Recap / Star Trek: Lower Decks S4E10 "Old Friends, New Planets"

Mariner attempts to foil Locarno's plans while the Cerritos defies orders to rescue her.

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Tropes:

• 2-D Space: Averted. Mariner flees along a straight plane and tries to warp away without considering the Trynar shield, causing the computer to abort the sequence. She then has to pull up to avoid a crash, showing the shield extends up and around the entire system.
• Achilles' Heel: Tendi chose Dr. Migleemo for a Trial by Combat with the Brawn Hilda Orion B'Eth over Shaxs and Ransom because she knows B'Eth has really bad allergies. When Migleemo's feathers get ruffled she's out for the count... landing on Migleemo and still winning the match.
• Ambiguous Ending: The episode (and season) ends with Tendi watching the Cerritos disappear under warp, letting out a breath and saying "Okay, you've got this" before turning around and sporting a devious look on her face. This puts a lot about Tendi into question that we won't be able to answer until next season.
• Ambiguous Situation: Locarno is explicitly mentioned to be targeting and recruiting non-Federation citizens to his cause. However, while the Bynars were only seen once back in TNG's first season, it was implied that they were Federation members as Starfleet was having them work on their computer cores. While Federation members are shown to be using their own non-Starfleet ships, the status of Bynaus as a Federation member becomes more difficult to explain.
• Answer Cut: When Rutherford and Livik start arguing over the repairs to the Retribution, T'Lyn proposes a way to get them to agree — and then dashes Billups' hopes for a mind-meld. Cut to the Mark Twain holoprogram, where the two junior engineers are sharing folksy compliments.
• Apple of Discord: Mariner tries to sow seeds of dissent with the various crews that have joined Locarno. She doesn't gain much traction, but Locarno ends up doing the heavy lifting when he starts barking out orders against the spirit of his organization.
• As You Know: Ransom explains Locarno's backstory to Tendi, even though he had already explained it to her in the previous episode. Even worse, she's the one who asked about Locarno in both episodes.
• Ascetic Aesthetic: Mariner nervously tries to compliment Nick's ship, the Nova One but can only think of commenting on how stark white everything is. Nick proudly states this was his idea, mocking Starfleet's choice of carpeting and wood panelling.
• Asteroid Thicket: When Mariner needs a place to hide, she finds "dangerous space debris" orbiting an unnamed planet. The debris looks very familiar.
• Authority Sounds Deep: Boimler deepens his voice a bit when put in command of the Cerritos. Tendi compliments him on it, which causes him to revert to his normal voice momentarily to thank her.
• Back for the Dead: Locarno's return last episode is done to give him an explosive send off in this one, his atoms scattered by a Genesis Device and integrated into a new planet named after him.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Lorcano tries to get Mariner to speak on his behalf during his broadcast:
  Mariner: Hey, what up, everyone? I have an important message for all you lower-deckers out there. [Beat] THIS GUY SUCKS! He's an idiot and his plan is stupid, he's going to get you all killed because he only cares about himself!
• Berserk Button:
  • When D'Erika calls the Cerritos a "measly support ship", Billups gets furious at her and rolls up his sleeves to fight her before Ransom pulls him back.
  • When Locarno beams onto the Passaro and finds out that Mariner has started the bomb, he brags:
    Locarno: Oh, please! I graduated top of my class. You think I don't know how to disarm a bomb?
    Mariner: First off, You Didn't Graduate!
• Big "SHUT UP!": Locarno repeatedly shouts at Mariner to shut up when she reminds him that his ego got Albert killed.
• Bittersweet Ending: The situation is resolved without starting a war in the process. Locarno is dead, but in the process, he ended up creating a new planet which is being named after him, which the Federation hopes to use to house refugees. However, Tendi has to leave the Cerritos, potentially for good, as per her promise to her sister.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Dr. Migleemo, like some terrestrial birds, is able to fluff his feathers to make himself appear larger as a threat display, similar to Dr. Phlox's pufferfish face reflex.
• Call-Back:
  • Back in "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place", one of the things Boimler notes is that everything has a Cash Gate and Rutherford and Tendi visit a restaurant centered around the "Federation Experience". Not only does the "experience" include a real working Genesis Device, but even the Genesis Device requires latinum to work!
