'Star Trek: Picard' Season 1 Episode 8 didn't do any justice to Michelle Hurd's Raffi Musiker
It cannot be stressed enough that 'Star Trek: Picard' runs on the themes of brokenness, distrust, betrayal and dystopia. These emotions are wonderfully fleshed out in the main characters, specifically Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Soji (Isa Briones) and Seven Of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Seven has appeared in exactly two episodes of the series till now, but she knows how to captivate her audience with her haunted eyes and distraught appearance. Her wounds are unhealed, just like the rest of the characters on the show. Everyone is nursing unseen injuries.
That's the beauty of 'Star Trek: Picard'. It shows that strange peace in brokenness, and the journey towards grudging acceptance. In the latest episode titled 'Broken Pieces', Rios got an emotional story arc to himself, and Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) played therapist to him.
However, this is where the show falls short: It does grave injustice to Michelle Hurd's Raffi, both to the character and the actor. There hasn't been much to work with. While the fleshing out of the female characters on the show can still be a question of debate and question, they still have a stronger presence than Raffi. For the past few episodes, Raffi has been well... to put it rather bluntly, a pale disappointment.
After that emotional scene where her son doesn't want to even look at her, she has been crying and moping over her son with the help of alcohol, or serving the plot of the men on the show. Perhaps her more significant contribution is that she realized that Jurati was playing double games. But apart from that, it's hard to feel more invested in this character. Raffi's career was cut short unceremoniously, as Picard resigned. And after that, Raffi, like Picard, chose to shut herself off as well away from the world of Starfleet.
In the latest episode, Raffi is counseling Rios, who somehow got a rather forced backstory pretty late in the show. She goes investigating each and every hologram to piece a mystery together, which seems rather baffling, and quite annoying to an extent.
In what one can glean from the show, Raffi is an intriguing character and deserves more screen time, and more importantly, a distinctive personality, rather than just fading into the background as per the convenience of the show.
It wouldn't be a complete waste to see Raffi own each scene she is in, now would it?
'Star Trek: Picard' airs on CBS-All Access at 12:01 am.