Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 10 - "The Last Generation"Star Trek: Picard season 3's series finale "The Last Generation" saw Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D take on the Borg, who were still critically wounded from the events of the Star Trek: Voyager series finale "Endgame." What seemed like a Changeling plot motivated by the fallout from the Dominion War for most of Picard season 3 turned out to be an unlikely team up between the treacherous shape-shifters and the Borg. Through Picard's newly revealed adult son, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers), the Borg attempted to evolve and continue their conquest of the galaxy.
The last time Picard and friends took on the primary timeline Borg was in Star Trek: First Contact. While Picard was ultimately able to defeat them, the Borg were still considered a lethal threat throughout the galaxy. That changed significantly with the events of Star Trek: Voyager's final episode "Endgame," which set the stage for Picard's final showdown with his greatest enemy over two decades later.
What Happened To The Borg In Star Trek: Picard Season 3’s Finale
With the revelation that Jack Crusher had been seeded with biological Borg technology through his once-assimilated father, the young man found himself drawn to a voice, similar to the one he'd been hearing in his head his whole life. That voice, of course, turned out to be the Borg Queen (Alice Krige), who lured Jack to a crumbling Borg cube hidden in Jupiter's atmosphere. The Borg Queen, now physically decaying and surrounded by dead and dying drones, utilized Jack's unique biology to infect everyone in Starfleet under the age of 25 with a biological Borg virus, essentially making them organic drones.
After pulling the restored USS Enterprise-D out of the Fleet Museum, Picard and his command crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation head for Jupiter to retrieve Jack and save Earth from destruction at the hands of the assembled fleet. Picard leaves Commodore Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) in command of the Enterprise-D while he boards the Borg cube to confront the Borg Queen and save Jack. Picard manages to extract Jack from the Queen's influence, and the Enterprise-D destroys the cube with the Queen inside, seemingly ending the Borg threat for good.
What Happened To The Borg In Star Trek: Voyager’s Finale
The Borg's compromised status is touched upon a bit in "The Last Generation," though not in great detail. While the Borg are primarily associated with Picard and Star Trek: The Next Generation, they would become a major presence in the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager. The personal journey of former Borg drone Seven Of Nine (Jeri Ryan) became a focal point for many of the show's stories in its back half, and of course would eventually become a major part of Star Trek: Picard.
In the Star Trek: Voyager series finale "Endgame," the crew of the titular vessel are forced to travel through a nebula inhabited by trillions of Borg, including the Borg Queen. They find themselves unexpectedly assisted by a future version of Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), who has come back in time to help Voyager get home sooner than it did in her timeline. The alternate Janeway infected herself with a neurolytic pathogen and then allowed herself to be assimilated; the pathogen infected the entire Borg collective, dealing them a devastating blow they'd still not recovered from decades later.
Why Didn’t Admiral Janeway Appear In Star Trek: Picard Season 3?
No Star Trek main character has a stronger tie to the Borg than Jean-Luc Picard, but Kathryn Janeway is not far behind. Not only did she deal them a massive setback in "Endgame," her relationship with Seven became one of Voyager's most enduring aspects. Now a highly decorated Admiral, Janeway was mentioned several times in Star Trek: Picard season 3, but never actually made an appearance.
The reason for Janeway's absence in Star Trek: Picard was explained by showrunner Terry Matalas as a restriction the show had to manage due to her involvement in Star Trek: Prodigy. That series takes place about two decades before Star Trek: Picard, with Admiral Janeway as one of its central figures. There have also been hints and suggestions that there may be other live action plans for Janeway, so it makes sense that Paramount would want to keep her off the table for now.
Where Were Star Trek: Picard Season 2’s Borg In Season 3?
While Star Trek: Picard season 3 saw the return of the main Borg collective for the first time since Star Trek: Voyager ended, the Borg did play a role in the show's first two seasons. A Borg cube that was cut off from the collective and seized by Romulans for study and profit, known as the Artifact, featured prominently in Picard season 1. Overseen by the former Borg drone known as Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco), the non-Romulan inhabitants of the Artifact attempted to free as many dormant drones from Borg influence as possible.
The Borg again played an important role in Star Trek: Picard season 2. Shunted to a dark alternate timeline by his old rival Q (John de Lancie), Picard and the crew of La Sirena were forced to work with that timeline's version of the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) to travel back in time and restore the timeline. That Borg Queen took an interest in Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), eventually assimilating her and transferring her consciousness to her before dying. However, to the Borg Queen's surprise, Agnes was able to wrest some control from her, complicating her plans to continue assimilating the galaxy.
After a pitched battle for control of Agnes' mind and body, she and the Borg Queen came to a sort of understanding where they would create a new, voluntary Borg collective that strived to take care of its own rather than conquer the rest of the universe. Agnes' Borg collective offshoot still exists as a Federation ally, watching over a mysterious transwarp hub on the edge of the Alpha Quadrant. While Star Trek: Picard seems to have closed the book on the original, nefarious version of the Borg, Agnes' more benevolent collective could still figure into future stories.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.