Logline
Who knows? They never released one.
Edit: They finally released one - how novel to release the actual episode first!
Captain Freeman assigns the Lower Deckers an overly safe mission to try and keep a self-destructive Mariner out of danger.
Written by: It’s a secret (it was Mike McMahan)
Directed by: We’re not tellin’ (it was Brandon Williams)
This may be Lower Decks finest penultimate episode yet. I definitely feels at this point like McMahan has a five season plan. At least for the OG Lower Deckers.
Definitely an episode that plays the emotional fiddle for TNG fans with the Sito reveal as well. Currently weighing up whether to get my partner to watch First Duty and Lower Decks before we watch it together later.
Laughed out loud at the Endor Moon base inexplicably being on this random insane weather planet.
Great to have Robbie McDunc back as Locarno as well. If nothing else this may finally kill the urban myth that they didn’t use Locarno in Voyager due to royalties once and for all. I can but only hope.
I also like that they’ve let Freeman come into her own as a Captain more than previous this season. She’s really demonstrating not just top tier tactics and diplomacy but also actually clearly keeping tabs on her crew and addressing out of character behaviour. With that said, Rutherford felt included just for an excuse to follow Freeman which was a shame.
Billups as the masked pilot surprised me. I expected it to be Locarno.
The fake out Balok puppet had be howling.
Rutherford hanging out with Freeman is presumably setup for the finale, giving us three perspectives without compromising the focus on the main gang. He did feel a little tacked on though.
Great to have Robbie McDunc back as Locarno as well. If nothing else this may finally kill the urban myth that they didn’t use Locarno in Voyager due to royalties once and for all.
I don’t understand the reasoning here. Why would Locarno’s return for one or two episodes kill the theory that Paramount didn’t want to pay Moore and Shankar ongoing royalties for seven years?
That isn’t a theory, that’s true isn’t it? Original show notes were for Paris to be Locarno, but it was going to be far too expensive for them over the years (total cop out IMHO). Think of Locarno coming back as this; Moore and Shankar are finally getting some of that skrilla
I think the official explanation is that they thought about it and judged Locarno as irredeemable - “a bad guy in the guise of a good guy” whereas Paris was supposed to be “a good guy in the guise of a bad guy”. But I tend to agree that money was the determining factor, as it so often is.
It’s not an urban myth at all that Tom Paris was a renaming of Nick Locarno.
Kirsten Beyer (now a senior producer in the Secret Hideout shows) verified this point with Jeri Taylor (creator of Voyager) back when Kirsten was writing the Voyager Full Circle Treklit books. It’s covered in an afterward. Doubt that would have been cleared for publication if not true.
That said, whatever the meta situation, onscreen canon can be whatever the current EPs want. So, I’m curious where they’ve decided to take this.
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I felt like Freeman included Rutherford because his “gee whiz! lookee there!” naïveté added to her misdirection.
“What in the minimalist hell?” got me lmao
Mariner always has the funniest way of being annoyed or angry
Dunno why they didn’t bother promoting this episode, it was great. I was initially skeptical that it was just going to be a “Mariner is angsty” episode without much of a payoff, but they finally revealed everything. And they gave Ma’ah screen time doing it!
The confirmation of how the Dominion War scarred Mariner wasn’t much of a surprise, but the tie back to the Lower Decks of old was. What an absolutely crushing reason to lose the optimism in what Starfleet can be. Props to Tawny Newsome for some good voice acting for an emotionally vulnerable moment.
Minor complaint/discontinuity: in this episode Mariner seemed surprised that T’Lyn was present at the fight against the Pakleds and the Klingon BoP in Wej Duj, although I seem to recall T’Lyn explicitly referencing that incident to her in Empathological Fallacies.
Speculation about next week: I’d hazard a guess that Locarno is a thematic version of what Mariner could become if she isn’t careful. He’s a Starfleet ace gone bad, and also Sito’s former friend, so he’s presumably got a lot to sell her on the troublemaker’s life.
God, I typed a lot and didn’t even get to Freeman’s misdirection this episode. It was good, watch it!
T’Lyn did mention an “encounter” with a Klingon and Pakled ship to Mariner, but Mariner may not have connected that with the Cerritos.
Imagine the Kolvoord Starburst you could do with a klingon, romulan, ferengi, binar and cardassian ship
Really strong episode, although I am skeptical about the Locarno reveal, I could’ve imagined cooler things, but we’ll see where they’ll take it from here
Annotations up at: https://startrek.website/post/3057890
Hmm… according to Freeman’s intel… the Mystery ship was seeking out Lorcano… but as far as I can tell… he’s the mastermind.
Why would he want to find himself?
Hiding in plain sight, perhaps?
Alternatively, maybe he built the ship, but it’s being used by someone else.
But the mystery ship is already built… implying they’ve had him for quite a while now. Why search for something they already have?
There were loads of overt Star Wars references in this episode which was fun.
- Music queues were distinctly more John Williams-y.
- Scene transitions hidden behind ships travelling past the screen.
- Scariff style forcefield over one planet.
- Tatooine like architecture.
- Tatooine cantina shape and style to the bar.
- A masked bounty hunter with an unintelligible language is actually an undercover ally.
- The weather station is reminiscent of the Endor shield array.
- Attacking a technological foe with sticks and war cries was similar to the Ewok battle in RotJ.
Some folks had a good day when they signed all that off.
Definitely a next-to-the-finale
I know no one is reading this anymore, but Wa’ah helping Marriner with her issues is clearly a callout to the way the community has responded to that line in TNG “No one would suggest that a Klingon would make a good counselor” and the memes that have been created with Klingons being GREAT counselors! Incredibly straight forward, obsessed with defeating any obstacles in their way, there is no more honorable combat than against one’s own challenges.
Pretty clear “Star Wars” fan fun in the animation this episode. Tatooine-ish planet visited by Freeman’s crew, even arriving in a land speeder shaped shuttle. Mariner and Ma’ah hide in Yoda’s house. The transmitter looks like the imperial base on the moon of Endor, and Lorcano lives in a home inspired by Jabba’s palace. Love it when my nerd interests collide.
Yes! I noticed all this too. My first thought was “What, did get run out of Trek refrences and are now dipping into the Wars?”
Definitely a next-to-the-finale
The he’s a puppet misunderstanding reminded me of a similar scene in The Big Lebowski.
Talk about absolutely crushing it. I was blown away with the huge reveal. 4 seasons of buildup to “Why is she this way?”
It was Seito all along. Crushing emotions across decades with a masterclass of buildup. Bravo.
Sito Jaxa, the original lower decker no less! We met her in an episode before TNG’s “Lower Decks”, which killed her off. It’s fitting that her loss shaped the trajectory of the show that took that name.