  • The Mark Twain holoprogram is used once more to help Rutherford and Livik come to an agreement. Freeman is baffled by why such an absurd method works.
  • Mariner's escape from Locarno's base is reminiscent of the prison break program she used to exercise back in "Strange Energies".
• Canon Immigrant: The Sphinx Workpod makes its official appearance here, having only been seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual and meant to show up in the TNG pilot, but was too expensive.
• Cash Gate: Locarno is able to disarm the Genesis Device, but since the bomb was designed by the Ferengi, it demands two bars of latinum to be deactivated. Since Locarno doesn't have latinum on him, the bomb immediately detonates and kills him.
• Cerebus Call-Back: All season long we were treated to quirky antics of the lower deck crews on various alien vessels, with the characters boasting about how they would quickly move up in rank right before they were seemingly vaporized by an alien vessel. This episode reveals that those weren't merely idle boasts by the lower deck crews - Klingons, Romulans, and Ferengi were already established to not be above a little backstabbing to get ahead - it was foreshadowing that they were part of the larger conspiracy headed by Locarno to overthrow their vessels and join Nova Fleet.
• Chekhov's Gun: The updated Genesis Device from the Ferengi freighter, previously seen in "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place", plays a major role in this episode. Mariner steals it while escaping and plans to detonate it to keep it out of Locarno's hands. Locarno fails to disarm it because it included a Cash Gate due to being built by Ferengi, which kills him and creates a new planet.
• Chekhov's Skill: Previous episodes ("Moist Vessel", "First First Contact") have demonstrated that if there's one thing the Cerritos is good at, it's towing things much larger than herself. So when they're faced with an Orion battleship that can't move under its own power, what do they do? Tow the entire ship and toss it at the Trynar shield.
• Combat by Champion: Tendi demands Barter by Combat, with both sides choosing a champion to fight on their behalf. If the Cerritos champion wins, D'Erika agrees to lend them a battleship for their mission, but if her champion wins they must hand over the Cerritos to her.
• Continuity Cameo:
  • Wil Wheaton appears as Wesley Crusher in the flashback, alongside Shannon Fill as Sito Jaxa. Jean Hajar, the fifth member of Nova Squadron, can briefly be seen walking with the others, then waving goodbye and running off.
  • Goodgey has a quick, non-speaking cameo helping an ensign as Freeman is rallying the crew to rescue Mariner.
  • Petra is shown listening to Nick's speech to all the lower deckers in the quadrant.
• Cool Ship: While rushing through the Nova base looking for an escape route, Mariner stumbles upon the USS Passaro, identified by one of the producers on Twitter as a Sabrerunner-class ship (essentially a miniature version of the Steamrunner class). She activates it using her mother's command codes and jets out of the base with Locarno and company in hot pursuit.
• Companion Cube: Mariner calls her stolen Genesis Device "G.D." and dubs it her first officer as she jets off in a stolen Sabrerunner-class vessel, helping lighten the mood in her desperate situation.
  Mariner: (nervously) Alright, you are my First Officer! Yaaay! My little buddy. Please no exploding...
• Continuity Nod:
  • The explosion of the Genesis Device resembles the Kolvoord Starburst, the fatal maneuver that set Locarno on the path he took.
  • During Locarno's announcement, Petra Aberdeen is among the various crews seen listening to it.
  • When Locarno boasts of having the first independent military in the quadrant, Boimler dismissively notes that Locarno's forgetting about the Maquis (though the two organizations have radically different goals).
  • Much like her mother tried with Admiral Buenamigo, Mariner tries to talk Locarno down by appealing to his better nature, only to be rejected, right down to him saying "I really am."
• Cultural Rebel: Locarno has a trio of Bynars on his side, when they usually work in pairs. Mariner briefly questions the logistics of that arrangement, though this may be exactly why they are joining Nova Fleet.
