WHY WE LIKE IT: That sweet ending.
WHY WE DON'T: Nobody likes a clip show.
REVIEW: Lower Decks should pull a Shades of Gray and produce a clip show of scenes that never actually appeared on the series (like Community once did). Animation certainly allows for it. Caves feels a little like a clip show (and we'll get to how most especially), but it's really an anthology episode where each character tells a story that happened in a cave, since Star Trek caves are a trope and all look the same. That set was called Planet Hell, which is surprisingly NOT referenced in the episode, but the Lower Decks gang acknowledges that they all look the same, show up too often, and have smooth, camera-ready floors.
Except they DON'T actually show up that often on Lower Decks. That's because standing sets are unnecessary for the series or, as we find out, because we're just not told those adventures. In this case, our quartet is trapped in a cave with carnivorous moss, and pull lost missions from that fictional catalog to inspire ways the various steps required to survive and escape. The first of these is Boimler's and reintroduces the conspiracy nut Ensign Levy and the Vendorians from TAS' The Survivor. Boimler is shocked when Levy turns out to be right about being trapped in a Vendorian Morality Test, and when the two junior officers cooperate and kind of bond, the Vendorians declare victory for their scheme. Amusing and I like the crickets.
Rutherford's story is the weakest of the bunch - like Troi and Trip before him, he gives birth to an alien baby. There's not very much to do with the parental dynamic between him and Dr. T'Ana, and while communicating with the monster is a good moment, it's own maternal instincts are pretty cliché and the idea that the baby has plant fronds on its back to trigger the initial attack is forced. Still, this DOES tie into the theme, as we'll see at the end.
Then there's Mariner who's own sin was to bond with the hated Delta Shift. These skewed alternate versions of Lower Decks are fun to have around, and we get to understand their point of view a bit more - on the night shift, they are never noticed and rarely promoted, so they act out. Their adventure has chroniton shenanigans, old or young designs for the characters, and so black humor with Asif's leg healing wrong in the time field.
Tendi's own story is always being cut-off for being off-topic, so it of course has to be the final solution. It is, but not in the way we think. On a plot level, the moss wants to hear it, so it staves off death. Thematically, it resonates more. It's about how all four of them were trapped in a turbolift for hours as epilogue to Second Contact, their first episode and Tendi's first day aboard ship. The story itself is very slim - a couple jokes and the mindblowing realization that Season 1 wasn't shaded the way later seasons were and it's all bright blocks of color (this is what makes it feel like a "clip") - but it's about how THEY bonded and reaffirms their close friendship. To that point, it seemed like their new ranks were making them drift apart. They aren't assigned to menial tasks together anymore, and get to work and bond with other people, don't have the free time required to tell each other what they've been up to (like pregnancies), and so on. They resolve to make the time and to remain close no matter where their duties take them, whether that's having kids or whatnot, which is how people in the real world often lose touch with friends. They should have realized their sustained closeness when Rutherford asked for Boimler's pants and there was no hesitation. And when you aren't looking? Bam! Vendorian Morality Test! A clever ending, but a sweet one as well.
LESSON: You can't take your friendships for granted.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: The stories can seem thin, but the anthology is well-framed and us about addressing where the characters are now.
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