T’Lyn saved her last ship by following her instincts, and the Vulcans punished her for it. That’s stupid, because she’d just saved her people, but that’s just my opinion.
That’s what’s sitting underneath “Empathological Fallacies,” the fifth episode of Lower Decks season four, and I thought it was a way better episode than last week’s. If you saw last week’s review, you know I wasn’t happy. This week they actually did a really good job.
My co-host is back for this one. I got her out of bed this morning, even after her shoulder last week in softball, and you should be proud of me for that. I’m actually awake this time too, so don’t worry.
She had one piece of business before we started, because I forgot to put it in last week’s video. You remember the episode with the Moopsy? There’s a stuffed Moopsy. She had to get that out there.
Lady Spock Gets Her Episode
The episode’s broken into two parts. Boimler’s off on his own little mini adventure of self-discovery or whatever, but mainly it’s about T’Lyn, the Vulcan, or as we like to call her, Lady Spock.
She’s tired of constantly being under the emotional distress of the crew. According to her, the distress is all everybody else’s. And I don’t mean what happens in this episode, I mean in general. She feels very much overwhelmed, because we come to find out she’s on the Cerritos as a punishment. So she writes this whole letter, and in essence she’s trying to logic her way back to her old job on the Vulcan ship she came from.
The Betazoids Come Aboard
It all starts with a visit from some ambassadors from Betazed. There’s a ship causing attacks throughout the quadrant, so the Cerritos is the security entourage getting them safely from one place to another. They’re taking them to Risa, which is like a vacation planet.
Immediately everybody on the ship starts acting wonky, and the assumption is that it’s the Betazoids’ fault, Betazoid telepathy or something. My co-host doesn’t really know what that is, but she thought they seemed a little sketchy. They’re talking to each other telepathically, saying somebody’s going to blow their cover, and she’s sitting there going, what cover are you talking about? Later they find out it’s not even them. They’re Betazoids, I guess.
If you remember Next Generation, you remember Lwaxana Troi, Deanna’s mom. They were Betazoids, and she’s kind of like this. So they’re a little bit frisky, and man, does the episode get rough in some places.
We also come to find out that Caitians, Dr. T’Ana’s people, used to hunt Betazoids in ancient times to eat them. I don’t really know what that means, but it was interesting, to say the least.
Boimler and the Security Team
Boimler wants to be the best lieutenant he can be, so everybody’s trying to help him relax. They alert security to his issues, and security, apparently, is here to help. They invite him to slam poetry and puzzle making and board games, and I was like, okay.
He doesn’t realize it’s a helping thing. My co-host had Rutherford as the one who reported him. Then, right when the Betazoids are at their most Betazoidy, he says he wants to see some action, and the second he says it, action shows up. It just goes off.
And because the Betazoids are party people, everybody figures they’re the ones pushing the party on the crew. That’s the Betazoid telepathy part.
It Was T’Lyn the Whole Time
Mariner is the one who takes the time to actually talk to T’Lyn. They’re running away from a crew that’s trying to be overly affectionate with them, and that’s where it comes out that this could be coming from T’Lyn.
She admits it. And she says that on her previous ship she saved the ship by following her instincts, and they punished her for it.
In the end she comes to terms with her emotional turmoil and decides not to go back to her old ship.
There’s No Reason to Break a Replicator
My co-host stopped me for the bird guy. She asked if he’s a therapist. I said he’s the chief science-y something or other. Whatever he is, while everybody’s emotionally distressed, he’s over there beating up the replicator. Hardcore. Tearing it up like it did something to him, because it didn’t give him chewed up soup or something.
Well, he’s a bird. She says that’s still no reason to break a replicator. Agreed. Totally agreed.
She also caught one of the voices. She watches BoJack Horseman, and the lady with the gray hair, the one who hits on the captain, is Beatrice Horseman. She doesn’t know the actor’s name, but she’s really good at pointing out when it’s the same voice. She’s got a skill for that.
The Ship Nobody’s Seen Before
At the end, as the Betazoids are about to be handed off, they give the crew a glimpse of the little starship that’s been zapping the other ships away. And the answer comes back: never seen this one.
My co-host has a theory that it’s bad Rutherford or something, because that’s the only logical thing she can come up with. It might not be, but she thinks it might be.
It could be any number of things. It could be bad Rutherford. It could be Badgey, because remember what we saw at the end of last season, and somehow he’s taken over these other ships. Or it’s Peanut Hamper. Totally Peanut Hamper, because remember, Peanut Hamper is stuck in AI prison.
So look out, ChatGPT. You might be next.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Lower Decks season four, episode five, “Empathological Fallacies,” is an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
My co-host went first and gave it an eight. I think that’s fair, so I’ll agree with her and give it an eight too. Neither of us could name anything we didn’t like. Her words: it just wasn’t like wow, but it was a better episode. It was fun. This is a good episode.
Tell me what you thought of the episode, and tell me who’s flying that ship: bad Rutherford, Badgey or Peanut Hamper. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
