So far each episode of the second season of Star Trek: Picard have been very different in tone. I think it’s a good thing. These three episodes, at least, feel my episodic and less muddy that the story arc sometimes got last year.

I enjoyed this episode a lot. We have some action. We have drama. We have the juxtaposition of our futuristic character with what is essentially our modern day world. I think the series is still working. It is still keeping me on the edge of my seat wondering what is going to happen next.

I can’t talk about the episode any further without spoilers so…

If you don’t want to be spoiled for this episode or episode one, turn back now!

Turn back now if you don’t want any spoilers!

If you haven’t seen the episode you should (if you can) go watch it now!

Seriously!

This is your last chance before the spoilers!

The third episode picks up almost nearly at where the second ended. We actual re-watch about the last two minutes of the previous episode, except there are a few changes.

The magistrate who is Seven’s husband in this timeline shoots Elnor and then won’t let Raffi give him medical aid. There is a very short bit of monologuing about how he’s going to enjoy killing these traitors… which gives Seven, Chris and Raffi a chance to leap on the three bad guys, wrestle their phasers from them, and disintegrate them.

Dr Jurati finishes connected the Borg queen to Chris’ ship, then they race toward the sun to do the slingshot maneuver to travel in time. Except the pesky fascist fleet sends three starships to try to blast them from the sky. Once the Borg Queen takes over weapons control she destroys the three pursuing ships rather easily.

Q makes a brief appearance to taunt Jean Luc just before they plung into the time warp. When they regain consciousness most of ship’s power has been diverted to keeping the Borg Queen alive, as the stress of the time warp and controlling the ship’s passage through it nearly killed her.

One of the problems this causes is that the one piece of sickbay equipment that was keeping Elnor alive is no longer working. they also don’t have enough power to do a nice soft landing, so they get a big crash landing.

Elnor dies. Raffi is both grieving and pissed, as she blames Picard for the death. (Both because he would like Rios disintegrate the Borg Queen to free up ship’s power to Sick Bay, and also because Picard and keeps getting involved in Q’s games.)

They are able to determine that they have landed in the correct year (2024). Raffi throws herself into the task of finding the Watcher that the Borg Queen said was living in 2024 and could help them. She hoping that if they can fix the timeline that Elnor might be brought back in the process.

So Raffi, Seven, and Chris head into Los Angeles hoping that by scanning for futuristic tech they will find the Watcher. Picard and Jurati stay at the ship to try to awaken the Borg Queen and repair the ship.

Seven and Raffi have some encounters with contemporaries, manage to get to the top of the tallest building in LA and scan. Rios winds up concussed and otherwise wounded and is taken to the clinic the mostly serves undocumented people.

Jurati comes up with a scheme to mentally link with the Borg Queen, let the Queen begin the assimilation process, and use that to repair the queen. It’s a very tense scene as Picard is trying to monitor how Jurati is doing and it appears for a moment that he might not have disconnected Jurati in time.

Picard wants to keep the Queen alive because she can pinpoint the event that changes history. And she’s the only mind they have that is capable of steering the ship through another time warp to get them back to when they belong.

The Queen tries to blackmail Picard into giving her the ship outright in exhange for the location of the Watcher. But then Jurati reveals that not only did she repair the queen while they were linked, but she also stole some information, such as the coordinates of the Watcher, from the Queen’s mind.

I really like this actress who is playing the Borg Queen. She’s playing her as charmingly sinister which is just pitch perfect.

Meanwhile, as Raffi and Seven have a bit of an adventure trying to scan for the Watcher, Rios winds up bounding with both the doctor who runs the clinic (there is more than a bit of romantic spark between them), and the son of said doctor. Unfortunately, he also gets arrest in the Immigration raid on the clinic, and his communication badge is left behind in the clinic. This probably adds up to at least three things that might further muck of the timeline. We’ll have to wait and see.

Raffi and Seven was using their scanner to try to track Rios by his communicator, so I’m assuming a major part of next week’s episode will be them trying to get Rios out of jail. But they still need to find the Watcher and they need to figure out what Q did to break the timeline and determine what it is the Q claims Jean Luc need to do penance for.

Sounds like we have a rollicking ride ahead of us!

Edited to Add You may find these reviews useful:

Den of Geek – Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Episode 3 Review – Assimilation

Gizmodo – Star Trek: Picard Heads Into the Past, Literally and Metaphorically

Tor.Com – “Now is the only moment” — Star Trek: Picard’s “Assimilation”

Cora Buhlert – Star Trek Picard Undergoes “Assimilation”