Star Trek: Lower Decks S5E10 "The New Next Generation" - TV Tropes
- ️Thu Dec 19 2024
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS5E10TheNewNextGeneration
Boimler panics after receiving news from William Boimler about the universe destroying rift coming their way. Captain Freeman relays their information to Starfleet Command, who inform them that despite normally sending the Enterprise to handle it, they think there is a necessary link between the two Boimlers that will be vital to the mission. Ma'ah and his brother Malor find themselves hunted by Relga, the sister of Dorg and Bargh, and end up seeking asylum aboard the Cerritos. A Schrodinger Field around the rift plays havoc with all parties, causing elements of the multiverse to bleed into the prime reality.
Tropes:
- Aliens Love Human Food: When Ma'ah and Malor are given safe harbor on the Cerritos, Malor asks if their quarters include replicators, wanting to try some non-bug food.
Ma'ah: How do you have an appetite after running from battle?
Malor: All our snacks are made of bugs. They have salties and sweets! - Almighty Janitor: Ransom appoints Mariner and Boimler as his co-provisional First Officers despite them still only being Lieutenants, Junior Grade, far below the normal rank for such a position.
- And the Adventure Continues: When the crisis is resolved and all is said and done, the Cerritos and its crew continue their journeys with Ransom as the new Captain, with Mariner even giving a voiceover of how great the crew is despite not being as professional as most other Starfleet crews. The final shot is of the ship warping away.
- Art Shift: A Team Shot near the end of the episode shows the main five characters together in a turbolift, given a bit more of a cinematic polish with a shallower depth of field, minor Lens Flare and shadows.
- Avenging the Villain: Relga is the sister of Dorg and Bargh. She tries to use the crisis of the rift as an excuse to get revenge on Ma'ah for killing her brothers.
- Back for the Finale:
- O'Connor gets unceremoniously dumped out of the higher planes into Sickbay in the denouement.
- K'Elarra returns for a non-speaking cameo as part of Ma'ah's bridge crew. Evidently, consorting with humans isn't that much of a turn off as long as he's still a captain.
- Fletcher is shown to have been transferred to Starbase 80 and is present at Freeman's party.
- Goodgey makes a brief appearance, but looking exactly like Badgey at first until he steps out of the lighting.
- Really, nearly every background Cerritos character appears in some capacity. Only a few get lines, but it really does drive home that, of all the ships we've seen across all the series in the franchise, we've probably gotten to know the Cerritos the best of all of them.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Ransom tells Shaxs that Freeman ordered him to never allow Shaxs to detonate the warp core... unless he's earned it.
- Big "WHAT?!": When Boimler checks Beard Boimler's PADD to see if anything similar happened in that universe and see if it has any clues to Malor's whereabouts, he discovers there was a scenario that involved Captain Becky Freeman hiding Klingons. Ma'ah lets out an enraged "WHAT?!" and snatches the PADD before confronting Mariner over it.
- Blatant Lies: Relga uses one of her ships getting destroyed by the soliton wave as an excuse to blame Ma'ah for their deaths and get revenge for her brothers, but everyone can tell Ma'ah and Malor's ship doesn't have the capability to take out one of her ships, especially since they're in a group, and they were nowhere near their location.
- Book Ends: Quite a few for the episode.
- The season started with the revelation of (a) Captain Freeman being sent to Starbase 80 for unknown reasons. The season ends with the main Freeman being sent to Starbase 80 to head up travel through the rift.
- The series began with Boimler and Mariner so distrusted, Freeman was willing to steal a discovery for shits and giggles and give it to T'Ana. The series ends with the two so trusted, newly promoted Captain Ransom makes them both provisional First Officers and gives them command of the lower decks.
- Season one ended with Riker giving a warp command that punned on his love of jazz and Troi groaning over it. Season five ends with Ransom giving one that puns on his love of working out with Mariner and Boimler groaning.
- Season one showed us the Cerritos doing scout work and getting her ass kicked six ways to Sunday whenever things got serious. In Season 5, the Cerritos takes on an Enterprise level Universe-destroying disaster and SUCCEEDS. Plus, the ship didn't get wrecked once throughout the course of Season 4 and 5.
- The season opener and finale both feature jabs at Gene Rodenberry's "no interpersonal conflict" rule.
- Brick Joke: Remember when Freeman said that she didn't want the Cerritos to start looking like a Sovereign-class? Well, one of the soliton waves does just that.
