The crew of La Sirena defeat their captors in a brief fight, but Elnor is wounded. While Raffi gets him to Sickbay, Jurati finishes plugging in the Borg Queen, and La Sirena makes the time-travel slingshot jump.
The ship emerges in what seems to be the early 21st century — sensors are too damaged to make a solid reading, and anyhow the Queen is draining the ship's power to recover her own reserves. La Sirena is sucked into Earth's gravity well and crash-lands; and, with no power to the biobed, Elnor succumbs to his injuries.
Rios, Seven and Raffi, alternating between Tranquil Fury and Unstoppable Rage over the death of her surrogate son, transport to Los Angeles where Raffi intends to scan for refugees on the planet who are operating at a higher Technology Level than they should be. Jurati warns them to stay off the grid and avoid the authorities — which Rios is unable to prevent, because the transporter accidentally dumps him out 20 feet in the air. An Angeleno finds him on the sidewalk with no wallet, keys, smartphone or ID, and therefore takes him to a local clinic which serves illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, Jurati and Picard stay on the ship to try and repair the Borg Queen, as she's their only ticket back to their own time. This involves Jurati letting herself get semi-assimilated. Her non-conscious mind remains on La Sirena sassing Picard while her consciousness invades the Queen's memory banks; she succeeds at stealing the location of The Watcher from the Queen, impressing the latter.
Teresa, the doctor who runs the clinic, is alarmed when ICE
raid the place hoping to pick up illegal immigrants. Rios is about to get away when he notices his 24th-century Confederation combadge is still lying around. He comes back to help Teresa defend her innocence... but only ends up getting the two of them arrested.
Tropes:
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Jurati connects to the Borg Queen to help along her repairs and get her to communicate verbally again. However, while she's trying to repair the Queen, the Queen in turn is trying to take over her mind. This is all shown from Picard's perspective, helping her as Jurati's subconscious narrates what's happening.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Rios dresses like a doctor in an attempt to bluff the immigration officers, but his bandaged hand gives him away and he is arrested alongside the doctor who helped him.
- Bluff the Imposter: Seven's husband had his suspicions about her already but they're confirmed when she's unable to answer one simple question: "What's my full name?"
- Brutal Honesty: Jurati's partial assimilation allows her conscious mind to travel into the Borg Queen while her subconscious mind remains behind, able to speak freely. The effect is a Jurati that is utterly unfiltered, admitting that she sees Picard as a father figure among other things.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Picard refuses to let Rios kill the Borg Queen to save Elnor, because she's the only means they have of figuring out when and where the timeline was changed. Unfortunately, this means that Elnor dies, because the Queen is draining power to heal herself and there's not enough to keep the life support systems on the biobed running.
- Character Death:
- After the bio-bed loses power, Elnor dies from being shot by the Magistrate's forces last episode.
- Seven's husband gets vaporised along with his two security goons.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: When the Borg Queen takes over Rios's ship, its weapons change from the standard reddish-orange used by the Federation/Confederation to the Borg's own green.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Rios is arrested by ICE, one of them asks for his UHC card. In DS9's "Past Tense," which is also set in 2024, Sisko and Bashir were asked for their UHC cards.
- Similarly, Raffi materializes just outside a Sanctuary District.
- Dare to Be Badass: Seven and Raffi get the cooperation of a security guard by claiming his colleague allowed them onto the roof and insinuating he's less "fun" if he chooses to remove them. In tandem with their Undercover as Lovers ruse, the guard lets them stay if only to prove he isn't a wet blanket.
- Deadpan Snarker: This must be a prerequisite for passing med school in the Trek universe. The clinic doctor snarks as hard as any we've ever met.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Jurati uses a partial assimilation hookup to get into the Borg Queen's mind and find some of the information she has on where to find The Watcher. She then brags about it to the Queen's face. This actually impresses the Queen, despite her anger at being outwitted.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Seven is pretty bad about 21st-century terminology, while Raffi has a passing knowledge and corrects Seven's gaffes.
