With the reemergence of the Pakleds as a credible threat to Federation space traffic, the Cerritos has been sent to their homeworld, "Pakled Planet", to attempt a diplomatic solution to their piracy. Captain Freeman doesn't expect the mission to be too challenging, simple-minded as the Pakleds are, and beams down to their opulent capital city with Shaxs.
They are politely greeted planetside by Ambassador Grubdin, who welcomes Freeman as "Captain Janeway". She tells him the purpose of her visit, but the Ambassador says he doesn't have a "big enough helmet" to authorize a truce. Then, from behind him, a messenger bellowing at the top of his lungs reports that a prisoner of theirs, Rumdar, has escaped and made his way to the Cerritos. Freeman calls up to the ship, and sure enough, Ransom and Kayshon have just met a Pakled who arrived by shuttle. The Pakleds don't seem to have a term for "political asylum", but they think that's what Rumdar is getting at. Grubdin and his guards turn angry and inform their guests that they will be held there as hostages until the prisoner is returned.
Meanwhile, the four ensigns are chatting in the mess hall. Their breakfast is interrupted when all four of their PADDs light up with a new duty assignment: anomaly consolidation duty. They have to round up and dispose of all the random knick-nacks that the senior officers accumulate from their various bizarre adventures. Basically anything too hazardous to just toss in the trash. Boimler and Tendi are excited for something so novel, but Mariner sees it as glorified janitorial work.
Boimler stands to leave and clumsily dumps his food over himself, sending Tendi into a laughing fit. Somewhat embarrassed, Boimler moves on, but is waylaid by Ensign Casey and his friends at a nearby table. He say they have an informal club called the Redshirts who support each other in getting promotions. One of their members just got one, so now that they have a vacancy, Boimler's recent experience on the Titan has made him their first choice as a replacement. Casey says they can get him out of his ACD assignment, and if Boimler shares his knowledge from serving with Captain Riker, they'll put him in the running for an upcoming shift as acting captain. Boimler doesn't like the idea of leaving his friends to do his work for him, but after a moment of hesitation, he decides to accept their offer. Mariner isn't pleased when she finds out, though Tendi does her best to stay positive.
Ransom and Kayshon are escorting Rumdar through the Cerritos. They ask him why he is looking for Starfleet's protection. Rumdar responds by loudly inquiring about classified information on the ship. Yeah, he's a spy. They report this to Freeman, so she tells them to see if they can get anything useful from him about what the Pakleds have planned. Ransom watches Rumdar blind himself with the flash from his own hidden camera and tells the Captain they've got things well under control.
Mariner, Rutherford, and Tendi start their anomaly cleanup in Ransom's quarters. Tendi is excited at the interesting stuff they might find, though the other two are more pessimistic as they enter and see so many potentially dangerous artifacts carelessly strewn about. Their fears prove justified when Rutherford accidentally drops a container with a desiccated frog skull, which then releases a gas that causes him to inflate like a human balloon. Mariner and Tendi manage to get him back to normal, but the experience causes him to lose his lunch.
Ransom is taking Rumdar on a fake tour of the ship, showing him the "top secret Starfleet gift shop". He takes a moment to whisper conspiratorialy to Kayshon about what a baffoon this guy is... only to turn his attention back to the Pakled and find that he's gone! Not even the computer knows where he went. Unfortunately for them, the Captain has found her way to the Pakled Queen, who wants to talk to Rumdar before she'll discuss anything else. Freeman isn't happy to hear that her officers somehow misplaced him. She tries to bluff the Queen, instead.
Queen: Oh, I don't have a big enough helmet to do that.
Freeman: Are you (bleep)ing me?
Boimler has shared some of his knowledge of Riker with the Redshirts, and in exchange, they are coaching him on how to be more presentable as a future captain. Better posture, better uniform, better haircut. On his way back out into the hallway, he runs into his friends, who have not been having a good time with their cleanup duty. Mariner, who has been the most victimized by the strange objects, is particularly annoyed to see him chumming with the brownnoser squad instead of helping them. Boimler runs off again, leaving her to clean up the nanobots he accidentally spilled. Tendi continues to put on a positive facade, but Mariner, whose hand is now covered in Grey Goo which is happily "eating [her] fingerprints", finally snaps. Sometimes work sucks, Mariner yells, and she just wants to have space to feel angry about it without Tendi's constant forced optimism!
