Surrender

This is the feeling we've been searching for and haven't had for a couple decades.

The writing is able to mesh with the friendships this crew formed early on so that we're able to truly feel the joy at the characters' reunion.

Maybe we're old and sentimental but there's much more than sentimentality going on in this episode. The story is compelling and of course there's no issue with the acting. And although I've had issue with the writing of modern Trek, the writing gave me what I wanted from this world, maybe even what I didn't know I needed given the occasional lesson harkening back to TOS.

If you enjoy it, you're in great company!

The first half continues vadic's take over, thankfully the writers did a good job of getting our heroes out of it, with only a couple of fatalities.

Only problem i had with it was the incesant monologue from vadic, which took up way too much time and didn't even have a point to it, just usual cliche tropey villain posturing right out of negans play book. Which i find profoundly annoying and a poor excuse to fill out runtime of an episode.

Thankfully the episode redeems itself with riker and de'ana being held captive and datalore and geordie sub plots being resolved.

This episode was high on drama, a little action and ends on an annoying cliff hanger.

Probably predictable for a lot of tng fans but still enjoyable !

Produciton / bts is usual high quality.

I thank the writers from the bottom of my heart that you found a way to give Deanna Troi a real feeling of being a integral part maybe even a all important part of the narrative this time. When I grew up, Troi felt like almost a joke character, a Troi episode would either be some silly thing or just outright one of the hardest to sit through because it was something psychosexual. Her idea of character development was to say something painfully obvious like "I think the angry alien is angry Jean Luc" And I was afraid here its happening again she's apart from Riker and offering just a few jokes in the first few episodes.

However, now that she is with the crew you've really given her a real purpose to awaken Jack Crusher and unlock his mind and memories and comfort Riker so he can stand up against his foes. You also gave Beverly Crusher new life and that is also amazing. Each of these characters has come into their own and finally feels important to the plot equally.

Also I love the little things you are doing with musical cues this season. When Worf saves the day, you hear his theme song remixed to be like a heroic Lone Ranger type jingle! It was so cool.

And what you have done with makeup and styles is leaps and bounds away from Seasons 1 and 2. Everyone is very old by this point yet you are making them so handsome and beautiful. Its heartwarming to see the ending scene around the table and everyone has nice facial hair, nice hairstyles, well arranged makeup and looking as good as a 60-80 yo person can.

I would recommend after this, you put these makeup artists at work on Tulsa King since Sly has often looked a bit fakey and bloated and I would love to see him back to his movie star status!

Anyway, you guys deserve the best score for what you have done to rescue Picard, you not only rescued this show, you rescued every actor within it from career ignominy and gave them the greatest ST product they have had yet (imho if this season was a movie it would be by far the best movie and as a season of TNG might be in the top 5) and they can all retire head held high.

Picard comes back with another well written and acted episode. We move the narrative forward organically and witness great twists, although I saw most coming. That doesn't dull the pleasure since it's so well acted. Some mysteries are sorted and others are near revelations and that just ramps up the anticipation.

The overarching theme this season is solid and gives us the well earned feel of classic trek. But it's slightly askew and feels more personal. Every week we learn more about characters we have spent so much time with before. And each deepening of these characters feels earned and appropriate.

What we are witnessing is a great justice for what I consider to be the prime Trek cast. If this show wraps up with the same quality in story and production that is being shown here, I think a lot of fans will feel content. Now if they could've made this a three season arc, that would have been ideal. Nonetheless, this episode and all of the others of this season have been highly enjoyable. I'm assuming this will be one of the highest rated seasons in Trek history when looking at the episode ratings (already 3 ep. Over 9 rating, and 5 ep. Over 8 rating. Even though it's not episodic by nature, I hope the studios can sift through and see the elements of production, writing and story that make this Prime Trek.