- But Now I Must Go: After stabilizing the rift, Freeman has been chosen to oversee the Starfleet mission of exploring the multiverse and she's transferred to Starbase 80 with her husband, which is the main reason why she accepted the assignment. She said her goodbyes to her crew and hugs Mariner one last time and proudly tells her that she won't need her anymore since she has proven her capability and it's her turn now to have adventures.
- Call-Back: Aside from the usual Star Trek references, there are plenty of callbacks to previous Lower Decks jokes:
- Mariner hugs Ma'ah's brother Malor, with him reacting the same way Ma'ah did, claiming "Klingons do not hug!"
- The ensign playing poker at the end is wearing a Chu Chu shirt, referencing the Zebulon Sisters' Chu Chu Chunote dance party from "Terminal Provocations."
- Several people are shown "Twaining" in the holodeck, like Boimler and Rutherford in "Something Borrowed, Something Green."
- T'Ana and Shaxs discuss another bizarre-sounding, implicitly sexual holodeck program, which causes Ransom to walk away in discomfort.
- Westlake and Stevens have apparently taken up Kimilou and Matt's frequent invitations to swim with them, and the four end the series having a pool party in Cetacean Ops.
- Jennifer's friends have another "salon" like the one Castro hosted in "Hear All, Trust Nothing"—except, instead of lighting Impulian candles, they're performing a Spooky Séance with the infamous anaphasic lifeform candle from TNG's "Sub Rosa". Previous Lower Decks dialogue implied that Beverly's run-in with Ronin had somehow become common knowledge throughout Starfleet.
- Bonus points for this occurring just after re-introducing Starbase 80, where we'd just been introduced to Clem, an anaphasic life form, a few episodes prior.
- The Cameo: Fittingly for the end of the series, the Enterprise-E finally shows up in person to stand alongside the Cerritos, though it's only her and not any of her crew.
- Character Catchphrase: Ransom decides on his "go to warp" command: "Engage the core."
- Chekhov's Skill: Olly's Walking Techbane problem and squeak toy lightning bolts allow her to disable Relga's warship by sucking up enough power to fire a giant one at her shield, collapsing the shields so the next soliton wave turns them into feral proto-Klingons.
- Combat Pragmatist: Relga has no issue trying to kill Ma'ah when he's piloting a defenseless freighter against her four warships.
- Continuity Cavalcade: While Mariner gives a speech on why the Cerritos is great thanks to the crew onboard, we get to see every notable crew members doing various activities that occurred throughout the show.
- Cool Starship:
- Relga's flagship is a new Bird-of-Prey that looks like a B'rel-class on steroids with the head of a D-5 battlecruiser.
- The forms the Cerritos takes up aren't anything to scoff at: the first form is an update to the Freedom-class. The second one is a Terran Empire variation with Sovereign-class nacelles and mission pods on the saucer and secondary hull. It also shifts through Oberth, Miranda, Galaxy, and Sovereign-class vessels at various points.
- Last, but certainly not least, the Enterprise-E puts in a brief appearance for the first time on screen since Star Trek: Nemesisnote .
- Crazy Enough to Work: With their weapons disabled and Relga's ship still hounding them, T'Ana complains that there has to be some kind of Kirk-style trick they can pull to get out of this situation. This gives Billups the idea to have Olly hurl a giant squeaky lightning bolt at Relga's ship, which serves the dual purpose of intercepting the torpedo she was about to fire and disabling her shields so the next reality shift will affect her crew.
- Creative Sterility: Relga's ship is able to handle the soliton waves much better than the Cerritos because, as T'Ana lampshades, Klingons have very little creativity when it comes to designing ships, making them all giant birds of some sort. This doesn't help one of her escorts, which gets turned into a seafaring barge and instantly kills the crew.
- Crush Blush: Once his implant is removed, Rutherford becomes a flustered, blushing mess when Tendi says he looks handsome without it.
- Deadpan Snarker: T'Lyn observes Rutherford's attraction to Tendi, which he denies while blushing. When Tendi pulls his head onto her chest to scan him, he scrambles away in embarrassment.
T'Lyn: Clearly I was mistaken.
- Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Boimler and Mariner are both blamed for stuff that their alternate counterparts did, despite them being different individuals, also making it a case of Misplaced Retribution.
- After the Cerritos is tasked with dealing with the rift due to Bradward Boimler's connection to William, the crew asks Boimler why he would send the rift to his own universe to be destroyed, only for him to constantly say it was William that did it, not him.
