I liked this a lot. I'm not sure if I'd say it's the highlight of the season (liked last week more) but this is still Lower Decks firing on (almost) all cylinders. I cannot say it's quite perfect because it's not as good as Crisis Point, but as the show itself notes, sequels almost never top the original.
Unlike (unfortunately) most of the season, this was genuinely a highly funny episode. It seems like the writers decided to have Rutherford be the comic relief this time around, and just about every single interjection he had was amazing. Though the humor didn't end there...there were tons of references to the different Trek movies, references which largely worked because they relied upon visual references rather than just saying "hey, remember this thing from this episode?"
The other aspect of the episode were the character arcs. Just as the first Crisis Point was Mariner's episode, this is meant to be Rutherford's episode. His dead transporter twin causing an existential crisis literally came out of nowhere, but it allowed us to see a side of the character we had henceforth not really been exposed to. It was also good because it allowed us to see Mariner play a supportive role, something which has been rare given how bossy she is. That said, I didn't really feel any empathy for Boimler here...it just came across as kinda pathetic.
I was really hoping when Tendi and Rutherford traveled back to the founding of the Federation that we were going to get a Jonathan Archer cameo, but seeing Sulu in what's more or less the Nexus was almost as good.
Ultimately, kinda disposable fun, lacking the pathos of the first Crisis Point, but still a really great romp.
