I admit, I’ve been shipping Rutherford and Tendi since season one. And now that they’re pretending to be married, Tendi’s all like, I’m gonna walk around topless in our shared quarters!
I do love how she immediately regrets bringing it up, and how awkward both of them get in the wake of it. Admit it, Rutherford. The thought has crossed your mind at least once. I wouldn’t blame you. She’s cute AND hot!
MRW the ship is overrun by tiny monsters demanding “treats” and threatening us with “tricks, but the captain won’t let me detonate the warp core! #StarTrek#LowerDecks#Halloween
OK, so, there had been the fan theories on a few forums that the mystery ship was working with disgruntled junior crew members of many species, and... OK, yeah, that seems to be what was happening, though the reveal of who was behind it is of course a gigantic deal.
Seeing Captain Freeman pull off the con on totally-not-Mos-Eisley (with its multiple TOS callbacks) made for a great B-plot.
But of course the star of this particular episode is Mariner, and the way she finally opened up to someone, and tied it all back to where the show's name came from.
Yes, Mariner's role model was her Academy friend, former Nova Squad member, Enterprise-D junior officer Sito Jaxa, killed in action in the TNG episode that inspired "Lower Decks". And yes, Mariner saw combat in the Dominion War, and the trauma of that on top of losing Sito is what's shaped her relationship with Starfleet. She's spent her whole career fighting against being promoted becuase she's learned the hard way that senior officers sometimes have to send people off to die and Mariner has already seen and had enough of that for a lifetime.
It feels like the plot of episode 10 now is pretty constrained -- Locarno will offer to rule the Galaxy together with Mariner, or at least reform it, and she'll end up shooting him down with help and support from her friends and family in Starfleet.
But even if the conclusion seems foreordained (though who knows, maybe the writers have as big a surprise in store for next week as they did this week) it's good to see Trek once again getting into the darker side of the fancy spaceship battles. TNG very briefly did it; DS9's later seasons had a lot of that, of course, and SNW went there multiple times in its most recent season, but they still always had a tendency to just reset people back to "normal" or mostly-normal for the next episode. Yes, even on DS9. Portraying the long-term effects of trauma through what we now understand to be Mariner's entire character arc up to this moment is something else entirely, and worth applauding.
Also, the supporting cast all got great scenes and lines, too, which is a hallmark of #LowerDecks and something I hope they can keep up for many seasons to come.
@pbharristoo@allstartrek I have a framed portrait of Martok looking angry & annoyed with J.G. Hertzler's autograph made out to me. J.G. Hertzler is rather political in his personal life. He has some good ideas, but not all his ideas are on point & at times he leans libertarian unfortunately. The fact is with any art, #StarTrek included, you have to separate the art from the artist. Back on twitter he confided in me with behind the scenes info about his #LowerDecks appearance. Really nice guy.
@pbharristoo@allstartrek I don't remember what behind the scenes details he gave me about his #LowerDecks appearance now, but I do remember it was juicy enough for Trek Core to do a post about it. #StarTrek
His interview answers were great (could not really hear the questions). Most important for me: The Mariner/Jennifer thing will get proper closure in season 5.
I mean, I know it's a cartoon, but was anyone else a little excited for just a second when Tendi said she was going to run around in gym shorts topless? #LowerDecks