Picard's journey across three time periods reaches its climax as he learns the anomaly he must stop began with his own crew.
The series finale continues Picard's jumps between the Enterprise-D's first mission, the present day and a distant future. In each era, ships under his direction head for an anomaly in the Devron system, and he slowly realises that a tachyon pulse fired in all three periods is what created it, a spreading rupture that will prevent life from beginning on Earth.
With help from his crews in every era, including an older Riker, La Forge, Crusher and Data, Picard closes the anomaly and returns to Q's courtroom. Q reveals the test was about whether humanity could think beyond its limits. The episode ends with Picard joining his senior officers' poker game for the first time, a closing note on the family the crew had become over seven seasons.