This post contains heavy spoilers for Star Trek: Picard
The first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard had an admirable, if not altogether successful, goal. Rather than just play on nostalgia, the series caught up with Jean-Luc Picard 20 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and teamed him with a new crew. While the adventures in both seasons certainly had their feet in classic The Next Generation storylines — as Data, the Borg Queen, and Q all played major roles — the series wanted to take Picard into a new, undiscovered country.
But for its third and likely last season, Picard has pulled out all of the stops, bringing back the cast from TNG. The result has been a rousing adventure in the mold of The Original Series movies, in which an aged crew find themselves on the run from Starfleet to face a threat only they can stop. Layered in with compelling new characters and surprise returns from characters long gone, the final season of Picard has been the perfect blend of satisfying nostalgia and surprising character development.
As we head into the season 3 finale, here’s everything you need to know to prepare…
When Does Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 10 Come Out?
The final episode of Picard season 3 releases on Paramount+ at 12 am PT/3 am ET/8 am GMT on Thursday, April 20. If you watch the series on Amazon Prime Video in the UK, you will have to wait until the morning of Friday, April 21.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Recap
A lot has happened this season on Picard. Here’s a refresher to get you up to date as we head into the finale:
The Next Generation Crew Is Back!
The big hook for this season has been the return of Picard’s crew from the USS Enterprise-D. While Raffi Torres, Picard’s Commanding Officer during his final years as captain and a main character during the first two seasons, stuck around, Cristóbal Rios, Agnes Jurati, and the other new members of Picard‘s cast saw their stories end in season two.
Instead, this season is all about getting the old ’90s band back together, slowly and piece by piece, as they uncover a Changeling invasion within Starfleet. The first to reunite are Picard and Riker, the latter of whom is looking for a distraction from his troubled marriage to Deanna Troi. When Dr. Beverly Crusher, who has been working in the far reaches of space with her son Jack and has cut off all contact with her friends for over 20 years, sends a distress call to Picard, he and Riker don’t hesitate to find her.
Along the way, the trio cross paths with Worf, Geordi, Troi, and Data, albeit in very different places than when we last saw them. Despite his willingness to spill blood in spectacular fashion, Worf now seeks a path of enlightenment and inner peace, much to the shock and dismay of Riker. Geordi has reached the rank of Commandant and serves as curator of the Starfleet ship museum, when not doting on his daughters Alandra and Sidney, both of whom serve in Starfleet. And although Data has died (twice!), Riker, Raffi, and Worf discover a third Soong positronic model.
An earlier version of the lifelike android body given to Picard after his death at the end of Picard season one, Data’s new body experiences aging like a human. And rather than fill his memories with just those of Data (leading up to Nemesis, at least), Alton Soong programmed it with the personalities of himself, B4, Data, and Lore. The result is initially a multiple-personality version of Data, before settling into a more human Data, one that can use contractions and tell better jokes.
In addition to these main characters, Picard season three has brought back other figures from ’90s Trek. Seven of Nine continues to be a main character, having left the Fenris Rangers and broken up with Raffi to re-join Starfleet, where she currently serves as Commanding Officer aboard the USS Titan. Seven’s Voyager shipmate Tuvok makes a brief and chilling appearance on a viewscreen as she and the others investigate an invasion within Starfleet. The season’s penultimate episode even caught up with Admiral Elizabeth Shelby, last seen as the ambitious officer looking to take Riker’s place in the TNG two-parter “The Best of Both Worlds.”
But the biggest surprise of the season has been an appearance by Ro Laren, now a Commander in Starfleet Intelligence. Ro was one of the more exciting additions to the Enterprise Crew, a strong-willed Bajoran who often clashed with Riker and Picard. Ro left Picard’s command by pulling a phaser on Riker, betraying Starfleet, and joining the resistance group the Maquis, making her an unlikely figure to show up again in a Starfleet uniform, especially in the middle of a Changeling invasion. However, her appearance gives Ro and Picard a chance to air their grievances and put things right, before Ro sacrifices herself to allow Picard to escape with Jack, the target of the Changelings.
Who is Jack Crusher?
Well, that’s a loaded question, isn’t it? When we first meet Jack Crusher, he’s simply introduced as Beverly Crusher’s younger son, named after her late husband (Beverly’s older son Wesley made a brief cameo at the end of Picard‘s second season, as a Traveller who recruits Kore Soong). But Jack’s English accent and tactical brilliance are enough to get Riker to look past Jack’s thick head of hair to recognize him as Picard’s son. And after enough nudging from Will, Picard recognizes it, too.
