Mariner broke up with her girlfriend by walking past her in a bar without saying a word, and this week’s Lower Decks makes her answer for it up a tree while a giant D20 rolls around underneath her.
It’s an away mission that may or may not be dangerous, and maybe a breakup. And joining me for the first time this season is our very own Baby Know-It-All. You guys missed her. I knew you did.
It’s the final season, which is so crazy and sad, and it kind of reminds me of her. She’s in college now, and it’s the final season. She yawned right in the middle of me saying that, so put it on the yawn counter.
The Mission, and the Thing That Glomps
What a fun episode. The Cerritos is sent to a planet with a little silvery microorganism going around eating energy. Rutherford gives it a name. I thought it was the Glompy, my co-host heard the Glompus, and what he actually says is, “I decided to give the nanites a name since they glomp so much.” Cute.
We went back and forth on which story is the A plot. I kind of thought the A and the B meshed together, the nanites and Mariner, and the C plot is Boimler. Who, by the way, has a really weird beard and mustache thing going on. I understand it’s left over from the past episodes. Now it looks weird. Get rid of it.
The away team is our normal Cerritos group: T’Lyn, Tendi, Rutherford, Mariner, and Mariner’s on again, off again girlfriend Jennifer. My co-host didn’t remember her. They used to date, and it was right before last season, when Mariner got sent off to Starbase 80 for mutiny and all that. Apparently that was the breakup, and they never talked again. So now Jennifer is suddenly all “yeah, babe,” and kissing on her.
Boimler was supposed to go with them, but Ransom and Billups pull him onto a special mission. “You, me, and Billups are going on a little undercover mission.” Boimler loves spy stuff. He wants to know if they get to wear the black bodysuit.
That’s Not How You Break Up With Somebody
As they’re working the mission, Mariner tells her friends how it actually went. “I couldn’t have been any clearer. Okay, here’s how it went. I saw her in the bar, and instead of talking, I just walked right past her.”
Is that how you break up with people? I asked my co-host whether that’s how she would break up with someone. That’s not how we would do it. I’m sorry, but Mariner’s a weirdo. That was a very strange relationship choice, for sure.
Jennifer figures out the creature is attracted to energy, so the plan is to use a little energy crystal. And Mariner figures she doesn’t have to have an emotional conversation at all. Jennifer is transferring off, so just finish the mission. That’s going to solve something. Absolutely.
There’s no time, so they boost it. The creature shows up, and it gets bigger. It went from the tiny blob to a bigger blob.
Then they go to the place where Krog is performing. My co-host loves seeing girl Spock again. “She’s my queen.” And T’Lyn idolizes this guy. Mariner tries to split the group up: “My sweet loving girlfriend and I will take the balcony. The rest of you check the orchestra.” And Jennifer says, “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
Up there, the big silver ball gets at the thing that powers the auditorium, and that’s when it becomes a giant rolling D20. “It’s an icosahedron. Oh my god, run!” It eats T’Lyn, Tendi and Rutherford. At first we don’t know what’s going on, and then they show us inside, and they’re actually doing pretty good in there. They’re trying to figure out how to get out. But it’s just absorbing and eating everything.
Up a Tree With a D20 Underneath
Jennifer and Mariner run from the giant D20 and climb a tree, and that’s where it finally comes out.
“We aren’t a couple. We broke up a year ago.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Wait, what? You do? But the babying and the kissing?”
“I was kidding with you.”
Jennifer’s point is that Mariner did it all on her own terms. Jennifer never got to say anything or express anything. So now they’ve officially broken up, and they’re working together in a much better capacity. Totally a healthy breakup, I’m sure.
Then they let themselves get sucked into the thing so they can help the others inside figure it out. Through this and that and technobabble, they solve it. The thing melts, and they’ve stopped the giant D20 from eating everything.
Boimler, the Man With No Hands, and the Sunscreen
The reason for the undercover mission is an admiral who’s gone AWOL. Before Boimler even leaves, there’s a guy who lost his hands who tells him not to go with Ransom, that Ransom is going to use him as a shield. My co-host says he low-key traumatized him, and I think that’s absolutely fair. It sets the tone for the entire mission. You get to see Boimler be particularly Boimlerly, a complete freak, and it’s really funny.
The whole time, he’s trying to avoid dangerous things no matter what. At one point he’s talking to a group, eating and drinking with them, and come to find out they take that to be very intimate. They’re insulted, and Ransom is like, “What are you doing?”
The admiral likes to hang out on this big, dangerous mountain, so that’s where they track him down. And he tells them he’s the admiral who gets handed all the horrible assignments. He basically milks space whales, which is really gross to think about. Then he offers Boimler a job. Come on, man, join us. There’s a play on words on AWOL in there, and I love it.
Ransom explains himself. He didn’t bring Boimler along to be cannon fodder, or the canary in the coal mine, which is great. He picked him because he’s always prepared, like unhealthily always prepared, and because he’s wiry. And he calls him a good officer, which is all Boimler needs to feel appreciated.
So Boimler does the whole Boimler thing. The decision has been made. He puts sunscreen all over himself, uses the sunscreen as a weapon, and starts spraying it in everyone’s faces. You can hear one of the guys say it’s like trying to catch a string bean. He picks Boimler up, and Boimler slips right out. Then he uses the sunscreen to get Ransom and Billups loose.
Their fake names are really funny, too. One of them is Gilbert, and he won’t answer to anything else. “She’s a Denobulan, right, Sandy? Sandy? Gilbert?” “Yep, that’s her.” “Fine, Gilbert.”
They catch the admiral because he’d been using the people around him the same way he had been used, and they tell him, yeah, we’re going to go, we’re done.
Another Ship From Another Universe
So the admiral is caught and brought back to Starfleet, and the Cerritos away team has caught the little glompy thing, only to find out there’s a tiny ship inside it. It’s like Voyager, but it’s a different name. I forget what ship it is. And it’s from another dimension.
I’m seeing the theme. The first two episodes had to do with alternate universes or parallel worlds, and now this is another ship from another universe, and they have to figure out how to get it home. I do believe that’s going to end up being the running theme this season. We’ll see what it leads to in the very end.
T’Lyn Is a Fangirl
My co-host’s favorite part is T’Lyn and Krog. She has to play the little tubey vibe instrument, and then it explodes. Then she meets Krog and apologizes for how disrespectful that was, in her little Spocky way, and he tells her he practices Vulcan meditation.
Then Tendi gets her a little gift. “It’s Krog’s autograph. It holds no scientific value. I guess I can recycle it. I should keep it in my quarters in case I need to study handwriting in the future.”
She’s a fangirl, which is good. My co-host has her favorite bands. Go to a concert, because concerts are awesome.
The Verdict
Star Trek: Lower Decks lands at an 8 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index for this episode.
The number is my co-host’s. She gave it an eight because it’s the first episode this season she’s actually reviewing with me. I agree. I think it’s definitely an eight.
It’s kind of fitting, too. It’s only appropriate that her final reviews with us would be Lower Decks.
Never forget, everyone loves Tendi.
Let us know what you thought of the episode, and whether you’re excited for the rest of this final season. I know we are. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