• Cynicism Catalyst: A Flashback to Starfleet Academy thirteen years prior shows Mariner interacting with Nova Squad. Her personality then was actually a lot like Tendi, giddily talking about xenobiology with a star-struck look at Sito. A Match Cut to her with Locarno in the present time shows her transformation to physical exhaustion.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Starfleet is made up of a post-scarcity society that no longer relies on a currency-based economy, but the Ferengi are hyper-capitalists who put a Cash Gate on everything. So who else but the Ferengi would put a fee on a weapon of mass destruction?
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Locarno is taken aback by Mariner quickly turning against him, expecting her to still be Starfleet's wild child.
  • Locarno brags that nothing can penetrate his Trynar shield that surrounds the entire Detrion system. He never anticipated the Cerritos towing an Orion warship and launching it towards the shield to create a breach for Freeman and her crew to enter.
  • This happens to Locarno one last time when he finds out that the Ferengi Genesis Device has a Cash Gate requiring two bars of latinum before it will disarm, which completely catches him off guard and vaporizes him mid-curse.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Locarno sourcing a black-market Genesis device built by the Ferengi puts the final nail in his coffin. In order to disarm it, you have to deposit two bars of latinum.
  • Locarno's idea to bring Mariner into Nova Fleet to use her as a way to rally Starfleet lower deck crew to his cause while humiliating the organization as a whole ends up unraveling his entire plan. Sure, her file shows a contempt for authority, but it doesn't accurately capture her motivations. Locarno only knows her as Sito's hanger-on, and assumes her reverence would extend to him, someone who dragged her idol into a moronic blaze of glory that went horribly wrong. The moment Mariner is left to speak, she immediately decries Locarno and his plan as stupid, telling everyone on the quadrant-wide channel that he's an egotist that will get them all killed, then immediately flees with the Genesis Device.
• Disobeyed Orders, Not Punished: Admiral Vassery tells Freeman that she should be Court-martialed for disobeying orders to rescue Mariner, but since Mariner went out of her way to avoid firing on anyone and Freeman also helped establish a dialogue with the Orions, Starfleet Command has dropped the issue.
• Doomsday Device: Like Khan and Kruge before him, Locarno threatens to use the Genesis Device as a weapon to make sure the other galactic powers don't attack his nascent organization. He goes after Mariner when she steals it because it was his bargaining chip.
• Drama Bomb Finale: Mariner is trapped behind enemy lines due to the events of "The Inner Fight", and has just embarrassed the Big Bad in front of the entire quadrant and made off with his Genesis Device, meaning she spends much of the episode running from Nova Fleet. Meanwhile, Tendi has to go to her sister D'Erika and ends up having to offer to return to Orion to procure a ship that can get through the shield, forcing her to leave the Cerritos at the end of the episode.
• Enemy Civil War: Locarno's Nova Fleet was held together with duct tape and a prayer from the start, promising them they were equal in this endeavor even though he couldn't help but act as the leader. The instant there's real trouble, they all bail.
• Enemy Mine: Rutherford and Livik work together in an effort to make the Retribution operational, and even use the Mark Twain program to resolve their differences. Once the crisis is over, they go back to being Sitcom Arch-Nemesis.
• Epic Fail: Tendi chooses Dr. Migleemo as the Cerritos champion, knowing that despite his lack of combat skills he will have the advantage due to his opponent having really bad allergies and his feathers triggering them. Despite this, though, he gets overconfident and starts ineffectually punching B'Eth, so when she passes out from her allergies, she falls right on top of Migleemo, causing his defeat.
• Exact Words:
  • After his New Era Speech, Locarno invites Mariner to "speak truth to power". She certainly does — and that truth is that Locarno is a self-absorbed asshole who doesn't really care about his new allies, which completely derails his plans.
    Mariner: Oh, uh...hey. What up, everyone? I have an important message for all you lower deckers out there: [gets close to the camera] THIS GUY SUUUUCKS!
    Locarno: What?!
    Mariner: He's an idiot, and his plan is stupid! He's gonna get you all killed because he only cares about himself! [kicks the Genesis Device out of its tube and runs out of the room carrying the device]
    Locarno: Somebody stop her! End that transmission!
    Freeman: Attagirl!
  • While D'Erika agreed to lend Freeman the Retribution to help rescue Mariner in exchange Tendi will return to Orion, she never discussed the condition of the ship, and once the Cerritos are given the warship, they discover it's inoperable. When Tendi calls D'Erika out on it, she points out it is an extremely Orion thing to do.
