STAR TREK: Picard Episode 4 Breakdown + Ending Explained

Picard is back with its fifth episode.

Our mission is to boldly go where no one has before and give out thoughts on the new entry as well as what could be happening in the future.

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

We will be ENGAGING with 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 5.

Picard Episode 4 Recap

Ok so just a quick recap of the series so far. After the Death Of Data’s Daughter Dahj, Picard made it his mission to track down her twin sister Soji.

Picard put together a crew and set out into the stars to find her. Along the way, he picked up a young Romulan from his past named Elnor and also bumped into 7 of 9.

Episode 5 Recap

Episode 5 picks up on the Planet Vergessen at the Seven Domes. This is a flashback set 13 years ago and it looks like all of our episodes are going to open in the past to showcase how things happened the way that they did.

The Star Trek Voyager episode Imperfection ties in heavily with this so if you want some required reading that’s probably what you need to check out.

We see a gruelling operation in which a synthetic eye is removed from Icheb who you may remember from Star Trek Voyager.

The actor is different which is a shame but it is the same character here.

Icheb

Icheb was a former Borg drone that was discovered by the Voyager and he eventually joined the crew becoming a close friend of 7 of 9 due to their commonality.

We learn in the episode that the gangster Vajazle has been butchering ex borgs for parts and this is why she has the character captive here.

7 of 9 shows up to save the day but it’s too late and Icheb asks for death due to his wounds and the experimentation. 7 of 9 begrudgingly carries this out and it’s a big death for the season that I’d actually be interested to hear reactions too.

I don’t wanna make too many assumptions here as to what is going on but it’s clear that the Borg are once more being painted out as the victims rather than the big bad that they used to be which adds further weight to the theory that they are being persecuted.

Bruce Maddox

From here we jump to Stardust City in Freecloud two weeks prior to the events in the show to discover that Bruce Maddox has got in deep with gangsters, most namely Vajazle.

Maddox has pretty much been the Macguffin of the show so far along with Soji and it’s good to finally see the character in an episode. We learn that the Tal Shi’ar are after him and this is likely because of his work on Data’s brother B-4 and of course Dahj and Soji. It’s long been said that Maddox is the cyberneticist that created the two because he was wishing to make an android that was as complex as Data. He may have achieved this in the twins and thus he is a key component in finding them.

We also know that their mother is fake and it is even possible that they both have slightly different simulations that have raised them through Maddox programming. Dahj’s mother did tell her to go find Picard so it is likely that he is a guardian angel for them.

In this episode, we learn that Agnes and Maddox have a relationship and this is possibly why she joined the quest.

I do think that she still may be a mole because Oh went to see her but I guess we will find out.

Now the original actor did not return for Maddox which is a shame and there’s also another big recasting which I’ll get into in a bit.

Maddox is drugged by Vajazle and she plans to sell him to the Tal Shi’ar and this becomes the thrust of the episode.

7 Of 9 Meets Picard

Picard and 7 of 9 have a sit-down and we learn that the latter is pretty much a vigilante that works for a group known as The Rangers. The Rangers have been going through the galaxy and writing wrongs and this makes her want to align herself with Picard. She joins the mission as a trusted ally and helps them a lot in this entry.

7 of 9 spent two decades living on Earth and this is why her speech pattern has changed. Jeri Ryan who plays the character said that this was a conscious choice to show how much the character has changed.

In order to get to Vajazle and thus Maddox, 7 of 9 offers herself up, knowing that her Borg parts will be irresistible to the character.

This will hopefully sway Vajazle away from dealing with the Tal Shi’ar and instead, she will sell to them.

They infiltrate Stardust City and the Las Vegas-esque location requires some fancy dress and some new identities.

Stardust

It’s a hilarious aesthetic in the episode and by far the biggest departure for the show so far. It’s a log of fun and though I was worried this scene would be like the Canto Bites bit from Star Wars The Last Jedi, they have their tongue placed firmly in their cheek so it works a lot better in my opinion.

The group have to pretend to be bad guys and it’s funny seeing the over the top gangster get up, eye patch and all. It’s hammy as hell and I loved seeing that Elnor basically has the personality of a Buckingham Palace guard.

It’s more in line with episodes of The Next Generation and it’s nice to see this style in the show.