- After Boimler checks his stolen PADD and finds out that a similar situation of missing Klingons happened to the alternate Cerritos and that Captain Becky Freeman was the one who hid them, Ma'ah becomes enraged at Mariner and demands she tell him where she hid his brother, even as they explain that Captain Becky Freeman was way different from Mariner.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Many characters get their happy endings after all they went through, both in this episode and the entire series, just in time for the finale.
- Ma'ah is put in charge of Relga's fleet due to her dishonorable actions and the role he and his brother Malor played in resolving the crisis with the rift. Malor is given a commission and joins him as an officer, and K'Elarra is also part of the crew.
- Captain Freeman is put in charge of Starbase 80 after it is transferred to the stable rift, thus putting her in charge of the hub of the multiverse, managing travel through the rift and giving her the respectful position in Starfleet she has always wanted. This turns what was a dark fate she once dreaded into the best position she could ever ask for. She is also joined by her husband, allowing the pair to spend more time together.
- Rutherford decides to remove his implant after realizing he doesn't need it anymore, which also removes the suppression to his emotions and helps him realize his feelings for Tendi, not that he's immediately ready to deal with them.
- Mariner accepts her mother moving on from the Cerritos and believes she and the crew will continue to do well in their own unique way like they always have. Well, after she set her bed on fire and knocked over a computer...
- Boimler stops using the PADD he stole from Beard Boimler as a crutch and trusts himself to make his own choices now. Just like what Beard Boimler wanted him to do.
- Ransom is promoted to the new Captain of the Cerritos, and he promotes Boimler and Mariner to provisional first officers, putting them in charge of the Lower Decks and deciding to promote one of them properly once they figure out who is better suited.
- Starbase 80 was relegated as the worst starbase to be posted to, where the threat of being sent there sent shivers down people's spines. Now Starbase 80 is the place to be, a hub to the multiverse just like Deep Space 9 is to the Bajoran Wormhole.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- Rutherford spends most of the episode bemoaning the obsolete state of the Cerritos since his implant can't interface with it. When it reverts back into a California-class after a whirlwind of changes, he realizes being a Cali-class is exactly what they need and his implant is the problem, tearing it out and manually reconfiguring the warp core to use the rift as a power source.
- When the attempt to seal the rift fails, Malor offers that, on his farm, you can't stop a flooded river, but you can dam it. This gives Mariner the idea to stabilize the rift, averting the danger by rendering it permanently open.
- Extra-Long Episode: The episode clocks in about five minutes longer than usual.
- Final Boss: Relga serves as the final LWD antagonist, seeking to avenge her dead brothers even in the face of a multiversal catastrophe.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Relga makes direct reference to Carol's husband status as an admiral shortly before attempting to use a holographic impersonation of Admiral Freeman to trick the Cerritos into turning over Malor and Ma'ah.
- Foreign Queasine: Inverted — Malor seems to like human food.
Malor: All our snacks are made of bugs! They have salties and sweets!
- Forged Message: Relga tries to fake a message from Admiral Freeman ordering the Cerritos to hand over Malor, but Ransom and Mariner both realize something's not right with it. Kayshon eventually analyzes the message and finds it's actually Relga speaking with a holographic shroud of Admiral Freeman.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When O'Connor drops back down into the material plane, his feet only have socks on since his shoes were the only thing left behind when he ascended.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Boimler consults Beard Boimler's PADD for clues to Malor's whereabouts and discovers that that version of Mariner hid him. Mariner denies it and nearly comes to blows with Ma'ah over searching it, so Boimler snaps it in half because he'd rather have Mariner's back than be successful.
- The Ghost:
- When the Cerritos is sent in, Starfleet makes reference to sending the Enterprise-E, which Starfleet had dispatched to back up the Cerritos, but she ends up being a non-factor, arriving only after the action has passed and appearing only in wide shots. There is one shot of the Cerritos taken across the flagship's bow, where we can see the famous NCC-1701-E designation, but that's the closest it gets. (We certainly don't get an appearance by Captain Worf.)
- Similarly, a big deal is made of William Boimler, as he's the reason the Cerritos has to go. He and his ship only appear at the very end, and he has no lines.
- Grand Finale:
- For Lower Decks, concluding the inaugural animated series of the franchise's Secret Hideout era
.
- In effect, although the previously-concluded Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Picard canonically take place not long after, it's also the last we'll see for now of the 24th/25th century "TNG era" that started back in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation and continued with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, since future installments of the franchise are either set in the past (i.e. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Section 31) or future (i.e. the forthcoming Starfleet Academy series).
