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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard‘s Season 1 Finale
The season 1 finale of Star Trek: Picard ended with an eyebrow-raising confirmation that Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is gay – and she rocketed into space hand-in-hand with a new flame, Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd). The addition of Seven, the most popular character from Star Trek: Voyager, was one of the best parts of Star Trek: Picard and fans even hoped that it would lead to the heroic ex-Borg receiving her own spinoff. But Star Trek: Picard‘s reveal that Seven now prefers women (especially Raffi) came as a surprise – unless fans were paying attention.
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Seven’s sexuality was low-key hinted at soon after she first appeared in Star Trek: Picard but the truth about the part-cyborg vigilante was always there throughout. Star Trek: Picard revealed Seven of Nine had a tragic past as a freedom-fighting Fenris Ranger in the 14 years after synthetics (including herself) were banned by the United Federation of Planets. Soon after she saved Picard and the crew of the starship La Sirena at the planet Vashti, Seven joined them on their journey to Freecloud. But Seven wasn’t interested in finding Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales) or saving the galaxy like Jean-Luc was; rather, Seven was on a mission of vengeance for the murder of her surrogate son Icheb (Casey King) by a crime lord named Bjayzel (Necar Zadegan). Once they confronted each other, however, the tension between Seven and Bjayzl, who was a seductively attractive woman, exceeded mere hatred and indicated there was something more intimate between them in their shared past.
In Star Trek: Picard episode 5, “Stardust City Rag”, Seven of Nine hunted down Bjayzl and killed her in cold blood, mercilessly disintegrating her ex-lover point-blank with phaser rifles. But they were ex-lovers, and this was evident by how Bjayzl spoke to Seven, who she knew by her real name, Annika (Hansen). The episode wasn’t explicit and didn’t go into many details about what went on between Seven and Bjayzel in 2386, but the former Borg’s pure loathing and desire for revenge belied Bjayzl’s complete betrayal of Seven by murdering Icheb and stealing his Borg implants. It was easy for Trekkers to write off Seven of Nine’s quest for blood as vengeance for Icheb, but the personal animosity seething beneath the surface was also an unresolved sexual tension between the hero and villain.
However, Seven of Nine ending Star Trek: Picard season 1 romantically interested in Raffi came out of nowhere because there was little prior interaction between them. When Seven first beamed onto La Sirena, she mainly commiserated with Picard about being reclaimed Borg; in fact, Raffi left to meet her estranged son and she wasn’t even part of the mission to save Bruce Maddox from Bjayzl. Raffi certainly knew of Seven’s reputation but the ex-Borg soon left La Sirena, only to return to save Elnor (Evan Evagora) and commandeer the Artifact from the Romulans. Still, Seven didn’t even speak to Raffi when Picard’s crew boarded the Artifact after they all crashed on Coppelius in Star Trek: Picard episode 9.
Prior to Star Trek: Picard, Seven of Nine’s main love interest was Chakotay (Robert Beltran) on Star Trek: Voyager – but that was over 20 years ago by Picard‘s era and people certainly grow, change, and discover truths about themselves over time. Meanwhile, despite the fact that Raffi has an ex-husband and a grown son, Star Trek: Picard also very subtly hinted at Musiker’s sexuality when she contacted an “old (female) friend” in Starfleet who got Picard diplomatic access to the Artifact. Still, the out-of-the-blue pairing of Raffi, a recovering addict, and Seven of Nine, the remorseful ex-Borg warrior, is certainly a surprising but compelling development. With Seven now joining the crew of La Sirena, Trekkers look forward to how the romance between this odd couple plays out in Star Trek: Picard season 2.
Star Trek: Picard Season 1 is available on CBS All-Access and internationally on Amazon Prime Video.
