Living in the woods with Marina Sirtis and in your garden you’ve a stone wood-fired pizza oven? Living the dream, living the damn dream Riker, living the dream. Written by Chabon and Sam Humphrey, “Nepenthe” is the only writing credit for Samantha though as I keep having to mention, she’s another connection to the S.W.A.T. reboot. So is director Douglas Aarniokoski, mostly known as a second unit director with directing credits racking up for Arrow, The Flash, Short Treks, Charmed, all three seasons of Picard, and Discovery most recently.

With Picard and Soji fleeing the scene of the Borg Cube, leaving Elnor and Hugh behind, the two appear on a random planet called Nepenthe. Pronounced the same as the fictional Greek medicine for sorrow, νηπενθές, first found in Homer’s (not the yellow one) Odyssey. It just so happens there is an adorable blue-eyed kid with parents I’m supposed to know of. No one’s ever heard of William T Riker and Deanna Troi. I’ve heard of The Riker, where you swing your leg over the top of a chair to sit down, but this old man could never do that, surely?

Joking aside, I’ve realized why I liked “The Impossible Box” so much. We didn’t have long drawn-out “Previously on… things we should have shown in sequence!” Though, as you could guess, Commodore Oh was evil all along, she’s the one that told Agnes to go kill Brad and stop Jean-Luc. Hold my drink while I pretend to be shocked by this massive revelation that I knew four episodes ago, and didn’t care then either. It’s Alison Pill doing a naive crying character who does something evil, then feels bad about it so she’s given this idea of redemption via honesty rather quickly towards the end.

There isn’t much to say I’m afraid, when it comes to “Nepenthe.” The plot more or less is split into three or four parts: Jean-Luc, Riker, Troi, and Kestra trying to make Soji have hope, Agnes doing her heavily signposted turn-about-face, Rios and Raffi trying to shake Evil Spock’s pursuit, and Elnor’s defense of Hugh and future escape of the Borg Cube. It is really simple and stripped back. There’s one heavy action scene we’ll talk about, and the pacing finally feels like we’re going places. I’ve said it time and time again, but we had 5 episodes of slow pacing, and now it is straight into it.

Despite having much better pacing, I think Nerek and his pointy-eared sister are Saturday morning cartoon villains at this point. Between the firing squad trying to torture info out of Hugh and that fight scene where we get Elnor jumping around in a tumble drier, it is all to reinforce “Isn’t she scary and evil.” I hate to say it, but I don’t care. I get nothing from Peyton List’s performance of Rizzo, be it acting or writing. Sure she’s torturing/hunting Hugh but given how cynical Picard has been thus far, who genuinely thought he was going to survive?

“Nepenthe” is the episode to feed the nostalgia of those of us who didn’t (in wrestling terms) pop for the “Captain Picard Day” sign. However, that doesn’t stop me from seeing from several miles away how cynical and grand the whole “let’s re-write some of those Wikis” happens to be. Maybe if there were some character reason or better plot reason than Rizzo is trying to find Soji, I’d care, but the way it is done is that she’ll indiscriminately kill, murder, and every other synonym to get to Soji. Again, why do I care? Because Jean-Luc does? That’s not a great reason.

I cared more for Soji here as a result of Kestra’s excitement than Jean-Luc’s self-appointed duty. I’ve cared more because Deanna can sense something wrong, while still needing Soji to open up as a character. Jean-Luc has a reason, but it is a self-serving reason for the depiction. More or less, much like the show itself at this point, it is to recapture something that is almost lost. Fans want that warm feeling again, while Jean-Luc wants his sense of importance reestablished.

Reviewing something by effectively re-writing it isn’t a great idea. However, couldn’t we have done this same idea of a story in that Jean-Luc is recapturing his old days via archeology? It would have lent itself to the slower pacing and given us more of what Jean-Luc is known for now in this timeline. With this young woman at his doorstep and action ensues direction, it is sort of unfair to Patrick Stewart as it wants to throw him into the action but he’s about as frail as a digestive biscuit in warm tea. As an actor, he might feel otherwise, but the writing tries to put him anywhere but the center.

His big piece here in “Nepenthe” is being shoved by Soji as she storms off, even then he’s pushed into the waiting arms of Jonathan Frakes. Which isn’t a bad thing, I’m not saying Patrick needs to be flipping about like a wrestler coming out of their seventh retirement at 73. However, I think there is a separation between what is aimed for, a recapturing of Jean-Luc in the films and TV, and the reality, he can only really do TV Picard himself. Meanwhile, the story needs something of that action-heavier film Picard than his emotion-based TV counterpart.

As an episode, “Nepenthe” is great: Strong character work, nice pacing, progress through the story, quite interesting, and adds to some of the lore without being a massive info dump. My problem is with the larger plot at play, centering around an old man trying to stand up to the duty of his younger self. To quote the once great philosophers of 2007, Fuel, “don’t want to see | the way it is, as to how it used to be | leave the memories alone, don’t change a thing.”

I keep coming back to it, but for a story that is this late in the game and wants to be action-oriented, having an old man who could be knocked over with a strong gust of wind is distracting. As I say, it isn’t the episode itself but the story Chabon has slowly marched to this point. You have this hulking great figure of the franchise now a meek old man trying to save one last person, make one last grand gesture, and do the thing he’s known for. However, until these last two episodes, it hasn’t been about his strengths as a character.

You see it when we get that wordless embrace between Deanna and Jean-Luc, or when he speaks to Riker in the kitchen, you have these people who deeply care about each other. These people almost finish each other’s thoughts when it comes to problem-solving. Yet despite Raffi caring greatly for JL, I don’t think I’ve once thought that was reciprocated. The heart, the hope, the problem-solving, and the care that you expect from a Star Trek is here. The mystery was in “The Impossible Box,” and we’ve finally gotten the pieces falling into place… But we’re in seven stories/episodes out of nine.

I have complaints about the episode itself: How do you feel resistance from a holographic interface? When Rios is trying to fly the SS La Sirena away from the Borg Cube, he bangs his fist off of the interface and it makes the onomatopoeic sound of “dounk,” how? I’m a simple man, I need a scientific reason why something so stupid would happen. While I’m making reasonable requests based on my sanity, could be please stop throwing in swearing here, there, and F-ing everywhere? Any other show/franchise does it, but here it is needless to pretend the story is all grown up now.

Before I wrap up, I want to highlight Kestra actor Lulu Wilson. Usually, I hate younger people in these roles, either through writing the actor can’t fully grasp or just poor writing, there is typically something off. Everything Wilson does feels tonally correct, the emotion, the excitement, and anything in between. In an episode and in scenes with an RSC-trained actor like Patrick Stewart, alongside Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, she’s a shining beam of light for a series that’s been so cynical. Despite acting since 2012, I’ve deeply enjoyed her work more than Alison Pill’s.

Ultimately, “Nepenthe” (much like its idyllic namesake) is a beautiful showcase of what Star Trek does best. With heavy lumps of nostalgia and Saturday morning cartoon villainy, I’ve cared more for one of our series leads this episode than the previous six. Pill might be a low-light as she does something you’ve probably seen her do before, complete with needless swearing for a writer to pretend the show is for grown-ups. However, it hardly detracts from the overall quality of a delightful episode that instills hope as all good Star Trek should.

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Star Trek: Picard "Nepenthe"

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• An episode of pure heart and nostalgia.
• Kesta's excitement over Soji.
• It is great seeing Frakes and Sirtis again.

Cons

• Pill's tired character.
• Saturday morning cartoon villainy.