WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 4, “No Win Scenario.”The benevolent Borg offshoot introduced in Star Trek: Picard season 2 will not return in season 3, though the faction could still figure into future Star Trek projects. With the USS Titan-A seemingly doomed to a slow death at the beginning of the Picard season 3 episode “No Win Scenario,” Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) attempts to get to know his newly revealed adult son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), a bit better before it’s too late. Jack is initially reluctant to attempt to form a bond with Picard, though he ultimately concedes.
Captain Liam Shaw (Todd Stashwick), still recovering from his injuries following a Shrike attack, interrupted Picard and Jack’s bonding time in the Titan holodeck’s recreation of 10 Forward. Shaw quickly ends the warm feelings between Picard and Jack as he recounts his harrowing experience at the battle of Wolf 359, where dozens of Starfleet vessels were destroyed by a Borg cube led by Locutus, who was the assimilated Picard. Shaw briefly mentions the Borg offshoot introduced in Star Trek: Picard season 2, noting that they exist alongside the original, more malevolent Borg, which he called the “real” Borg, not that “weird s*** on the Stargazer.”
Picard Season 3’s Stargazer Borg Vs. “Real” Borg Explained
In Star Trek: Picard season 2, Jean-Luc and the crew of La Sirena were forced to travel back in time to reset the timeline, which was altered by Picard’s old nemesis Q (John de Lancie). They enlisted the help of an alternate reality Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) to travel back in time to the 21st century. The Borg Queen developed a fascination with Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), eventually injecting Agnes with Borg nanoprobes before her death. Not only was Agnes slowly turning into a Borg, she now shared a consciousness with the Queen.
Agnes was eventually able to gain equal mental footing with the Queen, and they came to an agreement that they would attempt to build a new kind of Borg Collective, one whose members would be assimilated voluntarily. When Picard and friends returned to the 25th century aboard the USS Stargazer, the Agnes Jurati Borg Queen helped Starfleet save all life in the Alpha Quadrant and identified a mysterious transwarp conduit. The existence of Agnes Jurati’s Borg offshoot didn’t negate the existence of the original Borg, who remain a dire threat to the United Federation Of Planets.
When Will Star Trek Resolve Picard Season 2’s Borg Story?
As has been known for a while now, Star Trek: Picard season 3’s plot has no direct connection to season 2’s. The return of the crew of the USS Enterprise-D and the machinations of Captain Vadic (Amanda Plummer) have nothing to do with the show’s previous seasons. The mystery of the transwarp conduit and the next step for Agnes’ Borg remain open questions. Hopefully, questions that get resolved in an eventual Picard spinoff.
The Borg’s reign of terror on the Alpha Quadrant in the mid-24th century remains traumatic for many in the era of Star Trek: Picard. Captain Shaw is certainly not the only Starfleet veteran who harbors resentment toward former Borg drones like Picard and Commander Seven Of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Accepting and enduring that sort of anger has simply become part of Jean-Luc Picard’s life after his Borg encounter.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.