• Failsafe Failure: The Ferengi Genesis Device, in true Ferengi fashion, has the disarming mechanism behind a paywall. Locarno dies cursing this decision.
• Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: Billups is ready to throw down with D'Erika when she insults the Cerritos, joining a long line of chief engineers who will throw hands with anyone who insults their precious ship. Ransom has to reel him back in.
• Flashback: The episode opens with a quick flashback to thirteen years ago, showing how Mariner was a fan of Sito. Tragically, it's also right before the events of "The First Duty", which reminds the audience that Locarno is about to get Joshua Albert killed and nearly torpedo the careers of the rest of Nova Squad just to prop up his own ego.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. With her ship damaged and unable to move, Mariner rigs the Genesis Device to detonate despite having no means of escape in order to keep it out of Locarno's hands. Fortunately, Captain Freeman beams her out just before Locarno shoots her.
• History Repeats: Just like last time, Locarno's Genesis Device is detonated in a nebula aboard a damaged ship rather than launched at a planet as it had been intended.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Locarno continually says to "Nova Fleet" that they are a coalition of equals, then he tries ordering them to start risking their lives to retrieve the Genesis Device. Unsurprisingly, they all tell him what he can do with his orders.
  • In the climax, Locarno raises the shields of the Passaro to prevent Mariner from beaming him out (both to avoid being brought to justice and because he's arrogantly confident he can disarm the Ferengi Genesis Device in time). This, of course, ultimately dooms him, because Locarno doesn't know about the Ferengi deactivation paywall. By the time he discovers this feature, only seconds are left on the countdown timer and the Captain's Yacht has moved out of transporter range to avoid the imminent detonation. Had Locarno not raised the shields and surrendered peacefully, he'd have survived.
• Honor Before Reason: Despite T'Lyn telling her to act like a pirate and refuse to return, Tendi honors the original agreement to return to Orion. It's quite clear that the guilt of running off to Starfleet and leaving her obligations on D'Erika finally got to her.
• Hope Spot: Tendi picks Dr. Migleemo as her champion because B'eth is allergic to birds. Unfortunately, she collapses on top of him, thereby technically winning the match.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In the flashback, Locarno goads Wesley into doing the starburst maneuver by telling him how proud Captain Picard will be once they pull it off, demonstrating a terrible assessment of the famously rule-abiding Picard.
• Hyperspeed Escape: Defied when Mariner steals a Sabrerunner-class starship and tries to warp away, only for the computer to abort because it detects an imminent collision with the system-wide Deflector Shields.
• I Choose to Stay: After the rescue mission, Sokel (T'Lyn's former captain aboard the Sh'Vahl) tries to contact her. T'Lyn ignores his incoming transmission, having already chosen to stay aboard the Cerritos.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Locarno retains a chip on his shoulder for the Nova Squad incident and is desperate to build Nova Fleet to prove himself. At one point he retorts that he graduated top of his class, only for Mariner to bluntly remind him he never graduated.
• Identical Stranger: Rutherford and Boimler have several exchanges on the similarity between Tom Paris and Nick Locarno (both played by Robert Duncan McNeill). Boimler just can't see it.
  Rutherford: He looks like Tom Paris.
  Boimler: I don't see it.
  
  Rutherford: They have, like, the same face. They're identical.
  Boimler: No, I just don't see it.
• Insert Payment to Use: Inverted. The Genesis Device (being made by Ferengi) requires payment in order to be deactivated. Locarno dies cursing this obvious design flaw.
• It's All About Me: For all his claims of making something better than Starfleet, Nova Fleet is essentially Locarno trying to reclaim what he was denied when he was expelled from Starfleet Academy.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Locarno specifically did not target Starfleet ships or recruit Federation citizens into his Nova Fleet; while he does have Mariner, the Cerritos is barred from a rescue mission because a hostile action with any casualties would be a diplomatic nightmare.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Locarno has Nova Fleet chase after Mariner when she steals the Genesis Device, reasoning that they need it to make sure the other galactic powers don't try attacking them. When Mariner flies into an ion storm, his allies refuse to pursue, reasoning that Mariner won't last ten minutes in there and they can do without the Genesis Device. When Locarno increasingly dives into a Villainous Breakdown, barking orders at them, and when Freeman manages to break through the Trynar shield by throwing an Orion warship at it, they all decide to leave Locarno to his fate before the rest of Starfleet shows up.