- Hero Ball: Rios poses as a doctor, perhaps intending to bluff his way into the office where his badge is. Instead of slipping in and out quietly, he tries to 'save' the doctor from the immigration raid via Bavarian Fire Drill. All it does is get them both arrested.
- Idiot Ball: After Rios has had his most pressing medical issues fixed to the point where he can get up and start walking again, he finds his missing communicator and instead of getting it from the kid and leaving, he sticks around to banter with the kid, eat some cookies and fails to get it back. Then the immigration raid happens and he starts juggling the Idiot Ball and the Hero Ball by sticking around and getting arrested, which is something Jurati explicitly told him not to do, and which he specifically said he wouldn't. Justified in that he's suffering from a concussion the whole time.
- Leonine Contract: The Queen demands La Sirena in exchange for her knowledge about how the timeline was changed, confident that Picard will eventually concede to her demands because he absolutely needs that information. It's then subverted when Jurati reveals she stole the data while poking around in the Queen's head, though she only has the place, not the time yet.
- Long-Runner Tech Marches On: Compared to the Zeerust of DS9's "Past Tense," 2024 is depicted as identical to 2022 where technology is concerned.
- Mood Whiplash:
- Raffi, Seven and Rios prepare to transport to Los Angeles. The folk-rock classic "California Dreamin" is playing, Seven gets asked if she's a superhero, cut to Rios falling off a fire escape, the music abruptly stops and we see Rios lying in a small pool of blood coming from his head.
- Rios tells the doctor a story about sneaking onto a base as a kid, talking of it as a fun and warm-hearted anecdote, complete with music... which ends along with a loud "crack" as the doctor was letting him do this as a distraction to reset his broken fingers.
- Mugging the Monster: A random mugger tries to rob Raffi at gunpoint. She effortlessly disarms him and knocks him out, then steals from his wallet.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Raffi chews Picard out over his decades of "playing games" with Q, costing other people their lives while the two of them "joust." Picard rebuffs the accusation; Q is the one playing games, and Picard has no say in the matter.
- Agnes gives Picard a devastating character critique about hiding his emotions while she's hooked up to the Borg Queen, as the process lets her innermost thoughts out unfiltered. Picard just sits through it and Jurati quickly changes topics in response to the Queen's probing.
- Shout-Out: The doctor refuses to let her son watch Rick and Morty unless he behaves himself.
- Spotting the Thread: Rios tries to pass himself off as a doctor at the clinic but one INS agent notices his recent bandages.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: A little girl who sees Seven beam down asks her if she's a superhero. Seven kindly asks her to keep her secret.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Rios, due to a transporter malfunction, falls about a story off a fire escape. With the pop song in the soundtrack, seems like it's just going to be some slapstick humor, right? Nope! Rios actually gets a concussion from hitting his head and a busted hand.
- Being a Hispanic man with no proper identification on him, Rios is assumed to be an illegal immigrant.
- Rios tries to save the doctor from ICE, who immediately see through his lie about a child in distress, notice that he has a significant injury to his hand, and arrest him as well.
- Teleporter Accident: The transporters have just enough power for a one-way trip with reduced accuracy. This scatters Seven, Raffi, and Rios in different locations a few blocks away from the target, with the added wrinkle that Rios is beamed one story off the ground and ends up in the hospital after gravity kicks in.
- Tempting Fate: The crew is warned against ending up in hospitals or law enforcement facilities, as they might be subjected to scans or other examinations that would reveal the futuristic technology in their bodies that definitely shouldn't be available in 2024. Rios manages to run into both, though at least the hospital isn't his fault. They're also warned not to lose any advanced tech; Rios naturally loses his comm badge.
- Undercover as Lovers: Seven and Raffi pose as a couple to gain access to the building, pretending this was the site of their first date.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Raffi and Seven are naturally pissed at Picard protecting the Queen over Elnor, regardless of it being the pragmatic choice. Raffi goes even further in blaming Picard for Q's behavior, though Picard pointedly rebuffs that accusation.
