginary but actually real monsters. Neither the boy nor the pursuers are fully revealed at this point, but fortunately we don't have to wait too long to find out.
FBI Agent Martin Wells seems out of his depth and incoherent in his line of questioning; there are veiled threats, circumstantial evidence and bits and pieces (some photos from the gala; the video of Picard's transporter beam) and this would be trivial except that the Europa flight is now in jeopardy again, and Picard and Guinan are imprisoned in an unknown cellar somewhere in an FBI facility in LA. I never watched The X Files and I have no desire too now, and this aspect of the episode frustrated me. Still, it does get moving fairly quickly - there are no drawn-out conspiracy theories, just story development. Agent Wells reveals that somebody transcribed Rios's outburst while he was in the immigration detention centre, and hearing Picard read out these words while in detention with the FBI makes the story seem very plausible, and neatly draws out that thread from the earlier episode.
Guinan is taken from the interrogation room so that Wells can continue his interview with Picard one-to-one. While Guinan is waiting in a separate room, Q enters - having been 'summoned' by Guinan in the previous episode. Q, now wearing FBI garb, reveals that not only has he lost his powers, but he's actually dying. This is indeed an opportunity for Picard to learn about Q, but it's not gone as Q intended (because he's still a poor judge of Picard's character). Q hasn't trapped Picard in the past; Picard did that himself, and Q declares: "The trap is immaterial, it's the escape that counts." Guinan projects herself back into Picard's interrogation room, with the message, "All humans are stuck in the past," which Picard repeats to Wells, as Wells explains his own back-story.
Agent Wells is the boy we saw in the pre-credits sequence, who had been out looking for his missing dog in a forest after dark. The story is very reminiscent of Flight of the Navigator and E.T., but it's passable (both films are worth watching, if for some reason you've never seen them before). While searching for his dog, he happens upon two Vulcans who are carrying out a study on Earth (we've seen Vulcans on Earth in First Contact, and in the quiet but very engaging Star Trek Enterprise episode, Carbon Creek. If you've not seen it, do - it's very, very clever). The Vulcans realised they'd been discovered, and attempted to chase Agent Wells, in order to mind-meld with him and erase his memory. The Vulcan was beamed out before he could carry out the mind-meld, and hence Agent Wells now has a fascination - obsession? - with extra-terrestrial life. The conversation between Wells and Picard is well-written once they get past the veiled threats and conspiracy theories, although some might think it was resolved a bit quickly. Picard demonstrates a Vulcan mind-meld (he's participated in them in his past), and explains: he needs help from Agent Wells, who subsequently agrees to let Picard and Guinan go free. It worked for me, but I do hope that Wells (or one of his descendants) turns up in the 25th century with a key role in history.
Seven and Raffi have finally put some urgency into their search for the Borg Queen. Too little, too late, however, as Agnes is now almost completely assimilated by the Borg, due to a diet of endorphins, lithium and other trace metals which Agnes is compulsively eating. Seven and Raffi even manage to track down Agnes, using Seven's intuition, but it is, dare I say, futile. Agnes is now almost entirely Borg, and consequently is very strong, incapacitating Seven with a single blow that sends her flying across a car park, and then preparing to strangle Raffi with a single hand (Darth Vader style). Agnes, however, is able to assume control and release Raffi, but there's no way that the two of them alone would be able to provide sufficient resistance to stop her.
There's a surprising amount of bickering between Raffi and Seven - yes, Raffi is manipulative (and even persuaded Elnor to join Starfleet security, a decision which ultimately led to his death in this parallel universe) and yes, Seven is the epitome of cold and aloof, but their relationship has clearly left them both scarred.
Rios, meanwhile, is embarking one on of the most ridiculous relationships in Star Trek history since Kirk fell in love with Edith Keeler in The City on the Edge of Forever (a time-travel episode that's regarded as one of The Original Series' best). There's no way his relationship with Teresa is going to work, for a whole host of reasons (the temporal prime directive being one of them), but here they are, eating replicated cake while Rios fixes the Sirena and removes the Borg subroutines from its main computer. Is there much more to say here? Not really, except he'd better get fixing those routines quickly.
