“Mercy” is the eighth episode of the second season of the TV show “Star Trek: Picard” and follows “Monsters“. It’s available in the USA on the Paramount+ streaming platform and in many other countries on Amazon Prime Video.
Note. This article contains some spoilers about “Mercy”.
Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Guinan (Ito Aghayere) find themselves in the awkward situation of having to answer questions from Agent Martin Welles (Jay Karnes), who seems to have a lot of information about them and the rest of La Sirena’s crew. Kore Soong (Isa Briones) receives unexpected help in her search for the truth about her origin.
The first season of “Star Trek: Picard” suffered from a pace that varied a lot between episodes while in the second season the problem seems to be a slowdown when the various subplots are supposed to proceed full throttle. The result is that there are still several scenes that feel like fillers while themes with a lot of potential are developed superficially.
We must hope that agent Martin Welles will have a significant role in the season finale, otherwise, the only point of his appearance will remain in yet another mention that came from the flashback from his childhood when he meets the Vulcans shipwrecked on Earth. On the plus side, they didn’t come up with a sister kidnapped by aliens with a story that gets more convoluted each time it’s mentioned.
The subplot involving the Soong family had enormous potential linked to ethical and moral issues, which, at least in the past, used to be among Star Trek’s pillars. At this point, it seems to have been wasted in the mundane story of a scientist willing to do anything to get the results he wants and easily manipulated with promises of greatness.
In my opinion, some moments between 7 of 9 (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) are OK because they’re a sort of exploration of their personalities and their relationship. 7 of 9 without Borg implants is literally another person, and this brings a further evolution that adds to the one she had living for many years as an individual. Instead, I don’t even want to start talking about the romantic interlude on La Sirena, which I find totally dull.
At the end of “Mercy”, it’s positive that Q (John de Lancie) made explicit what has long been obvious about him and that the Borg Queen’s plans made considerable progress. There’s not much time left now to add more plot pieces of dubious usefulness, so we will soon know if they managed to create a season finale that regains strength.
