The season one finale of Star Trek: Picard wrapped up a number of arcs, but as noted by our review, left a number of questions unanswered and created a few more of them. Some of these have already been answered on Instagram by season one showrunner Michael Chabon over the last few days. We have summarized some of the most salient ones, and grouped them by topic. Obviously, there are SPOILERS.

Implications of Picard becoming Picard 2.0

Is Picard bothered being in a synth body considering his past as an xB? Is the golem 100% organic?

He is as likely, perhaps more likely, to feel liberated by it, since it was never violated. And yes, his body was organically cultured and grown.

Will the show deal with the philosophical implications of Picard’s golemic return?

Will it, indeed.

Do you think there are bigger social ramifications for cheating death with a robot body?

Hell, yeah!

Does the new Picard (golem) retain Picard’s artificial heart?

Nope. They wrapped it in tissue and he’s taking it home to be a chew toy for Number One.

Did they maybe give Picard some extra years without telling him?

It’s just a guess, ultimately. His mileage may vary.

Was there any thought to showing Picard see his former body?

No, but interesting!

Can Soong build himself another golem?

Probably.

All about Data’s goodbye

Was Data “killed” when the simulation was deactivated or just put on pause?

He is gone. That is what he wanted.

Why wouldn’t Data to come back, like Picard did, at least for a while?

He was ready.

Why did Data age so rapidly when he died?

That is how he wanted it, how he always imagined it. Perhaps he even experienced the passage of many years in a few seconds.

Answers about Riker and the Federation fleet

Did Riker step down from the Titan? or wasn’t the [USS Zheng He] his ship at one point?

Remember he retired? Sick kid? Nepenthe? ZH is a brand new ship.

Do we know what class of ship the USS Zheng He is?

Curiosity class.

Why wasn’t Riker on the Titan?

Assuming that the Titan is still in service – probably a reasonable assumption – she’s nearly a decade in Riker’s rear-view, and he in hers. It’s off somewhere in the galaxy exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life, etc. This brand new Curiosity class was freshly crewed and ready to go.

Why only one class of Federation ship?

I believe but am working to confirm that there are actually four distinct classes.

Riker’s “flagship” wasn’t the Enterprise. Does this imply the end of Enterprise ships?

Of course not!

Why do Starfleet have so many of the same incredible ship? Do they have any others?

It would be odd and unprecedented if they didn’t.

Loose ends from the finale

What became of Narek?

Yeah. Narek. We know, we know. A casualty of the editorial process, alas. The intention was for him to be taken into Federation custody.

What about the xBs?

We shot a scene intended to show Ramdha and other xBs beginning to form a kind of community with the Synths under the auspices of Soong. In the end, we couldn’t find a place for it that worked and we felt that losing it didn’t hurt too much. Maybe we were wrong!

Was the end moment between Seven and Raffi romantic? Was there foreshadowing that I missed?

To both questions: apparently so!

How much time between Picard’s resurrection and the final scene?

Long enough for loose ends to be tied up, the xBs to be seen to and their safety arranged, Raffi and Seven to hook up, Jurati to hire a lawyer…

Details of Maddox’s plan and Soji

Why was Maddox on Freecloud in the first place? He said his lab was destroyed. Why the lie?

Freecloud was the launchpad for Dahj and Soji. That was where – in a lab financed by Bajayzl in exchange for some unspecified work he was doing for her – he reprogrammed them, and sent them on their respective missions.

Was it some part of Data in Dahj that sent her to find Picard in the first place?

No, that was programmed into her by Bruce Maddox as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency failsafe.

Did Soji grasp that she was summoning the genocide of billions?

I think she struggled to. Her true consciousness is new and unformed; while she is in some ways incredibly sophisticated, in others she has far to go,;’ and she has undergone recent, painful trauma.

On the intergalactic advanced synths behind the beacon

Would the advanced synths be concerned that the beacon was abruptly stopped?

Who even knows, after 200,000 years, if they’re still “advanced”? Maybe they’ve devolved.

Are the advanced synths only a threat if called via the beacon?

Are they a threat at all? Whose interpretation is right? Was anyone’s? What happens when we mistake our interpretation of facts for the facts themselves.

