Mercy (episode)

Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

With time running out before the launch of the Europa Mission, Picard and Guinan must free themselves from FBI custody. Seven and Raffi come face-to-face with Jurati and the horror of what she's become.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

A boy with a flashlight runs screaming through the woods, before tripping and falling to the ground. When he looks up, two Vulcans are standing there, staring at him…

The scene shifts to an interrogation room, where Picard is staring somewhat worriedly at a bloodstain on the table; Guinan is looking almost bored. A buzzer sounds and the door opens, revealing their arresting officer from earlier in the day: FBI Special Agent Martin Wells. He assures them that it was just an "interview", not liking the word "interrogation". The first question he asks is whether Picard is an extraterrestrial life-form. Guinan starts laughing heartily at the idea, while Picard replies that he can quite honestly say that he is not. Wells begins writing in his notebook that at least their species has a sense of humor. Picard thinks the situation "absurd", saying they have cooperated and now want to leave. Wells replies that they can leave as soon as they tell him about their plans to sabotage the Europa Mission. Guinan calls Wells "buckets of crazy", thinking that their arrest and subsequent interrogation was "off the books"; they were in a basement room with broken file cabinets, and the security camera in the corner was not even plugged in. Wells admits that it was true, and in fact no one even knew they were there in the basement of the FBI field office, adding somewhat threateningly that things tended to disappear down there: Hopes, dreams… and as of that day, aliens.

Act One[]

Outside of Deacon's, where the owners are still clearing up the broken glass, Musiker reports to Rios that they tracked Jurati to that location. Rios is preparing to join them, but Musiker insists he stay with the CSS La Sirena. Rios is worried about a Borg Queen loose on the streets of 21st century Los Angeles, but Musiker tells him she knows how badly it can go if she is not found; in 2024, she believes people had trouble with revolving doors, and would never be able to handle a Borg Queen. Rios reminds her that Jurati was still in there somewhere too. Musiker tells him to check the ship's computer to make sure that the Jurati-Queen did not "Borgify" anything else, and find a way to contain "her majesty" when they find her. She then checks with Seven, who has detected abnormal life signs. Musiker suggests that Seven "Borg up" to find her, but without her cranial implants, Seven has no proximity transceiver, so can't detect exactly where Jurati is. Musiker clarifies and asks her to "analog" as the Queen, "loose with legs", to figure out where she would go. Seven pointedly says she doesn't know, as she is not Borg any more. When Musiker points out she goes by "Seven", she is offended, asking Musiker what that meant to her. Forstalling the argument, she goes over to the man clearing the glass from the sidewalk, asking about the window breaking. He asks if she is a police officer, and when she asks why he wouldn't want to talk to one, he replies that he sees what they do with "nutcases", admitting it was "not exactly delicate". Seven replies that's why they want to find Jurati before the police do, saying she was her "sister". The man recalls that Jurati left with a man with a big red beard; she went one way, he went another.

In the basement of the FBI field office, Picard tries to assure Wells that they wanted to see the Europa Mission succeed. Wells does not seem convinced, saying he has a "lady friend" in the city government who keep an eye on things for him, and happened to find an image of Picard "shimmering into existence" on a downtown street corner, and then found him again at the gala the previous evening, one of "six known trespassers" (showing pictures of the other members of La Sirena's crew) at that party. He asks himself why aliens would want to crash a party for a space mission. Guinan remarks that she's not getting "FBI's Top Interrogator" vibes, thinking Wells was not the kind of person the Bureau would send after supposed terrorists. Taking on a conversational tone, she asks what Wells thought made him the man for this particular job. Wells nonchalantly refers to himself as a "good old-fashioned dedicated civil servant", but Guinan points out his heavy work schedule, lack of sleep, coming in with wrinkled clothes and a large cup of coffee. She reminds him she was a bartender and had seen people like him before: this was not just part of his job, this was personal. Wells looks uncomfortable for just a moment, before looking to Picard, seeing the bruise on the back of his hand from an IV. Picard replies he was dehydrated; "after all, I'm only Human." Wells does not seem to buy it, as he stands and leaves. Alone, Picard is worried; if Wells thinks they were trying to sabotage the Europa Mission, Q wouldn't need to do anything to Renée; the authorities would simply scrub the launch, and Picard and his crew would have broken the future on their own.