Tendi, for her part, is also starting to get annoyed with Mariner and Rutherford's constant whining. She suggests that they leave the work to her, if they hate it so much, so they do. But things don't go so well for Tendi on her own. A Three Little Pigs storybook in Dr. Migleemo's office comes to life, causing a commotion as she struggles to corral them. In the process, she accidentally breaks another storage container. The giant, gelatinous slug that emerges from it swallows her whole! Rutherford and Mariner scramble to help her, but after a moment, the slug poops her back out.
Freeman and Shaxs aren't having any luck, either. Down at the palace-thing in the Pakled capital, she is greeted by the King of the Pakleds, who wears a bigger helmet than the Queen. Then the Emperor of the Pakleds, with an even bigger helmet. Then a group of Pakled revolutionaries, if they can be called that, swing in through the windows. The Captain rubs her forehead in frustration as axes clash in every direction.
The Redshirts' next lesson for Boimler is about how the company he keeps affects his image. But he says he doesn't need any help on that front, pointing to the other ensigns down the hall struggling with various goopy monstrosities. Casey doesn't share Boimler's enthusiastic opinion of them, finding that sort of work beneath the likes of him. That doesn't make any sense to Boimler. They're all ensigns and this is the sort of stuff that comes with the job. How can the Redshirts claim superiority when they're the only ones not doing any actual work?
Tendi is starting to fray after her slug poop adventure, noisily complaining about all the crap the senior officers have left them to deal with. Tired though they are, Mariner and Rutherford are nervous to see Tendi's attitude taking such a hard one-eighty. As the intensity of her tirade grows, so does the electricity crackling around the featureless purple cube she's holding. By the time they realize what's happening, it's too late. The cube infects her, feeding off her anger and resentment to transform her into a giant green scorpion! She effortlessly tosses her friends aside and rampages through the ship.
The monster enters the mess hall and starts trashing tables left and right. The Redshirts see what's going on and decide it's time for them to take charge. Jennifer steps forward to give a Rousing Speech, but the brief flicker of optimism in the crew's eyes is extinguished as the rest of the Redshirts step forward and start giving speeches of their own, bloviating over one another and adding more confusion to the crisis.
Except for Boimler, who yells at them for talking instead of acting. He rushes over to get Tendi's attention while he brainstorms solutions. Mariner and Rutherford, who have just caught up with him, tell him what happened. Recognizing the description of the cube as an Ataxian mood shifter, Boimler immediately jumps into action. He requests a bowl of hot beans from one of the replicators and makes a big show of "accidentally" spilling them all over himself. The giant scorpion pauses noticably before resuming her destruction. Boimler repeats the routine with a birthday cake, faceplanting into it as comically as he can. Ensign Casey looks on disdainfully, but Jennifer realizes what's happening. The Tendi-scorpion chuckles, her anger starting to ebb away. Boimler gives a Slapstick routine worthy of Charlie Chaplin, culminating with him being Blown Across the Room by a stream of random food from the replicator. Tendi reverts back to herself and collapses next to him in a fit of laughter.
Ransom and Kayshon, who were stunned by Tendi's earlier rampage, recover their senses and curse their bad luck. Rumdar could be anywhere on the ship by now! Only he's not on the ship at all. Kayshon turns around and sees the giant Pakled floating by the window, frozen in the vacuum of space. Miraculously, he's still alive when they retrieve him. Dr. T'Ana has no idea how. He says he went to use the "bathroom", but when he flushed the toilet, he got ejected into space. Truly, Pakleds are a remarkable species.
Ransom sends Rumdar back down to the planet. The current big hat-wearer, whatever his name, reveals to them that Rumdar was actually a spy! Rumdar reveals the secret he stole from his hosts: Captain "Janeway" is actually Captain Freeman! The Pakleds all gasp. Rumdar found that out all by himself, and he didn't even reveal any of their secrets.
Freeman pretends to be impressed and asks them out of curiosity what secret Rumdar did such a good job at hiding. Just so she can appreciate his excellent spycraft, of course. He tells them, quite proudly, that he never once told them about the Pakleds' plan to smuggle a varuvian bomb onto Earth. Rumdar is a good spy. Very strong and smart.
The Cerritos prepares to leave orbit. Tendi is making up with Mariner and Rutherford about the giant scorpion thing, but they tell her not to sweat it. It's the job. Boimler, meanwhile, runs into the Redshirts as they are on their way to see who Ransom picks for the coveted acting captain shift. Casey immediately tells Boimler that he's been uninvited over that embarrassing routine of his in the mess hall, but Boimler has lost all respect for the man. Saving a fellow crewman isn't embarrassing. Mimicing other captains to get ahead instead of doing your duty, on the other hand, is. Casey scoffs at him and moves on, but the rest of his cortege stay behind, choosing to follow Boimler's example and focus more on being team players.
