STAR TREK: Picard Episode 1 Breakdown + Ending Explained

Our mission is to boldly breakdown the new season of Picard on Amazon Prime.

Throughout this, we’ll be discussing the ins and outs of the first episode’s plot, it’s easter eggs and what we thought of it as a whole.

There will be heavy spoilers here so if you haven’t had a chance to catch the show yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly suggest that you turn off now.

With that out the way let’s get into our breakdown of Picard Episode 1.

Picard Episode 1 Recap

The episode apparently opens aboard the Enterprise-D with Picard and Data playing poker with one another. It seems like two old pals having fun and robbing each other of their money but it’s all revealed to be an illusion, a nightmare.

Mars explodes and Jean-Luc wakes up shivering and he gets a greeting from his dog named Number One. This is, of course, a call back to the second in command ranking in Star Trek. General Riker was Picard’s number one and the breed of a Pitbull is important as Patrick Stewart has fostered several of these through animal rescue organisations.

This moment kinda shows what headspace Picard is in and how he is filled with regret over the loss of his old friend.

In Star Trek: Nemesis, Data sacrificed himself to save The Enterprise and this is clearly haunting Jean Luc. It’s a big failing that he hasn’t quite gotten over and everything in this scene points towards that.

The Meaning Of Poker

Poker is a game that was often played between the crew on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Data famous didn’t understand it. Data was often relegated to being the dealer and didn’t get to join in. Here, in the dream where all is perfect and Data is alive, he can play, and quite well judging by the depths of his bluffs.

The song ‘Blue Skies’ that we can hear playing in the background is also a call back to a big moment in Data history as he sang the song during the wedding of Deanna Troi and Will Riker which also took place in Nemesis, the aforementioned movie in which he died.

All of this comes together to paint out the overall arc of what the series will likely be which I’ll get into in just a bit. Picard says he doesn’t want the game to end and this shows that he would rather stay locked in this fantasy that lives his life in misery without his old pal big D.

He lives on a vineyard in France and this ties heavily into his past. The Picard’s owned a Chateau in France that was run by his brother. We learn that he died in a fire and thus Picard moved there to inherit everything.

A Girl Named Dahj

We then cut to Boston to see a girl named Dahj who is ambushed by a group of Assassins. Her boyfriend is killed and though she Alita Battle Angels the crap out of them without knowing how she did it. They say she’s activated and this is in fact Data’s daughter. She gets a vision of Jean Luc and realises what she must do.

Back at the Chateau Picard prepares for an interview that marks the anniversary of the Romulan Supernova. It turns out Picard quit the Enterprise to go and rescue Romulans as Starfleet would not.

There’s a mention of this being similar to Dunkirk and the rescue attempt would have saved the planet.

This is the reason why he left them as they chose another mission on Mars over the one that he viewed as the utmost importance.

A Ban On All Synthetics

We learn a group of synthetics that attacked Mars which is the planet that exploded during his dream. We learn that Mars still burns and there is a lot of prejudice in the Galaxy.

We don’t know why they went rogue or what caused it, but I think we will.

Because of this there has been a complete ban of all synthetic lifeforms.

Picard clearly disagrees with this due to his friendship with Data and during the episode ‘Measure Of A Man’ the character argued that Data was legally a person.

During this episode, Picard butted heads with a man known as Dr. Bruce Maddox who argued that Data wasn’t human. Maddox wanted to study the character and though he lost the argument, we learn in this episode that he went on to continue studying Data for the rest of his life.

The interview points out a lot of things and there’s quite a lot of subtext to it.

Clearly Picard views all life as precious, synthetic or not and this sort of Blade Runner Esque motif shows his true character.

Dahj catches this interview on TV and realises that she has to go to him.

The Silver Rings

Upon arriving at the Vineyard, Picard notices her necklace and two interlocking Silver Rings. She says that her father gave it to her and this becomes a big motif later in the episode. He invites her into his home and Picard has another dream, this time of Data in his Vineyard painting a woman.

We can’t see the woman’s face and even when we later see the image in Picard’s room, the face is hidden.