• Last-Name Basis: This is given a quick nod when Rutherford refers to D'Erika as "Tendi Two", since they're not on a First-Name Basis and at the same time everyone refers to D'Vana Tendi by her last name. Freeman, by contrast, uses "Mistress D'Erika".
• Late to the Punchline: It takes awhile for Mariner to realize the Trynar Shield is named that way because of the three Bynars working with Locarno. Even then she muses if having three Bynars really works.
• Loophole Abuse: A meta example. Ensign Sito was not allowed to be brought back during the TNG era series because the writers didn't want to undermine her death (which is why Deep Space Nine instead rewrote an episode that would have shown she survived being given to poor Chief O'Brien instead.) Even though that rule is no longer in place, it's still honored in spirit by having Sito appear in a flashback set before her death.
• Martial Pacifist: Mariner steals the Genesis Device and a ship, but never once fires upon Locarno or any of his allies. This ends up helping Starfleet avoid any diplomatic incidents.
• Meaningful Background Event: Just before the Bynar trio beam away from the Nova One's bridge, we see them share worried looks, then grimly work away at their console, presumably on their transport.
• Mildly Military:
  • Captain Freeman decides to disobey Starfleet Command and rescue Mariner, but makes a public announcement to the entire Cerritos crew via intercom. Technically unnecessary, given the only people who would be culpable would be bridge crew and senior staff for actually knowing this was against orders, but serves for a Band of Brothers-type rallying of the crew behind her.
  • Freeman takes this to another level by putting Lt. JG Brad Boimler in charge of the Cerritos while she and the senior staff lead the rescue mission from the Captain's Yacht. Surely there's a LCDR somewhere on the ship who could have taken the chair? The Doylist reason is that The Main Characters Do Everything. The Watsonian possibility is simply that Freeman has started to notice Bradward's increasing abilities and felt a relatively simple job away from actual combat would give him valuable command experience.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The aliens that Locarno recruited for Nova Fleet eventually ditch him in the ion storm after he makes it clear that despite his claim they are equals, he sees himself as their leader and continuously barks orders at them.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Rutherford, at one point, tells Boimler that Nick Locarno looks just like Tom Paris. Robert Duncan McNeill, of course, played both characters on TNG and Voyager respectively, though never opposite one another.
  • Just like the TNG season 4 finale, season 4 of this series ended with a non-human member of the crew resigning from Starfleet and returning to their people.
  • As Freeman slips through the opening in the Trynar shield, Boimler comments, "I've never seen anyone actually use the Captain's Yacht before!" The "Captain's Yacht" is an auxiliary vehicle built into the underside of the saucer section of numerous Starfleet ships intended as a personal shuttle for the captain; it has been in the technical manuals for a long time^note Designs were indicated for Galaxy, Nebula, Intrepid, Sovereign and Nova-class ship schematics, and even a 1960's comic indicated the Constitution-class underside dome was detachable but previously only the Cousteau, the Captain's Yacht for the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E used in Star Trek: Insurrection, had been seen on screen. The Cerritos's Yacht appears to have a similar design as the Cousteau.
  • The "Trynar" shield strongly resembles a complete "Tholian Web."
• Never My Fault: Locarno insists that Joshua Albert's death wasn't his fault and that Nova Squadron would have succeeded had he been allowed more flight time to train. It just underlines how far he's fallen, as he was willing to take the blame for the whole thing when he was found out (albeit only after Wesley spilled the beans).
• New Era Speech: Locarno announces the creation of his "Nova Fleet".
