The finale has proven somewhat divisive online over the last few months - how does 'Farewell' rate?
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00:00 You know what my initial thoughts were. You watched the ups and downs, you watched it for the whole season.
00:05 I'm assuming, if you didn't, no problem at all. They're all still there, go back and enjoy.
00:09 They were our initial reactions to each episode as they came out.
00:14 The final episode, when it aired, straight away, there was division online about it.
00:19 There was people who loved it and people who hated it.
00:22 People who thought that it was a great sum-up to a strong season,
00:27 or people who thought it was a damp squib to an increasingly not great season.
00:32 I am here today with the benefit of a bit of time to sit on some of the things that have happened in the finale,
00:38 to go back through, and we're gonna...
00:41 It's not like we're gonna do another ups and downs.
00:44 We're gonna take specific plot points from the episode,
00:48 and we're gonna address the biggest question,
00:51 Star Trek Picard Season 2 Finale,
00:55 was it good, or was it bad?
00:57 Number 10, Talon's death.
01:00 So, we did get Orla Brady in this season a lot more than we got her in Season 1,
01:06 and so for that, I am massively, massively grateful.
01:08 The first episode, featuring Laris, was stunning,
01:12 and then we got the character of Talon as the season went on.
01:16 Her death scene in this, to take the place of Renee Picard,
01:20 so that Renee can go off on the Europa mission,
01:22 it seemed very fitting that Orla Brady's character would sacrifice herself for Jean-Luc.
01:31 The problem here is that the relationship was with Laris and Picard.
01:37 Now, while arguably we got more time between Talon and Jean-Luc this season
01:42 than we did between Picard and Laris overall, really,
01:45 it never really progressed to anything more than, frankly, colleagues working together.
01:51 And so, for there to be such an import put on her death scene in this episode,
01:57 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,
02:06 "Oh no, Laris is dying."
02:09 Of course, it wasn't that.
02:10 Not only for the fact that it clearly wasn't Laris,
02:13 but also the speech was different.
02:16 Of course, Orla Brady, who is a wonderful, wonderful Irish person,
02:19 was using a Pan-American accent for Talon.
02:23 Straight away, you're taken out of the scene somewhat when you know,
02:26 "Just let her use her Irish accent."
02:27 It just didn't have that emotional core that they needed.
02:31 So, for me, unfortunately, Talon's death, it just didn't really work.
02:36 Plus, and this has been pointed out before,
02:38 there was a close-up shot of Talon's eyes,
02:42 and they are massively bloodshot as she's dying.
02:45 And, you know, it's meant to be, "Oh my God, she's clearly suffering."
02:49 Talon is a Romulan.
02:51 Those veins should be green.
02:53 Unfortunately, the whole scene just didn't work for me.
02:57 Number nine, Renée Picard.
03:00 Now, Penelope Mitchell was very, very good this season.
03:02 She didn't have an awful lot to do.
03:04 If you take the scene where she sits down with Jean-Luc,
03:08 just, you know, as part of that gala event,
03:11 that's a wonderful scene.
03:12 And it sets up this scene where Talon comes in,
03:15 basically says, "Here, listen, there's a price on your head,"
03:18 and, you know, is there to, well, as we discover,
03:21 take her place in death, not on the mission.
03:24 I feel slightly more positive about Renée Picard in the finale,
03:28 mostly because we all knew she was getting on that rocket.
03:33 That was never in question.
03:35 I'm glad they didn't waste too much time
03:38 trying to do a bit of a bait-and-switch.
03:40 I mean, again, we had already known there was gonna be
03:42 face-swapping technology going on,
03:43 so we knew that Renée was gonna survive this.
03:48 And I do think, overall,
03:51 I think her scene in this episode worked.
03:54 Her character was always just motivation for the others.
03:58 It makes it hard to form an emotional attachment
04:00 with that character,
04:02 but I do think Penelope Mitchell brought,
04:05 well, as much as she possibly could to the role.
04:08 I did feel for this character.
04:10 For me, I did like the way this storyline ended.
04:15 The scene after it, I've already addressed with Talon,
04:18 but as it stands, I was quite happy
04:21 with how Renée got on that rocket.
04:24 Number eight, Q.
04:26 Some people will be going, "How is this not number one
04:28 that you're gonna discuss?"
04:29 Because this entire episode lives or dies
04:32 on John De Lancie's scenes.
04:34 He nailed it.
04:35 That has not changed for me.
04:37 I loved it in the ups and downs, and I love it now.
04:39 We saw a side of Q that you rarely had seen before.
