Star Trek Picard Season 3 Finale Post Credits Scene Explained

The Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Finale has a post-credits scene – and it is both a callback to Star Trek: The Next Generation and the tease of a bold new chapter of the franchise! 

(WARNING: Star Trek Picard Finale SPOILERS Follow!) 

In Star Trek Picard's Series Finale episode, "The Last Generation" Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his TNG cast mates (Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, and Gates McFadden) re-united aboard the classic USS Enterprise-D ship to take on the Borg Queen and stop her new form of organic assimilation before a corrupted Starfleet destroyed Earth. 

Not only do Picard and Co. save Starfleet and stop the Borg, they do so without losing a single member of their crew – including Picard and Beverly Crusher's son, Jack (Ed Speelers). In the end, Ed gets the honor and privilege of being fast-tracked through his Starfleet service – starting with being assigned to the new Enterprise-G, under the command of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd). 

Star Trek: Picard's Season 3 Finale Post-Credits Scene Explained

The post-credits scene of Star Trek: Picard's Series Finale sees Jack settling into his quarters aboard the Enterprise-G, only to be visited by a most unexpected (but not unfamiliar) visitor: Q (John de Lancie)! Q informs Jack Crusher that he has much destiny ahead of him – as well as his own 'trial by Q' to endure. 

The story arc of Star Trek: Picard Season 2 was bookended by Q's discovery that he was not truly immortal and was going to die, prompting him to play one last space/time game with his old "friend" Jean-Luc Picard. In order to cure Picard of his greatest emotional scar (his mother's death), Q let Jean-Luc and his crew at the time (including Raffi and Seven of Nine) got to live an alternate life on Earth. The end result worked: Picard got over his emotional scars, and got a second chance at life – but Q seemed still destined to die. Obviously, we haven't quite gotten there yet. 

Q told Jack Crusher that he was hoping "the next generation wouldn't think so linearly," in terms of his death. It suggests that while Q may indeed die he is also an entity that is beyond normal space/time, and so his meeting and experiences with Jack can still happen before THE end. 

Star Trek: Picard is now streaming on Paramount+.