Dahj disappears and Picard, desperate to track her down goes to Starfleet Archives and unearths a painting that Data did. It’s the same one from his dream but with Dahj’s face and it’s titled, Daughter.

Dun dun dun.

Picard Episode 1 Easter Eggs

This scene is full of easter eggs and you can also spot the Captain’s Yacht which is a piece of Memorabilia from the Enterprise. There’s also the Stargazer which was Picard’s ship before the enterprise and this is where the famous Picard Manoeuvre comes from. We can spot the Klingon Bat’leth sword and the banner from Picard day.

Dahj is back on the streets and she calls her mother who tells her to go back to Jean Luc. Something seems to be going on with her mother who seems to know about Picard without Dahj telling her. I’m not sure if Data pretty much programmed this to be the last resort protocol or what but clearly there is a lot going on.

She tracks him down in San Fran and he tells her that her about his ol’ buddy ol’ pal Data. After hearing this she realizes that she’s Data’s daughter and is also angered that she’s pretty much a soulless murder machine.

Data somehow painted Dahj how she looks now but decades ago and this could be and there is a hint that Dahj’s memories may be implants. This would explain her mother knowing things ahead of time and it could be that she doesn’t even exist. We don’t know quite yet and don’t really get many answers this episode.

The Death Of Dahj

More assassins show up and once more Dahj makes quick work of most of them. During the fight, one of the assassins loses their mask and is revealed to be a Romulan.

Unfortunately Dahj dies after one spits acid on her weapon and it explodes, killing her.

Defeated, Jean Luc wakes up back at his vineyard. There is no mention of Dahj’s death and the police couldn’t find any trace of her. Picard makes it his mission to find out who killed her and why.

He travels to the Daystrom Institute and meets Professor Agnes to ask if it’s possible to make a sentient flesh and blood android. She scoffs at the idea as Starfleet shut down Android production after the attack on Mars and as no one is allowed to make synthetics it’s a pointless endeavor.

B-4

It turns out that they still have B-4 aka Data’s brother and no one has been able to replicate big D. Maddox was trying but he disappeared after the ban came into place.

B-4 was seen in Star Trek Nemesis and is actually the third version of the android in the ilk. B-4 was a less sophisticated version of Data and because of this, Data was unable to download his memories into the character.

Picard shows Agnes the necklace from Dahj and after seeing the two rings she states that Androids are created in pairs and this is symbolic of this.

This means that Dahj has a twin sister out there somewhere and we cut to a Romulan reclamation site where we see someone named Soju that looks exactly like Dahj. She has the same necklace that Dahj had and gives the same necklace story.

Omg…do you think…do you think they are sisters?

We’ve went from Captain Picard to Captain obvious.

The Borg Cube

Anyway the camera pulls out on the site to show that they are actually working on a giant Borg Cube. This is seen during the opening credits and will clearly become a big part of the show.

It’s the ultimate weapon of destruction and clearly the Borg will play a big part in the series.

Picard has had run-ins with them before and they were massive antagonists in The Next Generation, Picard was assimilated into The Borg but he was later rescued by the Enterprise Crew.

In First Contact, Picard and Co went head to head with a Borg invasion and they even tried to use time travel to stop humanity contacting alien life for the first time.

They’re big enemies and the fact that Soji is working on the cube will likely spell doom for the universe. However, her closeness to it also means that she will likely know it’s weaknesses and once Picard tells her of her father and sister, I think she will help to take it down.

From the teaser next week it looks like Picard will be tracking down her sister before the Romulan’s discover her and he will form a crew together to find her.

Soji clearly doesn’t know what’s going on but she will likely activate similar to how Dahj did when she gets in trouble and be able to stave off enemies.

Picard Episode 1 Review

I really enjoyed this episode and though I have seen some people calling it boring and pretty meh, I think for Trekkers there’s a lot going on here that they will loved.

It’s jam-packed with easter eggs and callbacks to other Star Trek properties and it’s got me hooked on the season.

I can’t wait to see what happens next and yeah, I am looking forward to it quite a bit.

This was a great premiere that set up all the pieces in place and I’m hyped to see what happens down the line.