WHY WE LIKE IT: Cool permutations.
WHY WE DON'T: It's over?! NOoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
REVIEW: It's a crying shame that Lower Decks is over, but at least it goes out on an extra-sized episode filled with hope that the show will return in some form in the future. I mean, Mariner herself says, in her last speech, that this isn't the end, it's the beginning. And uses the words "stay tuned"! Can I really be blamed for imagining a 5-season mission for Captain Ransom's Mid-Decks? Let me dream, dammit!
So now the Cerritos is the only ship in range of the rift that threatens to destroy all realities, and they're not happy about it. But as one of the best Rutherford moments we've had shows, support ships like this can be so efficiently reconfigured, there's nothing it can't do. It's a moment that comes at the cost of his implant, which is no longer playing nice with the ship's systems. "A rough patch", indeed! We've all felt this when our software updates and makes your computer obsolete. So the ship's shields can be harmonized to counter the reality-changing effects (the Schrödinger Wave) of the rift, preventing our crew from turning into cactus people or whatever. But it can't be that simple. 1) The hull isn't immune, promising some fun transformations. And 2) there's a Klingon "sister" out for revenge against Mariner's buddy Ma'ah who arrives with his dumb brother and is granted asylum. The Klingons provide a lot of jeopardy in the middle of saving the universe, and are the better victims of the Wave where our heroes cannot be (proto-Klingons from "Genesis"? Yes!).
Like the rest of the series, this is a story about friendship, and when the Cerritos is split in two, each controlling the other, it's that friendship that creates trust between the duplicate crews and saves the day, Trust, which is something Captain Freeman and Commander Ransom have been talking about a lot. There are a lot of frayed nerves this episode, setting us up for a "Cerritos strong" conclusion. And the finale pays off a lot of the friendships made during the season, too. The Klingons aren't just a problem - Malor uses a farm analogy to give the Science Besties the solution. The part-goddess ensign from Of Gods and Angles uses her powers to defeat the Klingon, Relga. And Starbase 80 makes a comeback (along with William Boimler and his cross-reality crew) to take care of the stable gateway at the end.
After all the cool stuff - don't think I didn't notice Boims stealthily destroying a B'rel-class ship by hitting it with the shields! - it's time to pull at the heart strings, as Captain Freeman is assigned to SB80 and the quantum exploration mission. Mariner makes her big speeches about being at peace with it as all the recurring characters aboard ship are seen in a sweet montage. Ransom as captain could be fun, but his idea of forcing Mariner and Boimler to compete as co-XOs could have fuelled another season. Hopefully, one day, we'll get to Engage the Core! (I SAID, LET ME DREAM, DAMMIT!)
LESSON: The mission was the friendships they made along the way. LITERALLY!
REWATCHABILITY - High: A bittersweet finale. A lot of fun and excitement, and amply justifies rewatching the entire season.
Comments
And Tendi/Rutherford is SO going to happen.