Picard Immediately Ruined Q's Final Message At The End Season 2

John de Lancie's Q delivers a stirring finale speech to end Star Trek: Picard season 2 - the meaning of which is almost immediately contradicted.

Q’s powerful closing message is almost immediately undermined by Star Trek: Picard‘s season 2 finale. By now, Star Trek audiences are well accustomed to John de Lancie’s Q popping out of thin air, sending Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard on a time-twisting trial, then disappearing as abruptly as he arrived, rubbing his hands gleefully on the way out. Viewers are less accustomed to Q facing the specter of mortality, but that’s exactly where the devilish demigod finds himself in Star Trek: Picard season 2. For reasons unknown, Q is dying… alone. He spends those precious final days hatching an elaborate scheme to ensure his old pal Picard doesn’t share the same fate.

Q finally reveals his true intentions in an emotional château chat during Star Trek: Picard‘s season 2 finale. Hearing how Q simply wanted to help overcome a traumatic childhood memory, the beleaguered Starfleet Admiral questions, “Why me?” Q fires back with a stirring monologue regarding the importance of one person, proclaiming, “Must it always have galactic import? Universal stakes? Celestial upheaval? Isn’t one life enough?” Q’s message is both poignant and simple – Star Trek needn’t always be about saving the galaxy; sometimes saving a single individual (in this case Picard) is justification enough.

Having dropped this heartwarming revelation, Star Trek: Picard abruptly switches gear… to galactic import, universal stakes and celestial upheaval. Returning to Star Trek‘s proper timeline, Picard and the gang (not much of a gang anymore…) realize the Borg’s plea for peace was genuine, and none other than their assimilated friend, Agnes Jurati, is the Queen making it. The verbal ink is barely dry when Borg-rati reveals her real reason for requesting Federation assistance – a massive incoming energy burst in the middle of the quadrant, certain to decimate billions.

Q’s overarching motivation throughout Star Trek: Picard season 2 is healing Jean-Luc’s heart, not saving the galaxy, so the “isn’t one life enough?” line still applies from his perspective. You could also argue that Q is being wryly ironic here, telling Picard his actions needn’t always have “galactic import” while knowing precisely what awaits Jean Luc’s Alpha Quadrant. Dropping such overt foreshadowing, Q might’ve been internally recreating the Leonardo DiCaprio Django Unchained meme. Thematically, however, Star Trek: Picard needlessly devalues Q’s final words. A godlike entity spending his final days in service of a dear friend is powerful stuff, and Q going through the hassle of creating a new timeline, altering history, manipulating Adam Soong, and earning a therapy license all so Jean-Luc Picard won’t one day die alone speaks volumes about their strange Star Trek friendship. Q’s right – Star Trek: Picard didn’t need universal stakes to make season 2’s plot matter, and pulling a last-minute galactic cataclysm out of the bag not only contradicts his dying sentiments, but also detracts from the deeply personal nature of this last trial. It wasn’t about saving the galaxy… but a nice bonus all the same?

Star Trek: Picard‘s contradiction of Q’s final words might’ve felt less jarring had season 2 laid the foundations for this celestial occurrence in advance. Instead, the first obvious sign of impending destruction comes a little over 10 minutes before the final credits. The spatial anomaly turns out to be a transwarp conduit, setting up Star Trek: Picard‘s big new threat for season 3, but Picard’s Federation forging an alliance with Jurati’s Borg could’ve still happened without any incoming galactic threat forcing them together. Season 3’s groundwork also could’ve been laid more subtly (i.e. without a massive solar burst almost cleaving a chunk out of the Alpha Quadrant) to preserve the importance of Q’s belief that saving one person sometimes means just as much as saving the galaxy.