'Star Trek: Picard' Episode 3 Preview: Picard assembles a crew for his mission to find Bruce Maddox
Retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) might not have much time left, but he's determined to make the most of it. In the second episode of 'Star Trek: Picard', we got to see the 2385 Synthetic attack on Mars that led to the Federation's ban on androids, as well as Picard reconnecting with his First Officer, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). She was not exactly jumping with joy at his visit, but he won her over finally.
The episode has quite a few stressful moments as a doctor tells Picard that he might be staring at a mental decline in his future. It's also revealed that Starfleet has been compromised and there is danger lurking within the Federation in the form of Tal Shiar Romulan spies. In the third episode, we will get to see Jean-Luc talking to Raffi and we probably will learn more about their exploits and why they both chose to leave Starfleet. Soji (Isa Briones) grows closer to Narek, who has ulterior motives for being with her.
The official synopsis for the episode reads, "Completely unaware of her special nature, Soji continues her work and captures the attention of the Borg cube research project’s executive director. After rehashing past events with a reluctant Raffi, Picard seeks others willing to join his search for Bruce Maddox, including pilot and former Starfleet officer Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera)."
Picard's attempts to reach out and talk to the crew stands in stark contrast to the way we saw him first. At the beginning of the series we see a very different Picard. He's estranged from the Federation and intergalactic missions and is far away in the vineyards of France. He chose to steer clear of Starfleet after they decided to abandon the Romulans during the supernova, in the wake of the synthetic insurrection that took place. In Episode 2 - 'Maps and Legends' - we got to see the attack itself. The attack happened on First Contact Day - a day when most of the employees were on holiday, with only a handful of members to supervise the work of the synthetic beings. And now we slowly get to see the former captain come back to form.
'Star Trek: Picard' airs on Thursdays on CBS All Access at 12:01 am.