CAPTAIN'S LOG: Boimler takes a wrong turn in his own sequel to Mariner's holodeck adventure.
WHY WE LIKE IT: Crisis Point 1 was great!
WHY WE DON'T: Technically, it's not a cliffhanger if you don't resolve it in the next episode.
REVIEW: The original Crisis Point remains a favorite Lower Decks episode, so it's awesome to see a sequel in which another member of the cast gets some therapy out of a "holo-movie". In this case, it's Boimler, who has just learned that his transporter clone William has unexpectedly dies, which throws him into an existential funk and derails his adaptive adventure. Tendi and Rutherford follow the actual plot and have a lot of fun, while he and Mariner are trapped in a terrible side-plot the ship's computer struggles to make interesting and relevant. And I gotta say, the script has opinions on which Star Trek movies are good and which are bad. The writing's on the wall.
Basically, give or take the bomb from Nemesis, the "good plot" makes references to the better films (especially The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home and First Contact), while the "bad plot" is full of references to The Motion Picture, The Final Frontier, and Generations. It's a hilarious jokey remix of all those movies. Mariner off-handedly throws out the ideas for Roddenberry's JFK-related TMP and the J.J. Abrams reboot, so those are right out. Over the course of the adventure - lit and framed like a movie - Tendi will verbalize that she wants to be captain some day (and she's awesome as an action hero, so she's worthy), and Boimler will dream of a meeting with Captain Sulu and come out of it more at peace with what happened (much like Picard after his family died). The Carol Marcus stand-in, once robbed of her romantic subplot never quite gets over her own existential crisis.
So there are a lot of fun jokes, like the early Pixar graphics of the Genesis Project, finally seeing the rock giants Shatner couldn't afford in ST V, punks with boom boxes of course, and the characters raging at the nonsense reveals. But for an old GameMaster like me, there was a lot of role-playing theory too. The Boimler plot had him as the player who derails the adventure by getting interested in the wrong things and failing to follow the plot hooks. We've all been there (whether this was done willfully or incidentally), and like the computer here, we've struggled to fill out the edges of a map or try to redirect the action somehow. In the other plot, Rutherford is that player who takes nothing seriously, makes dumb jokes and absolutely ruins any chance at a poignant moment. Tendi is the opposite (because she feels he wouldn't take her leadership seriously), and is angry that he makes jokes after holo-T'ana dies. Not everyone role-plays, I know, but everyone watches movies, and since this program is presented AS a movie, then everyone can certainly relate to watching a movie and having someone ruin a sad moment because they're so uncomfortable with their emotions they can't let anyone else invest either. YES, I'M TALKING TO YOU, BERT! (Or whoever.)
As for William Boimler, reports of his death have been exaggerated. The characters say they hate cliffhangers, which is of course the show's cue to throw one in. Except this plays more as a mid-credit sequence (no matter its placement) and since it won't be resolved this season, it's more of a look at things to come than a proper cliffhanger. Anyway, the other Boimler faked his own death to join Section 31. Overused as it is, I'm kind of keen to see Lower Decks take S31 down a few pegs with its comedy. Bring it on, Season 4!
LESSON: Take water breaks! Hydrate!
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: Not quite as exciting as the first Crisis Point (by design), it's still a lot of fun, especially for fans of the Trek movies.
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