Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 8 - "Mercy"
Regardless of whether Q's (John de Lancie) Q finally answered Guinan's (Ito Aghayere) summons, and the El-Aurian bartender was shocked when the formerly omnipotent being confessed he lacks his powers and he's deathly ill. Q enlisted the help of Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) to help him change the future but Q also told Guinan that all of his machinations are really intended to help Jean-Luc Picard.
After decades away, Q reappeared in Picard's life and put the Starfleet iral back "on trial" at the start of Star Trek: Picard season 2. Q claimed Jean-Luc was responsible for the timeline being changed into the dark reality ruled by the Confederation of Earth, but it was really Q who traveled back in time to 2024 Los Angeles to take the future in a different direction. Q changed the timeline by Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell), an astronaut for the Europa Mission who is integral to the future. In response, Jean-Luc and his motley crew time-traveled to 2024 to stop Q, who suddenly realized that he lost his powers in the past. Q decided to recruit Adam Soong by dangling the cure to his daughter Kore's (Isa Briones) genetic disease, although Q ultimately gave Kore her cure and the "freedom" to walk her way from her diabolical father. But all of these plots and schemes lead back to Jean-Luc Picard for Q.
Now that he's dying, Q claims that he thought he'd finally find meaning in his existence but instead, he sought it by trying to help Jean-Luc Picard answer the biggest question of his life: Why Picard chose to remain alone? With this "good deed" for Picard, Q wonders whether "a single act can redeem a lifetime?" Yet, his entire scheme is confusing and convoluted. Even if it works, it doesn't appear it will reverse Q's fatal course. Q is fading away into nothingness regardless of whether or not Picard finally comes to understand his decision to remain alone. Q also hasn't indicated if Picard choosing to change his own life would somehow lead to an extension of Q's and if their fates are tied together. Rather, Star Trek: Picard season 2 seems to be building towards the end of Q.
It's also possible that Jean-Luc's decision to travel back in time to stop Q has adversely affected Q's abilities. When Q was able to change the timeline by stopping Renée Picard's Europa Mission, he still had the power to travel back to 2401 and taunt Jean-Luc over all of the ways the Confederation was different from the United Federation of Planets and the reality Picard knew. In fact, Q technically saved Picard's life and the lives of thousands of Starfleet Officers since they were going to be killed by blowing up the USS Stargazer to stop the Borg Queen. Yet Q was ill even in 2501 and it was noticeable to Jean-Luc. But Q didn't intend for Picard to time travel to stop him and Q insisted to Guinan that Jean-Luc made that decision on his own.
Taking Q at his word, it seems all of his actions are, at their core, meant to actually help Jean-Luc Picard find romance and change the error of his ways, even at his advanced age. Perhaps by helping Picard find the meaning in his life of solitude, and do something to turn it around, Q hopes to share in the success and potential happiness of his favorite human. Still, Q's methods are difficult to comprehend even if his motives are fundamentally pure, which may also not be the case. It's hard to trust Q's word about anything. One thing that Q isn't obfuscating is that he's dying. With Star Trek: Picard set to end with season 3, season 2 may be leading to the demise of Q whether his plan to "help" Jean-Luc works or not.
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.