04:43 Probably the closest that we saw
04:46 is the end of Tapestry and the end of All Good Things,
04:50 when you see the way he really cares for Picard.
04:53 Now, we see that go an awful lot further in this episode.
04:57 That moment where Q leans into Picard
04:59 and says, "You matter to me,"
05:03 it was something I didn't know that I needed to see.
05:07 Like, I've been watching Next Generation
05:09 probably since early '90s, right?
05:12 I don't think I remember an awful lot of it,
05:13 but these characters have been in my life
05:17 pretty much my entire life.
05:19 And so to have one of them say to the other,
05:20 "You matter to me," followed by a hug,
05:23 I'm sorry, but nostalgia,
05:24 that kicks me straight in the combadge.
05:25 There is an inherent menace
05:28 to the way that John De Lancie plays Q.
05:31 I think it's necessary.
05:33 Q is a god to these characters.
05:36 At any point, I mean, we are but ants to the gods.
05:40 So, you know, kind of, if they're just like,
05:41 you know, kind of like, "Do you know what?
05:42 "Actually, nah, bye."
05:43 He could, but he doesn't, and it works.
05:47 Is it a bit saccharine?
05:48 Is it what?
05:49 (laughs)
05:51 But it doesn't mean that I didn't get engaged
05:54 by the performances.
05:56 If this is the end of Q,
05:59 and it does feel like it,
06:02 then I think it was a nice way to go out.
06:05 I do think there's issues with it
06:07 that won't necessarily,
06:09 that might not have been addressed, obviously, in Picard.
06:11 For example, if Q has died,
06:14 it would have been a shame to not see a scene
06:17 between him and Janeway,
06:18 which, again, this show wasn't set up to do that.
06:21 You know, potentially, you know, Q is timeless.
06:24 You know, we can always bring him back again.
06:26 Although the point has been made
06:28 that this was such a lovely goodbye scene,
06:30 to then just bring him back,
06:31 even if he's out of time later on,
06:33 might not necessarily work.
06:36 We'll see, we'll see.
06:37 For me, this works.
06:39 Number seven, Wesley's cameo.
06:42 Well, I think it's safe to say
06:43 there were some feelings about this one online.
06:47 I liked it.
06:50 I hear the criticisms.
06:52 I'm not gonna do this as a cop-out answer,
06:53 because I want to address the criticisms.
06:56 The first and foremost being
06:58 that this did not feel like Wesley Crusher.
07:01 This felt like Wil Wheaton.
07:03 Understandably, somebody might be like,
07:04 "Well, it is Wil Wheaton, because he's literally there.
07:06 You can see him. He's on screen.
07:07 Hello, Wil."
07:08 And sure, but there wasn't enough difference
07:11 between actor and character in this scene.
07:16 In fact, that it sounded like he was just,
07:17 he had walked off the set of "The Ready Room"
07:19 and walked onto the set of "Picard."
07:20 There is a degree of fairness to that.
07:23 Wesley's cameo entirely relies on nostalgia.
07:28 Because obviously, like, let's be honest,
07:30 anybody watching "Picard"
07:31 who hadn't watched "Next Generation,"
07:33 of which there are some people,
07:35 wouldn't have a clue who he is.
07:36 Whereas we know this is his first speaking role
07:39 in "Star Trek" as Wesley for 28 years.
07:43 I think it is pure, it is for the nostalgia-baiters.
07:46 I enjoyed it.
07:48 I would like to see it go somewhere.
07:52 That is the big thing.
07:53 If it was just two seconds,
07:55 "There's Wesley, hi, bye."
07:56 I already am going.
07:58 I'm not really sure I've had the benefit of hindsight.
08:00 But because I've now kind of built up in my head
08:02 that potentially himself and Corey
08:05 may turn up in other properties,
08:08 there's nothing to suggest that they will so far
08:10 other than it seemed like a pilot,
08:13 or at least a tease of a pilot for another series.
08:16 So we'll have to see.
08:17 Does the scene work on its own?
08:19 It's fine.
08:20 It was a waste of a return, if that's all.
08:24 I think I will say that.
08:26 If it doesn't go anywhere, I won't be as happy.
08:29 Number six, Whoopi returns.
08:31 She's wearing the uniform, or costume, I should say,
08:33 that looks an awful lot like what we saw her wearing
08:36 in "Generations," which, of course,
08:37 is a massive, massive part of Picard's history,
08:41 his trip with the Nexus, his trip through time.
08:44 This is echoed in his trip through time here as well.
08:47 And so to have him sitting down with Guinan in the bar,
08:51 I really did enjoy that.