  Locarno: Hello, Alpha Quadrant. Independent Captain Nick Locarno here with a message for anyone who feels like an afterthought. You may have been told scary stories of ships being destroyed these past few months, but that was a lie. They weren't destroyed, they were liberated. They're part of the first totally independent, unaligned fleet in the Alpha Quadrant. ^note Boimler: Um, the Maquis would like a word. If you're tired of risking your life for soulless bureaucratic captains who don't even know your name, if you fear following the orders of incompetent commanders who failed into seats of power, if you're stuck on the lower decks, then I invite you to join us in the Detrion system. Detrion, a forgotten system now protected by my indestructible Trynar Shield. And in case anyone wants to try and force their way in, I've acquired a little insurance: a black market Ferengi Genesis Device. The Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire — everyone has to respect Nova Fleet!
• N.G.O. Superpower: Locarno attempts to create his own fleet by coordinating mutinies across a dozen different ships, and consolidates enough resources to build his own starship, space station, and a Deflector Shield that covers an entire (uninhabited) solar system. Despite targeting species not aligned with the Federation, he also has a functional Sabrerunner-class Starfleet vessel in port, which brings up a number of questions.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: Mariner steals the Ferengi Genesis Device to remove Locarno's main Doomsday Device bargaining chip. When she can't escape Nova Fleet, she decides to detonate it on the nearest lifeless planet. When she's cornered in the ion storm, she resorts to simply arming the detonator before Locarno can board her ship and recover it, telling him that No Man Should Have This Power.
• Noodle Incident: Downplayed, but the circumstances of how, when, and where Locarno acquired the Passaro. It's left unclear if it was purchased Starfleet surplus, stolen, or salvaged (as possibly a Dominion War-era wreck).
• Oh, Crap!: Mariner is quietly horrified when she sees Nova Fleet and realizes that Locarno isn't kidding around.
• Override Command: Mariner at some point memorized her mother's command codes, allowing her to place herself in charge of the stolen Sabrerunner-class vessel and route its functions to the captain's chair.
• Person as Verb: Rutherford refers to the conflict resolution Mark Twain holoprogram as "Twaining".
• Pet the Dog: After D'Erika declares B'Eth the winner of Barter by Combat, she tells for someone to get her her inhaler due to her allergies being triggered by Dr. Migleemo's feathers.
• Previously on…: This is only the second LDS episode (after "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption") to start with a recap reel of previous episodes, rather than having them summed up in exposition dialogue.
• Ramming Always Works: Unable to subvert Locarno's Trynar shield and lacking the firepower to breach it, the crew resorts to tossing a barely-functioning Orion battlecruiser at the shield (based on the readings, moving at several hundred kilometers per second) and letting its sheer mass create a breach.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Locarno, when the Orion battleship crashes through the Trynar shield.
• Replacement Goldfish: "Nova Fleet" is basically a larger-scale recreation of Nova Squadron, allowing Locarno to be in command once again.
• The Reveal:
  • In "A Few Badgeys More", the three Bynars were discussing something over a map of a star system. Turns out they were discussing the Trynar shield, but in their own language, so the audience wasn't able to understand.
  • Nick Locarno's plan was to start his own independent fleet that would have nothing to do with Starfleet or other space navies. However, it soon becomes clear that it's all about propping up his own ego.
• Save the Villain: Mariner tries to have Locarno beamed to safety after she is rescued, but he raises shields to prevent it because he's confident he can disarm the Genesis Device. Freeman is forced to retreat rather than risk being caught in the explosion.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: With Mariner captured and Starfleet unwilling to act against Locarno because of a potential diplomatic incident, Freeman decides to disobey orders and mount a rescue mission, after the crew agrees to help. Equally, when Admiral Vassery learns that Boimler's acting captain and he's ordered to turn around, Boimler replies "Yes, sir. But, first, I'm gonna save my friend". At least he was polite about it.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Locarno's allies ditch him when he tries to pursue Mariner into an ion storm and the Cerritos breaches the "indestructible" Trynar shield, and all of them have fled by the time Starfleet arrives.
• Self-Serving Memory:
  • Nick acts as if he and Mariner were old friends that knew each other well. Mariner reminds him they barely knew each other, and in reality she was more fixated on Sito.
  • When Locarno confronts Mariner, he claims that he graduated top of his class. Mariner immediately points out he didn't graduate, he was kicked out. For a double-whammy, he willingly took that punishment to protect his friends, showing how far he's fallen since then.
