Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Star Trek: Picard Season 3 episode "Vox." Read at your own risk!
Star Trek: Picard set the stage for what should be an epic finale that rivals even the most celebrated of TNG movies, but it came at a cost. Fans were finally given the long-awaited moment of Seven of Nine getting her flowers as a top member of Starfleet... unfortunately, in the most tragic way possible. With his dying breath, Captain Liam Shaw declared that Commander Seven was now Captain of the USS Titan.
Despite the satisfaction that I felt seeing Seven of Nine finally becoming a captain of Starfleet – albeit unofficially for the time being – I couldn't help but mourn the loss of Todd Stashwick's beloved Shaw. I asked Jeri Ryan in an interview if the moment was just as bittersweet for her, especially after sharing so many scenes with Stashwick in Star Trek: Picard Season 3, and got her thoughts on the matter:
Of course it was. I loved working with Todd as an actor and as a friend and from day one, I said [Shaw] was my favorite character. I loved him. I loved the way he played him. I loved the way he was written. I just thought he was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. So, yeah. That was a very emotional scene for all of us to shoot for a lot of reasons.
By a chain of command and by Captain Shaw's final words, Seven of Nine is now interim Captain of the USS Titan. Of course, due to the recently uncovered Borg plot that compromised the younger crew of the Titan and many other ships in the fleet, Seven will have her work cut out for her trying to regain control of the ship. She and Raffi stayed behind while Picard and his crew reunited with the Enterprise D.
And while her promotion might not be officially approved by Starfleet command, Jeri Ryan confirmed she's just as thrilled as fans for it to happen. The actress added that she had to sit with that knowledge for quite a while, even long before the season officially started filming:
Terry [Matalas] told me that before we started shooting when we all had our individual meetings and heard what the plan was for all of our characters. Yeah, that's something I've been sitting on for a long time.
Assuming Seven of Nine survives the end of Star Trek: Picard, the stage is set for her to have many adventures in the future as Captain of her own Starfleet ship. Of course, fans and the cast of Picard are still pushing for a follow-up to the series, but there are no guarantees of any future adventures for Seven happening just yet.
As it stands, viewers have seen Seven of Nine change quite a bit from when she was last seen on Star Trek: Voyager. I asked Jeri Ryan how she feels about the totality of Seven's story now that she's done with Picard, and if she could've predicted where it ends in Season 3. She shared her honest thoughts on it all:
I'm thrilled. I don't think I would have predicted this season's story. So that was sort of a surprise for me. I love it. I think it's phenomenal and it's perfectly fitting for the character and all of it is great, but that was sort of surprising to me. ...I say that I sound like a broken record when I say this, but this character has been such a gift from the beginning as an actor. Dating back to, you know, 20 whatever years ago on Voyager when she was created. And the last three years of carrying her development through and her and her story it's been such a treat. It really truly has.
Jeri Ryan has come a long way since needing several glasses of champagne to be convinced to return as Seven of Nine in the first place. Now, that decision has led to a tremendous arc for former Borg that has taken the character from the Fenris Rangers all the way to her current position in Starfleet. It's even sweeter to know that Ryan has enjoyed the journey just as much as fans and her time on Star Trek: Picard.
If you have a Paramount+ subscription, be sure to be ready for the series finale of Star Trek: Picard on Thursday, April 20. It feels like we're in for a truly epic finale, though based on what we heard from Michael Dorn, perhaps not the end of the line for these beloved characters.
