Why Star Trek: Picard shouldn’t resurrect this relationship

Star Trek: Picard airs on Paramount Plus on Thursdays.

When season one of Star Trek: Picard ended, there were relationships building between Raffi and Seven of Nine and Captain Rios and Dr. Agnes Jurati. Though Raffi and Seven seem to be working through some issues with their relationship like Seven’s committment issues, Rios and Jurati had ended their romance by the time the first episode of season two premiered. And let’s hope the Star Trek: Picard writers don’t ressurect this couple.

Now that they are apart, Rios and Jurati have snappish conversations that feel more genuine than any romance that weakly started in season one. While romance is all the thing in a series, there is such a thing as shoving two people together who just have no chemistry, and that’s where Rios and Jurati are.

Star Trek: Picard shouldn’t force a romance between Rios and Jurati

Sometimes, there is a tendency for a series to want to push a couple together because producers/writers think that’s what the show needs. But Star Trek has never been all about romance, and though each of the series brought some of it in, it was not the main focus of any of the series, even when Lt. Paris and Lt. Torres became involved on Star Trek: Voyager.

Collider writer Monita Moran said that, in describing Rios as a romantic figure, “Rios and Jurati had (and still have) zero chemistry.”  And creating a romance between two characters who just don’t have that unique connection often proves to be painful for viewers.

Could it be that chemistry would grow over time between these two? Perhaps, but given Picard’s few episodes alotted each season, is it really worth the time to dedicate to a possible romance that might not work? The series is ending next year, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s storyline has to end with a happily ever after. It certainly didn’t happen for all of the characters on other Star Trek series. So it’s okay to leave futures up in the air rather than create a couple that simply doesn’t work for the sake of tying up all loose ends.

Let’s hope Captain Rios and Dr. Jurati can maintain their own place in the crew without having to be coupled up to do it.