Meanwhile, Kore Soong continues to review the video logs of her father, Adam, on her laptop computer, listening to the entry referring to her creation. She pulls a device from a nearby cabinet, a virtual reality headset called Aspectus, to recreate Soong's lab, asking what her father is hiding. "Patience, mon petit," a voice informs her, as the headset detects a "non-native code". She turns and sees Q standing on the stairs leading into the lab. When she demands to know who he is, he replies he is "a friend, a fire-starter", before explaining that he was a simulacrum left over when he hacked into Soong's computer system, waiting for Kore to arrive at that moment. He holds up a vial with her name on it, giving less-than-assuring condolences for the others who didn't make it, saying that she was the strongest of them. He brings the vial over to a nearby computer, and Kore recognizes the sequence of the Human genome. She asks if she was an experiment, and Q replies that indeed Soong created her, but locked her away… then offers her the key to her freedom. "Are you brave enough to use it?" he challenges her. Kore pulls the Aspectus headset off, letting everything sink in. Just then, her cell phone begins beeping: there was a delivery for her in the airlock. It is a gift box containing a vial of the cure, with the word "Freedom" written on a tag tied around it.

Continuing the search for Jurati, Seven remarks on how easy it had been to get the man at Deacon's to trust her, being able to read his face like a map, and thinking it small wonder she ends up being president of the Confederation in the dark future. Suddenly, they find the red-bearded man dead behind a dumpster, his throat slashed. Seven tries to assure Musiker that Jurati could still be in there, fighting the Queen's influence, but Musiker is pessimistic: if Jurati is fighting, she's clearly losing. Thinking back to Musiker's earlier question, Seven puts herself in the Queen's place, saying that she would want nothing but the connection to the Collective, admitting that once one had felt it, it was hard to think of anything except getting it back. She knows the Jurati-Queen has not been able to assimilate, so she tried to recreate the connection one-on-one, with the man from the bar. One-on-one connection wasn't enough, however, so the Queen killed the man in frustration for "what couldn't satisfy her". Musiker thinks this a "spot on" assessment, and Seven angrily turns on her, saying that it was not "impressive" that she could "access" the Queen, and thinks Musiker could be a little less happy she was "defective". She accuses Musiker of being manipulative, that "everyone has to be where Raffi wants them", and that the others could see that. Her attention is attracted by the man's cell phone, which is missing its battery, and asks what the battery would have been made out of. Returning to business, Musiker consults her tricorder, replying that a cell phone battery used lithium ions, a stabilizing metal. Seven is shaken, explaining that "stabilizing metals" were introduced to make those being assimilated into the Collective more receptive to nanoprobes. She still remembers the smell and taste of metal, even though she had been six years old when she was assimilated. Musiker worriedly asks if they will have to kill Jurati in order to stop the Queen.

Just then, a loud banging gets their attention, and they see Jurati, tearing through the batteries of the parked cars nearby. She spots them, and begins running at them. With the Queen's Borg strength on her side, she is able to overpower them both. As she is strangling Musiker, Jurati's inner voice fights against the Queen's control long enough for her to release her grip, leaving Musiker gasping on the pavement as Jurati walks away.

Act Two[]

Picard paces around the interrogation room, while Guinan continues to look bored. Then they hear the buzzer heralding the door, and turn to see Wells again. He remarks on how obsession remains obsession until it paid off and became diligence, remarking on the IV bruise on Picard's hand. He knew Picard wouldn't have gone to a hospital, which led him to think he had gone to a free clinic instead… before showing him a picture of Rios, who had been arrested during a raid by ICE. Rios had made a "completely innocuous statement" upon his arrest, and asks Picard to read it aloud. He does so: Rios had apparently said he was in a "primitive past" with a "ragtag group of misfits", including a "cybernetic queen" seeking to wipe out Humanity with her "old cohort" Picard, "a crusty old admiral" who is now a "flesh-and-blood robot". Wells asks him to circle back to the "wipe out Humanity" part, before saying he had the clinic searched… and found Rios' combadge, left behind when he was arrested by ICE. He calls in one of his fellow agents to take Guinan to another room, while he focuses in on Picard.

