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The End is the Beginning is the third episode of the first season of Star Trek: Picard, an American television series in the Star Trek franchise featuring the character Jean-Luc Picard.

Plot
When Picard resigned following the synth attack on Mars, Starfleet fired Raffi. Now she resents him for that, and for not helping her in the subsequent years, and refuses to join him. However, she does find him a freelance pilot named Rios. On the Artifact, the reclamation project's director, a former Borg drone named Hugh, allows Soji to interview a Romulan that has been reclaimed from the Borg. This Romulan declares Soji to be "the destroyer" and tries to kill herself, but Soji unknowingly uses her enhanced speed to stop her. Narissa warns Narek not to get emotionally attached to Soji. Oh approaches Dr. Jurati, who reveals her discussion with Picard. Shortly after this, Picard is attacked by Zhat Vash operatives. Jurati helps kill all of them but one, who also calls Soji "the destroyer" before committing suicide. Picard agrees to take Jurati on his mission to find Soji, and the pair transport aboard Rios's ship La Sirena. There they are also joined by Raffi who believes that Soji's creator Bruce Maddox is on Freecloud and will travel with them that far.

Production and release
The episode was released on February 5, 2020 on the streaming service CBS All Access.

Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 94% approval rating with an average rating of 7.28/10 based on 18 critic reviews.