Ransom emerges from a nearby turbolift. Casey stands ramrod straight and requests the slot they've all been wanting. The XO, who clearly doesn't consider it important in the least, says yes with barely an acknowledgement. He does acknowledge Boimler, however, praising him for his initiative that saved the day.
On the Bridge, Freeman emerges from her Ready Room to announce that Starfleet Command was satisfied with their handling of the Pakled situation. As she and the duty officers prepare to leave, Ransom tells Casey he has the conn. The ensign braces himself for this important moment, reverently approaching the captain's chair in all its majesty. His butt has barely touched the upholstery when Shaxs walks in.
Casey: Ah, th-thank you. This was a great honor.
Shaxs: Go clean up airlock 17. Pakled did something unspeakable in there.
Boimler is back with his friends as they fill him in on their (mis)adventures during anomaly consolidation duty. He regrets that he wasted the day with the Redshirts and missed out on all the fun, but Mariner has a surprise for them. She decided to hold on to one of the artifacts, a submanifold casting stone, which allows the user to broadcast their voice across the galaxy. Not knowing what to use it for, Tendi half-jokingly suggests they could prank call Armus on Varga II. With a wordless glance, they all agree that's exactly what they have to do. Hilarity Ensues.
Tropes:
- Accidental Truth: After the Pakled Queen asks Freeman to talk to Rumdar and Freeman hears from Ransom that they lost track of him on the ship, Freeman lies to the Queen and tells her that he's currently using the bathroom. It turns out that he did go to use the bathroom, but he mistook an airlock for one and "flushed" himself into space.
- An Aesop: A true leader doesn't just look heroic and give the occasional Rousing Speech; a true leader does what it takes to actively help the troops (even if it this means they don't always look dignified while doing it).
- Alpha Bitch: Ensign Casey is a male example of this trope, acting as the unofficial leader of the Redshirt clique aboard the Cerritos.
- Amusing Injuries: During anomaly cleanup duty, Mariner is usually the one on the receiving end of being slimed, electrocuted, or shot with quills by the various items that the ensigns are dealing with, all of which have no true lasting effects beyond wounding her pride.
- Artifact of Doom: The Lower Deckers' job in this episode is to gather up and secure dangerous crystals, books, blobs, and assorted artifacts that the Cerritos bridge crew collected during past away missions.
- Art Initiates Life: Dr. Migleemo has a Three Little Pigs book that generates three real, angry pigs dressed in human clothes when opened.
- Ascended Extra: Jennifer the Andorian and the Kzinti crew member are both part of the Red Shirts with speaking roles.
- "Ass" in Ambassador: The Pakleds never actually intended to do any peace negotiations, but have been leading the Federation on the entire time to learn their secrets. They also intend to bomb Earth.
- Body Horror: A number of incidents involving the artifacts of "Anomaly Consolidation Day." These include Tendi getting eaten (and pooped out) by a sluglike creature, Rutherford being inflated like a balloon, and Tendi becoming a giant scorpion monster.
- Brick Joke: Rumdar accidentally ejected himself into space, thinking that the airlock was a bathroom. At the end of the episode, Shaxs orders Ensign Casey to clean up the "unspeakable mess" that he left behind in said airlock.
- The Bus Came Back: For the Kzinti species, absent since the 1970s animated show for
legal reasons. - Butt-Monkey: For once, Mariner ends up in this position, being the recipient of the Amusing Injuries from the various uncatalogued artifacts that the group has been assigned to clean up. Boimler, meanwhile, gets to be the envy of the other ensigns for having served on the Titan, and his knowledge of alien artifacts ends up saving the day.
- Call-Back:
- The material that the Pakleds are stealing from the mining colony is being fashioned into a bomb to use against Earth.
- Mariner tries to get through to Tendi by calling her D'Vana, her first name that she only learned a few episodes earlier.
- Chekhov's Gag: In the mess hall, when Boimler leaves the table, he falls and accidentally dumps his food on himself, making Tendi laugh. Later when Tendi transform into a giant scorpion monster and Boimler learns that she became that way after touching an Ataxian mood shifter, he gets Tendi to turn back to normal by painfully covering himself in food to get her to laugh.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Pakleds mistake Captain Freeman for Janeway. Also, they still refer to every Federation starship that they run into as the Enterprise.
