Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Episode 8, "Surrender."This week's episode of Star Trek: Picard finally saw the reunion of the entire Next Generation ensemble, but before that, it delivered on the emotional cliffhanger of Episode 6. Two weeks ago we saw Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) sacrifice himself so that Worf (Michael Dorn) and Raffi (Michelle Hurd) could escape with the Soong golem containing Data's (Brent Spiner) memories. While it appeared that he'd been apprehended by Starfleet, the final moments of the episode revealed that he'd been taken hostage by the very changeling they'd been running from this entire time. When taken aboard the Shrike, Riker is confident Vadic (Amanda Plummer) won't be able to get him to break until she reveals that she's already taken Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) hostage.
While Episode 7 took us on a fascinating deep dive into Vadic's backstory and saw Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Crusher (Gates McFadden) question their own morality, fans had to wait until Episode 8 to see what happened to Riker and Troi. Thankfully, Collider's own Maggie Lovitt recently sat down with Season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas to unpack Episode 8 and get the details on why this storyline, among others, was held until now—ultimately, it came down to "real estate." Matalas explained: "We initially had them in seven, as well, but cutting between the Rikers and Vadic's monologue was killing Vadic's monologue, and killing the Rikers. It was breaking up the stories in ways that [were] not helping either one of them."
Will and Deanna weren't the only duo whose journey was paused to give Vadic's backstory some breathing room. As Matalas explains,
"We had Raffi and Worf's story in seven and it was hurting Raffi and Worf to cut back to Vadic. So, at some point, you have to say, ‘We have to just pick a story.’ So, we decided seven was going to be the Vadic story. That was going to be Amanda Plummer's swan song. It's so hard, because [there are] so many great ideas and so many great things that go, but you don't have all the time and money to do it."
Star Trek: Picard Episode 8 Delivers Several Long-Awaited Reunions
In addition to finally seeing Riker and Troi make up from their angsty separation at the beginning of this season, Episode 8 reunited Troi and Worf and brought the full ensemble back together for the moment we've all been waiting for since the fateful Next Generation reunion was announced. Matalas wanted to play with the aftermath of Troi's relationship with Worf in the rescue scene and let the actors lean into the comedy of the moment. He told Lovitt:
"I just love the idea that in the rescue, after he's had this journey to Zen, he can't wait to tell Deanna about it. He's just not even looking at Will. They all play it so perfectly. Frakes is the straight man, just sitting there, looking back and forth. It’s fantastic... She's fantastic, Troi's fantastic. Marina is so good, she's always good with the comedy. I wish there was more of it, to be honest with you."
New episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 are available on Thursdays on Paramount+. Be sure to check out Lovitt's full conversation with Matalas for all the behind-the-scenes details on Episode 8. You can also watch our recent conversation with Michael Dorn and Michelle Hurd down below.