08:52 Now, the return of Whoopi also serves the role
08:56 of linking Ito Aguirre's appearance
08:59 earlier on in the season
09:00 and also delivering the news of the fate of Rios.
09:04 I think she did a great job, I have to say.
09:07 Now, we only got the couple of scenes of Whoopi
09:09 in season two, but still, listen,
09:12 it was great because the return of Whoopi,
09:15 on top of everything else, felt like an addressing
09:18 of the criticisms of season one.
09:21 Season one of Picard, for all of its,
09:23 you know, for all of its perceived flaws and strengths,
09:26 I think people were hoping for more
09:27 of a next-generation connection than we ended up getting.
09:32 And we do see an addressing of that in season two.
09:35 Her role is small in this episode.
09:37 It's crucial because we get very important information.
09:40 But again, I think the fact that you can just see
09:43 how comfortable Whoopi Goldberg and Patrick Stewart
09:46 are around each other in this scene,
09:49 for me, I really enjoyed it.
09:52 Number five, another Soong, another Kan.
09:55 I'm just gonna come out and say it.
09:57 There was no point for Adam Soong as a character
10:01 to exist in Picard's season two.
10:03 Now, I would watch Brent Spiner read the phone book.
10:06 Okay, it was delightful to have him there,
10:08 but to have another Soong,
10:10 and one that seems to have been, by the scenes
10:13 delivered in the finale, purely included,
10:17 to set up Arik Soong?
10:20 At least that's how I think this final scene was.
10:24 So he's sitting there, Koray's left,
10:25 and he pulls out the folder that says Project Kan.
10:28 So Project Kan.
10:29 So Kan was apparently the only augment, right?
10:32 Now, I still do like the fact
10:34 that they have the 1996 date on the folder
10:38 because that ties in with what we know of Kan's history,
10:41 of his leaving of Earth.
10:43 Well, even in discussion with Dave Blass,
10:46 we know a different timeline has been created
10:48 because of the events of the real world,
10:50 so did the eugenics wars happens?
10:53 Jury is still kind of out on that.
10:55 I am sorry to say, yes,
10:58 Adam Soong just didn't work for me as a character.
11:02 He was the mustache-twirling villain in this episode.
11:06 He kills Talon, you know,
11:08 and then he sees the folder, but that's it.
11:11 His only reason for being in this episode
11:13 was to be an asshole.
11:15 And I'm sorry, any character could have filled that role.
11:18 If all this was was to set up
11:21 why the Soongs went into augmentation,
11:24 I just felt it was a waste.
11:27 Now, perhaps I'm being overly cruel.
11:28 Perhaps I'm judging the whole season on that.
11:30 I do think that Adam Soong, at no point,
11:32 where it's light to the performance,
11:34 but the whole Adam Soong and Corey storyline,
11:36 for me, it just went nowhere.
11:39 So for me, I'm sorry, I just didn't care for it.
11:42 Number four, Raffi and Seven.
11:45 Now, I'm actually gonna connect a little bit here
11:46 with what we know about season three,
11:48 because we do know that these two characters
11:51 are returning for Picard's third season.
11:53 We see that at the end, Raffi is sitting beside Seven
11:56 on the bridge of the Stargazer.
11:57 Seven is now captain of the Stargazer,
11:59 at least in an acting capacity,
12:01 because Rios, of course, remained in the past.
12:04 We know that, well, when Raffi left the future,
12:07 she was first officer aboard the Excelsior.
12:09 So as it stands, they are both Starfleet officers.
12:12 The whole season teased their relationship
12:14 more so than delivered on it.
12:16 What I mean by that is that there was an awful lot
12:18 of setting up things that didn't go anywhere,
12:22 and in this episode, they finally embrace.
12:25 Now, this is the point I made at the time,
12:26 and I'm making it again now.
12:27 Queerbaiting is something that creators often do
12:31 to bring in their LGBTQIA+ audience
12:35 on top of their non-LGBTQIA+ audience
12:39 to kind of join the fandom,
12:41 and then kind of tease what they don't deliver on,
12:43 and Star Trek was running the risk of doing that.
12:46 Now, by having them embrace, by having them,
12:48 I suppose, if you like, a very clear statement on screen
12:52 that, yes, they are together, I did like that.
12:55 I do think it was a bit late in the season,
12:59 but I did think it suited the two characters.
13:01 Now, we don't know, of course,
13:02 where it's going to go from here
13:04 in terms of will they serve aboard the same starship?
13:06 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,
13:13 but to put Seven as acting captain of the Stargazer,
13:16 which is a cool scene, you have to get rid of Rios,
13:19 and it means sending Rios back into the past.