The revelation forces Picard to question Beverly’s decision to hide a son from him, which she justifies by reminding him of the constant danger that is Jean-Luc’s life. However, it appears that Jack has received a number of qualities from his father, including the Urimadic Syndrome that seemed to kill Picard at the end of season one.
But by the time we get to the ninth episode of the season, we learn that it’s not Urimadic Syndrome that Jack got from his dad. Throughout the season, we’ve seen Jack exhibit strange behaviors, including glowing red eyes, the ability to control minds, and visions of red vines and a red door. Despite many theories about Jack’s visions, it is finally revealed that he has been infected by the Borg in the form of a biological implant passed on from Picard after his conversion into Locutus.
The USS Titan
Although we do get to see the Enterprises-D and -F, most of the season has taken place aboard the USS Titan-A, under the command of Captain Liam Shaw. Fans will of course remember the Titan as the ship captained by Riker after he left the Enterprise. While Riker took the Titan on many a jazz-themed adventure, Shaw runs a much tighter ship.
So, when retired admirals Picard and Riker try to convince Shaw to investigate Beverly’s distress signal in the early episodes, he flatly denies them. Fortunately for the sake of our series, Shaw is not the only person with authority on the Titan. Commanding Officer Seven of Nine (or Annika Hansen, as Shaw insists on calling her) helps Riker and Picard turn the Titan toward Beverly’s location, entangling Shaw in an adventure he’d really rather not take.
Although he is never, ever happy about it, Shaw fully embraces his part in saving Starfleet, even going so far as to stay with Raffi and Seven to stave off Borg-infected members of the Titan’s crew, long enough for Picard and company to escape. That last decision costs him his life and, in his final dying moments, Shaw turns command over to now Captain Seven of Nine.
The Changelings and the Borg
Through much of the series, the primary villain has been Vadic, captain of the Shrike. Along with a crew of aliens in suits resembling plague masks, Vadic relentlessly pursues anyone harboring Jack Crusher, gleefully chipping away at their defenses until they finally give her what she wants.
Along the way, we learn that Vadic was one of several Changelings captured by Starfleet and experimented on during the Dominion War. The experiments have left Vadic deeply traumatized, but have also helped her and the other Changelings to evolve. Where Starfleet developed a “blood test” to identify Changelings in the Dominion War (as seen on Deep Space Nine), these newer Changelings blend in more perfectly and can navigate Starfleet undetected. Using their skills, the Changelings have infiltrated places of power within Starfleet and stolen the human remains of Jean-Luc Picard from the top-secret Daystrom Station.
But as committed as the Changelings certainly are, they are just means to an end. They were working in conjunction with a larger threat, the Borg. With the kinder, gentler Borg seen at the end of Picard season two revealed to be a mere offshoot, the true Borg have returned with a nefarious plan. Not only do they control Jack Crusher, but they have used Picard’s body to write a genetic code into all of Starfleet’s transporter data. Simply put, anyone who beams up or down gets secretly infected with biological Borg DNA.
On the upside, this infection only affects people under the age of 25, whose brains haven’t fully developed. On the downside, that’s most of the crew of ships in Starfleet. When the Borg launch their attack, the newly assimilated crewmembers easily take control of the ships, effectively turning Starfleet into a new Borg fleet
Frontier Day
The Borg wait to launch their attack until Frontier Day, a Federation Holiday commemorating the long road that began when the NX-01 launched. Frontier Day gathers together all of the ships in the fleet, giving viewers a good look at the Enterprise-F and other surprises. Starfleet chose Frontier Day to reveal its new networking technology, which links together all the ships in the fleet as a synchronized attack force.
Of course, when the Borg launch their attack, Frontier Day changes from a continuation of Starfleet’s mission to its end. Not only are the Borg able to commandeer all of the ships (and destroy those they cannot), Starfleet’s new technology makes it easy to exert control over ships not taken over by its drones.
With the Titan-A under Borg control, Picard and his cohorts escape via shuttle to a secret project in the Ship Museum. Geordi reveals that after Starfleet removed all of its technology from Veridian III, the planet seen in Star Trek: Generations, he had access to the saucer section of the Enterprise-D. For decades, Geordi has been restoring the D to its network television glory, leading to a fantastic sequence with Picard and company once again standing on its beige and carpeted bridge.
Will the D be enough to turn the tide against the Borg? Can Picard and Beverly rescue their son from his infection? Will it all come down to Chief O’Brien saving the day?
We’ll find out when the finale of Picard releases on Paramount+.