Dr Adam Soong has been a busy man. As his latest 'daughter' Kore is discovering, Soong has been attempting to manufacture a genetically pure human clone. Attempting, and failing. Kore discovers that she is the last in a depressingly long line of at least a dozen failed "experiments", and that she has outlived many of her predecessors by a significant amount. I'm not sure if this was meant to be a great reveal, or a plot twist, but it seemed obvious to me that she was genetically manufactured, and was the latest in a line of clones. I'll acknowledge, though, that I hadn't realised that Persphone (and the alternative name Kore) was the daughter of Zeus (even though I caught the name in the previous episode, I didn't work out its significance). Soong is as proud as he is delusional.
Kore activates Soong's virtual reality device, and in doing so, triggers a subroutine that Q had implanted in it. This subroutine is basically a plot device that enables Q to speak directly with Kore, and show her (a) that she is a clone, or at least genetically created instead of conceived, and (b) that Q can send a cure for her genetic disorder. He sends the cure in a little vial with a label. I was expecting it to say "Drink me" in Alice in Wonderland style, but instead it was labelled "Freedom".
How does this all fit together? The answer is 'exceptionally well'. Kore confronts Soong about his work, questioning if he loves her at all, and if he does, then is it because she's a living person, or just the fulfilment of his lab work. Tough question. He can't answer convincingly, and she steps out into the previously-toxic sunlight. She's taken Q's cure, which is completely effective, and she walks out of his house, his garden and his life. This leaves Soong broken, frustrated, weak and very vulnerable.
Raffi and Seven, meanwhile, are using their tricorder-box-of-magic to tap into Agnes's companion's mobile phone Agnes left the bar with him in the previous evening, attempted to find a connection with him (as Borg are wont to do), failed, killed him and then consumed the lithium from his mobile phone battery, in order to speed up Agnes's assimilation process. Raffi and Seven connect his now-flat mobile phone to their tricorder in order to deduce Agnes's/Borg Queen's next step. And deduce it, they do, by reviewing the internet search history on the phone.
The Borg Queen realises that she needs help to speed up the assimilation of Agnes, and to produce her own nanoprobes and begin assimilating the 21st century, and turns to an expert in biology and human genetics: Dr Soong. The sight of her arriving at Soong's house was one of those 'eureka' moments - suddenly all the convoluted and seemingly irrelevant plotting made sense.
"I assume a lecture on the resistance of futility is not going to be necessary."
"Am I dreaming? Or is this a nightmare?"
"Ultimately, that's up to you."
Nightmare, obviously.
She offers to make him immortal - figuratively - with a long legacy of being the father of the future of the human race. This is exactly what he's searching for, and knowingly or otherwise, the Queen plays to his insecurities and desires, telling him how he'll be famous, but only if he can stop the Europa mission (otherwise it's alcoholism and obscurity). In another case of stories coming together, the Borg Queen reveals that the Europa mission will uncover microbial life in one of Jupiter's moons that will render his genetic research obsolete (and presumably remove all funding from his work). So that's why the Europa mission must succeed. All the pieces that have been in play are now starting to come together and make sense. Soong can provide the "raw ingredients" that the Queen requires to complete her nanoprobe assembly process (and further the assimilation of Agnes, presumably), and gain access to the security forces; the Queen can use them to prevent the Europa mission from happening... by storming the Sirena and preventing any further interference from Picard and his team.
The story wastes no time: Soong and the Queen make their deal, and then we see the Queen start adding the security forces' biological and technological distinctiveness to her own... she's assimilating them into a very dangerous squad of Borg drones. Rios, meanwhile is oblivious, making cake and trying to fix the transporters. The condition of the transporters is now reaching joke level: they only work when it's not urgent... Rios beamed himself and his girlfriend into the Sirena without any problem last time: this time, when the crew need the transporters - they're offline. Picard, Seven and Raffi meet up, and will use Tallinn's transporter to return to the Sirena... battle lines are drawn, and the next episode should be a good one!
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