Non, merci.

Having attempted to summon a Q but instead calling the cops, Q and Picard find themselves in custody and being questioned about their plans to sabotage the Europa mission. The first question is whether they are extra-terrestrial lifeforms and their response is to laugh, with Picard smugly saying he can truly say he is not. Has he forgotten he’s a synthetic android?

Back in LA, Raffi and Seven are still on the trail of the Borg Queen, find her quickly, get their asses kicked and let her escape. And Kore (remember her?) continues her investigations into just how much of a monster her “father” might be.

For an episode juggling a lot of subplots, it still finds time to insert an odd opening scene in which an unknown child with a torch encounters two Vulcans in the woods (not the set-up to a joke), which is linked to the past of the FBI Agent Wells (Jay Karnes), a thinly veiled Fox Mulder surrogate.

For an episode titled Mercy, it’s particularly merciless in its exposition dumps. Q turns up to have a conversation with Guinan where the writers desperately try to create connective tissue between what might be happening to Q and why he’s toying with Picard but it doesn’t explain why he’s playing both sides, weaponizing Kore against her father while simultaneously relying on Soong to disrupt the timeline and create the uber-fascist future Picard is trying to rectify.

There’s a real sense in Mercy that the writers have suddenly realised that after this they only have two episodes left to wrap everything up and so they start frantically jamming plot elements together to see if they can build something if not coherent, then at least recognisably shaped, like a toddler playing with building blocks. There’s an extended Elnor flashback (probably just to remind audiences who he is before his inevitable resurrection). The obsessive FBI Agent lets Picard and Guinan go for plot reasons. The Borg Queen and Soong are united, for plot reasons. And Soong can lay his hands on an ex-special forces goon squad…for plot reasons.

Mercy sees Picard Season 2 flailing right about the same time as season one started to fall apart. If the terrible and unfortunate consequences of Quinn’s death are Star Trek Picard Season 2, then yes, I agree with the continuum. It’s not worth the risk.