Star Trek does this thing where formal rank isn’t actually as important as being in the captain’s in-group. Can you name anything important that provisional Lt. JG Ayala did on the USS Voyager? I sure as hell can’t, but it was less important than Harry “eternal ensign” Kim.

As much as the Lower Decks gang would like to think of themselves as unimportant, they’re very much confidants of the Cerritos’ senior staff so it’s illogical, but consistent for Boimler to be at the top of the list for acting captain when stuff’s going down.

Out of universe it’s obviously a narrative/screen time thing, I’d say you’ve just got to accept it and move on.

Man, the years were far kinder to Tom Paris than Locarno. Guess being a Starfleet burnout is a pretty stressful existence.

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.

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!

Tendi’s bit was wholesome, but this was a weaker episode overall IMO. I get what they were going for, the jokes just didn’t really land for me.

A bit worried it’ll have a heavy tonal overlap with Lower Decks and thematic overlap with LD/Prodigy.

That said, I really want Star Trek to move to literally anything other than the TOS/TNG eras, so let’s see where this goes.

A bit of a weird episode in that the protagonists didn’t solve much, the two problems just sort of fizzled out for their own reasons.

Kind of surprised that Peanut Hamper was up for parole-- Memory Alpha doesn’t list a specific stardate for A Mathematically Perfect Redemption but judging by the adjacent years and the stardate AGIMUS listed she’s been in Daystrom for less than two years.

IMO this episode confirms that what we saw last week wasn’t an anomaly, Rutherford’s got it bad for Tendi. It’s kind of weird to have him focusing on her encouragement to the exclusion of Mariner (who was in his immediate vicinity!) otherwise.

No T’Lyn in these shots, here’s hoping we still see her through the rest of the season.

Absolutely looking forward to the triumphant return of AGIMUS!

I can honestly see them pulling the trigger on it at the end of this season. This season’s pretty emphatically pushing the gang past their former status quo-- Mariner has supportive superiors, now what? Boimler is in charge sometimes, now what? Figuring this romance situation out would just be running with the theme of growth and change.

I’m happy either way they end up, although I think Rutherford’s comment about green eyes is telegraphing there’s something there, even if he and Tendi are oblivious to it.

Totally was the Sense-Ores admiral from Moist Vessel. Memory Alpha lists him as Admiral Vassery.

maybe they’re doing the star trek thing of having bad/meh early episodes, just on a more compressed time scale. (yeah it’s subjective, but I certainly liked these ones a lot more than the first ones).

I liked this one, just some wholesome series-to-series love wrapped up in a goofy package. A very Lower Decks feel. The Prodigy erasure continues to be a thing but I don’t think that’s ending anytime soon.

And if heavens forbid this is the last Star Trek thing George Takei does at least it’s on the same fun retrospective note as he had in his Crisis Point II appearance.

The Cerritos is continuing the proud Starfleet tradition of having good mental health advisors and a kinda useless ship’s counselor.

Man, I was hoping they’d confirm the commonly held theory that Sokel is T’lyn’s father (since she’s the Sh’val’s version of Mariner). No dice unfortunately.

Really like how Mariner was emotionally mature enough to solve the problem by just talking. Sure, she’s done that some other times (Crisis Point II comes to mind), but she doesn’t really know T’lyn nearly as well as those other examples. Really shows how far she’s come from the therapy-hating Mariner in Season 1. She’s not wrong to point out how Vulcans tend to have a very narrow view of what their species should be like while idolizing paragons who don’t fit that mold. Tear them space elves down, girl!

Other notes:

• One of Shaxs’ officers at the gathering reaaally looked like a Kiley (Kileyan?) from SNW episode 1. Guess Pike’s message stuck.
• I noted previously that they drew the betazoids with larger eye dots to reference their dark irises. Looking back, I think they even did that when drawing Counselor Troi in season 1.
• we don’t often see Tendi being the butt of the joke. guess there’s no place to ham up her excessive emotionality than a T’lyn episode.

Ah, that explains why they actually acknowledged that Prodigy exists for once.

I was about to say that since LD doesn’t color in characters’ irises there’s very little to differentiate the animated Betazoids from humans. But it turns out they gave them bigger black eye dots!

Looks like Tendi’s happy crying in one of the last pictures, so here’s hoping that T’lyn gets some embarrassing wholesome emotions exposed.

I’m a little surprised her ride home wasn’t stolen/stripped for parts.

Fifth most powerful family in the Orion crime syndicate. The people who are above Tendi in the social hierarchy don’t need it, those below probably like living.

Loved this one, prob my favorite of the season so far. We’ve had Tendi’s attitude towards her own Orion heritage hanging over her character this entire show (plus a touch of SNW), so it’s fun to finally dive deeper. I like how T’lyn was used here-- basically as a manifestation of Tendi’s friends prying into her personal life. I wasn’t expecting Mariner’s main role this episode to be running gag, but hey, it worked.

The plot resolution (at least on the character arc side) wasn’t super surprising, but I think it works and goes beyond where we last left the thread of Tendi’s pirate identity in season 3. On DS9 it felt like she just saw herself as a trained pirate trying to be a scientist, here we have the gang affirming that the scientist is Tendi’s real self. For those of you reading queer allegories onto Tendi, this episode just makes them all the deeper.

The Brutherford B-plot was incredibly silly, even as LD plots go. It’s not deep, but I think it was just audaciously funny enough to work. I was initially skeptical of how they just yadda-yadda’d past the guys’ conflict resolution on the holodeck. I think it works because it heightens captain Freeman’s (and the audience’s) disbelief that they’d expect their petty Seinfeld shenanigans would translate to any useful diplomatic measures.

Other notes:

• The big guy from the B-plot friggin’ threw Shaxs. might be the first time we’ve seen Shaxs succumb to the so-called Worf effect
• T’lyn seemed to accept a group hug at the end with nary a raised eyebrow. So un-Vulcan!
• Tendi’s great-grandmother Astrea had the same title Mistress of the Winter Constellations, and if the bouncer’s reaction is any indication it’s related to D’vana being her family’s prime–does that imply Astrea also had a similar path in life before ending up on the science ship D’Var?

Vanessa Marshall as: a different green skinned space lady

Man, I’ve been waiting for a Boimler/T’lyn episode ever since they confirmed she was going to be a recurring character! It’s cool how having an extra member unlocks new sub-group to bounce ideas off each other.

A little let down by this one if I’m being honest. The setup is pretty fun and Vexilon is a charming character. I feel like there was nothing unexpected in Boimler’s plotline though. He’s stressed and sweaty just like we (and his friends) expect, he screws up a little, pep talk from T’lyn, he’s got his confidence and is a good boi leader. Sure, him questioning why he’s fit to lead is interesting, but the little “get your shit together Boimler!” moment is basically what we’ve seen in something the hunt vs Kranch and the resolution isn’t that much different.

I think the only bit of the episode that landed for me was the Dirk/Ransom bit at the end. Sure it feels a little mean and un-Starfleet but the past couple episodes have built up why Ransom’s actually a good superior officer/Mariner’s attitude about him is wrong, and it’s fun to peel back the reasons that he’s not so above it all.

Freeman looks like she’s doing a legitimate non-diplomatic smile in that under-shuttle pic.

We don’t see that a lot, it’s weeeird.