I have to come clear. I absolutely despised the first two seasons of Star Trek: Picard. I consider them a vandalisation of everything I like about 'The Next Generation' and seeing my nostalgia being ripped to shreds page by page for reasons which I can only understand as complete malice really hurt.
Consequently, I was sceptical regarding the third season. I thought that there would be no way someone could 'fix it' and mend the wounds, and I was right. Fortunately, the writers here resisted any attempt at damage control and simply moved forward. Instead of hastily glueing the shreds back together they decided to add a new page to Star Trek culminating in this brilliant fourth episode.
Let's face it! Star Trek: The Next Generation had a fatal flaw. It was too unrealistic in showing human beings react to the rigors and tragedies of their lives as mandated by their duty as Star Fleet officers. By all accounts there should have been mental scars, trauma and a level of regret. They toyed a bit with Picard's Borg experiences but ST: TNG was our sci-fi 'happy place'. It never caused anything a good poker game among friends and a nice talk in 10-forward couldn't fix.
This season and this episode in particular face this flaw head-on without denigrating what fans liked about Star Trek in the first place. Our characters are fleshed out and flawed, yet hopeful and competent. They're not super-human in their resilience but find strength in eachother to overcome all odds.
I can only encourage people to watch this episode and I sincerely hope they can keep up this level of writing and story-telling.
A new page of Star Trek which makes me want to turn to the next one.