Star Trek: Picard: Nepenthe review
Nepenthe
The seventh episode. Picard and Soji arrive on Nepenthe and meet Riker, Troi and their daughter, Kestra. La Sirena escapes from the Artefact, where Hugh and Elnor find themselves in over their heads. On La Sirena Jurati struggles with what she knows... Flashback, three weeks earlier. Commodore Oh mind melded with Jurati, showing her something similar to Spocks vision of CONTROL's apocalypse. (Of course, whatever the Zhat Vash are afraid of would be something different.)
However, the whole scene was very well presented, leading into the chase of La Sirena later in the episode. The struggles of the La Sirena crew in escaping from the Artefact were done very well. But the main focus of the episode was on Nepenthe. Picard and Soji arrive on the planet and are greeted by Kestra. (A rather good easter egg there, and a there is a thematic link when it's revealed that Kestra wasn't always an only child.) Picard's line about his heart being pure duratanium was a good call back to the fact he has an artificial heart.
Meeting Will and Deanna again was very nostalgic. The way their characters were developed for the episode was consistent with their characters in the series and movies. The following scenes were also well done. Of course, Soji would be questioning her existence, and be uncertain as to the reality of the situation. That it would be Kestra who would help her through it was obvious. Kestra having an older brother who died to a disease that couldn't be treated after the Synth ban was an interesting way to connect the situation to the overall themes of the series.
(And Thad wanting a homeworld of his own and coming up with constructed languages was also well conceived.) The interactions between Hugh and Elnor as they try to evade the Narissa and the other Romulans were very well done. But Hugh getting it, as it were, is definitely a missed oportunity. More could have been done with his character. But there is a very effective lead in to the next episode with the Fenris Ranger beacon. Back to La Sirena, they discover that Narek is following them...
Rios suspecting Raffi before Agnes doesn't seem that believable, but then she didn't say why she was down there. The way Agnes deals with the issue shows her desperation in the situation she has found herself in and it was very well depicted, showing that she didn't have much choice. 9/10.