Rethinking Jean Luc and the disappearance of Q and Robert

In the ninth episode of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard (STP), we finally learn the key to Jean Luc Picard's childhood trauma and to why he is incapable of forming long-term romantic relationships: when he was a precocious young lad of 10 (?), he made a crucial decision that he believes led directly to the death of his beloved but emotionally and psychologically challenged mother. 

His relationship with his mother was exceptionally close -- apparently, he was kept out of school so that he and his mother could play games and spend as much time together as possible, especially during the frequent absences of his father. Where his brother is during this period is unknown -- although it is clearly established in Star Trek: Generations and the TNG Episode "Family" that Picard has a brother, Robert, that brother does not appear in any of the STP flashbacks, nor is he mentioned (that I can recall).

Picard has long believed that his father was abusive of his mother but, through the flashbacks in STP, he has come to realize that his father was simply trying to keep his mother safe through her more traumatic, potentially self-harming episodes.

And, in "Hide and Seek", Picard recovers his own more traumatic memory -- finding his mother's body after she successfully committed suicide. He had buried this memory to bury his own guilt: as a young lad, Picard had let his mother out of her "safe room" just before she took her own life.

As a result, Picard has been unable to form true, deep, loving relationships with any of the many women in his long life who had loved, adored and even worshipped him.

Or at least that's what I think happened in episode 9, based on my first viewing of "Hide and Seek".

It doesn't feel right to criticize a story-line about such deep, important issues. So I will leave it with the following thoughts: why, in the 23rd/24th Century, would Jean Luc's father and mother not have sought professional help?

Approaches to mental illness and related mental health issues must have progressed over the course of the 300 years or so between now and TNG times -- in fact, in the TOS episode "Whom Gods Destroy", it is established that most forms of mental illness have been solved by the 23rd Century -- so why would JL's mother not have been provided proper treatment?

And, as an extension of that thought, why would young Jean Luc, who would have obviously have been traumatized by the death of his mother and his own discovery of her body, not have received immediate and ongoing support and therapy to deal with these events?

"Hide and Seek" is, at its heart, the story of the battle for Rios' ship, La Sirena. Borgati (the amalgamation of Dr. Jurati and the Borg Queen) is almost fully formed and, with the help of Dr. Soong, has gathered a small Borg army for the assault to take the ship.

The problem Borgati faces is that she has not quite won the battle for control of her own body. Jurati lurks somewhere in there still and, clever as she is, she is finding ways to thwart the Borg Queen's plans. I quite enjoy the scenes involving Annie Wersching (as the Borg Queen) and Alison Pill (as Jurati) -- they are tight, clear and well acted -- but I really do question both the idea that Jurati can somehow regain enough control to stop Borgati from taking action and the idea that, in one brief conversation, Jurati can convince the Borg Queen to change centuries-old Borg thought and philosophy.

And perhaps she has not succeeded in the latter effort -- we may find in Episode 10 that the Borg Queen was only agreeing in order to gain control of La Sirena.

Meanwhile, Jurati finds a way to get Elnor (Evan Evagora) back on screen, even if his presence becomes somewhat perplexing: he is a holograph and so cannot die, he was brought back specifically to defend La Sirena from the Borg army and yet he spends most of his time hiding from them rather than actively taking them on.

And the writers find a way to get Seven of Nine re-Borgified so that we can enjoy a discussion of what her true self really is: she was only fully human for a brief period so perhaps her part-Borg self is, in fact, her true self.

One nice touch that came through that story line, though: in the middle of the battle, Seven does get the chance to explain why she did not end up in Star Fleet at the end of Voyager's mission: when Voyager finally re-joined Star Fleet, anti-Borg animus was so strong that, despite Captain Janeway's best efforts, Seven was not permitted entry into Star Fleet.

"Hide and Seek" has its share of problems:

• the introduction of powers and technology that we have never seen before, just in time to solve a plot problem (see, for example, Jurati use of sadness to help her retain control of Borgati, or the surprising capabilities of Tallinn's transporter);
• the complete and perplexing absence of Q from the story;
• the constant interruption of what should have been an exciting action plot line by the personal subplots;
• the fact that a group of trained super soldiers from the 21st Century would 1) respond to Dr. Soong's summons and 2) would permit themselves to be assimilated one by one when they see exactly what the still-vulnerable Borgati does to the first couple;
• the fact that we establish exactly how many super soldiers stand between Picard and La Sirena but we see way more transporter beams depositing them in the vineyard;
• the fact that no one shoots Soong when he first exposes himself to them, or that the super soldier hesitates for at least 20 seconds before attempting to shoot Picard after Soong orders him to do so, giving Rios enough time to kiss his new girlfriend goodbye and beam in to save the day.

But it also has its strengths. The Jurati/Borg Queen stuff is interesting and fun to watch. Brent Spiner appears to be having the time of his life chewing the scenery as the unhinged Soong. And, whatever we think of the ways in which they manage to bring Elnor back, his action stuff is pretty awesome.

I wonder how what we have now learned about Picard's childhood will impact how we watch him TNG episodes and movies -- Picard was known for his constancy, his consistency, his foundational strength. All of that is now undermined... but to what effect?

And I still want to know where Robert and Q disappeared to in this episode.