Raffi’s Past

Raffi has her own mission and goes looking for a man named Gabriel Hwang. This takes her to Stardust City Reproductive Health services which is a family planning clinic. Here we learn that this is, in fact, her son and the two have an estranged relationship because Raffi went off the deep end after her career was ruined in the wake of Picard’s resignation.

Raffi became a conspiracy theorist and due to her belief that the attack on Mars was an inside job, this drove a wedge between them.

This adds further weight to the theory at the moment that the Romulan’s were behind the synth uprising and that they carried this out in order to make the galaxy hate Synths as much as they did. Due to the Supernova striking their planet they had the perfect alibi and the Government could have viewed this as a necessary sacrifice in order to get their way.

We do know that a lot of Romulan’s survived and it could be possible that these were specifically chosen by the leaders in order to weed out the weak.

Either way, this thinking that something else is going on has massively damaged Raffi’s relationship with her family.

Gabriel’s wife is a Romulan and we can assume from this that her constant digging at something may have caused problems, especially if she believed that they had something to do with it.

It paints out how deep that the repercussions of his actions are and it’s kinda heartbreaking to see that she won’t really be in her grandchild’s life.

7 Of 9’s Real Plan

Back in the hive of scum and Villainy, Vajazle and 7 of 9 finally come face to face once more. We get more of 7’s back story filled in and it turns out that they have history but she managed to get away and has had a vendetta ever since.

We also learn that 7 of 9’s name is Anika and that she has her own things going on.

It’s revealed that getting to her has been 7’s plan the entire time and that she has played Picard just as much as they were playing the gangster.

Turns out that after the rescue attempts decades that the universe destabilized and 7 of 9 went to Fenris to try and keep the peace. There was an ambush and Icheb was taken by Vajazle during this and stripped of parts as we saw in the introduction.

Vajazle offers a trade of her life for Maddox and she begrudgingly agrees. With Maddox, they travel back to the ship. 7 of 9 decides to part ways, taking guns from Picard but she offers up her services for the future which I think Picard will definitely be picking up in the future when he’s been painted into a corner.

It’s a really sombre moment and Picard says that after leaving the collective he did lose some of his humanity but it is possible to get it back and that they have to work on it.

7 of 9 clearly doesn’t have hers yet but she will try to regain it every damn day of her life, or so we think.

She returns to Vajazle, dual-wielding the guns that she’s just taken and says that she didn’t want to destroy Picard’s hope and thus pretended that there would be some good in her potentially.

She kills Vajazle and goes out guns blazing and personally it’s my favourite moment in the season so far. I really think it works well and I loved going from the emotional moment of the exchange between Picard and 7 to this.

Picard Episode 5 Ending Explained

Picard breaks the news to Maddox that Dahj is dead but he confirms that she does have a sister and that she is on the Borg Cube.

Agnes looks suspicious as hell at this point and again this does make me believe that she is a mole that is relaying information back to Star Fleet.

Maddox reveals that he sent Soji to the Cube to find the truth about the conspiracy that is going on between the Romulan’s and Federation.

I do believe that the Federation is tied in with the Romulan Conspiracy and we do know from Admiral Clancy that several systems were planning on leaving until they Synthetic uprising and it is possible that the two were in it together.

We also learn that Agnes was part of Soji and Dahj’s programming and that she helped in creating them. She kills Maddox, potentially to cover up her involvement and though she seems heartbroken it’s clear that someone is pulling the strings with her.

I do believe that Star Fleet is behind this and that they sent Agnes out to find out what Soji knows as well as where the nest could be.

There has been lip service paid to the nest which is where Maddox could have hidden the rest of the Synthetics.

I’m not sure I’m 100% on that theory so drop your thoughts if you picked something else up as I’m sure many people have differing opinions.

Picard Episode 6 Predictions

As for next week, it looks like Picard and Co are finally going to the Borg cube to rescue Soji.

We see that she is close to discovering who she really is and personally I believe it will be revealed that she is The Borg Queen and this is why the Romulans have been keeping such a close eye on her.

The fact she can activate and easily kill people shows that she has some untapped power and is likely a high ranking member of the androids.

We see that Picard is having flashbacks to being a borg himself and though I have seen some people say that he may be assimilated next week, if you rewatch the promo it’s definitely shown as a flashback.

Overall there’s a lot to look forward to and I can’t wait to see what happens next week. This was my favourite episode so far and I’m glad the show is constantly improving.