The finale has proven somewhat divisive online over the last few months - how does 'Farewell' rate?
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00:00 know what my initial thoughts were. You watched the ups and downs, you watched it for the
00:03 whole season. I'm assuming if you didn't, no problem at all. They're all still there,
00:08 go back and enjoy. They were our initial reactions to each episode as they came out. The final
00:14 episode, when it aired, straight away there was division online about it. There was people
00:20 who loved it and people who hated it. People who thought that it was a great sum up to
00:26 a strong season or people who thought it was a damp squib to an increasingly not great
00:31 season. I am here today with the benefit of a bit of time to sit on some of the things
00:36 that have happened in the finale to go back through and we're going to, it's not like
00:42 we're going to do another ups and downs, but we're going to take specific plot points from
00:47 the episode and we're going to address the biggest question, Star Trek Picard season
00:53 two finale, was it good? Was it bad?
00:57 Number 10, Talon's death. So we did get Orla Brady in this season a lot more than we got
01:04 her in season one. And so for that, I am massively, massively grateful. The first episode featuring
01:09 Laris was stunning. And then we got the character of Talon as the season went on. Her death
01:16 scene in this to take the place of Renee Picard so that Renee can go off in the Europa mission,
01:22 it seemed very fitting that Orla Brady's character would sacrifice herself for Jean-Luc. The
01:31 problem here is that the relationship was with Laris and Picard. Now, while arguably
01:37 we got more time between Talon and Jean-Luc this season than we did between Picard and
01:43 Laris overall, really, it actually never really progressed to anything more than, frankly,
01:50 colleagues working together. And so for there to be such an import put on her death scene
01:55 in this episode, it's not to say that it wasn't, you know, emotional and aiming for the heartstrings.
02:02 The problem was that I think it was supposed to come across as though, oh no, Laris is
02:08 dying. Of course, it wasn't that. Not only for the fact that it clearly wasn't Laris,
02:13 but also the speech was different. Of course, Orla Brady, who is a wonderful, wonderful
02:18 Irish person, was using a pan-American accent for Talon. Straight away, you're taken out
02:24 of the scene somewhat when you know, just let her use her Irish accent. It just didn't
02:28 have that emotional core that they needed. So for me, unfortunately, Talon's death, it
02:33 just didn't really work. Plus, and this has been pointed out before, there was a close-up
02:39 shot of Talon's eyes and they are massively bloodshot as she's dying. And, you know, it's
02:46 meant to be, oh my god, she's clearly suffering. Talon is a Romulan. Those veins should be
02:52 green. Unfortunately, the whole scene just didn't work for me.
02:57 Number nine, Renée Picard. Now, Penelope Mitchell was very, very good this season.
03:02 She didn't have an awful lot to do. If you take the scene where she sits down with Jean-Luc,
03:08 just as part of that gala event, that's a wonderful scene. And it sets up this scene
03:14 where Talon comes in, basically says, here, listen, there's a price in your head, and
03:18 you know, is there to, well, as we discover, take her place in death, not on the mission.
03:24 I feel slightly more positive about Renée Picard in the finale, mostly because we all
03:30 knew she was getting on that rocket. That was never in question. I'm glad they didn't
03:35 waste too much time trying to do a bit of a bait and switch. I mean, again, we had already
03:41 known there was going to be face-swapping technology going on, so we knew that Renée
03:46 was going to survive this. And I do think, overall, I think her scene in this episode
03:53 worked. Her character was always just motivation for the others. It makes it hard to form an
03:59 emotional attachment with that character, but I do think Penelope Mitchell brought,
04:04 well, as much as she possibly could to the role. I did feel for this character. For me,
04:11 I did like the way this storyline ended. The scene after it, I've already addressed with
04:17 Talon, but as it stands, I was quite happy with how Renée got on that rocket.
04:24 Number eight, Q. Some people will be going, how is this not number one that you're going
04:29 to discuss, because this entire episode lives or dies on John Delancey's scenes. He nailed
04:34 it. That has not changed for me. I loved it in the ups and downs, and I love it now. We
04:39 saw a side of Q that you rarely had seen before. Probably the closest that we saw is the end
04:47 of Tapestry and the end of All Good Things, when you see the way he really cares for Picard.
04:53 Now, we see that go an awful lot further in this episode. That moment where Q leans into
04:59 Picard and says, you matter to me, it was something I didn't know that I needed to see.
05:07 I've been watching Next Generation probably since early 90s. I remember an awful lot of
05:13 it, but these characters have been in my life pretty much my entire life. To have one of
05:20 them say to the other, you matter to me, followed by a hug, I'm sorry, but nostalgia, that kicks
05:24 me straight in the combadge.
05:25 There is an inherent menace to the way that John Delancey plays Q. I think it's necessary.