- Boimer's time on Titan gets mentioned again, along with Riker's love of jazz.
- Cooldown Hug: Tendi is saved from being a scorpion monster by Boimler making a number of comic pratfalls involving the replicator.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Armus from the "Skin of Evil" returns after over 30 years to be subjected to insulting prank-calls from the lower decks crew, knowing that he's powerless to retaliate.
- Disappointing Promotion: Ensign Casey finds out the hard way that being Acting Captain isn't all that it's cracked up to be, barely taking the conn before Shaxs comes in, yells at him, and orders him to clean up Rumdar's mess in Airlock 17.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: "Red Shirts" = "Red Squad". 'Nuff said.
- Dramatic Irony: There is a group of officers that work to improve each others' chances of getting promoted. They call themselves the "Red Shirts", which they think makes them sound invincible.
- Epic Fail: Rumdar somehow mistakes an airlock for the bathroom and ejects himself into space when he tries to "flush" it.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Pakleds' planet is called... Pakled Planet.
- Expospeak Gag: As Mariner bluntly puts it, "Anomaly Consolidation Day" is just a fancy way of saying trash duty for the lower decks crew cleaning out the artifacts that higher officers collected from their missions and don't plan to keep.
- Failed State: Zigzagged with the Pakleds. To outward appearances, their government appears to be non-functional at best and non-existent at worse, with numerous leaders who don't seem able or willing to actually perform their duties, and revolutionaries ready to show up at the drop of a hat. The "spy" they sent to the Cerritos, Rumdar, completely fails in his role, and in fact gives Starfleet information about the Pakleds' plot to nuke Earth (which ends up becoming a plot to nuke their own planet). In spite of this, their capital city is remarkably tidy and organized, and we already know they've had some success at space piracy with their stolen technology. It's possible that this is just how their society evolved and a constantly rotating government works for them, somehow. Perhaps that's how the new head of state who took over during Rumdar's absence knew of him and his mission when he returned. Perhaps it was just his day of the week to wear the hat.
- Failure Montage: As they continue "Anomaly Consolidation Day", Mariner gets thorns shot into her face from a flower when she tries to smell it, accidentally electrocutes herself from holding an anomaly improperly, and gets encased in slime on the ceiling from Tendi accidentally spilling a liquid substance out.
- Fancy Toilet Awe: Discussed: After the Pakled Rumdar is beamed back down to Pakled Planet from the Cerritos for being a spy (and defecating in an airlock, thinking it was the bathroom), he is asked by the new Emperor Pakled what information he gathered from his spying. His response includes this gem: "The Enterprise has the biggest bathrooms ever."
- Feed the Mole: After Ransom and Kayshon catch on to Rumdar's mission, they take him to the "highly-classified" Cerritos gift shop, plus an offer to let him see the juice bar.
- Foreshadowing: The fact both Mariner and Rutherford, who have both previously been shown to not mind some of Starfleet's more tedious tasks or even find ways to make them fun, react to Anomaly Consignment Duty with irritation serves as a good indicator of just how much it will suck.
- Full-Circle Revolution: Hilariously done in seconds with the Pakleds when they overthrow the Big Hat government, proclaim an end to Big Hat Rule, and then immediately put on their big hats and declare themselves the rulers.
- Giant Equals Invincible: Tendi temporarily turns into a scorpion bigger than a horse but more agile than one. She becomes strong enough to break metal tables, tear apart high tech machines, and punch holes through solid duranium.
- HA HA HA—No: After Ransom and Kayshon rescues Rumdar after he ejected himself into space, Rumdar asks if he can have the ship's codes. Ransom laughs and then tells Kayshon to get him off the ship.
- Hat of Authority: The Pakled's hierarchy is determined by who has the biggest hat. Negotiating a ceasefire is stymied when every Pakled that Freeman tries to talk with claims that their hat isn't big enough to have that kind of authority.
- Heroic Build: The Redshirts try to invoke this by adding fake muscle padding to Boimler's uniform and styling his hair.
- Hulking Out: One of the artifacts is some kind of cube that exacerbates Tendi's frustration until she's ranting at her friends, before fusing with her and turning her into a rampaging scorpion monster.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance:
- The Pakleds, full stop. Case in point: Rumdar considers himself a good spy despite not actually learning anything useful aboard the Cerritos. That said, he does stop himself from blurting out the details of the Pakleds' master plan until after he gets back to Pakled Planet, which — given the utter incompetence that he has shown until that point — may genuinely constitute some sort of triumph.
