A Public Service Announcement for viewers of the fourth episode of Picard Season Two.

TV  Just a short note for those of us a bit confused about what looks like a massive fucking continuity error in this week's Picard.  I wouldn't read this if you haven't watched it yet.

Throughout, for various reasons, I kept shouting "Time's Arrow" at the screen and waving my arms around.

Then I took to Twitter, did a quick search and then felt like a total idiot as I read through this Screen Rant click bait.   

The future has been changed.  Which means everything past 2024 is different which means many of the time travel episodes I listed here, including Time Arrow never actually "happened".

This Picard, or at least the body that his mind from the proper timeline now inhabits, didn't go back in time and meet Guinan at the earlier date and so when she meets him in Ten Forward, it's for the first time from her point of view.

No continuity error here folks.  Sigh.

Here's a longer quote from one of the show runners and an interview with nuGuinan, Ito Aghayere, at Variety (in which she talks about watching Guinan's previous appearances and how that fed into her acting choices).

Perhaps, though, when he mentions his name, she has one of those moments when memories of that timeline brush against hers which is what leads her to take him to see the Watcher.  She doesn't have details.  Like Yesterday's Enterprise, she knows that something is wrong but can't put her finger on exactly what that is.

If the show understands continuity enough to refer to Sanctuary areas as per DS9's Past Tense (another story which hasn't now happened), it'll be completely aware of Time's Arrow and working around it.

Why didn't Picard just bring it up anyway?  Why add an extra level of confusion for the casuals?

Aha, but what about the Kirk Thatcher cameo?  The whales presumably became extinct even in the alternative 23rd century, so the probe still arrived and almost destroyed Earth so nasty Kirk and Spock still had to go back in time to capture the whales, still met Kirk Thatcher, Spock still gave him a nerve pinch and well, there we are.

Perhaps next week, they'll explain how Picard doesn't seem to know what a Watcher is, despite having met one on numerous occasions.