Star Trek Picard: Every Easter Egg & Hidden Reference From 'Nepenthe'

Riker gives Picard some advice: Take baby steps with Soji and think of her more like a teenager. Appropriately, Picard immediately decides to mock Soji and she shoves him really hard.

Troi responds by telling him "This isn't something a ship's counselor is supposed to say, but you had it coming." Of course this is a reference to Troi's time aboard both the Enterprise-D and E as ship's counselor. In that role, Deanna was always understanding and compassionate. Except when she wasn't like in "The Loss", "Man of the People", "I, Borg" (in which she's clearly irritated when Picard ignores her advice), and etcetera.

We kid Troi though, "Nepenthe" is actually a great episode for Troi as a counselor and a character who often went under utilized in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Riker calls Troi Imzadi, which dates all the way back to the pilot which also established Riker and Troi's romantic relationship prior to their time as coworkers aboard the Enterprise. Imzadi is the Betazoid word for "beloved" and also the title of a Star Trek: The Next Generation romance novel from 1992.