• Sequel Episode: This may as well be "The First Duty, Part II", as it explores just how screwed-up Locarno is from the fallout of the Kolvoord Starburst fiasco.
• So Proud of You: When Mariner defies Locarno and runs away with the Genesis Device, Freeman mutters a quiet "Attagirl".
• Space Clouds: An ion storm serves as a last-ditch escape route for Mariner when she's cornered by Nova Fleet, despite it being almost as dangerous, likely figuring that if it rips her apart, at least Locarno won't get G.D. back in a usable state, if at all. Only Locarno is determined (read: crazy) enough to follow her inside. When G.D. blows up, it turns the ion storm and everything within—including Locarno—into a new planet.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Locarno's Nova Fleet fell apart all thanks to Mariner and Freeman. Locarno brought Mariner to his fleet because he believed she hates how incompetent Starfleet is and having her would be a big boost to get other frustrated lower deckers in other crews to join him. Too bad for him, Mariner's behavior was the result of her being terrified of The Chains of Commanding, something he sowed the seeds of, and she mostly knows him for the Kolvoord Starburst fiasco. During a live transmission, Mariner tells everyone watching how bad Locarno is, steals his Genesis Device from him, and escapes the station with it. As Nova Fleet struggles to capture Mariner, Locarno loses his patience and bosses everyone around despite claiming they're all equals. By targeting Mariner, he also drives Freeman to disobey Admiral Vassery's order not to intervene, eventually leading her to breach the Trynar shield and rescue Mariner, further eroding his allies' faith in his plan. With things falling apart thanks to Mariner and Freeman's actions, everyone in Nova Fleet abandons Locarno to handle his problems on his own.
  • Ma'ah doesn't appear here, but his talk with Mariner in the last episode, which helped her come to terms with Sito's death, further screws Locarno over. Had Mariner not talked to him about her trauma, she might have fallen for Locarno telling her that Sito died for no reason. Because she did and it put her in a much better headspace, she's able to call bullshit on what Locarno just said and get under his skin by telling him that he's putting his recruits in unnecessary danger just like he did Nova Squadron.
  • Tendi's plan to win the Barter by Combat is to use Migleemo's feathers to attack B'eth's allergies, thus scoring a quick and bloodless victory. Unfortunately, Migleemo doesn't stay far enough away from B'Eth when she stumbles, causing her to collapse onto him and win the match on a technicality.
• Special Edition Title: The end credits have much more dramatic music than the usual reprise of the main theme. (It was first played during Tendi's "Let's Get Dangerous!" moment in "Hear All, Trust Nothing".)
• Strong Family Resemblance: Joshua Albert is drawn to resemble a younger version of Ed Lauter, the actor who played his father. The jawline in particular is identical, right down to the prominent cleft in his chin.
• Take Me Instead: When Dr. Migleemo unexpectedly loses the Barter by Combat and Freeman is obligated to surrender the Cerritos, Tendi offers to return to her role as Mistress of the Winter Constellations if D'Erika honors the original arrangement. At the end of the episode, she heads back to Orion, despite T'Lyn suggesting that she behave like a pirate and refuse.
• Teens Are Short: The flashback to Mariner as a first year cadet shows her noticeably shorter than usual, about a head shorter than Sito Jaxa, to emphasize her youth compared to her senior classmates.
• Teleportation Rescue: Freeman beams Mariner aboard her yacht just before Locarno can phaser her into oblivion.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Locarno boasts that he is capable of disarming the Genesis Device and indeed he succeeds. Except, as he boasts that Mariner should have set a shorter timer, the Ferengi-designed bomb demands two bars of latinum to complete the transaction. Cue explosion.
    Locarno: Ha! Next time, set a shorter timer.
    Genesis Device: To deactivate detonation, please insert two bars of latinum.
    Locarno: They put a paywall on a bomb?! Stupid Feren—
    [BOOM]
  • Boimler thinks that everything turned out great and incites a "Lower decks!" chant. At that moment, an Orion ship warps in and Freeman comes to pick up Tendi to honor her arrangement with D'Erika.
• Suddenly Shouting: "Hey, what up, everyone? I have an important message for all you lower-deckers out there. THIS GUY SUCKS!"