05:33 Q is a god to these characters. We are but ants to the gods. If they're just like, "Actually,
05:42 nah, bye." He could, but he doesn't, and it works. Is it a bit saccharine? Is it what?
05:51 But it doesn't mean that I didn't get engaged by the performances. If this is the end of
05:58 Q, and it does feel like it, then I think it was a nice way to go out. I do think there's
06:06 issues with it that won't necessarily, that might not have been addressed, obviously,
06:11 in Picard. For example, if Q has died, it would have been a shame to not see a scene
06:17 between him and Janeway, which again, this show wasn't set up to do that. Potentially,
06:23 Q is timeless. We can always bring him back again.
06:26 Although the point has been made that this was such a lovely goodbye scene, to then just
06:30 bring him back, even if he's out of time later on, might not necessarily work. We'll see.
06:36 We'll see. For me, this works.
06:39 Number seven, Wesley's cameo. Well, I think it's safe to say there were some feelings
06:45 about this one online. I liked it. I hear the criticisms. I'm not going to do this as
06:53 a cop-out answer, because I want to address the criticisms. The first and foremost being
06:58 that this did not feel like Wesley Crusher. This felt like Wil Wheaton. Understandably,
07:03 somebody might be like, "Well, it is Wil Wheaton, because he's literally there. You
07:06 can see him. He's on screen. Hello, Wil." And sure, but there wasn't enough difference
07:11 between actor and character in this scene. In fact, that it sounded like he had walked
07:18 off the set of The Ready Room and walked onto the set of Picard.
07:20 There is a degree of fairness to that. Wesley's cameo entirely relies on nostalgia. Because
07:28 obviously, let's be honest, anybody watching Picard who hadn't watched Next Generation,
07:33 of which there are some people, wouldn't have a clue who he is. Whereas we know this
07:37 is his first speaking role in Star Trek as Wesley for 28 years. I think it is for the
07:45 nostalgia-baiters. I enjoyed it. I would like to see it go somewhere. That is the big thing.
07:53 If it was just two seconds, "There's Wesley, hiya, bye." I already am going. I'm not
07:58 really sure. I've had the benefit of hindsight. But because I've now kind of built up in
08:02 my head that potentially himself and Corey may turn up in other properties, there's
08:08 nothing to suggest that they will so far, other than it seemed like a pilot, or at least
08:14 a tease of a pilot for another series. So we'll have to see. Does the scene work on
08:18 its own? It's fine. It was a waste of a return, if that's all. I think I will say
08:25 that. If it doesn't go anywhere, I won't be as happy.
08:29 Number six, Whoopi returns. She's wearing the uniform, or costume I should say, that
08:33 looks an awful lot like what we saw her wearing in Generations, which of course is a massive,
08:38 massive part of Picard's history. His trip with the Nexus, his trip through time. This
08:44 is echoed in his trip through time here as well. And so to have him sitting down with
08:49 Guinan in the bar, I really did enjoy that. Now, the return of Whoopi also serves the
08:55 role of linking Ito Agaire's appearance earlier on in the season, and also delivering
09:02 the news of the fate of Rios. I think she did a great job, I have to say. Now we only
09:08 got the couple of scenes of Whoopi in season two, but still, listen, it was great because
09:13 the return of Whoopi, on top of everything else, felt like an addressing of the criticisms
09:19 of season one. Season one of Picard, for all of its perceived flaws and strengths, I think
09:26 people were hoping for more of a next generation connection than we ended up getting. And we
09:32 do see an addressing of that in season two.
09:35 The role is small in this episode. It's crucial because we get very important information.
09:40 But again, I think the fact that you can just see how comfortable Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick
09:45 Stewart are around each other in this scene, for me, I really enjoyed it.
09:52 Number five, another Soong, another Kan. I'm just going to come out and say it. There was
09:57 no point for Adam Soong as a character to exist in Picard season two. Now, I would watch
10:04 Brent Spiner read the phone book. It was delightful to have him there. But to have another Soong,
10:10 and one that seems to have been, by the scenes delivered in the finale, purely included,
10:17 to set up Arik Soong? At least that's how I think this final scene was. So he's sitting
10:24 there, Koray's left, and he pulls out the folder that says Project Kan. So Kan was apparently
10:30 the only augment, right? Now, I still do like the fact that they have the 1996 date on the
10:37 folder, because that ties in with what we know of Kan's history of his leaving of Earth.
10:43 Well, even in discussion with Dave Blass, we know a different timeline has been created
10:48 because of the events of the real world. So did the eugenics wars happen? Jury is still
10:54 kind of out on that. I am sorry to say, yes, Adam Soong just didn't work for me as a character.
