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In Picard season 2, Jean-Luc is sent to an alternate universe that hinges on his ancestor, but why she’s important to the future doesn’t make sense.
Star Trek: Picard season 2 hinges on the Europa Mission, but unfortunately, it doesn’t make any sense. The important facet of this point in history is that an ancestor of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) named Renée (Penelope Mitchell) must go on a mission to Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, or else the human race will become tyrannical and xenophobic. Thematically, Renée being the key to a better future, not the Europa Mission itself, is meant to show how the Picards have been influential throughout history. At the same time, Jean-Luc’s fraught relationship with his own history is addressed, making the two narratives parallel each other.
However, aligning Renée’s story with Jean-Luc Picard’s efforts to face his past only works if her subplot is as narratively consistent and important as his journey is emotionally crucial and cathartic. This is particularly true with season 2 of Star Trek: Picard focusing on an alternate universe story, where a single event is meant to change the course of the future. When a narrative puts such importance on a single occurrence, that event needs to be as integral as, and related to, the thematic, personal journey of the characters. Otherwise, it cheapens the story as a whole and feels like an afterthought instead of the main plot.
Why Picard Season 2’s Europa Mission Doesn’t Make Sense
Unfortunately, the ramifications of Star Trek: Picard’s Europa Mission are largely glossed over, making its stakes as the herald of a totalitarian order feel so unlikely as to disrupt the immersion of season 2. Supposedly, the success of the Europa Mission would lead to Renée Picard discovering a microorganism that cleans Earth’s ecosystems, preventing climate change and the rise of the Confederation of Earth. But how that microorganism specifically works or what social, ecological, and political events of Star Trek: Picard season 2 would be forestalled by its presence aren’t explored.
Nor is the possibility that any other member of the Europa Mission might discover this new life form, even though the important part of the story beat is that Renée makes the discovery. This lack of specificity weakens the stakes of season 2 because of how unlikely it seems the “correct” person must make a discovery to ensure the best outcome, as opposed to ensuring that the discovery must be made at all.
Picard Season 3 Won’t Deal With The Europa Mission Story Problems
Unfortunately, it isn’t likely that season 3 of Star Trek: Picard will revisit how the microorganism works or what its specific impacts were for the people of Earth. With the conclusion of season 2 and Picard’s return to the far future, there’s no incentive to revisit the Europa Mission or Renée’s future-changing discovery unless the microorganism becomes critically plot-relevant to the new season’s conflict. But given that the organism itself is the solution to such an Earth-centric problem, its utility on the final frontier is doubtful, meaning the Europa mission’s story problems will remain unaddressed.
In season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, Jean-Luc Picard’s journey is prioritized over the plot beyond establishing the need to stop the Confederation from ever forming. This isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but his efforts to face his past while also protecting it would have been stronger if the Europa Mission had had personal, developed importance to him and the future he was defending. After all, characterization works best when a story’s setting and circumstances do as well, making Star Trek: Picard‘s Europa Mission a narrative anomaly that hopefully won’t be repeated in season 3.
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