Are you freakin' kidding? He's the threat?
Well, maybe he has accomplices.....
I give it a 9.
Wesley: It was me all along, Mariner. I was the architect of your pain.
Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 4x09 - "The Inner Fight"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Wesley: It was me all along, Mariner. I was the architect of your pain.
Probably means she’s still in Starfleet. They were ex-Starfleet personnel which Crusher is at this point.
This was a perfect combination of the Mariner and the disappearing ship arcs. 
Nick Locarno? What a throwback.
Nick Locarno? What a throwback.
Lower Decks closing a season strong again, with an excellent first section to a two-part season finale.
Mariner's character arc over the course of the season is finally paid off, with the hanging question from the sixth episode finally answered. I'm a little surprised that Sito Jaxa was a friend of hers. That seems to suggest Mariner is canonically in her early 30s though, which sounds about right. Regardless, I'm still astounded by the ability of this show to pull off character arcs better than Trek shows with full-length episodes.
The other lower deckers get little to do here, though what they lack in emotional pathos they make up for in terms of humor. Boimler continues to get some of the best one-liners in the series (making up somewhat for his character arc being stagnant since Season 2), and T'Lyn's wonderful Daria-esque deadpan was a welcome return. Tendi and Rutherford don't get much to do, but you can't fit them all in here.
Turning to plot, the payoff for the seasonal mystery was absolutely bonkers, and I can't wait to see where this is going next week. I'm happy that Ma'ah is back as well. Given the Bird of Prey was still active, and only a handful of crew were stranded on the planet, it seems like Locarno was really just kidnapping senior officers from each ship, and turning them over to the lower deckers? It might make for an interesting idea thematically, though I have a hard time taking it seriously, even in the lower decks world.
The B-plot involving Freeman, Shax, and Rutherford trying to infiltrate the crime planet was pretty insubstantial, but it was mostly there to leaven the more heavy character drama of Mariner's arc with some more genuine jokes, and the twist that Freeman was indeed not an idiot saved this segment's believability. I was getting a bit of a Star Wars vibe out of the planet, and I wish they leaned into it a bit harder, but I'm sure Paramount didn't want to get sued.
On the whole, pretty much everything you'd want out of the first part of a two-part Trek story. Lots of it was just setup. Let's see next week how the payoff goes.
Mariner's character arc over the course of the season is finally paid off, with the hanging question from the sixth episode finally answered. I'm a little surprised that Sito Jaxa was a friend of hers. That seems to suggest Mariner is canonically in her early 30s though, which sounds about right. Regardless, I'm still astounded by the ability of this show to pull off character arcs better than Trek shows with full-length episodes.
The other lower deckers get little to do here, though what they lack in emotional pathos they make up for in terms of humor. Boimler continues to get some of the best one-liners in the series (making up somewhat for his character arc being stagnant since Season 2), and T'Lyn's wonderful Daria-esque deadpan was a welcome return. Tendi and Rutherford don't get much to do, but you can't fit them all in here.
Turning to plot, the payoff for the seasonal mystery was absolutely bonkers, and I can't wait to see where this is going next week. I'm happy that Ma'ah is back as well. Given the Bird of Prey was still active, and only a handful of crew were stranded on the planet, it seems like Locarno was really just kidnapping senior officers from each ship, and turning them over to the lower deckers? It might make for an interesting idea thematically, though I have a hard time taking it seriously, even in the lower decks world.
The B-plot involving Freeman, Shax, and Rutherford trying to infiltrate the crime planet was pretty insubstantial, but it was mostly there to leaven the more heavy character drama of Mariner's arc with some more genuine jokes, and the twist that Freeman was indeed not an idiot saved this segment's believability. I was getting a bit of a Star Wars vibe out of the planet, and I wish they leaned into it a bit harder, but I'm sure Paramount didn't want to get sued.
On the whole, pretty much everything you'd want out of the first part of a two-part Trek story. Lots of it was just setup. Let's see next week how the payoff goes.