Back at La Sirena, Ricardo is clearly making the most of the idea of being on a spaceship. Rios shows him and his mother Teresa the replicator, which Ricardo asks to produce several slices of different kinds of cake. As Ricardo tries out the cake, Rios asks Teresa about their lives together. Teresa admits it to be "chaos", which will have its effects on Ricardo in his later life. She works all the time, and is often so tired she just lets Ricardo stay up and watch television, usually cooking shows. Her upbringing was different, "boundaried" and "reserved". She then asks about Rios; she would likely not see him again, and wants to remember something more than "all the times [she] saved [his] ass". Rios corrects her that they had saved each other. Teresa begins conversing in Spanish, asking him to imagine they were a married couple (to Rios' surprise) who wind up in a bar, telling each other their deepest secrets; she wants to know what Rios' most "fundamental truth" was before he flew away to his future. He begins to admit that he had fallen in love with her, before Ricardo interrupts, saying his stomach hurt from eating too much cake. Teresa jokingly blames Rios for that and rises to help her son, before suddenly turning around and kissing Rios.

At the FBI field office, Wells has now become hostile, shouting at Picard to tell him his intentions for the Europa Mission. He is clearly not convinced Picard is from Earth, and admits he knows he is "out-brained". However, he notes that all species have pain receptors, and he had filed the paperwork regarding the technology recovered in the clinic. Wells is adamant that talking to him was Picard's best bet before the "boys up the line" arrive, who would get their answers another way before cutting him up for scientific analysis and suppressing all knowledge of his existence. Those "boys up the line" were on their way, Wells warns, and to them, Picard was nothing more than "a pig in a jar".

In the next room, Guinan's senses are heightened when she realizes the FBI agent who has come to interrogate her is none other than Q, who is not pleased to see who it was who had attempted to summon him, before recalling that it was the 21st century and that he has not technically met her yet. Q chastises her for the summoning, which he calls a "sacred ritual", not intended for "bipeds" to exchange "nauseating minutiae". Guinan remembers when the ritual stalled, she felt a sense of emptiness and fear, but had thought at the time it was herself; with him in the room, she now realizes that feeling had come from Q himself, and realizes he is dying. Q contemptuously remarks on how he despised the El-Aurians' sense of empathy. Guinan had thought that, while Q were able to kill one another, they were functionally immortal. Q had thought so as well, but admits to feeling dread as he watches the "temporal horizon" darkening. He corrects her assertion of his "dying", believing instead he was on the threshold of the unknowable. When he had first felt it, he had thought it was a good thing, and was preparing to embrace the "warm glow of knowing", but had not felt even a glimmer of that as yet. He bitterly notes how dying stars glowed brighter as they raced towards extinction, while he himself seems to be disappearing into nothing; without his powers, it had taken him longer to arrive at that moment. Guinan asks if that was why he was here now, using Humans as his game pieces. He snaps his fingers several times in her face, admitting to "honestly trying to vaporize [her]" at that moment. Guinan persists, asking if what he was doing to Picard is his quest to find meaning in his life. Q concedes that now he has a lifetime, and wonders if a single act can change a lifetime. He denies bringing Picard to the past, as he had done that himself, and when Guinan points out that he was trapped there, Q rages that the trap itself was immaterial, it was the escape that counted. He leaves, saying he would see her when he saw her (unfortunately), before pointing out that Humans were all trapped in the past.

Act Three[]

Soong, looking tired and disheveled, walks into Kore's room and begins to explain about the previous evening, before Kore interrupts asking if all his talk of "fixing" her had been a lie, if she had never been meant to leave the house… like all the other failed experiments, all different names for the same girl, and all based on Persephone, daughter of Zeus, king of the gods. She demands that he explain the experiment, calling him "Dr. Soong" rather than "Dad". Soong admits that she was created through somatic nuclear cell transfer and gestated in a proprietary medium; when asked how many there had been before Kore, he replies that the first dozen had only lived several hours, the next few in days, and the one before Kore had almost survived four years. He had not expected Kore to live past age six, but when she had not only survived but thrived, he couldn't help but hope, and with hope came success. Kore asks if she was only "success" to him, not someone to love. Soong tries to say he does love her, but she stops him, saying that he only loved his work, not her. She had been told stories of a mother to keep her happy, but now screams at him that it wasn't real. Soong scoffs at the idea of "reality", calling it "a construct of simple-minded fools" who couldn't operate without boundaries, before menacingly saying Kore existed only because he willed it. He then tries to backtrack, saying that he did indeed love his work, but that didn't mean he didn't love her as well. Kore asks him what he would be more afraid of if she was able to leave of her own free will: losing her, or losing his legacy? She leaves the sterile confines of her room and walks outside, removing her sandals to step barefoot onto the grass. Soong runs after her to stop her, and is shocked to see her standing outside without any clear painful effects from her genetic illness. She holds up the vial Q gave her, with its tag of "freedom" – freedom from Soong. Soong venomously tells her she doesn't exist without him, but Kore warns him that if he follows her, she will call the police… before asking if it wasn't actually Soong who couldn't exist without her. As she walks away from him, Soong stands frozen in rage, both at Kore's defiance and who he realizes must have given her the cure.

