Premiere episode “The Next Generation†laid out a lot of questions for this season, and second episode “Disengage†is already giving us some answers, including this doozy: Jack Crusher is Jean-Luc Picard’s son.
Yes, we now have ourselves a secret-son plot, and I am here for it. I’ve been waiting for this ever since Star Trek: Generations, when Jean-Luc noted, bitterly after his brother and nephew tragically died in a fire, “Now there will be no more Picards.†But now there is another Picard, someone new to tend the family vineyards. I cannot convey in words how excited this makes me — and that he’s Beverly’s son too!? The drama’s going to be good.
The thing is that it was clear that Jack is Jean-Luc’s son when he was introduced. He acts like the younger Jean-Luc we saw in the TNG episode “Tapestry,†and you can see that beloved Picard arrogance vibrating through him in the opening flashback. As he tries to protect his mother, though, Jack is now learning the other side of it — that he can lose (a lesson Jean-Luc learned all too well after a Nausicaan stabbed him through the heart). I have a feeling we’re going to see Jack grow up a lot, maybe with an assist from good old Papa Picard, over the course of this season.
There are a lot of antics at the beginning of the episode as Jean-Luc, Will, Jack, and an unconscious Bev try to work out what exactly is going on. What is Vadic after? (Jack Crusher.) Why? (God only knows.) Once they’re back on the Titan, they have some time to sort things out. It turns out that Jack has a record as long as his arm — something that isn’t all that surprising, but what is eye-opening is the frank conversation he has with Jean-Luc from inside the brig.
Shaw suggested Jack might be lying about his parentage, and Jean-Luc tests that in their conversation. He wants to know whether this is really Bev’s son — even though, let’s face it, he knows Jack is Beverly’s and his own child (something Riker hilariously needles him about) — since he believes she would never allow Jack to act the way he has. “Who do you think taught me to do it?†Jack responds, confirming that this is a different Beverly than the one we knew.
Or is it? She certainly acts like a different person, willing to cut corners and break the law, but the reason she’s doing it is to help people, and we’ve seen that before. In TNG episode “Suspicions,†Dr. Crusher risks her career, her Starfleet commission, even her life to prove that a man was murdered. In “Remember Me,†she refuses to back down when she’s the only one who can remember the disappearing crew. Maybe this streak has always been there, but it just needed something — perhaps wanting to protect her son — to bring it to the surface. It’s not like Jean-Luc is the same person he was even just at the beginning of this series.
Back on the Titan, Captain Shaw is ready and willing to hand Jack over to Vadic, and it’s not a great look. On the one hand, I get it. His duty is to his crew, not to some random kid he didn’t even want to pick up. And the Titan would lose any fight with the Shrike. But the fact that Shaw came to the rescue in the first place (thanks to Seven’s urging) tells us that there’s more going on beneath the surface. Vadic hints at trauma in Shaw’s past, but we haven’t really gotten more clarity on what is going on with this guy. However, we do get one of the coolest shots I think I’ve ever seen in Star Trek, which is the Titan interrupting the Shrike’s tractor beam when coming to the rescue, so thank you for that, Liam.
In the end, they don’t hand Jack over to Vadic — which, by the way, who is Vadic?? It’s clear she’s not a bounty hunter since, as Jack points out, no bounty hunter would be willing to pick a fight with the Federation. It’s not for lack of trying on Jack’s part. He actually escapes from the brig intent on turning himself over to save his mother. Shaw’s fine letting him go, but at the last second, Jean-Luc intervenes.
The moment between Beverly and Jean-Luc on the bridge of the Titan is so good. In one look, you can see the decades between them; their rich, beautiful, and tragic history; and how much each truly cares for the other (and how much they’ve hurt each other). Through that look, Picard finally understands the truth: that Jack comes by his British accent honestly. So the Titan gets ready to fight (Shaw reluctantly but firmly getting onboard — once again making him more endearing than I’d expected).
It’s a testament to how action-packed the Titan side of this episode is that I’m only just now mentioning Worf, who makes his appearance in “Disengage†in Raffi’s story line. I’ll admit I had my suspicions about the identity of Raffi’s handler when he told her she was a warrior in the first episode, and now it’s confirmed. After Raffi makes some questionable but understandable decisions, she meets up with Sneed, takes drugs again to prove she’s not Starfleet, and almost dies. When Worf comes to her rescue in typical badass fashion, it’s another excellent answer to one of the many questions established in the premiere, making for an extremely satisfying episode from beginning to end.
Captain’s Log
• Legacy character count: Very exciting!! We’re already up to four, and it’s just the second episode!
• Riker saying exactly what the audience was thinking to Jean-Luc about Jack. Perfect! No notes.
• The Shrike using its tractor beam to throw a ship at the Titan is just excellent.
• Raffi being forced to once again choose between her son and her work is absolutely cruel. I felt for her so much in this moment, especially when she knows she’s always going to make the same decision and chooses the introduction to Sneed.
• Relieving Seven of duty for insubordination? Shaw, you are not making it easy to like you.
• Amanda Plummer’s Vadic gives me strong stylized “classic Trek villain†vibes. I half-expected her to start quoting Shakespeare like General Chang (understandable, since that character was played by her father, Christopher).
• I did appreciate the Jean-Luc arrogance coming out during that brig scene, when Picard says, “I know Beverly,†and Jack’s like, “Oh really, but do you?â€