Season 2 of Picard is taking the Q-Picard love seriously

polygon.com:

As a 94-year-old synthetic, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is, predictably, reflecting on the life he’s lived, the lives he’s saved, the adventures he’s had, and the regrets he holds. In season 2 of Picard, Picard is continuing to explore strange new worlds. Just this time, it’s his own love life.

“In the original TNG series [...] it was touched on, occasionally, but not often,” Stewart tells Polygon, “because I don’t think Gene Roddenberry — may he rest in peace — was as interested in that aspect of storytelling.” It was only later, after the franchise was in other hands, that it became an inclusive part of the TNG storytelling, providing, as Stewart puts it, “a greater exploration of who these people were.”

Picard is picking up that baton and running with it, and not just when it comes to the title character. The highs and lows of relationships are explored with every character in season 2 of the Paramount Plus show, not least of which is the one that drove fans crazy in the closing minutes of season 1. As the camera panned around the ship, it moved over Raffi (Michelle Hurd) and Seven (Jeri Ryan) talking at the table, grinning, and endearingly reaching to hold hands.

“What’s interesting is that the emergence of that relationship was really their idea. The two actors, both of them, came up to me and Michael Chabon at a party, and they put their arms around each other,” showrunner Akiva Golsman says. “And they said, ‘This is next season.’”

Of course when season 2 picks up there’s been a time jump; already their relationship is getting complicated, hamstrung by their competing needs and desires. It’s maybe not the swoony romance that fans hoped for in that tentative glimpse of early love bliss, but it’s