Meanwhile, Musiker and Seven are recovering from the Jurati-Queen's attack; Musiker insists she is alright, but stops to catch her breath after only a few steps, admitting she was "almost" alright. Musiker knows that the Queen could have easily killed her, as does Seven, who knows mercy was not a Borg quality. However, Musiker points out it was a Jurati quality, which meant she was still in there somewhere. Now they had to figure out the Queen's plan; the metals the Queen has introduced to Jurati's body from the batteries will allow her to assimilate, but imperfect metals could lead to imperfect assimilation, leading Seven to think it was merely a short-term solution. Seven has no idea what, since plans require resources, but she has no technology. Musiker asks about the cell phone from the man the Jurati-Queen had killed, if perhaps it could be used to track her. Musiker thinks back to what Seven said about her manipulating people, and admits that she does, thinking back to a conversation she had with Elnor aboard the actual La Sirena just before he left for Starfleet Academy. Elnor points out that it was contradictory to be in need of Seven staying on Earth while also fixing her ship so she could leave. He can see she wishes to appear "less wanting", but is actually transparent in her feelings. Musiker shushes him, saying this was supposed to be a lesson on deflector shield mechanics so he did not fail the basic tactical engineering class, one he would need to become a security officer. Elnor admits he would make a bad security officer, as being covert was not his style, preferring honesty instead. Musiker assures him she would help with all his classes, but is stopped short when Elnor reveals he was contacted by Zani, who tells him he was needed back on Vashti, and thinks about delaying his studies for a year while he repays his debt to the Qowat Milat. Back in the present situation, Musiker admits to Seven that she was the reason Elnor stayed at the Academy, and then he died in her arms during their escape from the alternate Earth. Just then, the tricorder finishes accessing the broken phone, finding its search history. When Musiker asks what the Jurati-Queen could be after at the location she found, Seven grimly replies she could get whatever she wanted.

Back at his home, Soong is drowning his pain in alcohol when he hears the door open. Looking up the stairs, thinking it might be Kore, his expression becomes one of shock as he sees the Jurati-Queen, who assumes that a lecture on the futility of resistance would be unnecessary. Soong asks if he was dreaming, or if it was a nightmare. "Ultimately," she replies, "that's up to you."

Back in the interrogation room, Wells continues to ask Picard about why he was at the Europa gala, when the lights begin to flicker. Picard is able to see Guinan projecting herself in his mind from the next room, saying that "all Humans are stuck in the past", her eyes in the projection glancing at Wells. Picard realizes what she's saying, and turns the tables on the FBI agent, saying that he knows a haunted man when he sees one, knowing about the things they hold onto, the "pieces of emotional shrapnel" they held onto for their lives… before asking what it was for Wells. "What is your moment?" he asks. "What am I to you?" Picard proposes an exchange of truth. Wells admits that he has waited his whole life to meet someone like Picard, a "thing in the night", a "monster in the dark". Wells recalls an incident from his childhood; he was the boy in the woods, looking for his dog Maggie, when he came across a Vulcan survey team. The young Wells fled before tripping. When he looked up, the Vulcans had caught up to him. The male Vulcan put his hand on his face, and Wells thought he was going to "pull [his] eyeballs out", he could feel something going through his skin… and then they vanished in front of him, similarly to how Picard had appeared outside Guinan's bar. Asking how Wells was gripped, Picard demonstrates the correct positioning of the fingers and explains that the Vulcan was trying to initiate a mind meld to erase any memory of the young Wells ever seeing him or his colleague so he would not be affected later in life, but had been transported away before he could finish the task. Picard now admits his own truth: He is indeed Human, but from the 25th century, and had come back in time to save Earth, indeed the whole galaxy. To do so, however, Picard admits that he will need Wells' help.

