WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 2, "Penance," streaming now on Paramount+.
After enjoying a period of peace and taking their lives into new, interesting directions, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and his friends were confronted by the resurgent Borg Collective, with the seemingly resurrected Borg Queen at the helm. Just as Picard believed he endured certain death to prevent the Borg from assimilating Starfleet, he found himself face-to-face with his longtime frenemy Q in a new vision of reality with a decidedly more ominous edge than the home he briefly left behind, setting the stage for Star Trek: Picard Season 2.
As Picard acclimates to this twisted vision of reality, noticing Earth's climate is struggling, a more sinister Q confirms that he not only intervened but that his latest challenge to humanity uses Picard himself as its foundation. When Picard realizes that something has personally gone wrong with Q, the omnipotent being reacts harshly before touring Picard through his new home. He then reveals that Picard is this reality's most bloodthirsty, decorated officer in the Confederation of Earth, presenting him with a trophy room of all his fallen enemies. Q enigmatically implies this timeline serves as Picard's penance, and he will have to offer his forgiveness to someone to rectify things this time.
Seven of Nine awakens to learn that she has never been assimilated in this reality, making her body completely free of the Borg Collective's cybernetic implants. Seven is startled to discover that she is married in this world and has recently taken power as the President of the Confederation, personally overseeing an ongoing war for the conquest of Vulcan. Chris Rios is the in middle of the conflict, serving as a colonel for the Confederation and coming to his senses during a harrowing space battle against the Vulcan Defense Force. Realizing Rios has retained his memories of the past reality, Seven summons him to meet with her privately while they both maintain their cover.
In slums on Earth, Elnor finds himself among a group of insurgents carrying out terrorist attacks on major cities in reprisal for atrocities committed on different planets. Elnor is cornered by the military only to be rescued by Raffi Musiker, who also retains her memories of the prime reality and takes him in custody to spare him and maintain their ruse before the authorities. Seven and her husband meet with Agnes Jurati, who begins to recall her past life before she realizes she has been placed in charge of monitoring the captive Borg Queen. The Queen senses that the timeline has been tampered with, as Seven's husband grows suspicious of this and how the Queen addresses his wife.
Reuniting at the Confederation headquarters, Picard deduces that Q changed something in the past to cause this reality rather than creating a parallel dimension and, through a conversation with the Borg Queen, pinpoints this divergence to a single event in Los Angeles 2024. With time travel needed to restore the timeline, the group reluctantly admits they need the Queen to precisely calculate when to arrive in the past to stop Q. However, this plan is further complicated by the Queen set to be personally executed by Picard before an adoring public to mark the complete eradication of the Borg.
Jurati and Rios calculate a way to transport the Queen and the rest of the group directly to Rios' ship, interrupting the execution. As Jurati plugs the Queen into the ship's power source, the group is boarded by a Confederation strike force led by Seven's husband. Elnor is grievously wounded in the resulting skirmish, with everyone else held at gunpoint as Picard is proclaimed a traitor to the Confederation, threatening to end this mission to restore reality before it can even truly begin in earnest.
To see how Picard and crew get out of this conundrum, Star Trek: Picard releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.
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