11:02 He was the moustache twirling villain in this episode. He kills Talon, you know, and then
11:08 he sees the folder. But that's it. His only reason for being in this episode was to be
11:14 an asshole. And I'm sorry, any character could have filled that role. If all this was, was
11:20 to set up why the Soongs went into augmentation, I just felt it was a waste. Now, perhaps I'm
11:28 being overly cruel. Perhaps I'm judging the whole season on that. I do think that Adam
11:31 Soong at no point works, like the performance. But the whole Adam Soong and Koray storyline
11:36 for me, it just went nowhere. So for me, I'm sorry. I just didn't care for it. Number four,
11:43 Rafi and Seven. Now, I'm actually going to connect a little bit here with what we know
11:46 about season three, because we do know that these two characters are returning for Picard's
11:52 third season. We see that at the end, Rafi is sitting beside Seven on the bridge of the
11:56 Stargazer. Seven is now captain of the Stargazer, at least in an acting capacity, because Rios,
12:02 of course, remained in the past. We know that the well, when Rafi left the future, she was
12:07 first officer aboard the Excelsior. So as it stands, they are both Starfleet officers.
12:11 The whole season teased their relationship more so than delivered on it. What I mean
12:16 by that is that there was an awful lot of setting up things that didn't go anywhere.
12:22 And in this episode, they finally embrace. Now, this is the point I made at the time,
12:26 and I'm making it again now. Queerbaiting is something that creators often do to bring
12:31 in their LGBTQIA+ audience on top of their non-LGBTQIA+ audience to, you know, to kind
12:40 of join the fandom and then kind of tease what they don't deliver on. And Star Trek
12:44 was running the risk of doing that. Now, by having them embrace, by having them, I suppose,
12:49 if you like, a very clear statement on screen that, yes, they are together. I did like that.
12:55 I do think it was a bit late in the season, but I did think it suited the two characters.
13:00 Now, we don't know, of course, where it's going to go from here in terms of will they
13:05 serve aboard the same starship? In what capacity will we see them in the next season?
13:10 One issue is it's not kind of the fault of this storyline, but to put Seven as acting
13:15 captain of the Stargazer, which is a cool scene, you have to get rid of Rios. And it
13:19 means sending Rios back into the past. You say he's a Teresa, which is great. Love
13:23 Teresa. Great. Almost opposing the point of this entry is just about crossing names off
13:29 lists. You know, Seven's captain of the Stargazer. Great. Rios, stay behind. OK. Oh,
13:35 sorry. That's the end of Rios. Really? Fan favorite character Rios. So it's a bit of
13:41 a mixed one. I have to say I've got mixed feelings about this. And again, it's not
13:44 the fault of the characters. It's where they were used. I am delighted that Raffi
13:49 and Seven are returning next season. But it does feel like they were put up front to go
13:54 like, hey, look who you got. Don't worry about Rios. He's fine. It's like, all right,
13:58 cool. OK. Kind of going to miss Rios and those holograms. But all right then. So, yeah, mixed
14:03 feelings on this one. Number three. Elnor's a zombie. All right. Well, not quite. The
14:09 return of Elnor was silly. It wasn't earned. I feel it's done Evan Evagora a disservice.
14:19 Killing him off in the first place. They basically they fridged him so that Raffi would have
14:23 an arc. Raffi then didn't have an arc. That is my issue for Raffi for season two. Everyone
14:30 is very good in this finale. And it's not of course, it's great to see Elnor again.
14:34 I don't like the fact that he was dead. You know, we see him in the bar at the end. But
14:38 then within it felt like minutes, Evan Evagora confirmed that he won't be back for season
14:44 three, which begs the question, what was the point of bringing him back? Now, whether it
14:47 was just a case of, listen, we just want to have a happy ending. You know, Elnor's alive.
14:50 Well, hey, Grant, I can understand that. I can. Hello. I'm Q. I'm dying. This is a massively
14:56 emotional scene. Oh, I'm not sending Rios. Grant here has an Elnor. That's what it felt
15:01 like. It didn't work. You might be like Sean, will you come on now and stop being so mean.
15:06 Poor old Elnor. All he wants to do is stay alive. And I'll be saying to you, sure, listen,
15:11 don't we all? Because we know he's not coming back. It was a bit like, great. So we got
15:17 one scene of them sitting around a table. OK, then that makes up for a whole season
15:22 of missing Elnor. Number two, Borgatti, Alison Pill blew me away this season. The revelation
15:31 of Jurati on the bridge of the Stargazer as the Borg Queen, for me, it was no great shock.
15:36 I think, well, I mean, sorry, obviously you've seen the last couple of episodes, but you
15:38 know what I mean? Like, I think they did set it up very, very well that it was a good reveal.
15:43 I still think I thought at the time, I think it was, I don't think any of it was necessary.
