It makes a kind of sense for Lea Thompson to direct an episode about time travel, and that’s who sits in the director’s chair this time out as I continue to explore Picard Season 2.

Assimilation was written by Kiley Rossetter and Christopher Monfette and it was first broadcast on 17 March, 2022.

La Sirena makes its jump back in time, though Elnor (Evan Evagora) does not survive the trip causing a rift between Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd), though Raffi clings to the hope that if they can restore the timeline then Elnor may survive.

The crew find themselves in 2024 and Raffi, Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Rios (Santiago Cabrera) transport to Los Angeles in an attempt to track down the Watcher that the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) tells them can help.

Unfortunately, a glitchy transport separates the group, and while Seven and Raffi are quickly reunited, Rios is injured and finds himself in a clinic under the care of Teresa (Sol Rodriguez), and while he gets himself into some serious trouble with Immigration, something just as insidious is happening on La Sirena…

Jurati (Alison Pill) comes up with a way to help revive the Borg Queen, bu actively engaging her mind with Jurati’s, to encourage the Borg to assimilate her. But does it work both ways, or has something terrible happened?

Jurati seems to have temporarily outwitted the Borg, but she’s also caught their attention.

The Watcher is still out there, Rios has been arrested, and they have no clue how to restore the timeline… oh boy.

A very strong episode, and there are some very nice beats throughout.

Watcher was also directed by Thompson and featured a script by Juliana James and Jane Maggs from a story by James and Travis Fickett, and debuted on 24 March, 2022.

While the Borg Queen attempts to get under Jurati’s skin, Seven and Raffi head off in search of Rios, and Picard takes action into his own hands as he goes on the hunt for the Watcher himself, and ends up at a familiar location on Forward Ave.

It’s there that he meets Guinan (Ito Aghayere), who isn’t the Watcher he’s looking for, but after lots of convincing points him in the right direction which leads him to… Laris (Orla Brady)? No, no Romulan ears, so who is this Watcher, and will she be able to help Picard on his mission.

We get a glimpse of Q (John de Lancie) attempting to influence someone? but his powers don’t seem to be working.

And after a prolonged chase across Los Angeles, Seven and Raffi find themselves in a place where they may be able to help Rios escape from ICE. And Jurati helped them, with a deal she negotiated with the Borg Queen, and then reneged on!

There’s a nice callback to Trek IV, we get a bit of history about Chateau Picard, and there are lots of visual easter eggs to other time travel Trek episodes, particularly City on the Edge of Forever.

I know there were some who had problems with this season, but so far I’m enjoying this revisit. And I’m looking forward to exploring more as I dive further into The Picard Legacy Collection, a limited edition boxed set available now which contains the entire run of The Next Generation, the four Next Gen films, and all three seasons of Picard!

It’s available now from Paramount Canada, boldly go!