Any tidbits/insights from writers bible about the intergalactic synthetic life, their origins, etc.?

In the earliest drafts, they called their alliance the Alterity. I guess that is my headcanon now.

I’m interested to know what was coming out of the beacon. Was that discussed in depth?

No. We just went “Oh my god JZ [visual effects supervisor Jason Zimmerman], that is so freaking awesome!” Or do you mean like who are those guys, in the Butch and Sundance sense? Yes. We talked about that a lot. I made a bunch of notes. At various points there were going to be a lot of “the Alterity.” At other points, none.

Were the synths from the beacon inspired by cosmic horror?

There is for sure an eldritch non-Euclidian slither of the Old Ones in the vibe.

Are the evolved AI beings the same that altered a probe in Discovery?

If so, it’s news to me.

Are the robotic tentacles connected to the futuristic machine from Discovery?

Not insofar as I am aware.

The Romulan conspiracy and Section 31

How did the [Zhat Vash] hack into the androids at the [Utopia Planitia] Shipyards?

The head of Starfleet Security [Commodore Oh] was a Zhat Vash mole!

Is Oh indeed half Vulcan and half Romulan?

Yes. Her parents were reunificationists or so her Romulan mother wanted her to believe.

Which came first, the Admonition or the Sisters’ prophecy Narek spoke of? How are they connected?

The Admonition predates Romulan civilization by hundreds of centuries. If Romulans had not chanced upon it, their history would be very different. Their pre-existing mythology of Gamadan just gave them a framework for interpreting their experience of the Admonition.

How much does [Section 31] know about the Zhat Vash, and do they care?

Section 31 has always seemed like they have their heads too far up their own asses to be really useful, to me.

Season 2 plot possibilities

Will s2 go deeper into the Romulan rescue mission?

In a way.

Does Jurati get away scot-free for the Bruce Maddox murder? Seems like she was going to get arrested.

Well, I mean, in fairness she hasn’t had a chance to turn herself in, yet.

Will Jurati face legal punishment for the murder of Maddox?

She will put herself in the hands of the law.

Will there be push back by Federation citizens to the lift of the synth ban?

Of course, there will be some, but hopefully, the will to acknowledge their failure and make reparation will predominate most enlightened citizens.

What’s the Federation plan on doing about Oh? Surely Romulan government can’t go unpunished for that?

Why so punitive? The Federation is not Yahweh.

Can we hope for the [Seven/Raffi] relationship to be explored in S2?

Yes.

Season 2 cast and cameos

Will [Seven] stay on the crew next season?

I want to say yes, but people keep telling me not to. So no.

Is Seven part of the crew, now?

We don’t have a crew, per see; we have a cast of characters, an ensemble.

Will there be more of Laris in season two?

Surely.

Will the crew be picking up [Laris] and Zhaban in season two? We need more of those two!

We do, indeed!

Will we see cameos from TNG, DS9, and Voyager in season two? I would love to see Janeway!

I know, I know.

If you could bring two Deep Space 9 characters aboard the La Sirena which two and why?

I’d love to check in on Garek and Bashir, they’re always so much fun to hang out with.

Any chance of some more Andorians in season 2?

Who doesn’t love Andorians?

More random questions answered

It still feels too informal for Raffi to call Picard “JL,” where is the respect?

Adherence to strict military protocol in a non-military context feels like an awfully narrow, even hallow, definition of respect, no? Anyway, Raffi tends to “write her own contracts” with the people she cares about most.

Have you got a clue as to what will come next for the Star Trek films?

Yes, I have a clue.

Barring any setback due to COVID19, when does S2 tentatively start filming?

Pre-contagion, mid-2020.

The season finale of Star Trek: Picard arrived this week on CBS All Access. If you haven’t yet subscribed you can get a free month: CLICK HERE to try CBS All Access FREE for 1 month. Use code ALL to redeem.



New episodes of Star Trek: Picard are released on CBS All Access in the USA Thursdays at 12:01 AM PT/3:01 AM ET. In Canada it airs Thursdays on CTV Sci-Fi Channel at 6PM PT /9PM ET and streams on Crave. For the rest of the world it streams Fridays on Amazon Prime Video. Episodes are released weekly.

Keep up with all the Star Trek: Picard news at TrekMovie.