WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 4, “Watcher,” streaming now on Paramount+.
With Jean-Luc Picard leading his friends back to Los Angeles in the year 2024 to restore the timeline from the omnipotent Q’s tampering with history, the impromptu team finds themselves separated when they’re needed to be together the most. Chris Rios has been apprehended by federal authorities under suspicion of being an illegal immigrant while Raffi Musiker and Seven of Nine have located a mysterious being known as the Watcher that could undo Q’s changes. And as the team scrambles to save their future, the Borg Queen has taken an unhealthy interest in Agnes Jurati as the two work together against the common threat.
As Picard and Jurati try to receive updates from the landing party, they decide to exit La Sirena, which is revealed to have crashed at the Picard family vineyard which has been abandoned at this point in history. Picard explains that the family fled the vineyard to seek shelter in England for generations as France was occupied during World War II — before recalling a childhood memory of his mother comforting him with Edith Piaf’s music. Jurati begins to display subconscious behavior traits, with Picard deducing they’re driven by Jurati’s connection to the Borg Queen… providing a clue that they only have three days until Q’s changes to the timeline are made.
Picard travels to Los Angeles based on coordinates to the Watcher where he reunites with Guinan at her bar The Ten Forward, finding the younger version of the character from this timeline doesn’t recognize him while she’s closing up shop. Guinan immediately becomes defensive when Picard refers to her as an El-Aurian, though he manages to talk her down after he mentions he’s searching for a Watcher. Guinan reveals she’s leaving because humanity has doomed itself by turning against itself but hears out Picard as he repeats what her future self told him, triggering a temporal sickness unique to El-Aurians.
Finding local law enforcement unhelpful, Raffi hacks into a cop car’s systems to pinpoint Rios’ location, discovering he is being detained at an ICE processing center. As Seven commandeers the car to stage a rescue mission, Jurati reluctantly turns to the Queen to repair La Sirena’s tranporter systems to safely whisk the landing party back to the ship. Jurati notes that their time linked together meant she realized just how utterly alone the Queen is, Jurati agrees to interface with her again in exchange for the Borg’s assistance. The repairs are made just in time for Jurati to beam Raffi and Seven back to La Sirena when they are pursued by the Los Angeles Police Department for stealing the patrol car.
After Picard explains his mission and background to Guinan, the El-Aurian admits she isn’t the Watcher that he is searching for to restore the timeline. Guinan introduces Picard to an avatar serving the Watcher, with Guinan clearly in poor standing with the Watcher and forced to leave — as she departs, Picard urges his friend to keep her faith in humanity’s worth and capacity to change. Picard is escorted by a set of the Watcher’s avatars, with the being possessing a series of humans to keep him on his toes.
Picard is led to the heart of a park to meet the Watcher, but instead he’s greeted by a vision of his old Romulan friend Laris, who teleports him away to parts unknown. As Picard continues with his restorative mission, Q embarks on his own to tamper with the timeline, observing a young woman reading a novel. Revealing he will act on her doubts to presumably change her destiny, Q finds that his omnipotent powers are beginning to fail him, which leads him to realize that his own time-travel expedition unpredictably is going off the rails.
Created by Akiva Goldsman, Michael Chabon, Kirsten Beyer and Alex Kurtzman, Star Trek: Picard releases new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.
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