Wow. A truly fabulous finale.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
And so the first (and possibly only) season of
Picard comes to an end
Please don't even raise the possibility that there may not be a season 2

All signs that I can see point to season 2 happening. Whoopi Goldberg has committed to returning as Guinan -- that will be interesting.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
plenty of loose ends flapping in the breeze
I agree there are loose ends, but the most important issues were resolved and that was enough for me. Picard's two Romulan caretakers, seen earilier this season, are good characters and served the important function of depicting the gratitude and devotion held by some Romulans toward Picard. That's sufficient for me. And if there is a season 2, these characters may yet have their moments.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
As I said at the beginning, I really didn't want them to go the route of the dark and corrupt Federation, but I was grudgingly all right with the way they did it:
I shared your concern and I agree that they way they did it was acceptable. The Star Trek universe can go temporarily dark but not permanently so, IMHO. I wonder if
ST: Discovery will learn this lesson in its upcoming season 3.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
But again, in the person of Soji, we are told that this, too, can be cured by the simple, yet powerful, method of setting a good example.
Yes. I love that message. So I sense that you see Soji as representative of Millennials (or Gen Z) and Picard as possibly representing the older generation somehow reaching & wielding positive influence on the young. I'll need to chew on that. There are lots of layers here. The synths desire their independence from the older "establishment" and their defensiveness produces in them the kind of evil they purported to be rebelling against. That's a nice touch, and realistic, too.
I see the Romulans as possibly representing Republican evangelicals, guided by ancient myth and ruled by fear, intent on wiping out any threat to established purity and order.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
Picard begins the series bitter and defeated, yet slowly regains his passion for goodness.
Yes, yes, yes. He transforms back to his true self. This season has been a journey of healing for him, and his transformative healing places him in the position of helping others (Raffi, Agnes, Soji, his bodyguard, etc). Even more importantly, Picard's healing allows for the healing of the larger society and universe as a whole. This is cosmic storytelling, the stuff of the classic hero's journey.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
But there were certainly many great moments, first among them Picard's persuasive diplomatic monologue that changed Soji's heart, pissed off the Romulans, and made Riker smile.
I loved seeing Picard in his role of mentor, saying all the right things to reach his pupil. It was all so brilliantly written, and very believable, and very moving. And to see a former pupil in Riker, come back to help his old teacher, well, that was a beautiful touch, too.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
...but no, they were monsters. Weird, black, mechanical, tenticular monsters.
Quite a disappointment with the visuals here. One gets the feeling that Seth McFarlane would have made a much, much better choice here regarding the look of the alien destroyers.
RJDiogenes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 27, 2020 12:50 am
Finally, at the end, we came to that classic
Star Trek scene of heading off into the final frontier.
Yes. Makes you very curious what direction season 2 will take, or should take. Will season 2 be a completely independent storyline, or will it have ties to season 1's arc?
I'm still pondering the new, synthetic Picard and how the showrunners handled his life-altering transition. That life-after-death scene with Picard chatting with Data about their love, and their deaths... wow, it is absolutely exquisite. I believe it's a true triumph for the series, and for the entire Star Trek franchise.
Is the ending a bit too tidy? Yes and no. A newly synthetic Picard is a kind of cheat, a hero’s unrealistic avoidance of a deadly condition that would elude no one except of course a sci-fi icon.
Yet the way it is done here somehow works, and somehow satisfies. Picard has been "reborn", healed psychologically and now healed physically. He may be a synth but he’s a mortal synth, with the same ticking biological clock as the rest of us. And am I correct that his deadly brain condition was brought about by his earlier Borgification? If that's true, then it's fitting and appropriate that his emotional healing from that event should parallel his physical healing from it.
So as befitting the hero's journey, Picard rediscovers his True Self, and in so doing he helps others find their True Selves, and he saves the universe. It's all very nice. The butterfly image is a bit too on-the nose, but I can forgive that. At least they had the wisdom to make the butterfly destructible. A butterfly, after all, isn’t a butterfly if it lasts forever.