A Gradual Descent, Picard S03E04 Spoiler Review

hello all right here with my review of episode 4 of Star Trek Picard no win scenario which is pretty much what we find the crew left in at the end of the last part the Titan is sinking towards the gravity well in the center of the nebula and they have diminished a power because of the battle and even if they do escape the shrike is prowling above them this episode is interspersed with flashbacks to a fairly innocuous meeting with the retired Jean-Luc Picard dining at Earth’s ten forward when he is approached by a collection of

cadets to tell stories of his adventures the moral of his lessons is that in times of Crisis you’re facing your own no win scenarios well the answers to a success May align the people around you your crew a good lesson to be sure but it’s not until the end of the flashback that the ulterior purpose is revealed it serves to drive home even further that Picard has dedicated his life to Starfleet and Duty the only time Jack Crusher ever reached out to him he was told by Picard that the man never needed any other family

of course this was entirely for the show of the cadets and a deeply personal question aimed at the man while Jack hearing a different answer may have led the two to

meet properly Jean-Luc is not exactly one to open up to such a deeply personal confession to a room full of strangers in fact this episode has a lot of development for Jack with him learning to operate alongside a team and understand his father a little more he claims that he’s perfectly fine being on the outside and Picard opens up to him stating that perhaps he

needs to know his son it’s easy to be comfortable on the outside when it’s the only familiar experience throughout the episode we see Jack providing his ideas and pitching in calling shots to Picard and brainstorming and by the end he’s rejoicing in the joint victory of the crew that the Titan achieved through this perhaps he has received a glimpse into Jean-Luc Picard’s life and working alongside the Old Guard and new players alike was probably the best way to bond with his father definitely better than approaching him as a stranger in a bar with a weighty

question on his personal regrets talking of bonding Riker’s harsh words to Picard art made amends and the two old friends patched things up the mood is still dour however and Riker is convinced that there is no way out here he goes on to record a message for Deanna in the events that the Titan is recoverable in some future not seeing any options left to escape Rikers is actually a bit of a stick in the mud this episode another great scene which adheres to the tail end of the Picard Crusher one has Shaw final event his

travels with Picard to the man’s face and as we suspected he is a survivor of all three five nine and he has a strong sense of survivor’s guilt that he grapples with to this day the cutest of Borg is the focus of his Ayah and although that individual is gone Picard remains logically he must know that the Admiral is not the cutest separate entities but yes to be confronted with the man in the flesh but clearly he’s not handling it as well as Cisco did when he met the card and even that was an icing

meeting it was amazingly performed too feeling almost unscripted and raw as it should be so when I say I have lost a little respect for sure please understand that I think it was intended this comes not because he finally had it out with Picard but that he chose to intrude on a potentially final moment between an estranged father and a son and vented before his already terrified crew Picard accepts his resentment with understanding and leaves and sure is immediately aware of his mistake I still like him though and I want to see him improve and

heal meanwhile Beverly in classic Star Trek fashion is following another plot thread that may yield the way to save the day she’s counting the time between the Pulses from the nebula and ultimately is the one who sets into motion the plan to save the ship the scenes of the crew working together to convey their plan is very reminiscent of how these sort of issues were tackled in the past a problem comes up with the plan someone provides input and working together the amount defeats greater than any one of them could accomplish alone in this case

Surf’s Up with the nebular itself those mysterious biological pulses are finally answered and it turns out that this phenomena has a living component to it while it might not technically be alive it most definitely Harbors life and is on the cusp of birthing more these graviton pulses are increasing in frequency and building to a final wave that will do something well it turns out that that something is to release a cloud of new baby space squid from such a dire situation new life and a new experience is revealed to the crew and it serves to

remind them all that not everything in space is out to kill them sometimes there is Mystery magic and wonderful sights those encounters that exploration seeks the whole episode was building to the escape attempt and the risky plan concocted explodes into motion with additional obstacles each hurdle cleared through cooperation a crew working as one and even sure finding a role to redeem himself in the Nissan alterations the final cherry on top was the racker maneuver two no doubt inspired by the earlier trick vatic had pulled by throwing a ship at them now Riker Returns the favor

nothing more to say other than an excellent moment the link to the changelings seems to be developed a little more here too seven spends the episode hunting down the shapeshifter and sure briefs on how to deal with one I assume from the report he gives her which features Constable Odo that this training was disseminated to officers during the Dominion War how to spot a shapeshifter and so on and it looks like they now have a way to track an exact changeling if they have a sample of that individual despite being now armed with that knowledge

and the pot which gets blazed by the way the changeling gets the drop on her and it’s only the forethought later on that catches her out when Sydney arrives to talk to them it was clear that we had the Imposter Among Us and I’m super glad no one fell for it I do wonder if the changelings dead or just stunned because I expected it to lose its shape if actually killed off so hopefully we can get some answers soon as for vatic she works for these changelings although it does look like they have leveraged her

the cooperating and are keeping at tabs on her for a shape-shifting hand that doubles as a Communications method very dark so you have to sever this limb to commune with her bosses but the Dominion are very apt at genetic engineering so I like this strange method of reaching out to them vatic actually seems to be put under a great deal of pressure this episode and while her hunting had big gun as all giggles and unnerving politeness it ends in frustration and fear for her I hope there is more to her character Arc to come as

I am enjoying watching this villain and kind of don’t want to see it reduced to a supplicant henchman role close of the episode has Jack’s Visions repeat this time in a waking state with more images of growing Red Vines or branches as well as the destruction of a city in a storm or explosion and that honest Red Door I originally suspected that these might be related to the nebula or some attempted Communications but it looks like there is more going on with Jack himself these Visions must be related to why the um Crusher is being

sought out and I’m beginning to suspect he interacted or perhaps was even born with something Wesley develops traveler Powers so does Picard’s son also have some element of higher perception some foresight one small thing again I know I keep mentioning but Jack’s age if he was indeed 23 or 24 then the timeline is still a little squiffy and that would put him as pre-star Trek Nemesis by a year or so with the year being confirmed out of shows 2401. it’s not hampering my enjoyment of the series at all but this is a genuine nitpick that

only stands out to me because the show has been so fastidious in addressing similar concerns in the past the similarly avoided issues were Jack’s accent and even in this episode they reminded the viewers that holodex used their own power grid which does not run off the ship’s main Supply even providing solid reasoning for that overall this episode feels pretty much like a traditional TNG problem could divorce it from the main narrative scrap the vatic stuff that you would have a contained episode about the sinking of a ship trying to escape and that was very much

on purpose we get to see the original TNG crew together at least some of them and for the first time in years they get to relive the old days enlightening the new generation and giving them a taste of not only the old days of exploration but a reminder to viewers of the heart of a standalone Next Generation story thanks for watching this review of episode 4. I’ve been working out to you later for another one goodbye all right