Act Four[]

Back at La Sirena, Rios is trying to bring the transporter back online. Ricardo, who had just touched one of the controls, asks if he broke it when the computer reports the transporter was offline. Rios assures him he hadn't, but "someone else" had, before telling him to go find his mother; he would be there shortly. He then contacts Musiker, saying they had "big problems", and asks if Picard was still missing.

Guinan, now back in the room with Picard, says that Q had come to her, talking about not just Picard, but all Humans, and what was special about them. Picard thinks it's their inability to escape the past, but Guinan believes the opposite: that when something was broken inside them, it stayed with them. They lived in the past until they could reconcile themselves to it, even if it was painful. They do all the work because they want to evolve, something Guinan admits to having forgotten how unique it was in the galaxy. Picard asks if she had any idea what Q meant when he said it was about the escape rather than the trap, but Q had seemed crazy to Guinan, not to mention the idea of him dying. He asks how long before the launch, but Guinan points out she was sensitive to the space-time continuum, not a clock. The door opens again to herald Wells, holding his possessions in a box. He has been fired by the FBI as "the man who cried alien", as he hands Picard the combadge. Picard wonders about the paperwork filed, but Wells confesses he lied about that, saying that if he had given proof, he would have been sidelined and Picard and Guinan handed over to the military. Wells had wanted to be the one who proved it, or at least he had thought he did. Wells thinks it was a waste of a life, but Guinan reassures him, admitting that she is indeed not from Earth, and that her people believed in an ebb and flow to things, how their destinies could run both apart and together, and that time was not what they thought it was. Some moments were meant to happen, even at great cost. Perhaps, Guinan suggests, Wells was meant to be the boy who encountered non-Human life, so he could be the man in the present, letting them go. Wells concedes it was something to think about, as he opens the door… and holds it open for them to leave. Guinan admits to Picard that she almost can't wait to meet him properly, and Picard replies in French that he felt the same, as they depart.

Adam Soong and Agnes Jurati as Borg Queen — "*Who else has more to gain or lose right now than Adam Soong?*"
"*Nothing more to lose, I'm afraid.*"

Back in Soong's lab, the Jurati-Queen accesses the network, commenting on the lack of speed of the "primitive satellites". She reveals to Soong that he is quite famous in the version of the future she comes from, asking who else had more to gain or lose than he did. Soong ruefully replies that he had nothing left to lose now, as Q had taken everything from him. The Jurati-Queen explains that he is at a fork in the proverbial road, with two futures. In one, he brings Humanity back from the edge of extinction, and will be called the "father of the future", with statues in capitol cities all over Earth. In the other, he dies alone, no glory, "forgotten in a pool of [his] own 90-proof vomit". Soong asks how he can guarantee the "other path", the Jurati-Queen explains that either Renée Picard goes on a mission that renders Soong's work obsolete… or she doesn't. If she doesn't, she explains, Earth will be in ecological freefall, and they will turn to Soong to save them: "You lose a daughter, but become godfather to a world." She asks if he has any "moral tethers" to speak of. Soong assures her he can get them into Mission Control. First, however, the Jurati-Queen explains there is an obstacle standing in his way, and hers as well: Picard. When asked what she needs of him, the Jurati-Queen replies that he has access to "raw materials".

Reunited at 10 Forward Avenue, Musiker and Seven explain to Picard that the Jurati-Queen has taken control of La Sirena's transporter, and has joined forces with Soong. Picard realizes that the only reason she would do that was to take the ship itself, which Seven points out would give her a four-hundred-year jumpstart to assimilating the entire galaxy. To get back, Picard suggests using Tallinn's transporter. As they leave, Guinan wishes Picard luck. Guinan and Picard share a warm goodbye before leaving. As they walk out of the bar, Seven warns Picard that the Jurati-Queen will be able to assimilate people; when she comes for La Sirena, she will not be alone.

