Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 2: Penance Easter Eggs and References

The second season of Star Trek: Picard continues today with the debut of its second episode, “Penance.” Like the season premiere, it has plenty of Easter eggs for Star Trek fans to enjoy. SPOILERS for the second episode of Star Trek: Picard‘s second season, “Penance,” follow. The episode sees Picard and his crew trying to navigate the new timeline created by Q. Picard learns some dark truths about this version of himself, and they’re mostly tied to familiar Star Trek faces. Plus, the crew has to pull off a classic Star Trek time travel maneuver to fix the timeline. Keep reading to see what Easter eggs and references appeared in “Penance.”

The official synopsis for the Star Trek: Picard episode “Penance” reads, “Picard finds himself transported to an alternate timeline in the year 2400 where his longtime nemesis, Q, has orchestrated one final ‘trial.’ Picard searches for his trusted crew as he attempts to find the cause of this dystopian future.” Akiva Goldsman, Terry Matalas & Christopher Monfette wrote the episode. Doug Aarniokoski directs.

Star Trek: Picard streams on Paramount+, along with every episode of Star Trek ever. New episodes of Star Trek: Picard will debut weekly on Thursdays on the streaming service.

Yesterday’s Enterprise

Early in the episode, Q speaks the line to Picard, “how very yesterday’s Enterprise of you.” This is a slightly meta Easter egg as “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is the title of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.

Sometimes considered the episode when Star Trek: The Next Generation finally hits its stride, season three’s “Yesterday’s Enterpirse” is an appropriate name drop. It too saw Picard and the Enterprise crew trapped in an alternate, much darker timeline due to a change in history.

Torchbearer Armor

General Picard’s home has a trophy room where he displays what remains of his vanquished foes. Among his trophies is a distinctive armor that Star Trek: Discovery fans may recognize as belonging to a Klingon Torchbearer.

Torchbearer is the ceremonial position given to whichever Klingon is responsible for lighting the Beacon of Kahless, summoning all of the Great Houses of the Klingon Empire to aid. In Star Trek: Discovery‘s two-part premiere, Michael Burnham accidentally killed Rejac, T’Kuvma’s Torchbearer, setting in motion events that would lead to the Federation-Klingon War.

Gul Dukat

In addition to relics, Picard’s trophy room also includes the skulls of some of his vanquished foes. One is Cardassian, and Q reveals it belonged to Gul Dukat.

Gul Dukat is one of Star Trek’s greatest recurring villains, appearing in many episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. According to Q, he is somehow responsible for Picard having a synthetic body in this new timeline.

General Martok

Another Star Trek: Deep Space Nine regular in Picard’s collection, General Martok, was a Klingon military leader during the Dominion War. For a time, a Changeling replaced him and attempted to destabilize the alliance between Alpha Quadrant powers. The Dominion kept Martok as a prisoner of war.

Martok formed a strong bond with Worf, then rose to become the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire after Worf defeated Chancellor Gowron in ritual combat. Worf then became the ambassador to Martok’s Klingon Empire.

Diretor Sarek

This timeline’s Picard killed Director Sarek on the steps of the Vulcan science academy. This event transpired in front of Sarke’s wife and son.

Sarek is a famous Vulcan ambassador who appeared played Mark Lenard in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the original Star Trek movies. James Frain took over the role in Star Trek: Discovery. Assuming certain consistencies between timelines, his son, mentioned here, is likely Spock.

General Sisko

Another Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Easter egg is when President Hansen’s husband suggests she talk about the war effort with General Sisko. This Sisko is almost certainly Benjamin Sisko, the lead character in Deep Space Nine.

While running Deep Space 9, Sisko saw more than his fair share of battles, including leading the war effort during the Dominion War. It makes sense that he would be a high-ranking military officer in this new timeline. 

Slingshot Effect

Picard and his allies soon realize that they have to travel back in time to set things right. They don’t have a time machine, but Picard recalls the slingshot effect, a more rudimentary (relatively speaking) means of traveling through time. A ship must travel at a high warp around a celestial body with a massive gravitational pull (like a sun) to create an artificial time warp.

As mentioned by Picard, Kirk’s Enterprise pulled off the slingshot on multiple occasions. They did it in two episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, “Tomorrow is Yesterday” and “Assignment: Earth.” The same crew performed the maneuver again in a stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey, in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Of course, they had Spock to make all the necessary calculations. Picard’s group will rely on the Borg queen.