Star Trek: Picard’s Season 2 Finale Includes a Next Generation Star’s Surprise Return

The Star Trek: Picard Season Two finale had a surprise for Star Trek: The Next Generation fans. SPOILERS for the Star Trek: Picard Season Two final episode follow. One of Star Trek: Picard Season Two’s subplots was about Adam Soong. An ancestor of Data’s creator, Noonien Soong, Adam has been conducting experiments to create genetically engineered human clones. The only one to survive to anything close to maturity is Kore, his “daughter.” But Kore has been left in the dark. After Q revealed the truth to her, she became angry with her “father.” The final episode shows Kore putting an end to her father’s experiments for good by permanently deleting all of the data from his work. Soong instead is forced to turn his attention toward “Project Khan.”

But what becomes of Kore? A clone with no ties to the outside world and no remaining family, she has few options at her disposal. It’s good that Wesley Crusher shows up to offer her a job.

After expressing disappointment at not being part of Picard’s third season, Wil Wheaton reprises his role as Wesley Crusher in the Star Trek: Picard Season Two finale. Star Trek: The Next Generation fans likely remember that Wesley’s story ended with him leaving Starfleet to join the Traveler, becoming a powerful being capable of wandering the stars and traveling through time. Thus, it isn’t much of a problem for him to appear in the 21st century. As Wesley explains, the Travelers work to protect the timeline, working with supervisors like Talinn and Gary Seven. Wesley offers to take Kore with him, presumably to become a supervisor herself, or perhaps another Traveler. Kore accepts.

What’s nice about this for Star Trek: The Next Generation fans is that it brings a new sense of closure and purpose to Wesley’s story arc. The Traveler’s nature remained a mystery in Next Generation. Though Wesley appeared at the Riker-Troi wedding in Star Trek: Nemesis (and even seemed very human, rejoining Starfleet according to a scene that didn’t make it into the film, meaning it isn’t canon), fans never got an explanation about what happened to him after leaving Starfleet. The Travelers had great power, but their role in the greater universe was vague. Picard has provided a more straightforward explanation of what Wesley and the Travelers do with their time.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Star Trek: Picard is streaming now on Paramount+.