- After Freeman tricks Rumdar into leaking this actual intel, the new Emperor Pakled realizes something: Rumdar just outsmarted "Janeway"!
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Boimler trying to calm down Scorpion!Tendi. It doesn't work until he starts with the food-based slapstick.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Rumdar boasts that he didn't reveal anything while spying on the Cerritos, so Freeman asks what he didn't reveal so she can admire his ability to keep a secret. He naturally spills the beans about smuggling a varuvian bomb to Earth.
- Imagine Spot: While Boimler's speech was real, he imagines himself on the bridge of a Galaxy-class starship, with the other Redshirts gathered around him.
- Inflating Body Gag: Played for drama, actually; exposure to mysterious mist from an alien skull makes Rutherford start bloating massively, which is harrowing for him, a little horrific to watch, and ends up with him vomiting profusely once returned to normal.
- The Killjoy: Mariner tries her darndest to break Tendi's excitement over Anomaly Consolidation Day... and succeeds to her retrospective dismay. She apologizes to Tendi in the episode resolution.
- Made of Iron: It's very fortunate for Rumdar that he just happened to be durable enough to survive the vacuum of space that he accidentally ejected himself into until he could be recovered, reviving on his own in the medbay. Dr. T'Ana is completely surprised.
- The Makeover: Boimler gets one from the Redshirts, gaining a slicked-back hairdo and a fresh tailoring job on his uniform that makes him look way more muscular — this being Lower Decks, it just looks absurd. He's restored to his usual look after making the almighty mess in the dining hall.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Casey becomes acting captain, but only because Ransom, Freeman, and the rest of the bridge crew decide to duck out early for drinks. Shaxs relieves him almost immediately, having come in with the next shift. He's then ordered to clean up the airlock that the Pakled used as a toilet. Boimler, by contrast, gets a sincere congratulations from Ransom for defusing the crisis with Tendi in the mess hall.
- Mistaken Identity: The Pakleds believe that Captain Janeway has beamed down to talk to them, despite Freeman's repeated corrections. This leads to the inevitable gag when a Pakled triumphantly discovers that she's not Janeway, only for the rest to forget that less than a minute later.
- Mundane Utility: At the end, Mariner reveals that she stole a sub-manifold casting stone from the artifact pile, which allows one to project their voice to other planets. The Lower Decks crew decide to use it to prank call Armus.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Kzinti crew member adopts the posture that the Kzinti Telepath has in the TAS episode "The Slaver Weapon" as an example of bad posture.
- Freeman's gambit to trick Rumdar into revealing the Pakled plans is the exact same one pulled by Gowron in Star Trek: Klingon. In that game, Gowron convinced a reluctant Pakled to beam aboard his ship by claiming that he had to beam over to explain why he was so reluctant.
- Rumdar asks about the ship's "crimson force field", which the crew of the Enterprise-D made up as part of their ruse to fool the Pakleds during their first encounter.
- Noodle Incident: The Pakleds somehow know of Captain Janeway, which suggests a rather memorable run-in with her at some point.
- No OSHA Compliance:
- Both Mariner and Rutherford hate "Anomaly Consolidation Day" due to this trope being in full effect. Not only do they deal with the hazardous materials that officers have collected, most of the officers don't bother to follow proper procedure in the first place. What's even worse is that the glass containers that they put the materials in keep constantly breaking open, and they don't have a way to keep them secure.
- When Rumdar accidentally blows himself into space, the ship's computer not only doesn't sound an alarm, but doesn't tell Ransom when he specifically asks whether the Pakled left the ship.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: The Pakleds act like they don't know who can negotiate peace, but have actually been giving Freeman the run-around while their spy tries to steal Starfleet secrets. Fortunately, he's a moron and gives up their plan when Freeman tricks him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mariner and Rutherford are clearly shaken when Tendi begins to rant about how she hates her job, given how much of a Nice Girl she usually is. Sure enough, she is falling under the influence of the emotion-altering cube.
- Overt Operative: Rumdar quickly proves himself to be a spy rather than a refugee, taking pictures of the Cerritos and asking to see critical areas of the ship.Rumdar: Can I have all your codes now?
- Planet of Hats: One of the most literal examples of this trope ever: the Pakled system of government is based on the hat that the person is wearing. If a different person puts on the hat, they assume that place in the government.