- For Lower Decks, concluding the inaugural animated series of the franchise's Secret Hideout era
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Rutherford comes to realize that the Cerritos's antiquity is its greatest strength — yes, the Cali-class isn't state-of-the-art like the Sovereign or the Galaxy-classes and is one bad day away from falling apart at the seams, but it has a level of customization that allows it to overcome things modern ships wouldn't be able to.
- He Knows Too Much: When Freeman reveals she knows that Relga faked her husband's message, she declares that she'll now have to destroy the Cerritos to cover up her treachery.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Though the Enterprise-E herself is present, the show doesn't feature any of her crew, least of all Captain Worf, even though he was commanding her at the time after Picard was promoted.
- Honor Before Reason: Unsurprisingly for a Klingon warrior like him, Ma'ah has this problem when facing Relga. When she first attacks him and his brother Malor while claiming they destroyed one of her ships, an obvious lie due to wanting revenge on him for killing her brothers, Ma'ah is ready to make a suicidal charge on her bridge, with Malor needing to take control away from him and seeking refuge from the Cerittos while wrestling his brother for refusing any help. When Ma'ah continues to say he would gladly die facing Relga in battle, Malor says she'd never give him a fair fight.
- How We Got Here: The first act of the episode starts just before Boimler gets the information about the rift and he has a Freak Out!.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Boimler insists he didn't crib all that much from his alternate self. When Mariner asks what he wants to drink, he consults the PADD for the answer.
- Internal Homage:
- One of the Klingon ships is hit by the soliton wave and briefly changes into a Star Trek: Discovery-style Klingon ship, complete with that show's distinctive Klingon make-up.
- Another soliton wave turns Relga's crew into "mindless proto-Klingons" who look similar to the devolved Worf in the Next Gen episode "Genesis".
- The Grand Finale of Lower Decks involve the characters having to stop a Negative Space Wedgie that may destroy all reality. The Grand Finale of TNG was similar, though involving Time Travel instead.
- Internal Reveal: The rest of Starfleet learns that William faked his death.
- Irony: After Freeman spent much of the season worried that she's going to do whatever terrible thing Alternate Freeman did that saw her sent to Starbase 80, she gets assigned there once it's stopped being a Punishment Detail and become an important posting.
- Kamehame Hadoken: Olly charges up one of her lightning bolts with a pose like this.
- Karmic Death: Relga spends the entire episode mad at Ma'ah for killing for her brothers and tries to do whatever she can to kill him. After Olly disable's Relga's shield, leaving them exposed to the energy fields, she and along with the rest of her crew are transformed into mindless proto-Klingons, and because they're filled with rage, they attack each other and cause their own ship to explode.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Ma'ah intends to ram Relga's bridge as a desperate attack, but Malor doesn't think this is a good day to die and hijacks the controls before warping them to the Cerritos.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Ransom decides his warp catchphrase will be "Engage the core!" Boimler and Mariner bemoan his use of a workout pun, but Ransom doubles down because he's feeling it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the Cerritos shifts into a Freedom-class ship, Freeman wonders how a ship can go to warp without a second nacelle (most ships in Star Trek tend not to be able to go to warp with just one). Tendi begins to explain the Technobabble behind it, but Freeman cuts her off because this isn't the time. This is notable because Gene Roddenberry himself insisted that warp nacelles need to be in pairs, although various writers have disregarded that over the decades.
- Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When one of her ships is destroyed by the soliton wave, Relga figures it's the perfect excuse to blame Ma'ah for their deaths and get revenge for her brothers.
- Literal Metaphor: Captain Ransom tells Rutherford that "a little birdie" told him that Rutherford made some inspired upgrades to the warp core. Rutherford correctly guesses that Ransom is referring to Dr. Migleemo.
- Maybe Ever After:
- Despite all the Ship Tease they have had over the course of the series, Rutherford and Tendi remain Just Friends by the end of the series. However, without his implant suppressing his emotions, Rutherford suddenly finds himself much more awkward and blushing around Tendi, leaving a future relationship between them up in the air.
- Boimler and Mariner also get this to a lesser extent, with the latter calling the former handsome (and liking his beard), and both continuing to bicker Like an Old Married Couple over their new joint executive officer postings and Ransom's catchphrase as the Cerritos is warping away.