13:21 You say he's a Theresa, which is great, love Theresa, great.
13:24 Almost opposing the point of this entry
13:27 is just about crossing names off lists.
13:31 You know, Seven's captain of the Stargazer, great.
13:33 Rios, stay behind.
13:35 Okay.
13:36 Oh, sorry, that's the end of Rios?
13:38 Really?
13:39 Fan favorite character, Rios?
13:41 So it was a bit of a mixed one, I have to say.
13:43 I've got mixed feelings about this.
13:44 And again, it's not the fault of the characters,
13:45 it's where they were used.
13:47 I am delighted that Raffi and Seven
13:50 are returning next season,
13:51 but it does feel like they were put up front to go like,
13:54 "Hey, look who you got.
13:56 "Ah, don't worry about Rios, he's fine."
13:57 It's like, all right, cool, okay.
13:59 Kind of gonna miss Rios and those holograms,
14:01 but all right then.
14:03 So yeah, mixed feelings on this one.
14:04 Number three, Elnor's a zombie.
14:08 All right, well, not quite.
14:09 The return of Elnor was silly.
14:13 It wasn't earned.
14:15 I feel it's done Evan Evagora a disservice.
14:19 Killing him off in the first place,
14:21 they basically, they fridged him
14:22 so that Raffi would have an arc.
14:25 Raffi then didn't have an arc.
14:27 That is my issue for Raffi for season two.
14:30 Everyone is very good in this finale,
14:32 and of course, it's great to see Elnor again.
14:34 I don't like the fact that he was dead.
14:36 You know, we see him in the bar at the end,
14:38 but then within, it felt like, minutes,
14:41 Evan Evagora confirmed that he won't be back for season three,
14:44 which begs the question,
14:45 what was the point of bringing him back?
14:47 Now, whether it was just a case of like,
14:48 "Listen, we just wanna have a happy ending.
14:50 "You know, Elnor's alive, wahey."
14:52 Grant, I can understand that, I can.
14:53 "Hello, I'm Q, I'm dying.
14:55 "This is a massively emotional scene.
14:57 "Oh, I'm not sending Rios, Grant.
14:59 "Here, have some Elnor."
15:00 That's what it felt like.
15:02 It didn't work.
15:02 You might be like, "Sean, will you come on now
15:05 "and stop being so mean?
15:07 "Poor old Elnor, all he wants to do is stay alive."
15:09 And I'll be saying to you,
15:10 "Sure, listen, don't we all?"
15:12 Because we know he's not coming back,
15:15 it was a bit like,
15:16 "Great, so we got one scene of them
15:18 "sitting around a table.
15:19 "Okay, then."
15:21 That makes up for a whole season of missing Elnor.
15:24 Number two, Borgatti.
15:26 Alison Pill blew me away this season.
15:30 The revelation of Jurati on the bridge of the Stargazer
15:34 as the Borg Queen, for me, it was no great shock.
15:36 I think, well, I mean, sorry,
15:37 obviously you've seen the last couple of episodes,
15:38 but you know what I mean.
15:39 Like, I think they did set it up very, very well
15:42 that it was a good reveal.
15:44 I still think, I thought at the time,
15:46 I think it was, I don't think any of it was necessary.
15:49 "Hello, I'm the Borg.
15:51 "Hello, I'm Jurati.
15:52 "Listen, big old thing's gonna blow.
15:53 "Here, get your fleet."
15:54 It's Starfleet, you know they would've done it anyway.
15:56 So for me, I did feel that was far too convoluted.
15:59 I still really, really like Alison Pill as the Borg Queen,
16:02 and Annie Worsham was fantastic as her as well.
16:04 And I just thought it was, overall,
16:07 I thought the culmination of her story
16:09 really worked for me.
16:11 It really did.
16:13 I wasn't 100% on the look of Borgatti,
16:17 but I'm being overly critical.
16:20 Seemed to be a bit of blending with CGI and practical
16:22 that I thought was a little bit fuzzy,
16:24 but I'm being really critical here,
16:26 because the whole thing looked so good.
16:29 I mean, that entire scene with the Borg ship
16:32 and the fleet around it at the end,
16:35 that's what we were waiting for since episode one,
16:38 even when that looked great.
16:40 It goes a little bit further as well
16:42 toward this definite attempt by the showrunners
16:45 to address the issues of season one.
16:48 "Hmm, Starfleet, Large Fleet,
16:51 "I wonder what I'm talking about here."
16:54 And they did address it, and it looks great.
