Making it to the synth homeworld, it seems that the mission will end in failure in sight of the end goal.
That is until the reactivated Borg cube arrives to save the La Sirena from Narek’s attacks.
Et in Arcadia Ego raises the stakes, places Picard firmly planetside and reveals more about the synthetic colony established in secret.
The trip to the Borg cube to see if Elnor and Hugh survived does allow us to see the swordsman and Seven partnered up to save the remaining XB’s and provides Jean-Luc with a chance to say goodbye to the nearest approximation to a son that he’s had since the death of Data in Nemesis.
It’s never felt as though this relationship ever really formed nor did we ever get to see Elnor truly at Picard’s side as his bodyguard. Most of his time has been spent on the Artifact away from La Sirena and even then Elnor has never truly evolved as a character and his presence has been sidelined in the few episodes in which he has appeared.
The bulk of the episode rightly focuses on the arrival of Soji back at the synth community. With the added element of trekking across to the crashed cube, I was almost exhausted and frustrated when we finally arrived because the episode felt like we were delaying the inevitable. I understand we needed to know what happened to anyone aboard the Artifact but it did slow the pacing of the episode down.
So let's discuss these androids. My god, they seem to have developed a fashion sense off the back of The Original Series with lots of free-flowing fabric but what is quite unsettling and I would think intentionally so, is the choice to have them all gold skinned with distinct yellow eyes a la Data. Their skin tone is much more pronounced and makes them an eerie set of creations. The sister of Janna (whom Rios encountered on the USS ibn Majid is still there, looking like a much more artificial version of Soji.
But these synths have a bigger plan to contact an ancient cybernetic race and bring an end to the rule of the organics. Et in Arcadia Ego does plant a lot of set up in it's first part from the golem to the plight of the synths from the approaching 250 strong Romulan fleet. To be fair by the end of the first part you're not really sure who you should be rooting for - is it the synths who are threatened with extinction or should you be with the Romulans who, for all intents and purposes, are just looking to secure the future of organic life in the universe?
The belief that Jurati and Soji are both swift to change allegiances does to push your ability to believe a little although given their recent past it does seem understandable but the synths do have a tendancy to seem, with the possible exception of Soji-twin Sutra, to be wishy-washy at best with no real oomph behind them apart from the beliefs and drive of Altan Soong and to a minor extent, Jurati.
The other problem is that the synths of Coppelius don't really play a huge part in the conclusion, Aside from a few reactive shots, most of the action around their enclosure in Part II focuses on Soji activating the beacon which will draw an ancient race to their location. It's not quite on a par with Veridian IV from Generations where we never even saw a native but they do get ridiculously sidelined especially Sutra who is responsible for Narek's escape from confinement.
But that's not the heart of the conclusion to the season and actually, if I'm brutally honest here, the lack of golden androids doesn't take away from what I might controversially call the greatest episode of Star Trek for about 20 years.
This episode is full of emotional highs and lows, a true cliched roller-coaster of an episode that brings the Romulan navy and Starfleet face to face once more although a firefight (for the second time in the episode) is avoided.
Picard's neurological condition has played a big part since his departure from Earth and here it really comes to the fore leading to an unexpected moment of drama to which you know there has to be a get out clause. Perhaps this is actually the issue with Et in Arcadia Ergo, because for the first 30 minutes of the story there's a lot going on at breakneck speed. Narek teams up with the La Sirena crew, Seven takes on the Zhat Vash skills of Narissa (although she seems to give less of a fight than she did with Elnor disappointingly) and Picard is freed by Jurati with the pair of them flying Rios' ship against the Romulan warbirds.
It's a lot to take in but that piece of the season does end satisfyingly not without the help of an acting, familiar, starship captain and his own fleet of Arbiter Class vessels. While it's not clear if Acting Captain Riker (on a redress of the Discovery bridge) is in command of this fleet, it did raise a few questions for me - how come there's suddenly a huge and super-advanced Starfleet when it's been suggested that all is not well after the Mars attacks and surely they would have managed more than one design? This does feel a bit lazy from the designers but at least we've had one new starship design this season huh?!
My next couple of sentences are huge spoilers but there's no way to review this without doing so. There's the warning now...
Killing Jean-Luc Picard felt inevitable from the moment we heard he was developing a terminal condition although I was counting on it being something that would be stretched across a season or two with that being the ultimate endgame. I wasn't right and I should have taken the golem much more strongly into consideration for the admiral.
Being mentally scanned and saved, Picard gets to meet Data once more in a quantum simulation. This is the neuron that Maddox took from B-4 and from which he in turn spawned Dahj and Soji to uncover the real story behind the ban on synthetic life.
In what has to be one of the most moving and well written pieces of this new Star Trek era, Picard and Data have closure, a time to say goodbye and lay everything to rest. Indeed, Picard admits that he has been unable to get over that very event since the day it happened and now Data can also have his peace requesting that his consciousness be terminated.
Flicking back to the dream sequence of Data and Picard in the vineyard, we realise that we have come full circle and it might be that the father/son tale here has been the stronger thread running along all the time. We successfully avoid Data coming back to life while also simultaneously celebrating the rebirth of Picard who keeps his promise to a very old friend.
The punch of this second half hour is incredible. Just to see "proper" Data and Picard in conversation once more is seriously emotional because there is such a strong whiff of finality. Capping it off wth Isa Briones' version of Blue Skies truly brings us back to Remembrance and to see Data pass visually of old age is a nod to his desire to become human. While Nemesis ended the story, Et in Arcadio Ego has provided a coda to the narrative and feels more satisfyingly conclusive than the last The Next Generation movie. Picard's demons too and his health problems are now cast aside by the end of the episode as the crew come together to head out and explore the galaxy; 20 years of regret are done with.
How Commodore/General Oh managing to escape scott free didn't sit too well with me - she must know a vast amount of Starfleet secrets and seems to have been able to just walk ut and also return to the Empire following her defeat over Coppelius. We also didn't really have a firm conclusion on what became of Narek and it's certainly annoying not to have a full conclusion but I suspect they might just pop up again in the future seasons of Picard.
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