The Lower Decks series finale stuck the landing hard, and the worst thing I can say about it is that Rutherford doesn’t have a cyborg eye anymore.

It’s the series finale, and it’s so sad. I was so broken up about it. I’m sitting there watching it thinking, oh my god, they stuck the landing. My co-host and I watched it together, same as the rest of the season.

One plug before we get into it. Nerd Fights is the other show I do, and that’s for the one of you who says I never promote it. There you go.

The Message Lands on the Cerritos

At the very end of last week’s episode, our Boimler got a message and freaked out. That message has been received, and now we get to see what the Cerritos does with it.

It’s this really cool moment where Freeman’s reporting everything to Starfleet, and they tell her, well, you’ve got to figure it out. She says, wouldn’t this be better for the Enterprise, or anybody? And they tell her no, they’re busy doing other, more important stuff, and you’re stuck here. Because William reached out to Boimler, the dimensional fissure is their problem to solve.

The Klingons Are Back, Mostly for the Chase

We also get to revisit the Klingons. Remember those fun guys, the two brothers Mariner helped? They’re back, and this time the sister of the Klingon they killed is coming after them.

I felt like the whole Klingon subplot was really just there to contrive a chase and make things more Star Trek-y. They’re being chased, you’ve got the big Klingon ship, and that’s about it.

I did see one thing, though, and this will be of interest to my Nerd Fights partner. When the energy from the fissure went out, one of the Klingons transformed into a different kind of Klingon, and you’ll recognize him. He’s the Klingon from Discovery. I don’t know if that makes them canonized or whatever. All I know is it tells you there is a connection, and some of these alternate universes totally feed into the triple timeline we talk about on Nerd Fights.

Everybody on the Ship Is Fighting About Something

When Captain Freeman goes to take the ship in, there are all these updates they had to make first, and everybody’s got something going on.

Rutherford’s wigging out. He doesn’t like the ship anymore. He says he’s probably not in love with the ship, and I’m sitting there going, no, don’t say that. Right now is clearly not the time.

Tendi and T’Lyn are butting heads because they’re both co-chief science officers, which I thought was weird.

Then there’s a whole thing where people turn on Mariner. Oh my gosh, Mariner, why did you hide the Klingon brother? And she’s like, whoa, what are you even talking about? The thing on the PADD said a Mariner from the alternate dimension hid him, and she says, I didn’t do it. It wasn’t her. So there’s this whole drama, and again, it’s the Klingons contriving the drama.

The Cerritos Turns Into Every Ship You Love

Once you’re past that nonsense, they have to get from point A to point B, because a simple soliton beam, something we Star Trek fans are very familiar with, can fix everything in seconds. But first they have to get past all this energy, which they’re calling Schrödinger waves. It’s great.

Every time they get hit by one, because their shields aren’t ready, the ship transforms into another Cerritos from another dimension. It’s dropping Easter eggs with all the different ships. You’ve got the Oberth class, you’ve got the Reliant, you’ve got the Enterprise, you’ve got all of them. The Galaxy class is my favorite, because I’m a big fan of the fat one, and those of you who watched Picard will recognize that reference.

They get in, they stop all of it, and you find out Ransom is the one who hid the brother. I turned to my co-host and said, oh my gosh, season one Ransom would never. He’s loosened up because of Mariner, in my opinion. It’s funny how in only five seasons we got to see so much evolution.

Starbase 80 Finally Gets Its Due

The space fissure doesn’t go away. They solve it, and it turns into a permanent portal. And everyone who works there is now promoted.

The closest place to it is Starbase 80, and because that’s older technology, it won’t get affected by any of the energy stuff. I thought, what a great use of the stigma on that starbase. The Freemans get assigned there, so the captain goes over with her husband and gets to spend time with him. I love it.

Then Mariner gets on the bridge and you find out Ransom is the new captain. I was excited for that. And Boimler and Mariner are co-first officers. They push back on it because of their friendship, and he basically says conflict can help you grow, something like that. He’s using all these sports metaphors, and I’m like, who? Star Trek guys? I don’t even know what the sports metaphors are.

The One Big Mistake

This was my least favorite part. Rutherford doesn’t have a cyborg eye anymore. It was really weird. I didn’t like it. Did not like it.

That’s the worst part of the entire episode. But if that’s the worst part, we’re in good shape.

Five Years, and They Made Us Care

It was a great show. Five years, and they made us really love and care about these people.

At the very end Mariner gives this wonderful speech in the turbolift while everyone’s heading to their new positions, because they’ve all moved up. And as it goes, you see all these characters. You see Goodgey. You see the little group Mariner and her girlfriend went to, the one that was all, we’re just going to get together and align our chakras, with the candle thing. You see everybody who’s done crazy stuff, and they’re just living their best lives on the Cerritos, as the crew her mother put together. I loved that.

The Verdict

Star Trek: Lower Decks closes out with a 10 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index for the series finale, and an 8.5 out of 10 for the series as a whole.

The 10 is for this episode only. It scooped up the entire series and did a really good job with it, and my co-host and I both landed there. We’re going to show some respect to the end of the series and give it the 10.

The 8.5 for the whole run is where the episode scores averaged out, and that’s fair. We’re both down with it.

It’s been a lot of fun joining you on this journey through Lower Decks. Hopefully Tawny Newsome is working on some new live-action comedy in the Star Trek universe. My Nerd Fights partner and I talk about it all the time, and I’d love it if it ended up having something to do with her as Mariner in live action. That would be fun. They always leave room for people to come in as a cameo or a guest. I’m excited for it. I think it’s going to be good.

I asked my co-host for her final thoughts on the show, and she said, “It was great. Glad you made me do it.” Which means we also have to say goodbye to the yawn meter. Thank you, yawn meter. You did a good job.

Nerd Fights is back this Saturday with a lot to catch up on. A Superman trailer dropped, and that review is on the channel, plus tons of TV shows and tons of episodes.

Let me know what you thought of the finale, and whether Rutherford losing the eye bothered you as much as it bothered me. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.