STAR TREK: PICARD (S1E4) “Absolute Candor”: Computer, Freeze Program

What are we doing here? Not to be snarky or dismissive, but after three episodes of stalling for time, it felt as though we were finally ready to get moving after last week’s coda. So why, then, is “Absolute Candor” largely focussed on acquiring another crew member, one whose history with Picard so closely resembles Raffi’s? And why must we wait until the halfway point of the season to establish what this show is, beyond a series of setups, or to even followup on the intriguing questions set forth by the first episode?

That’s right, remember how a rogue Bruce Maddox created two identical life forms that were, by all accounts, the offspring of Lieutenant Commander Data? Now that was a hell of a premise, one that built on the mythology of the franchise in exciting and unexpected ways. Since then though, Maddox has been mentioned in passing while Soji (the android twin who didn’t die horribly) investigates another mystery aboard a Borg cube, which may or may not have something to do with her own origins.

It’s not that Star Trek needs to move at a mile a minute to be worthwhile television, but some sense of purpose beyond ‘Picard does an apology tour’ and ‘disparate story threads that’ll come together eventually’ would go a long way.

Fractured Bonds

So, what are we working with here? Well, the bulk of the episode concerns Picard’s history with the planet Vashti — which provides the location of a Romulan relocation hub — and specifically with a young Romulan named Elnor (Evan Evagora). See, before leaving Starfleet Picard was directly involved with helping these refugees and became especially close with a group of, ahem, ‘Romulan warrior nuns’ who had taken Elnor in at a young age. He made frequent visits to the planet, developing a strong paternal bond with the young Elnor (played by Ian Nunney in the flashbacks) and making lofty promises on behalf of the Federation. It’s on one of his visits that he learns of the synth attack and, promising to return soon, he leaves Vashti for the foreseeable future, not to return for another fourteen years.

When he returns in the present day, the Romulans are (understandably) not exactly pleased to see him, having abandoned them in their time of need and made no effort to find them a new home. All this raises the question of “why?”, why did Picard completely give up after dedicating so much to this cause and why did he not even return to Vashti at any point in the last fourteen years? It’s not as though it’s particularly hard to get yourself aboard a starship in the 24th century, especially for someone who presumably still has friends in Starfleet. Hell, as this show itself proves, there are numerous non-Starfleet ships doing their own thing that are more than willing to take on passengers for a fee.

It’s one thing to have resigned and drifted from a personal relationship (as he did with Raffi), but to abandon a planet full of refugees for seemingly no good reason seems like an odd course of action. And while I realize this may come off as belaboring what’s effectively a series of nitpicks, but if Picard’s self-exile is to be the dramatic backbone of the series, then surely we should better understand the “why” of it all.

A Muddled Portrayal

Anyway, Picard returns to the, ahem, ‘Romulan warrior nuns’ to find an older and embittered Elnor who has some grievances to air with his old father-figure. This material plays almost identically to what we saw last week with Raffi, with the difference being that Elnor speaks with, as the title of the episode suggests, absolute candor. This not only leads to some extremely blunt dialogue, but also adds to the bizarre fantasy quality to this character, who seems more like a Middle Earth Elf than a Star Trek Romulan, with his otherworldly cadence and penchant for swords. Even his pledge to protect Picard feels straight out of The Lord of the Rings.

Showrunner and episode writer Michael Chabon has spoken of his desire to explore Romulans of all different kinds in making this show, but between this and the vaguely Middle Eastern coding of their settlement, it all adds up to a muddled-at-best take on the Romulans. I’m just not so sure you can take the current refugee crisis, dress it up in some Trek decore and be done with it, without either tackling the real-world issue head-on (as Deep Space Nine did on several occasions) or carefully weaving it into your story. It’s not that contemporary events should be off the table here, but the lazy, vague approximation of them we see here just doesn’t really cut it. And sure, Star Trek as a franchise is no stranger to on the nose allegory, but if Picard wants to be taken as a modern prestige show, it can’t just fall back on “well it worked in the ’60s”.

Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01

So Picard pulls a bizarrely arrogant stunt in a “Romulan only” bar to get Elnor to join him, which leads to a rather shocking beheading that forces these two back together and necessitates a quick escape. They beam back onto the ship, but not before a classic Bird of Prey ship (the kind seen on The Original Series, a very cool choice) is alerted to their presence and a nicely staged dogfight ensues between La Sirena and the old Romulan ship. But they’re not alone, as a mystery ship drops by to lend a hand, and while the two vessels manage to overpower the Bird of Prey, their new ally’s ship is badly damaged. Her pilot is beamed aboard and (surprise!) it’s none other than Voyager‘s Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), who drops to the ground after demanding a new ship.

We’ve known this was coming, but holy hell, what an introduction! After a fairly uninspired episode, this was the shot in the arm we all needed — the return of one of Trek‘s best and most beloved characters, whose own history with the Borg might even start to make sense of what happened to that repurposed cube. Speaking of which…

Back on the Romulan Reclamation Site, Soji does some digging into the ‘destroyer’ prophecy, checks in with Ramdha and has a romantic evening with Narek. It’s hard not to feel that this whole section of the show is just dragging its feet at this point — the mystery of what role Ramdha’s ship played in shutting down the Borg cube is still yet to go anywhere and the romantic subplot is about as bland as they come. Soji is certainly interesting in conception, and Isa Briones is a perfectly capable performer, but the character hasn’t established herself in a way that even Dahj did in her one appearance. I’m sure this is all leading somewhere, but until then, it’s just sort of there.

Worse still is the continually gag-inducing relationship between Narek and Rizzo, the incestuous undertones of which are heightened by the tight framing and close proximity of the actors in their scene on, yep, Narek’s bed. Why this is something we keep being subjected to, I truly cannot fathom, but their bizarre level of intimacy gets more excruciating with each passing week.

Final Thoughts

So that was “Absolute Candor”, which is, for my money, the first properly disappointing episode that finds Picard treading water and lacking any discernible direction. It’s not like Chabon is incapable of writing Star Trek — his Short Treks episode “Calypso” is a wonderful, contained bit of storytelling that uses sci-fi trappings to tell a deeply human story, making it all the more frustrating that he can’t seem to apply that here.

Regardless, the last-minute appearance of Seven of Nine provides a much-needed jolt and the crew dynamics are entertaining to watch, but as for what’s it’s all in service of? Unclear.

Star Trek: Picard airs Thursdays on CBS All Access and Fridays on Amazon Prime internationally.