Jonathan Frakes directs Stardust City Rag, which starts off brutally, and takes us to some dark places with the characters even as Picard (Patrick Stewart) gets to pose as a villain.

Written by Kirsten Beyer, this episode first aired on 20 February 2020 and opens with a Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) flashback as we learn the fate of Ichib (Casey King), he fell victim to Bjayzl (Necar Zadegan) a criminal who slaughters Borg and ex-Borg for their technology and implants.

When Seven is beamed aboard La Sirena, she becomes a vital part of Picard’s plan to learn the location of Bruce Maddox (John Ales) from Bjayzl who is thriving on Freecloud (which has tons of Easter Eggs). Picard, and Rios (Santiago Cabrera) pose as sellers, hoping to buy Maddox from Bjayzl, who has a deal to give the scientist to the Tal Shiar.

They offer up Seven, and use that as a way to get in, even as Raffi (Michelle Hurd) leaves the group to have a brutal encounter with her son, Gabriel (Mason Gooding).

They are able to rescue Maddox, and Seven leaves, planning to rejoin the Fenris Rangers after dealing with Bjayzl, something that proved divisive for some fans, but makes perfect sense in terms of the character as far as I’m concerned.

Maddox dies before he can give Picard information beyond the fact that Soji (Isa Briones) is at a secret installation, a recovered Borg cube and that the Tal Shiar and the Zhat Vash may have a deep secret regarding synthetic life forms.

He dies because Jurati (Alison Pill) turns off his life support and kills him, saying if only he knew what she knew, what they had shown her!

The moments of levity in this episode are appreciated because it’s dark with some brutal sequences, the opening teaser is one of the hardest moments I’ve seen in Trek.

But the crew of La Sierna have a lead, now to find the Borg cube.

The Impossible Box was written by Nick Zayas and debuted on 27 February, 2020.

Following her heartbreaking encounter with her son, Raffi has crawled back into the bottle as La Sirena continues its journey into Romulan space moving towards the Borg cube. Jurati and Rios begin a brief affair.

On the cube, Narek (Harry Treadway) is working to figure out what Soji knows without triggering her activation, but she’s beginning to suspect that there is something wrong with her, nothing she owns, nothing she has is older than three years old.

Narek uses an ancient Romulan practice to unlock her troubling recurring dreams, even as Picard arrives at the cube (confronting his own fears) and encounters Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) who is willing to help him recover Soji. But when Soki activates and goes on the run through the cube, Hugh and Picard have to come up with a plan to get them away from the Romulans, who are already looking for Soji’s homeworld which Narek has discovered from Soji’s dreams.

Against orders, Elnor (Evan Evagora) beams to the cube to help Picard! He and Hugh cover Soji and Picard’s escape to Nepenthe via spatial transporter. He tells La Sirena to meet them there, the episode ends with Hugh and Elnor facing down unseen Romulans.

Check out Star Trek: Picard, available in individual seasons, a series collection, or as part of the limited edition Star Trek: The Picard Legacy Collection boxed set available now from Paramount Canada. Boldly go.