Star Trek: Picard Turns Seven of Nine Into [SPOILER]
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 1, Episode 8
Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) faced her worst nightmare in Star Trek: Picard episode 8: not only did she return to a Borg Cube but Seven briefly became a version of the Borg Queen. The fate of the Artifact, which is what the Romulans call the Cube they captured and turned into the Borg Reclamation Project, is one of the big questions heading into Star Trek: Picard's season 1 finale. But now, Seven of Nine has found herself in control of the fearsome starship and what's left of its Collective - whether she likes it or not.
Assimilated when she was a child named Annika Hansen, Seven of Nine was reclaimed by the crew of the U.S.S. Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. Seven returned to Earth with her new friends in the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager but not before she faced the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) a handful of times. The Queen even told Seven that she was allowed to regain her humanity so that she could be reassimilated later and add to the Borg's perfection. Seven, who retains a great deal of her Borg implants, never fully recovered from her time as a Drone, and she left Earth in 2285 to join the Fenris Rangers after the Neutral Zone collapsed due to the Romulan supernova. In Star Trek: Picard, Seven met Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), who was once Locutus of Borg, for the first time; together, they went to Freecloud so he could find Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales) while she exacted revenge on Bjayzl (Necar Zadegan), the crime lord who killed Seven's surrogate son Icheb (Casey King) and harvested his Borg implants.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowSeven left Picard an SOS beacon, but little did she suspect that it would be used by Elnor (Evan Evagora) to summon her to the Artifact and save him. When Seven came to Elnor's rescue in Star Trek: Picard episode 8, "Broken Pieces", the situation she encountered was grim: the Romulans murdered Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), the director of the Borg Reclamation Project, and Narissa (Peyton List) was planning to kill all of the Borg in the Artifact. In retaliation, Seven and Elnor went to the Queen's Cell, the Borg Queen's secret chamber, where Seven reactivated the Cube and initiated its self-repair. But to save the Borg on the Artifact, Seven had to allow the Cube to reassimilate her so that she, in turn, could reassimilate the Drones in stasis and the reclaimed XBs - in short, Seven of Nine had to become the Borg Queen of the Artifact's micro-Collective.
Despite the ramifications of reassimilating the Borg - and herself in the process - Seven felt she had no choice. Although she hated what she was forced to do, Seven allowed the Borg Cube to attach its nodes into her metallic spine, which echoed how the Borg Queen's organic head and cybernetic spine would merge into her metal, humanoid body (first seen in Star Trek: First Contact). Once she was reassimilated, Seven became one with the Artifact and all of the Borg within. However, Narissa had all of the dormant Drones jettisoned into space as they were being reassimilated. Despite losing thousands of her fellow Borg, Seven of Nine activated the XBs that Narissa didn't kill and they swarmed upon the Zhat Vash agent. After the Romulans abandoned the Artifact, Seven of Nine solidified her control of the Cube as its temporary Borg Queen.
Even though the Artifact released Seven because "Annika still has work to do", the former Borg becoming Queen of her own mini-Collective is a heartbreaking fate. Seven of Nine's life since Voyager returned to Earth was already dark and she endured a tragic life as a vigilante trying to bring order to Romulan space. Sadly, it seems Seven of Nine can never escape the Borg and Star Trek: Picard brought her full-circle to essentially become her lifelong nemesis. However, now that Sevencontrols the Artifact, she can use it to potentially help Jean-Luc Picard. This would turn the Borg into a heroic force, which would be a remarkable turnaround, although it forces Seven of Nine to become a Borg Queen in the process.
Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: screenrant.com