Happy Captain Picard Day, everyone! Paramount+ has just released a new teaser-trailer for Picard Season 2, and, among the many twists and reveals, the most interesting and canon-changing might just be what happens to Seven of Nine at the very end of the trailer… After Q (John de Lancie) visits Jean-Luc Picard in his Château in the teaser trailer above, we rapidly learn that this season is going to be all about a “broken” timeline that has resulted in some fairly big changes for the crew of the La Sirena and, seemingly, the galaxy at large. Nobody is rocking an eyepatch, but Rios does have some fingerless gloves, and everybody seems to wear edgier, bigger Starfleet badges paired with the 24th century version of black pleather. There’s a lot to take in with the trailer, including the possible reveal that Soji and Dahj had entirely different fates in this timeline, and that the Federation has perhaps fractured into a totally different (and perhaps renegade) group. But the biggest zing hits on a much more interesting character level. In the final shots of the trailer, Seven wakes up to find… she doesn’t have a Borg implant on her face anymore. So, in this new timeline, it seems, Seven was never assimilated by the Borg. Well, kind of. Although the episode “Q, Who” takes place in 2365, Annika and her parents were captured by the Borg in 2356, almost ten years earlier. Turns out, some people in the Federation (like Annika’s parents) were curious about the Borg, even before the Borg were “discovered” by Picard and the crew, thanks to Q. But, if all of that happened differently, then suddenly it’s feasible that young Annika never had to be on the Raven and never would have been assimilated by the Borg. If Seven is now Annika, and no longer has her Borg baggage (but perhaps remembers it), the direction of Picard Season 2 could be a lot more interesting than just following our heroes around hoping they reset the timeline. In the Picard Season 1 episode “Stardust City Rag,” Seven confronts Jean-Luc, asking him if he really believes he regained his humanity after being assimilated by the Borg. Chillingly, Picard responds with: “Not all of it.” Jean-Luc and Seven are both victims of the Borg, a theme which Picard Season 1 only briefly touches upon. But if Seven is given an opportunity to reclaim her humanity in a new and different way, it could open up a very compelling character arc. Although she and Jean-Luc have a shared experience, Seven was certainly a victim of the Borg for waaay longer. In 2020, Jeri Ryan even joked: “Picard is a poser! You were a Borg for five minutes!” All kidding aside, there is something super profound about changing Seven’s backstory in an alternate timeline. Because if she gets to live a different life, a life without all of that horror and pain, will she even want to reset the timeline? And should she? Star Trek: Picard Season 2 is coming to Paramount sometime in 2022.