- Mister Muffykins: Relga has a chihuahua-like targ with her that snarls and barks at everything.
- Mythology Gag: Like the previous episode, a lot of gags in part because the crisis brings in The Multiverse.
- A Klingon ship is hit by a Schrödinger Field Wave that altered them into the unique Klingon alien and ship designs from Star Trek: Discovery. Another wave mutated the crew into "proto-Klingons" that Worf became in the TNG episode "Genesis".
- Captain Freeman is assigned to Starbase 80 to oversee the multiverse portal, making it similar in importance as Deep Space Nine. Ransom is also promoted to Captain of the Cerritos, reflecting a back-up plan to promote Riker to Captain of the Enterprise in the fourth season in case Patrick Stewart wasn't going to return to the show.
- Starbase 80 is an old space station which is constantly breaking down and populated by non-Federation civilians, many of whom are violent criminals. It is largely considered an unimportant and undesirable post, until a rare stable Negative Space Wedgie is discovered, kicking off a new era of exploration and diplomacy. Starbase 80 is moved to the anomaly and becomes one of Starfleet's most important posts. Deep Space Nine started the exact same way.
- Mariner is heard worrying that dealing with Ransom's cheesy warp catchphrase is going to end up part of a "five-year mission" in reference to The Original Series's Opening Narration.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Freeman transmits the shield upgrades to Relga in an attempt to be diplomatic, which only serves to allow Relga to continue to hound her inside the Schrödinger field that would have otherwise wiped out her fleet instantly.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The Cerritos is turned into a single nacelle Freedom-class. The Universe Bible has long said Starfleet ships need even pairs of nacelles to achieve warp speed, but a number of minor or one-off designs like the Freedom-class don't. Captain Freeman comments that even she doesn't know how it works, and dismisses an attempt to explain in Techno Babble.
- Not Me This Time: Mariner insists she's doesn't know anything about Malor's whereabouts, even though hiding him would be exactly the sort of thing she would do (and what her alternate universe self did). Turns out that Ransom was the one who did it.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The episode ends with Ransom ordering the Cerritos to "engage the core" as they depart for a new adventure, with Mariner and Boimler complaining about Ransom's new warp catchphrase.
- Older Is Better:
- The Cerritos may be outdated as hell, but it's also ridiculously customizable, allowing Rutherford to quickly reconfigure the warp core to use the rift as a power source.
- The stable rift still emits tachyons that are dangerous to newer models of stations, but Starbase 80 is old enough to be unaffected, so it becomes the new hub for the multiverse.
- The Only One: The Cerritos is the only ship that can close the rift because the two Boimlers are entangled and any other ship wouldn't survive.
- Plausible Deniability: Ransom tells Captain Freeman that he knew something was fishy with "Admiral Freeman"'s message and wanted to buy her time to figure it out without her openly disobeying what she thought were proper orders.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Plenty happens in the second act. Ma'ah nearly comes to blows with Mariner when it's suggested that she hid Malor, Tendi and T'Lyn get upset at each other due to the stress of trying to update everything, and Rutherford's anger over his implant and how it can't connect with the ship makes him start to hate the Cerritos.
- Properly Paranoid: Ransom hides Malor to stall for time because he rightly suspects Admiral Freeman's unusually terse message condemning him and Ma'ah is suspicious. Kayshon examines the transmission and discovers that it was a deepfake made by Relga.
- Punch Catch: Ransom catches Ma'ah's fist when he tries to punch Mariner. Ma'ah is shocked that a human could be so strong.
- Ramming Always Works:
- Ma'ah attempts to ram Relga's bridge with his dinky freighter, but Malor refuses to die a pointless death and changes course at the last second before going to warp.
- Played straight when Boimler, as part of his evasive maneuvers, side-checks a Klingon Bird-of-Prey with the Cerritos, knocking it off course and into another Bird-of-Prey, destroying both.
- Rank Up:
- Ransom is promoted to captain after Freeman joins her husband on Starbase 80 to manage travel through the rift.
- Ma'ah is given command of the remainder of Relga's fleet, returning him to being a proper captain.
- Ransom promotes Boimler and Mariner to provisional first officers, figuring he'll give one of them a proper promotion once they sort out who'd be better for the role, despite their protest since they don't want to ruin their friendship over competing for it.
- Reality Bleed: The unstable rift generates a "Schrödinger field" that causes whatever it hits to shift into random possibilities in the multiverse. Starfleet develops shield upgrades that allow the crew of the Cerritos to remain unaffected, but the same can't be said for the hull, which shifts into various other classes before finally settling on the California-class once more as they near the center of the storm.
