[S2E6] Performance Review

When it comes to staging musical numbers on major television series, there is likely no one more experienced than Ryan Murphy. From his work on the countless performances of Glee, to the few disparate numbers in American Horror Story, Murphy knows how to give a television audience a good show.

[S2E6] Performance Review

This is what I mean when I talk about how weird this show is. Daniel's big performance being totally ignored doesn't feel like it's part of a coherent story, and it's not because there aren't threads of a coherent story to be told about Daniel: his grievances with Alex, his frustration with his career, his increasingly fraught relationship with Mia. But ... what?

New episodes of Star Trek: Picard season 2 beam onto Paramount Plus (US) and Crave (Canada) on Thursdays. Viewers elsewhere can watch the show on Amazon Prime Video on Fridays. For more Trek action, check out our reviews of Star Trek: Discovery season 4.

Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill) sings a famous 1980s pop song in Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 6 but listen closely and the song choice reveals a lot about the twisted relationship between Agnes and the Borg Queen (Annie Wersching). As Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the motley crew attempt to protect Jean-Luc's great-great-great aunt, Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell) at the Europa Mission Gala, they are all completely unaware that the Borg Queen has assimilated Dr. Jurati. The Borg Queen sinks her hooks even further into Agnes so that, after her showstopping performance, the Queen has completely taken possession of Jurati.

However, after Agnes left jaws slack and wowed the black-tie audience (as well as Picard's crew, who had no idea Agnes could sing), Jurati learned that her performance was all a ploy by the Borg Queen for Agnes to build up enough endorphins from the high of singing. Agnes' anxiety was preventing the Borg Queen from fully seizing Jurati's mind and the standing ovation was all the alien tyrant needed to take possession of Agnes, mind and body. The Borg Queen simply got tired of 'holding Agnes' hand' and decided it was time she took the wheel and drove. Dr. Jurati was under the mistaken belief that she could control the Borg Queen and Agnes discovered too late that she was never in charge and the Queen was simply biding her time to get what she really wanted.

Cinda records an ad for her podcast. When she's finished, Poppy and Luis tell her she did great. Cinda's phone chimes and she asks Poppy about a meeting to set a performance review. Poppy says that's for her. She'd like Cinda to review her performance and consider a promotion if she finds it adequate. Cinda asks Luis what he thought of the Jimmy Russo interview. He thought it was unreal. Poppy found that guy. Cinda says she doesn't normally consider promotions until year five, but she agrees to think about it.

Maeve's journey had its hectic conclusion as Lee led her to her old narrative stomping grounds, and of course we knew there was heartbreak ahead. Plus, while Sizemore was thanked for his brief helpful contribution to her mission, he was soon back to his old tricks, using the communications unit he stole from a corpse last week to call for help. Wonder if anyone cares enough about him to come and rescue him? The Maeve narrative sometimes felt like it wasn't going to tie into the main narrative (though we still enjoyed it thanks to Thandie Newton's performance), but with the Ghost Nation commander talking up their "shared path" it certainly sounds like things will change, even if Maeve is a little too traumatised to realise it yet.

On Episode 13 of Season 3 of the Securities Compliance Podcast: Compliance in Context, host Patrick D. Hayes is joined by Debbie Hennelly, founder of Resiliti and an expert on organizational resilience by creating cultures of integrity, innovation, and inclusion, to discuss how to handle the physical and mental parts of being a compliance officer. In the Headlines section, Patrick looks at the recently published SEC Enforcement numbers and reviews the recent rulemaking on the investment adviser oversight of service providers. Finally, Patrick wraps up the show with another installment of History Has Your Back, where he examines the life of Eve Ball and embracing a new perspective as we enter into the season of annual compliance reviews. 041b061a72