Star Trek: Picard, Season 2 so far

I'm really enjoying #StarTrek #Picard season 2 thus far. The pacing's much better than #STDiscovery, and I find this storyline also more interesting than that of season 1. It's also very good to see #Q (especially as portrayed by #JohnDeLancie) and #Guinan again.
#JeryRyan is also doing #SevenOfNine, or rather #AnnikaHansen quite some good. I like this more human character in this timeline.
While I like #PatrickStewart as #JeanLucPicard, it's also quite noticeable that he's in his eighties...
This #Borg queen definitely has a way to make my skin crawl, and I love it.
Anyway, enough about this season in general, I mostly want to share my thoughts about the latest episode, #S2E04, "The Watcher".

The Watcher

First of all, #ItoAghayere does a great job at portraying a younger, different, Guinan. One that apparently has never met Picard before, but one who is still suffering from 'time sickness' from the altered timeline.
This annoyed me at first, as I felt like they were ignoring the events from the TNG episode "Time's Arrow", in which Picard travels back to the 1800s where he meets Guinan for her first time. Half-way the episode I thought that she might be a daughter of Guinan instead, based on her reaction when he finally mentions his name "Picard" and her wanting to introduce her to her 'supervisor' instead. But some people in the comments section of #TrekCulture's "Ups and Downs" video for this episode pointed out this actually does make sense, and referred to a quote by a co-showrunner of the series:

«This Guinan wouldn't remember Picard because in this alternate timeline, the TNG episode "Time's Arrow" never happened. Because there was no Federation, those events did not play out the same. No previous relationship exists. However, she still was likely traveling to Earth and, as we know, she hung around a bit. So this Guinan is different. But she, of course, can sense something is off. She's going through a kind of time-sickness thanks to Q's meddling with the timeline.»
— Terry Matalas, Star Trek: Picard co-showrunner

And yes, this actually does make sense! The TNG finale "All Good Things..." actually already established that events in the future, can ripple back into the past in Trek's universe. (With the forming of the anomaly in the future, erasing humanity from history in the past due to its anti-time.)
So, no, I don't find it much of a stretch that by traveling back in time on a timeline where The Federation was never formed because The Confederation was formed instead, they remain still in the past on a timeline where future Picard never travelled back to meet Guinan.

But what about Kirk Thatcher's portrayal as the punker?

This episode is filled with references to the fourth Star Trek film, #TheVoyageHome, and one of which is a cameo by #KirkThatcher, who played the punker in playing the song "I Hate You" loudly on his boombox on a bus, and who subsequently gets subdued by Spock with a Vulcan nerve pinch.
In this episode he appears again, once more playing this song (though in an updated version) way too loudly. When Seven comments about it, he seems to remember the nerve pinch, and quickly turns the volume down, apologising.
Quite some of the commenters seem to say this is at odds with the altered future timeline, as without a Federation version of Spock, this wouldn't have occurred.
My head-canon for this though is that while it might not have been Kirk and Spock, the events of The Voyage Home probably would still have happened. Sci-Fi loves the trope of time flowing in circles, and certain events being fixed in time. The whale probe would probably still have arrived at Earth, and some crew would likely still have travelled back in time to fetch some whales, where the altercation with the punker could still have happened.

Bell Riots

So far there has been speculation over whether or not we might be seeing Sisko return, as he would be there around this time for the #BellRiots, but in the past of a future where the Federation never existed, he would never have travelled back in time to inadvertently take the place of Gabriel Bell. The riots will likely still occur, but with the original Bell.

Gary Seven?

Quite some of the commenters also pointed out that the gateway that 'Laris' took Picard through at the end of the episode, as well as the mention of a 'Supervisor', seems to indicate the involvement of #Gary7's people from the #STTOS episode "Assignment: Earth".
I've yet to see this episode, but I'll be sure to watch it in the coming days with @Siiw.

Q lost his powers?

The ending of the episode also seems to indicate Q has lost his powers.
I wonder if one of the changes to the timeline inadvertently also is affecting the #QContinuum now, which he might've overseen. For instance that the lack of The Federation, also means the crew of Voyager never helped put an end to the civil war between the Q factions, or that the influence of the crew of the Enterprise never lead to him regaining his powers in #DejaQ.
But given his "and how unfortunate" reaction, it could also be something related to his health (which as already been alluded to by Picard's comment "you are not well"). If it was his own mistake, I would've expected an angrier reaction somehow...

I wish I hadn't been spoiled about the identity of the woman in that last scene with Q though... I'll not spoil it myself, but... watchers beware... (pun intended).

#STPicard #StarTrekPicard #STP #STPicardS2E04 #TheWatcher