I had such a good time following the comments from friday’s strip talking about Picard’s complicated romantic relationship with Bev that this seemed like a good next bit to tackle. And for a guy who was just giving other people a hard time for breaking character, Picard sure is having trouble keeping it together here.
The question in my mind is this: is Bev actually wanting to flirt with Riker, or is she just enjoying having Dax flirt with Bashir? Or is the latter allowing an excuse for the former? Or is she mostly just using this as an excuse to get up Jean Luc’s shirt a little bit and make him uncomfortable? Or some sort of n-dimensional chess gambit to get him to wake up and smell the Crusher? And is Picard thinking through the “why would you go after her, she’s super old and gross?” argument?
I feel like maybe none of them have thought this through super carefully, in any case. Off-screen: Troi taking copious notes.