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Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Showrunner Opens Up About the Shocking Jack Crusher Twist


WARNING: This article contains spoilers about the second episode of Star Trek: Picard season 3 titled "Disengage." Read at your own risk.

The recent episode of the current season of Star Trek: Picard featured a shocking twist regarding Ed Speleers' Jack Crusher, who was introduced at the end of the first episode. As everyone already speculated, the new character turns out to be Jean-Luc Picard's son.

However, before that pivotal moment, we've already been seeing hints of that confirmation such as Jack's actions being reminiscent of the younger Jean-Luc and Riker suspecting it earlier on in the episode as he is observing Jack while Jean-Luc is still reluctant by that time.

Eventually, near the end of the episode, it became official when Beverly and Jean-Luc locked eyes in an emotional moment at the bridge where the former non-verbally communicated to the latter what we've known all this time. It prompted the admiral to save his son and ordered the Titan crew to disregard Captain Shaw's orders.

Speaking recently with Collider, showrunner Terry Matalas explained why he decided to introduce Beverly and Jean-Luc's son in the new season and revealed how the conversation with Gates Mcfadden led to that decision.

"You had to have Beverly Crusher have really legitimate reasons for keeping this away. So we went into a deep dive into Beverly and who she was, and we found it kind of started to make sense the more we talked about it, and the more we talked about it with Gates [McFadden]," he said.

"Gates brought her own motherhood into it. And then as we brought Gates and Patrick together, and we talked about it, we were able to craft, I think, reasoning in the storyline that made sense."

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The showrunner also discussed why he decided to reveal the twist by the end of the episode instead of dancing around it throughout the season or revealing it early on even though it is already obvious the moment he was introduced.

Matalas continued, "Right away, the second he says, "I'm her son," I wanted them to be like, 'They know. They both know what's up.' And the idea that Riker pokes him a little bit. It's like, 'There's just something about him.' And to play the denial, for Picard, that is, 'it just can't be true. It just can't be true.' So that [when] he has that admission by the end its really satisfying."

In terms of the dialogue-less moment regarding the reveal, Matalas also explained why he went with that creative choice instead of a usual conversation scene that we've seen in most films and TV shows when it comes to moments like this.

"There really is no great version of that conversation. Do you really need to hear, "Is he my son?' 'Yes, he is, Jean-Luc.' It's not great. But, there's something absolutely beautiful about these two characters who haven't seen each other in decades, and she's been absent the entire episode," the showrunner said.

"At the most intense moment, Riker brings her onto the bridge, and they lock eyes, and he knows. It felt to me that it could work. I wasn't sure if I was going to get it past Patrick [Stewart], but he went for it. He never doubted that it could work, and so we did it."

Based on the responses, a lot of fans really like the way the episode executed the reveal even though it was obvious to the viewers that Jack Crusher has a familial connection to Jean-Luc Picard. Now, we can't wait to see how this will all play out in the rest of the season, especially once Beverly and Jean-Luc talk about it further.

Also Read: Paramount and Amazon Set Major Star Trek International Deal

New episodes of the third season of Star Trek: Picard premiere every Thursday on Paramount+. You can check more details about it here.

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