As to confirm this, Soong is on the phone with a general, who has provided ex-Special Forces with Spearhead Operations for his use. A closeup shot of Jurati's finger reveals the valleys of her fingerprint to be teeming with nanoprobes. When one of the mercenaries asks what Soong wanted with them, the Jurati-Queen approaches him, assuring him "it" would only sting for a moment, as she touches his face, introducing nanoprobes. Soong watches in shock as the nanoprobes take control of the man. "Who's in the mood to add a little of their biological and technological distinctiveness to our own?" the Jurati-Queen mockingly asks.

Memorable quotes[]

"It's 2024. People have trouble with revolving doors. They can't handle a Borg Queen."

- Musiker

"You must be Q. Took your damn time."
"And you are that multicelled, sanctimonious, droning shrew known as Guinan. Right, it's the 21st century. Our paths have yet to cross."

- Guinan and Q

"You're dying."
"Another quality I sincerely loathe about your species. Empathy."

- Guinan and Q

"I assume a lecture on the futility of resistance is not going to be necessary?"
"Am I dreaming? Or is this a nightmare?"
"Ultimately… that's up to you."

- Jurati, possessed by the Borg Queen, introduces herself to Adam Soong

"I know a haunted man when I see one. The things we hold onto. The pieces of emotional shrapnel that drive us all our lives."

- Picard, to Wells

"And now, for my truth. I am Human but I am from the future, the 25th century to be precise. And I am here to save Earth. To save the entire galaxy, in fact. But to do so, it seems… I need your help."

- Picard, revealing the truth to Wells

Background information[]

Production[]

14 April 2022: Title publicly revealed in TRR: "Monsters".

Continuity[]

Seven of Nine recalls being assimilated at the age of six, which was previously noted in VOY: "The Gift" and "Once Upon a Time". This, combined with the Borg Queen's statement in "Penance" that Annika Hansen was assimilated in 2350, finally reveals that Seven was born in 2344, and is 57 years old.
The graffiti seen on the parking lot were the Borg Queen attacks Seven and Raffi refers to the Gimmies and the Gaullists, which were mentioned in DS9: "Past Tense, Part I" and "Past Tense, Part II".
In ENT: "Carbon Creek", T'Mir offered to arrange for Mestral to visit Earth again on the next survey ship, as an alternative to his decision to stay on the planet, after being marooned there for over a year during the late 1950s. He noted such an event wouldn't be for "another twenty years," likely during the late 1970s, "running more statistical scans from high orbit…". The approximate date for the events depicting Wells' encounter with the Vulcans, may have been during said or similar mission.
Q notes that he and Guinan had not yet crossed paths in the 21st century; TNG: "Q Who" established that their first run-in (and their subsequent animosity) dated from the 22nd century.
The assistant director of the Los Angeles field office of the FBI was named Alvin Kersh, this according to the name written in the FBI file about Jean-Luc Picard. [1] Alvin Kersh was also the name of the fictional assistant, and later, deputy director of the FBI in the series The X-Files.
- The same FBI file establishes that Picard is 5'10" tall, weighs 170 lbs, and has white hair and black eyes.

Links and references[]

Starring[]

With

Santiago Cabrera as Cristóbal Rios

And

Brent Spiner as Adam Soong

Special guest star[]

John de Lancie as Q

Guest starring[]

Co-starring[]

Kay Bess as La Sirena Computer
Jackson Garner as Young Wells (flashback)
Steve Gutierrez as Ricardo
Nanrisa Lee as FBI Agent
Charles Maceo as Merc One
Eduardo Roman as Vulcan #1 (flashback)
Chuti Tiu as Vulcan #2 (flashback)
Oscar Torre as Bartender
Cyrus Zoghi as Red Bearded Guy

Uncredited co-stars[]

Vanessa Cater as Mercenary
Jeff Wolfe as Mercenary

Stunt doubles[]

Katelyn Brooke as stunt double for Jeri Ryan
Teniece Divya Johnson as stunt double for Michelle Hurd
Athena Perample as stunt double for Allison Pill

Stand-ins[]

Margot Muraszkiewicz as stand-in for Jeri Ryan
Thadeus Welch as stand-in for Patrick Stewart

Previous episode:
"Monsters"

Star Trek: Picard
Season 2

Next episode:
"Hide and Seek"