A lot of fun and unexpected surprises in this one. Freeman being smarter than she let on, Mariner's demons running deeper than expected, and Nick Lacarno... what's he up to? Well, since he's one of the list of discarded characters I wanted an update on, I look forward to finding out. It's probably less awful than my head canon that he drank himself to death in the real Sandrine's.
I have to admit, I was expecting the threat to be Boimler's twin in Section 31.
The reference to Sito was a nice callback to the original TNG Lower Decks episode, although when Mariner started talking about losing a friend she admired in Starfleet, I immediately thought of the friend we saw get killed in the flashback to Deep Space Nine in, I believe it was season 1
The reference to Sito was a nice callback to the original TNG Lower Decks episode, although when Mariner started talking about losing a friend she admired in Starfleet, I immediately thought of the friend we saw get killed in the flashback to Deep Space Nine in, I believe it was season 1
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I think the intent of the b-plot was to satirize Star Wars. And I agree, they should have leaned harder into it, but I also think that it accomplished a lot. There have been times when Trek has had characters go to seedy bars for information, like Unification and Stardust City Rag, and to me, they seemed imitative of Star Wars. I loved how they combined tropes here. It's a seedy bar in the middle of an oasis town that caters to a "type." But it also has an enforcement mechanism like Studio 54. It might be interesting if LDX takes a broader comical look at science fiction.
Another strong episode, but I must confess, I feel like everyone was bowled over but me. The callbacks to that bad boys was fun. It reminded me a lot of Unification I and II, the different parts of the story not really hanging together particularly well. The b-story with Mariner and Rutherford was a nice bit of satire. The a-story was well written, but the only place I felt it shined was when Mariner started talking about Sito. The reference seems out of the blue, but nonetheless, it's an effort to try to take account of the long term effects of service on people in Starfleet. Concluding on Sito's agency--her choice--landed the episode in a nice place.
9
This is a very consistent season. I might have rated one episode 7, but it seems like the others are 8s and 9s.
9
This is a very consistent season. I might have rated one episode 7, but it seems like the others are 8s and 9s.
My patience was rewarded. Captain Freeman blows her stack on an individual who has an unfortunately uncanny resemblance to Balok.
I just love it when she loses her cool.
But these are the lines which had me rolling in the aisle. Side-splitting subversion!
You're not alone.
Even though Dr. T'Ana was hardly in this one?
Well, "The First Duty" was set in 2368, which would put her DOB as 2349 or 2350, depending on if she was first year or second. Assuming she graduated in '71 or '72, she's likely 30 or 31, with about nine years of service.
I still want Beckett Mariner to be Tawny Newsome's IRL age.
40 y/o Liutenent Jr. Grade.
I wonder how many aliens or species actually hate the UFP / StarFleet because they're a bunch of friendly do-gooders?
Boy this joke didn't work at all.
The thread title was originally all **** and I found it amusing. Clearly I'm the only one.
Great episode.
That Mariner was friends with Sito, is great considering we last saw her in the episode this series is named after.
I wish they'd just used Tom Paris' animation model for Locarno though!
That Mariner was friends with Sito, is great considering we last saw her in the episode this series is named after.
I wish they'd just used Tom Paris' animation model for Locarno though!
Sorry 'bout that.
Well, I think we more got the "Thirty Days"/"Alice" version.
I always love callbacks to obscure characters. Definitely appreciated the Sito reference and was pleasantly surprised to see Locarno. I was listening carefully and saying to myself "Please be Robert Duncan MacNeill's voice!"
Although, for him to be the villain of the season seems so random!I noticed this too! Was half expecting Ewoks to appear
Carol Freeman apparently served with Riker at some point, which makes me wonder if Mariner was a child on the Yorktown. She would have been roughly Wesley Crusher’s age and probably knew him as well as all of the others at the Academy and heard all his Enterprise stories, though she must not have been caught up in the scandal that tripped up the others.
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