Star Trek: Picard debuted its second episode, “Maps and Legends,” last week. The episode saw Jean-Luc Picard further investigating Data’s daughters, Dahj and Soji Asha, and clandestine Romulan operations on Earth. He learned of a new Romulan threat even more secretive than the Tal Shiar, and we heard the other side of the argument that led to Picard leaving Starfleet. Towards the end of the episode, Picard took a very particular taxi to the home of someone named Raffi Musiker. Raffi doesn’t seem happy to see Picard, but she can’t resist hearing what he has to say about the Romulan agents operating on Earth.
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So who is Raffi Musiker? She’s one fo the new character introduced to the Star Trek universe in Star Trek: Picard, but we have some information about from the Star Trek: Picard prequel comic and a new featurette.
The Star Trek: Picard — Countdown miniseries revealed that Musiker was Picard’s first officer aboard the USS Verity, the ship he commanded after leaving the Enterprise so that he could head up the Romulan relocation efforts. It’s clear from the start that the relationship between Picard and Musiker is different from the one between Picard and his former “Number One,” Will Riker, by how she refers to him as “JL.”
“It’s completely different from Riker’s, for sure, absolutely,” Michelle Hurd, the actress who plays Raffi, told ComicBook.com during an interview at the premiere. “Much more complicated, actually. And they also had a falling out, so there’s a lot of issues there and a little bit of baggage and, you know, I’m a woman. He’s not.”
Musiker is the perfect person for the Romulan relocation job as the comic reveals she’s one of Starfleet’s foremost experts on Romulan society. In the “Meet the New Character of Star Trek: Picard” featurette on StarTrek.com, Hurd reveals a bit more about the character.
“Raffi’s a really interesting character,” Hurd says. “She’s a security chief. She’s been a spy. She’s probably one of the most intelligent creatures when it comes to science and to mathematics. When it comes to sort of personal interactions, maybe she doesn’t score quite as high.”
Knowing that Raffi is an ex-spy with expertise in Romulan culture, it’s easy to see why she’d find the idea of Romulans operating on Earth in secret an irresistible topic of conversation, no matter how angry she is at Picard. It still doesn’t tell us why she’s angry at him, though given that they worked together on the mission that led to Picard leaving Starfleet, we have to wonder if the cracks in their relationship are related to that.
New episodes of Star Trek: Picard become available to stream Thursdays on CBS All Access.
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