I finally got an episode of Lower Decks this season that I liked. Season 4’s been a little lackluster. It hasn’t been bad per se, but it’s definitely been wanting in a lot of areas. “A Few Badgeys More” is really good.

We get Peanut Hamper back, and we get AGIMUS back. My co-host wants it on the record that her theory was totally wrong. She thought Peanut Hamper might be the one behind the mystery ship all season, and no, she’s not. Peanut Hamper’s slaying, though, so good for her.

Another Ship, and the Bynars

It opens with another one of those ships showing up, and this time it goes after the Bynars. If you know The Next Generation, you’ll recognize them from an early episode, the one that’s literally titled “11001001.” My co-host said they sound like sped-up talking. That’s because they’re computer people. They talk in a computer language.

From there, Peanut Hamper’s up for parole, and AGIMUS says he has information about the disappearances.

Why Is It Always These Four

I’ll be critical here like I’ve been lately, even though I enjoyed this one very much. I thought it was weird. We hardly ever see the command crew of the Cerritos anymore, and I keep asking why these four are the four they go to for this kind of stuff. I just went, whatever.

Then they split them up. Mariner and Rutherford go after Badgey. Tendi and Boimler (yes, I blanked on his name for a second, the guy with the black hair, I knew that) go after Peanut Hamper and AGIMUS. AGIMUS was in an old episode, and I feel really bad that I couldn’t remember which one. It was a long time ago. Super callback, in an episode full of callbacks.

So everybody goes separate ways, and they’re having two halves of the same adventure.

Badgey, Goodgey and Logic-y

I was with my co-host on being wrong. I honestly thought Badgey was going to end up being the bad guy behind all of it. I was wrong also.

Badgey’s on this horrible murder spree. Rutherford tries to talk him through it, gives him a hug, tells him it’s okay. And Badgey splits away and pushes out his good code, which creates Goodgey. My co-host thought he was so cute and loved him. Goodgey was pretty awesome.

They try again to help, and he splits one more time and pushes his logic out, which is Logic-y. My co-host said he looked like Spock, and he totally did. Star Trek has a thing where logic is a very base trait, like the Vulcans.

It all resolves when Badgey tries to join himself to all of the Starfleet ships so he can blow them all up. But once he reaches that level of power, he gets enlightened, ends up joining the space koala, and ascends to a higher plane of existence. That leaves Goodgey with Rutherford, and they head back to the ship.

Then there’s this whole thing where everyone’s worried Goodgey is going to become evil, which I think is just silly. My co-host says she’d be worried about Goodgey too. He might be fun right now, but so was Badgey. Fair enough.

Peanut Hamper Actually Meant It

Over in the other storyline, AGIMUS gets them to take him out to meet up with Peanut Hamper, because he assumes she wants to meet at this one place and conquer it. Peanut Hamper doesn’t show up. AGIMUS conquers it anyway, with Boimler and Tendi along for the ride. And Boimler the whole time is like, yeah, sure, we can reverse all this, what I want is information on the ships that are attacking other ships in the quadrant. He’s trying to solve the mystery.

They end up tracking Peanut Hamper down to the starbase where all the other exocomps are, helping out and doing work. And come to find out, Peanut Hamper actually, genuinely got rehabilitated.

My co-host had this part cold. The two of them had been planning out the parole speech and making it fake. But then Peanut Hamper says no, it’s actually not fake, those are her genuine feelings. She’s hanging out with her dad. AGIMUS shows up and asks what happened, and she tells him the thing she wrote was very meaningful. And he goes, oh my gosh, the only reason I wanted to take over planets is because I was spending time with you. She says, you’re my best friend. And now they’re best friends.

A Weird Reversal of “I, Borg”

The episode ends kind of like the last Peanut Hamper episode did. AGIMUS gets put back into the AI prison. But then Tyrannikillicus, the killer AI, asks if AGIMUS could show him how to learn to do other things. It’s so funny.

In a weird way it reminds me of the Next Generation episode “I, Borg,” where that one Borg gets rehabilitated and Picard says, well, I’m going to send you back and see what happens. So who knows. Maybe AGIMUS teaches all the killer AIs to not be killer. It’s like a weird reversal of that whole thing.

What AGIMUS Gave Up

I almost wrapped up without this, and my co-host stopped me, because it’s a very vital part of the story. AGIMUS did come through with the information. The ships aren’t getting destroyed. They’re being stolen. All these ships are being taken somewhere. Where? No idea.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 7, “A Few Badgeys More,” is a 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

I’m actually really happy with this one. I said nine, and my co-host said, oh my gosh, same. Nine out of 10.

I think we might see AGIMUS again someday. I’d also love to see a redeemed Peanut Hamper come back through as a Starfleet officer, but this time the right way, as a member of the crew who actually helps. That’d be kind of cool. My co-host would love to see more Tyrannikillicus. Totally.

Do you think we’re going to see AGIMUS again someday? Let me know what you thought of the episode. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.