16:58 For me, I have to say, I really liked it.
17:00 Massively disappointed, once again,
17:03 Alison Pill has confirmed she won't be back for season three,
17:06 which is just like, it does seem like
17:09 the season finale was set up to get rid of fan favorites.
17:13 We've lost Rios, we're, well,
17:16 technically we've not lost Soji,
17:19 although Issa Briones has confirmed
17:22 she's not back for season three.
17:24 I suppose, nevermind, Elnor, we're losing,
17:27 you know, Evaneva, Gora, you know, it's kind of like,
17:29 all right, so the only original character from Picard
17:33 that we're kind of keeping at this point is Raffi.
17:35 And anyway, anyway, tangent aside,
17:38 Alison Pill was brilliant in this episode,
17:41 brilliant in this season.
17:43 Love her calm that she brings to the Borg.
17:46 And for me, this worked.
17:48 Number one, Jean-Luc Picard.
17:51 Well, I suppose the whole thing lives or dies
17:53 on whether you like JL or not, and I did.
17:57 I really did.
17:59 I thought Patrick Stewart really did a good job
18:02 in this episode.
18:03 Like, we've seen so many shades of Picard up to this point,
18:06 you know, both from the Next Generation days
18:08 and the Picard days.
18:10 I think he did great.
18:11 There has been, as time has gone,
18:13 there's been a lot of criticism
18:15 about how the storyline around Yvette Picard
18:18 was handled this season.
18:19 And I do think a lot of that criticism is fair.
18:23 I think that Patrick Stewart took an awful lot
18:27 of the perceived trauma of Picard into his performance.
18:31 I think that was very, very good.
18:33 I don't like how they got to that trauma,
18:36 or trauma, trauma, trauma.
18:37 I don't like how they got there,
18:38 but I do think he delivered in spades
18:42 in this last episode.
18:43 And we got some of the most Picard Picard
18:46 we've had since the show began.
18:49 Of course, he is wonderful with John De Lancie
18:51 in those scenes.
18:53 Once things calm down with the Stargazer,
18:55 he's fantastic there as well.
18:57 I would dearly love to know how he explains everything
18:59 to Laris when he gets back home.
19:01 If I have a criticism over the end of the episode,
19:06 it would be not so much that I wanted it
19:08 to end in a cliffhanger, because I didn't,
19:10 but I would like some connective tissue
19:12 as to what to expect for season three.
19:15 I did think and continue to think
19:18 that the dropping of the season three trailer
19:20 midway through season two was an odd choice
19:24 from the marketing team.
19:25 I do think that we've already seen little tidings
19:28 of what to expect from season three.
19:31 Now, I won't go too far into it,
19:32 because we do in fact have lists coming now
19:35 of what we know and what we can expect in season three.
19:38 So they will drop with you presently.
19:40 I think it's set up a version of the future
19:43 I want to see for season three.
19:45 It's teased us with enough
19:47 that I'm happy with where we're going.
19:49 I am sad to lose some of the characters that we did.
19:52 If we don't get Orla Brady next season
19:54 as a full season of Laris,
19:55 I might give it a down every episode.
19:59 We'll have to see.
20:00 I'm so excited for the return of the entire main cast,
20:02 although as of recording,
20:05 the only main cast member from season one
20:09 we've not heard anything about
20:10 is Denise Crosby.
20:11 So, to get to the final point of this video,
20:14 Star Trek Picard season two finale, good or bad,
20:18 I guess I don't really have an answer for you.
20:20 And I hear people rage quitting this video,
20:22 and you know what?
20:23 That's fine.
20:24 I think it will come down to taste at the end of the day.
20:27 I was asked directly, where do I stand on this episode?
20:31 And to be honest, if you look at the ups and downs,
20:33 we've got 11 ups and five downs.
20:35 I think a good episode is an episode
20:37 where the ups outnumber the downs,
20:38 and it did for me this week.
20:40 This week, this episode, this installment,
20:42 I thought it did.
20:43 I thought it was good.
20:44 I think every episode can be both better and worse,
20:47 so it's not really fair to say it could be better,
20:49 but I will be tuning into season three.
20:51 I hope you will be as well.
20:52 Let us know, where do you come down on this episode
20:57 in the comments below.
20:58 Thank you so much for watching.
20:59 Please don't forget to like, share, and subscribe.
21:01 Remember, you can catch us over on Twitter @TrekCulture.
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21:07 Look after yourselves until I see you again.
21:09 Make sure that you live long and prosper.
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21:13 What's Coming in Season Three videos,
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21:18 Everyone, have a wonderful day.
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