WHY WE LIKE IT: Rom! Leeta!
WHY WE DON'T: Oof, the title's pun is really tortured.
REVIEW: There's something about Ferengi episodes, isn't there? As a DS9 fan, I am, of course happy to see the Rom and Leeta again, but while the new Grand Nagus has demilitarized his people (as per the Ferengi Lower Decks opening - we need a ship to be mysteriously destroyed, and in this case, are they suggesting one of the characters sold his ship out? It's not clear), he's still a Ferengi, and it's fun to see him (through Leeta mostly) trying to swindle the Federation. It's a BIG DEAL that Ferenginar joins the Federation, and it's all thanks to Captain Freeman who uses Ferengi tactics against them and therefore earns their respect. Up to that point, the Admiral in charge was being a "sucker" as someone from a post-scarcity world might when faced with "business". It's a good plot, even if none of the LDs are involved (which is a weakness, in my opinion, see also In the Cradle of Vexilon). Rom's fixation with baseball doesn't land, however, and just becomes an annoying recurring gag. See, Rom was already a funny character so making him into a one-note joke is unnecessary, and the animators do not really make him move or emote like he did in live action and THAT'S what made him funny.
The Lower Decks crew are split into three so they can visit Ferenginar on "travel guide duty". This is also a cool idea, and makes sense for their rank and for the Cerritos' support status. Boimler ambitiously aims to visit 40 sites (the normal is 4 or 5), and gets sucked into watching Ferengi television, mocking commercials and product placement, as well as formulaic tropes and reality TV. Amusing, but it also has the virtue of mirroring what's happening with Admiral Sucker. Feds have no resistance when it comes to this kind of stuff, no experience and therefore no immunity. I bet they hit him with subliminals, HARD. And the show is well-edited (or sequenced) because we go from a show called Will They Won't They to exactly that in the Rutherford/Tendi plot.
They are posing as a couple so they can experience for some hotel's honeymoon package. They think it's amusing until the Ferengi become very intense about it, forcing them into awkward positions. The audience has always thought these two were made for one another, but they are so childish, it also seems wrong somehow. And there's nothing wrong with platonic chemistry, which they have in spades. It's like the episode is responding to fan shipping and saying, no, we don't want to go that way. They go a BIT far with it, however. Like, does it really make sense for the Ferengi to gulag two people who acted like a couple to get a discount? There's a bit of Ferenginess in there, but it also seems off-brand. And then Tendi and Rutherford have to consummate their love in the restaurant? The Ferengi are just being twisted into the shape required to make the relationship plot work, when they already have a lot of comedy baggage already. Like Rom's baseball, it doesn't quite work. I do like the sexy chocolate statues bit, and Kids in the Hall Alert! Dave Foley voices the Ferengi hugcierge, but structurally, while their ploy to get out of the fake couple is believable given what we now know Ferengi watch on TV, it would all work better if THEY had seen the show instead of Boimler.
And Mariner? They really didn't know what to give her. She meets up with her old friend Quimp (from Envoys) and gets into bar fights, once again self-sabotaging. Haven't we JUST dealt with this? Her section contains the best Ferengi joke in the episode - the Dominion War Memorial ("So much lost income!"), but otherwise, it's dull and redundant. This episode sometimes reminded me of the first couple Lower Decks, with their headache-inducing, too-fast dialog. Mariner's subplot is a boring throwback.
LESSON: Only a lifetime of bad TV can prepare you for turning bad TV off.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-Low: Curse of the Ferengi episodes?
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