• Toxic Friend Influence: While it's already been established that Locarno used his leadership and charisma to persuade his squadmates to pull the Kolvoord Starburst, the opening flashback in this episode shows him promising that they'll all be legends and shutting down Wesley and Albert when they have misgivings.
• True Companions: The entire Cerritos crew backs Freeman's desire to rescue Mariner. It's quite the turnaround compared to the third season, where they all threw her under the bus for supposedly making the ship look bad.
• Tuckerization: According to one of the producers on Twitter, the ship that Mariner steals, the USS Passaro, was named for the late Fabio Passaro, a digital artist who contributed to the Star Trek franchise in a number of ways before passing away in October 2022.
• Unseen No More: Joshua Albert is finally shown on screen, having not appeared back in "The First Duty", but only via a flashback.
• Unwanted Rescue: Locarno insists that he rescued Mariner from the Klingons and Romulans on Sherbal V... Klingons and Romulans who were among the stranded command crews she was rallying to work together to escape the planet. Mariner protests that she didn't need to be saved, and the first thing she says to him after the flashback makes it clear that she does not appreciate the way he "saved" her:
  Mariner: Nick... am I a prisoner here?
• Villainous Breakdown: Locarno starts out cool and in control, but Mariner's refusal to cooperate starts to send him over the edge. By their final confrontation, his rationality is gone.
• Villainous Demotivator: Locarno gets the Romulans to cooperate by pointing out that their government won't take kindly to their treasonous behavior if Nova Fleet is disbanded. That only goes so far, however, and they draw the line at flying into a deadly ion storm.
• Vocal Evolution: Try as they might, but in the Flashback to Starfleet Academy the original actors for Locarno, Sito and Crusher don't sound like the teenagers they were playing 30 years ago.
• Weaponized Allergy: Tendi tries to stack the deck in the Cerritos' favour by picking Dr. Migleemo as their champion in the barter by combat fight, knowing that D'Erika's champion B'Eth has terrible allergies. It almost works as Migleemo's down causes B'Eth to have a sneezing fit then pass out. Unfortunately, she passes out on top of Migleemo, pinning him to the ground, and D'Erika declares B'Eth the winner.
• Weaponized Exhaust: Mariner vents the coolant from her ship to ice over the Ferengi vessel, buying her a few moments to slip away and power down.
• Wham Shot: The final shot of the episode has Tendi have a much more sinister look on her face accompanied by ominous music. It leads to quite an Ambiguous Ending.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The alien captains that appeared in the previous episode and teamed up with Beta Shift do not appear in this episode, nor are they mentioned. While Ma'ah had been shown reclaiming captaincy of his ship, what happened to the others is unclear. It can be reasoned they must have rendezvoused with the Cerritos to drop off Beta Shift and inform them of Mariner's kidnapping, but what Ma'ah did after that is a mystery.
  • Jean Hajar, the fifth member of Nova Squadron, does not appear in the flashback, other than perhaps as a very distant figure at the beginning of the shot who can’t clearly be identified. What she's been up to since then is not covered, especially since she is the only surviving member and potentially still on active duty.
• Whole-Plot Reference: The entire episode is Mariner's own Wrath of Khan, complete with a forgotten villain coming back bigger and badder than ever for a personal confrontation, a game of hide-and-seek in a nebula, and a stolen Genesis Device. Even the music directly references a lot of the score from Wrath of Khan. Considering Mariner is even an in-universe fan of Starfleet's version of that movie, she's practically living out her wildest fantasies.
• You Are in Command Now: Boimler gets to be acting captain of the Cerritos during the rescue mission. Mariner pokes fun at how he definitely won't let this go to his head.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • The Cerritos officers are surprised as hell when Tendi chooses Migleemo to fight B'eth. Freeman in particular reacts with a Face Palm.
  • Locarno's last words are decrying the Ferengi for adding a Cash Gate to a bomb.
• You Look Familiar: In-Universe. Rutherford thinks Locarno looks just like Tom Paris. Boimler doesn't see it.
• You Will Be Spared: Locarno offers to allow Mariner to leave peacefully as long as she returns the Genesis Device, but she refuses to leave a WMD in his possession.

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