- The Reveal: Rutherford's odd glitches between his implant and the Cerritos is due to the Cerritos being too old for the implant to work with. He decides to go Cutting the Knot by getting rid of the implant.
- Revenge Before Reason: Relga is so focused on Ma'ah having killed her brothers that she would jeopardize the Cerritos' mission to close off the rift that will destroy their own universe just to get her revenge.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Ransom was the one who hid Malor in order to stall for time. Captain Freeman was duty bound to give them up but he proved the orders were fabricated.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When Ransom makes Boimler and Mariner his provisional first officers, Boimler protests that it's "not a thing". Ransom simply replies, "It is now."
- Seeking Sanctuary: After fleeing from Relga's fleet, Malor flies himself and Ma'ah to the Cerittos to seek asylum, despite Ma'ah's protests.
- Shout-Out: While Olly charges up a massive squeaky toy lightning bolt to throw at Relga's Bird-of-Prey, she takes a pose very similar to the Kamehameha. The shot composition is even framed similarly to two iconic examples: Goku vs Vegeta's Galick Gun in the Saiyan Saga and Goku's Instant Kamehameha from the Cell Games.
- Smooch of Victory: After the rift is stabilized, while everyone cheers that they saved the universe, Shaxs and Dr. T'Ana share a kiss.
- Space Clouds: The unstable rift creates a "Schrödinger energy field" around it that warps the possibilities of anyone who enters it.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Mariner compliments Boimler's beard, only to then immediately add that she hates it.
- Take That!: At the end, Captain Ransom puts both Mariner and Boimler as provitional first-officers knowing they'll fight over the position because "a little interpersonal conflict's the best way to learn", a dig at Gene Rodenberry's rule against interpersonal conflict in The Next Generation.
- Technobabble:
- In their first scene, Tendi and T'Lyn are studying a device which produces something called "corbopples", which is evidently part of the mechanism by which Starfleet vessels produce artificial gravity. Mariner refuses to believe that's a real thing.
- When the Cerritos transforms into a Freedom-class, Freeman is briefly confused as to how a vessel with a single nacelle can even go to warp. Tendi begins to explain, but Freeman cuts her off because a life-or-death situation isn't time for geeking out.
- Tempting Fate:
- Starfleet tells Freeman that they wouldn't willingly entrust the safety of the universe to a Cali-class, which Freeman is relieved by because she also feels they're woefully ill-equipped for such a mission. Then they add that they have no choice but to trust Freeman with the task, because Boimler is entangled with his clone.
- Freeman figures that they can still handle the mission as long as there are no complications. Cue the arrival of Ma'ah and Malor, followed shortly by Relga's fleet.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Mariner and Boimler's reaction to Ransom appointing the both of them as co-provisional first officers, not only because they don't want to compete for the position out of respect of their friendship, but also because it means having to listen to his workout pun of a warp command.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: One unfortunate Bird-of-Prey has its hull shifted into the form of an old Klingon barge (as in, a pre-space-age seagoing vessel). As these are not airtight, the entire crew is suddenly vented into space.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While Dr. T'Ana is taking care of a patient, O'Connor returns by being dumped out of the higher planes into Sickbay. Neither T'Ana nor the patient are surprised by O'Connor's reappearance and T'Ana just resumes her work on the patient like nothing has happened despite O'Connor looking freaked out after returning.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Turns out that any attraction that Rutherford had with Tendi was suppressed by his implant. Once it's off, Rutherford panics once the idea of having a crush on Tendi comes out, especially when she throws his head against her chest.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The Cerritos briefly turns into a Terran Empire ship. Shaxs is impressed with the array of weapons but they go offline before he can fire at the Klingons.
- You Are Too Late: Thanks to Relga's interference when hunting down Ma'ah and Malor, when the Cerritos finally makes it to the rift, they find they are too late to seal it now. However, after Malor makes the suggestion to dam it like they would a flooded river back on his family's farm, Mariner realizes he's right and manages to stabilize it, rendering it permanently open.
- You Have to Believe Me!: When Mariner and Boimler warn Freeman and Ransom about the rift, the two are worried that the information is completely sketchy, especially coming from someone who should have been dead. Thankfully, Freeman trusts them and gets Starfleet on the line, stating that they're two of the Cerritos' best officers and that she has every right to trust them.