15:49 Hello, I'm the Borg. Hello, I'm Jurati. Listen, big old thing's going to blow here. Get your
15:54 fleet. It's Starfleet. You know, they would have done it anyway. So for me, I did feel
15:57 that was far too convoluted. I still really, really like Alison Pill as the Borg Queen
16:02 and Annie Wershing was fantastic as well. And I just thought it was overall, I thought
16:07 the culmination of her story really worked for me. It really did. I wasn't 100 percent
16:15 on the look of Borgati, but I'm being overly critical. Seemed to be a bit of blending with
16:21 CGI and practical that I thought was a little bit fuzzy, but I'm being really critical here
16:26 because the whole thing looked so good. I mean, that entire scene with the Borg ship
16:32 and the fleet around it at the end, that's what we were waiting for, since episode one,
16:38 even when that looked great. It goes a little bit further as well toward this definite attempt
16:43 by the showrunners to address the issues of season one. Hmm. Starfleet, large fleet. I
16:51 wonder what I'm talking about here. And they did address it and it looks great for me.
16:58 I have to say, I really liked it. Massively disappointed once again. Alison Pill has confirmed
17:04 she won't be back for season three, which is just like it does seem like the season
17:09 finale was set up to get rid of fan favorites. We've lost Rios. We've well, we technically
17:17 we've not lost Soji, although Issa Briones has confirmed she's not back for season three.
17:23 I suppose Elnor were losing, you know, Evan Evagora, you know, it's kind of like, all
17:29 right. So the only original character from Picard that we're kind of keeping at this
17:33 point is Rafi. And anyway, anyway, tangent aside, Alison Pill was brilliant in this episode,
17:41 brilliant in this season. Love her calm that she brings to the Borg. And for me, this worked.
17:48 Number one, Jean-Luc Picard. Well, I suppose the whole thing lives or dies on whether you
17:54 like JL or not. And I did. I really did. I thought I thought Patrick Stewart really did
18:01 a good job in this episode. Like we've seen so many shades of Picard up to this point,
18:06 you know, both from the Next Generation days and the Picard days. I think he did great.
18:11 There has been as time has gone, there's been a lot of criticism about how the storyline
18:16 around Yvette Picard was handled this season. And I do think a lot of that criticism is
18:21 fair. I think that Patrick Stewart took an awful lot of the perceived trauma of Picard
18:30 into his performance. I think that was very, very good. I don't like how they got to that
18:35 trauma or trauma, trauma, trauma. I don't like how they got there. But I do think he
18:40 delivered in spades in this last episode. And we got some of the most Picard Picard
18:46 we've had since the show began. Of course, he is wonderful with John De Lancie in those
18:52 scenes. Once things calm down or the Stargazer, he's fantastic there as well. I would dearly
18:57 love to know how he explains everything to Laris when he gets back home. If I have a
19:02 criticism over the end of the episode, it would be not so much that I wanted it to end
19:08 in a cliffhanger, because I didn't, but I would like some connective tissue as to what
19:13 to expect for season three. I did think and continue to think that the dropping of the
19:19 season three trailer midway through season two was an odd choice from the marketing team.
19:25 I do think that we've already seen little tidings of what to expect from season three.
19:30 Now, I won't go too far into it because we do in fact have lists coming now of what we
19:35 know and what we can expect in season three. So they will drop with you presently. I think
19:40 it's set up a version of the future I want to see for season three. It's teased us with
19:46 enough that I'm happy with where we're going. I am sad to lose some of the characters that
19:51 we did. If we don't get Orla Brady next season as a full season of Laris, I might give it
19:58 a down every episode. We'll have to see. I'm so excited for the return of the entire main
20:02 cast, although as of recording, the only main cast member from season one we've not heard
20:09 anything about is Denise Crosby. So to get to the final point of this video, Star Trek
20:14 Picard season two finale, good or bad? I guess I don't really have an answer for you. And
20:20 I hear people rage quitting this video and you know what? That's fine. I think it will
20:24 come down to taste at the end of the day. I was asked directly, where do I stand on
20:30 this episode? And to be honest, if you look at the ups and downs, we've got 11 ups and
20:34 five downs. I think a good episode is an episode where the ups outnumber the downs. And it
20:39 did for me this week, this week, this episode, this installment, I thought it did. I thought
20:43 it was good. I think every episode can be both better and worse. So it's not really
20:47 fair to say it could be better, but I will be tuning into season three. I hope you will
20:51 be as well. Let us know where do you come down on this episode in the comments below.
20:58 Thank you so much for watching. Please don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Remember,
21:02 you can catch us over on Twitter at Trek Culture. You can catch myself at Sean Ferrick on Twitter,
21:06 Instagram and TikTok. Look after yourselves until I see you again. Make sure that you
21:10 live long and prosper. Make sure you join us for the what's coming in season three videos
21:14 which are coming up. My friends in Ukraine, stay strong. Everyone have a wonderful day.
21:20 Like it's so.