Did Star Trek: Picard set up Picard’s romance in the “The Star Gazer”?

This post contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard Season 2 episode “The Star Gazer.” 

Star Trek: Picard left Admiral Picard’s love life alone in season one, but series star, Patrick Stewart, said that would be explored this season, and that it was a romance of “a very different nature.” In the first episode of the second season, “The Star Gazer,” Admiral Picard has resumed his life at Starfleet, but there is still something missing, something he discusses with Guinan, his long-time friend who we haven’t seen in over twenty years. That something is love, and viewers got a hint at that back at Picard’s chateau.

Laris, the Romulan housekeeper for Picard, was originally married to Zhaban, who she had been promised to since birth. Sometime between the ending of season one of the series and the second season premiere, Zhaban died. At the opening of the season, a year and a half has passed since his death, and Romulans, as Laris explained, love with all their heart but are open to more love after their death of their spouses. And that’s where things get more than a little interesting.

Will Admiral Picard finally find love in Star Trek: Picard?

Admiral Picard is in his nineties in the series, but it’s not unusual for humans to live longer lives in his century. They were even living longer in the 24th century as when Admiral McCoy visited the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first episode, “Encounter at Farpoint,” he was already well into his160s. So Picard could have many years ahead of him. Why should he spend them alone?

The first episode of this season ended with Picard coming face-to-face with Q again, and the trailer that followed the end of the episode didn’t show any additional interaction between Laris and Picard, but that could mean the series is saving that for the last. A relationship between the pair could definitely be the something different Stewart described as there was no love lost between Romulans and humans when Picard captained the Enterprise. So him finding love with a member of the race that was previously an enemy would be a way of acknowledging how the world has changed. Whatever happens, hopefully, the series won’t end with Picard still alone.

Star Trek: Picard returns every Thursday on Paramount Plus.