The first previous “Trek” episode worth mentioning here is “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” about the Enterprise-C (the immediate ancestor of Picard’s ship) traveling forward in time while embroiled in a fierce battle. The ship vanished from said battle, causing the entire timeline to shift, leading to a present where Picard and co. are now still embroiled in that same war decades later. The solution is to send the Enterprise-C and its entire crew back to the past where they are destined to be destroyed. But, in so doing, the crew will restore the peaceful timeline we all know and love. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is incredibly clever and tactfully deals with causality in interesting ways. 

The other episode more significant to “Penance” is “Tapestry,” a “Next Generation” ep. wherein the omnipotent trickster god Q (John de Lancie) allowed Picard — perhaps having already died on the operating table due to his artificial heart — to relive a portion of his youth wherein he was grievously injured. Picard does relive his youth, but applies the wisdom and caution of his older age. He can prevent the injury of his past, but his cautious personality leads back to a present wherein Picard is now no longer captain, and is in fact unambitious and weak-willed. It’s the best episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” 

In the “Picard” episode “Penance,” Q has returned, politely aging himself. Now the immortal Q looks a lot like John de Lancie does in 2022. I am fine with this conceit, as it visually allows Picard and Q to converse as equals; older men who are both keen on exploring the deep and abiding failures of humanity. Q’s goal throughout “Star Trek” has been to reveal to Picard that the universe is larger than his mind can contain, and that humanity is constantly teetering between a massive intellectual shift forward and a headlong reversion back to the violent savagery of its recent past. 

At the end of “The Star Gazer,” Q had transported Picard — and the rest of the show’s main cast — into an alternate timeline on a ruined Earth, revealing to Picard that, but for a twist of fate sometime in the distant past, Earth would be infected with murderous xenophobia and end up destroying most of the galaxy. Picard is a bloodthirsty general in this timeline, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) is the fascist president of Earth (and was never assimilated by the Borg), Dr. Jurati (Allison Pill) is a lot like Josef Mengele, and Raffi, Elnor, and Capt. Rios (Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, and Santiago Cabrera) are scattered throughout a hellish landscape of murder and pain. 

Q challenges Picard to accept that this is a very real life he could have led.