'Star Trek: Picard' Season 1 Episode 6 Review: Narek pushes Soji to deal with her unexplainable memories
Spoiler alert for Season 1 of 'Star Trek: Picard' Episode 6 'The Impossible Box'
This episode finally feels like what 'Star Trek: Picard' has been trying to be from the start. It's pacing, its story and its performances all move the story along, with important reveals, subtler character moments, and character interactions that build on established 'Star Trek' history beyond just referencing it. 'Star Trek: Picard' started off as promising and with all its pieces now in place, we're getting to see what this show can really be.
Soji (Isa Briones) might have the memories of a fully grown adult, but she's not much older than 3 years. Pushed, and needled by Narek (Harry Treadaway), who is forcing her to face the logical inconsistences of her existence, the cognitive dissonance between what is and what isn't has been pushing her to the breaking point. She's finally pushed through, all the way, into realizing that she's not real - just in time for Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to help her escape.
While the chemistry between Narek and Soji has been largely flat, their interactions work a lot better now that Narek's motivations are more clear. Being able to see what Narek has been angling for instantly makes every scene between the two of them that much more interesting. Narek's plan to extract information from Soji has actually been quite a clever one, but it's been boring to watch without knowing what was he doing - and in the final moments of his betrayal, the sadness he feels that Soji wasn't ever real adds real pathos to the relationship.
Picard's crew, while not being a large part of this episode, also feel like they've gotten comfortable with their roles, and they're dynamic. They're engaging, amusing, and though they were thrown together, they look like they could grow into a crew as tight-knit as any Starfleet unit, and while it's a shame that one of them is a traitor, it makes for much more interesting storytelling. The scene with Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) and Cristóbal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) let Jurati show some hauntingly naked despair on her face.
Picard himself has a surprising amount of fear for the Borg. Despite the years that have passed since his recovery, being back on a Borg cube has him very prominently off-balance, and you can almost feel the relief flooding into him at the sight of a friendly face when Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) shows up.
All the plot threads that 'Star Trek: Picard' has been weaving finally come together, and it adds a lot of weight, and urgency to the show. While the pilot episode was a strong start, it feels like the show has been meandering a bit to get to this point. Now that it's finally here, 'The Impossible Box' is one of the season's strongest episodes yet, and it's exciting again to see where it might be going next.
The next episode of 'Star Trek: Picard' airs March 5, on CBS All Access.
