Big changes ahead – just not what was expected!
What They Say:
In the season two finale, the U.S.S. Cerritos is tasked to aid an Excelsior-class starship on a first contact mission.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Lower Decks hits its season finale here and I’ll definitely be missing it until it comes back next year. The show is one that didn’t replicate what the first season did but worked a familiar pattern early on by having Boimler elsewhere, making for a return that would bring its own issues. It was certainly fun seeing him away from the ship and how he dealt with things along with how the Cerritos went forward without him. The season delved into the cast more and helped to flesh out the bridge crew as well, and had the best “evaluation” episode ever. Suffice to say, I came away very happy with this season.
With this episode, we get the Cerritos being brought in to help out with a new first contact situation, one where they’ll be outside the system but come in after contact is established and set up some of the tech and then join the party. The problem is that Mariner overhears that her mother is getting a California class ship but can’t bring over her senior staff for it. There’s obviously a misread of what’s going on here but it sets into motion plenty for Mariner after having come pretty far to better establish a relationship with her mother after all this time. The reversed positions episode definitely went a long way toward reinforcing that. Plus, for Mariner, it means a new captain who likely won’t let her get away with the kind of shenanigans she has been, so the self-interest is reinforced as well.
The confusion only gets worse when the bridge crew finds out about this and start taking it out on Freeman, and they find how it’ll get even worse since Ransom won’t be promoted and a new captain would come in. Even Billups goes over the top in a hilarious response. To make matters worse, even the lower decks gang isn’t unaffected as Tendi overhears, incorrectly, about how Dr. T’Ana doesn’t think she has what it takes in medical. But all of this gets cut short when they arrive in-system and a solar flare causes problems with a planetoid that almost completely destroys the California-class ship Archimedes and puts the Cerritos in a difficult position. The Cerritos team has an immense problem of techno-babble in front of them to try and help the other ship and it has Mariner and the Captain really fighting over how to deal with it.
There’s a creative solution that Rutherford comes up with involving the hull that definitely left me amused, but makes sense in that there are certainly layers to the hulls that exist here, especially later in the franchise. There’s a lot of fun action that plays with this section, mostly the third act of the episode, and it’s delightful to watch the crew work together on something big. But we also get the cast all learning different things at times. We do see Mariner understanding that she needs to form more connections, which has her getting along better with Jennifer the Andorian. I really liked seeing Tendi’s storyline play out as Dr. T’Ana makes it clear that she’s better positioned to be a senior science officer if she can manage the training, experiments, and away missions that will get her there eventually. It’s a positive for Tendi. And even Rutherford gets a great little tease of what next season may be as we see him getting a glimpse of his past with his cyborg parts. Of course, the episode has to end on a big comical note of Freeman being arrested, but you know it’s going to be another bit of goofy-ass Pakled stupidity.
In Summary:
I really enjoyed the season as a whole as it didn’t just replicate the first season but pushed everyone in new directions and set up for some solid growth. While they’re not hugely different from the start, they are different and in some ways that’s better than most seasons of TNG in general. I don’t think I have a particular favorite character at this point as they’re all bringing so much to the table, and I haven’t enjoyed a full cast like this since DS9. There’s a lot of solid setup for the next season but the accomplishments here are solid and I’m really enjoying the expansion on this time period in general, even if my preference is to truly move forward. I get some of that in Picard and a whole lot of it in Discovery. Lower Decks just delivers a lot of fun and really great characters.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Paramount+
