Star Trek: Who Is Chasing Picard At The End of Episode 8
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 1, Episode 8
At the conclusion of Star Trek: Picard episode 8, a starship follows Picard's vessel, La Sirena, into a transwarp conduit: it's the Romulan Snakehead piloted by Narek (Harry Treadaway). The CBS All-Access series starring Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard is closing in on its endgame by taking Soji (Isa Briones), the synthetic daughter of the late Commander Data (Brent Spiner), back to her mysterious homeworld. But despite Soji finding new friends whom she's learning to trust, she can't shake Narek, her deceitful ex.
A Tal Shiar agent and the younger brother of Narissa (Peyton List), Narek debuted at the end of Star Trek: Picard's premiere episode when he specifically came to the Romulan Borg Cube Artifact to meet Soji, who, at that point, believed she was a human scientist named Dr. Soji Asha. Like Narissa, Narek is a member of the Zhat Vash and wants to eradicate artificial lifeforms, which conflicts with his sexual attraction to Soji, whom he claims to love. Still, Narek's mission was to use any means to learn where Soji's homeworld is located. Using a perverse mix of sex, deception, and emotional manipulation, Narek gained Soji's trust until he attempted to murder her with a Romulan weapon called a Tan zhekran after he gleaned what Soji remembered about her home planet. With the aid of Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), Jean-Luc Picard and Soji escaped from the Artifact. This forced Narek to pilot his personal starship, the Snakehead, to chase La Sirena until they rendezvoused with Picard and Soji.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowIn Star Trek: Picard episode 7, "Nepenthe," Narek tailed La Sirena throughout the episode, and despite Captain Cristobal Rios (Santiago Cabrera) using every trick he knew, they couldn't shake the Romulan spy. This was because Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) was working for the Romulans and had ingested a Viridium isotope given to her by Commodore Oh (Tamlyn Tomita), the Head of Starfleet Security who is secretly the leader of the Zhat Vash. When the repentant Jurati realized she was the reason Narek was able to track La Sirena, she poisoned herself to eliminate the Viridium from her bloodstream. It worked and La Sirena was able to escape Narek's detection.
After Picard and Soji beamed aboard La Sirena in Star Trek: Picard episode 8, "Broken Mirrors," the ragtag crew finally shared their information about the vast Romulan conspiracy they were up against, and the new plan was hatched to bring Soji back to her homeworld to warn them that the Romulans were coming to destroy them. Soji located a Borg transwarp hub, which would let La Sirena quickly make the multi-lightyear journey. But they didn't know Narek's ship was cloaked at the hub's entry point, waiting for them. After decloaking, Narek piloted his Snakehead into the transwarp conduit and resumed his chase of Soji.
The Romulans have been firmly re-established as prime villains in Star Trek: Picard, but Narek is different from any whom Trekkers have seen before: Narek is a Romulan for the #MeToo era. Unlike the straightforward violence preferred by his older sister Narissa, Narek's methodology is creepy and depraved in how he wormed his way into Soji's affections and gaslighted her into trusting him. Narek's abuse left Soji emotionally damaged, and now she has trust issues with others and herself on top of having to come to grips with the fact that she's synthetic and that all of her memories were implanted programs. Since Narek succeeded in his job and found Soji's homeworld, he could have joined the Romulan fleet for their final assault, but instead, he's still pursuing Soji. Hopefully, the sleazy Narek will get his just desserts in Star Trek: Picard's final two episodes.
Star Trek: Picardstreams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: screenrant.com