Star Trek: Lower Decks Reforges Its Strongest Relationships

Kirk and Spock. Burnham and Georgiou. Janeway and Tuvok. The record of Star Trek duos whose relationships outline a lot of the emotional cores of their collection goes on, and on, and on. In a pairing like Boimler and Mariner, Lower Decks isn’t any exception. But this season has seen the pair shift and shuffle round sufficient that it has come time to lastly handle the elephant within the holodeck: the place do they stand with one another after season one?

The previous few episodes of Lower Decks’ second season have targeted on splitting up what had turn into the standard pairings of Boimler/Mariner and Tendi/Rutherford. Episode 5, “An Embarrassment of Dooplers,” brings us again to the collection’ most beloved duo. With the Bridge Team on the way in which to Starbase 25 as they escort an emissary from a stress-induced duplicating race known as the Dooplers, Boimler and Mariner discover themselves making an attempt to crash a Starfleet Command convention afterparty aboard the station. They achieve this by leveraging the unused invite of Boimler’s clone William aboard the Titan to slide in and rub shoulders with Starfleet elite. It falls again sufficient into these regular beats from the duo’s relationship in season one which it’s virtually a bit of too acquainted: Boimler sees the celebration as an opportunity to attach with Starfleet’s higher echelons and discover his path to rating up, Mariner simply desires to celebration and crash an area she’s been saved out of due to her risky relationship with authority. With the Cerritos immediately barred from docking when the Doopler ambassador’s talents go haywire in a second of embarrassment (and Tendi and Rutherford are off constructing a scale mannequin of the ship for enjoyable, as a result of they’re nerds, extra on that later), Boimler and Mariner sneakily beam off within the hopes of constructing it into the celebration, which… goes about in addition to you’d count on.

Turns out, in simply one other undisclosed element Boimler by no means knew about his pal, Mariner used to dwell on the Starbase as an unruly youth, and her previous “accomplices” rapidly meet up with her. The pair are rapidly roped into smuggling disruptors underneath the disguise of a crate of Data-themed bubble tub statuettes (though a few of them could be Lores, who can say). Once once more, it’s basic Boimler and Mariner: Boimler simply anxiously will get roped alongside as all the pieces will get additional and additional out of hand, from buggy chases by means of the promenade to shut encounters with avians, whereas Mariner takes all of it in stride. But there’s an undercurrent of simmering rigidity between them that also exists ever since Boimler left for the Titan on the finish of season one, as the 2 find yourself quietly sniping at one another till all of it comes out on the steps of Ballroom Alpha, and Boimler is allowed in whereas Mariner isn’t. They’ve not spoken about how one another really feels since Boimler returned from the Titan, and the way careless it was of him to depart his associates and not using a phrase to chase a promotion within the first place. From his facet of issues, Boimler feels undervalued by Mariner for not being sincere sufficient with him to let him know her upset sooner.

There’s an analogous frustration aboard the Cerritos too, as Rutherford and Tendi discover themselves surrounded by a sea of quickly duplicating Dooplers, and Rutherford, unable to observe his pre-memory-wiped self’s directions on how you can end their ship mannequin, admits his personal drawback to his pal. He feels misplaced and behind on the ship, and with Tendi, as a result of he’s misplaced a part of a 12 months in his restoration course of, and it’s stressing him out. He can’t end the mannequin, which he thinks makes him a foul engineer, which in flip makes him a foul pal with Tendi as a result of he’s holding her again from ending it too. It’s good that Lower Decks is definitely lastly taking the time to deal with among the lingering emotions from final season’s finale. As satisfying because it has been to date, season two has felt extra prefer it was going about reverting a few of these larger penalties from season one to slip again into its comfy hijinks-of-the-week format. And making the relative lack of addressing that rigidity an precise level—that these duos haven’t been speaking with one another correctly within the first place, settling into the identical previous as an alternative of addressing their frustrations—makes the precise emotional climax between them hit significantly better than if Lower Decks had already gotten this dialog out of the way in which.

Of course Rutherford is just too uncertain of himself to be sincere about his emotions with Tendi. Of course Mariner is just too used to being distant with folks to let Boimler know the way upset she was that he left her behind. But with it out within the open, every respective pairing can really take a second to sit down down and speak to one another. Tendi reveals to Rutherford that the explanation he can’t perceive his previous notes to construct their mannequin is as a result of he isn’t meant to—they purposefully obfuscated the way in which to complete it so they may maintain having an excuse to hang around and maintain different folks away from them within the course of. On Starbase 25, Boimler and Mariner notice how lonely they’re when separated, and find yourself skipping the celebration to drown their sorrows at a rickety promenade bar. Hell, it’s even how the Cerritos stops the Doopler disaster. They notice that if the crew stops making an attempt to be delicate and dance across the topic and as an alternative be (very bluntly) direct with them, they’ll focus sufficient to un-duplicate.

The day is saved, the celebration is blown, and everybody finally finally ends up hanging on the bar with Boimler and Mariner—the place, it seems, Kirk and Spock as soon as ditched the Command celebration to hang around as an alternative. Now, because it was then, it’s the folks closest to you within the boldly going that matter probably the most, not entry or the privilege of Starfleet’s higher echelons. Now that our Lower Decks heroes have realized that once more after a ways from the occasions of season one, possibly the remainder of their adventures this time round can shake issues up a bit of.

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