- Rank Inflation: The Pakleds have not only a king and queen, but also an emperor. The latter is quickly replaced simply by killing the old one and putting on his hat.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Casey tells Boimler that he's out of the Redshirts for his shameful display of stopping Tendi's rampage. Boimler calls them out for trying to create a persona by copying other captains instead of being themselves. While Casey ignores Boimler's words, the other Redshirts take what Boimler said to heart and decide to take a break from the Redshirts and start focusing on their duties.Casey: Sorry, you can't come with us. That move you pulled in the mess hall proves you don't belong in the Redshirts.
Boimler: Hey, my friend was in trouble.
Casey: You made a fool of yourself to make a bug laugh. It was shameful.
Boimler: Alright, you know what's shameful? Trying to build a persona by copying other captains. You think Riker did that? You guys are wasting your time on this Redshirt stuff. Be your own captains! - Rousing Speech: The Redshirts give themselves improv classes to do these, but it proves to be meaningless as they don't bother to actually do anything during a real emergency. In fact, several of them step up to speechify at the same time, defeating the point. It's worth noting, though, that Boimler comes up with a pretty good speech while acting out what Riker would say.Boimler: Look, I may not know exactly what we're up against, but I do know that in this, our darkest hour, I'm grateful. Grateful to have a ship and a crew I trust with my life. Now, I'll be honest. There's no guarantee we're gonna get out of this. But if we do, it'll be because of your combined talent and dedication. It's been the honor of my life to serve as your captain. But we're not dead yet, so how about we go in and kick some ass. Red Alert! Take us in.
- Scorpion People: When Tendi comes under the influence of the alien emotion-altering cube, she transforms into a huge, raging scorpion woman with pincers for hands, mandibles, and multiple eyes.
- Sequel Hook: The Pakleds admit that they intend to plant a bomb on Earth, which is made from the mineral that they were stealing several episodes ago.
- Shout-Out:
- The skull from the planet where "animals evolve weirdly" is the skull of a Bulbasaur.
- The cube that turns Tendi into a giant scorpion looks suspiciously like an energon cube.
- Skewed Priorities: Despite the fact that Tendi transformed into a giant scorpion monster and was rampaging through the mess hall and Boimler had to stop her by humiliating himself, Casey finds it shameful and kicks Boimler out of the Redshirts. Never mind that the Redshirts were all useless during the crisis, while Boimler saved multiple crewmates, including Tendi herself, from mutilation and body-horror by thinking fast and putting others above his own ego.
- Slapstick: Employed deliberately by Boimler as a Cooldown Hug on Tendi: he repeatedly orders foods from the replicators and then "accidentally" smears them all over himself. The end result is a laughing Tendi, a Boimler Covered in Gunge, and a crisis averted.
- Space Is Cold: After flushing himself out the airlock, Rumdar is partially frozen when he's revived in Sickbay.
- Tempting Fate: Freeman figures that negotiating with the Pakleds "shouldn't be too complicated". Things get complicated as soon as she and Shaxs beam down.
- That Came Out Wrong: Boimler informs the Redshirts that Riker needs extra room tailored into his pants, then quickly adds that it's for his legs, because he's so tall.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Rumdar did this to himself, thinking that "flush" referred to a toilet.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Pakleds, as usual, live this trope. Rumdar is an especially terrible example, as he mistook an airlock for a bathroom and "flushed" himself into space.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Downplayed with Boimler and the Redshirts. While he's willing to try their methods for a while, he's also quickly skeptical of them for their posturing and condescension.
- Underestimating Badassery: Subverted. Rumdar quickly escapes Kayshon and Ransom... except not. He ejected himself out an airlock after mistaking it for a bathroom.
- Unusual Euphemism: The name "Anomaly Consolidation Day" fooled Tendi into thinking that it was a desirable, interesting task, when really it's just trash collection for officers who leave dangerous artifacts and devices lying around their quarters. (Although Tendi is genuinely enthusiastic about it until Mariner and Rutherford's aggravation, plus an emotion-warping cube, kill her mood.)
- Villain Decay: Armus, the villain of "Skin of Evil", isn't anywhere near as threatening or scary as he previously was. He is reduced to being prank-called and mocked by the Lower-Deckers, and even before that was just sitting around with nothing to do. This is all justified, though, since he has spent thirty years alone, and being left alone for eternity by Picard after an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech was meant to be a Fate Worse than Death for him.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After Rutherford is bloated and then cured, he can be seen vomiting in the background as Boimler and the Red Shirts walk by, slightly out of focus so it's not quite so disgusting. By the time that the camera focuses on him, he's done.
- Weight Taller: Rutherford undergoes "molecular engorgement" at one point, which makes his body bloat up massively, distorting his voice and giving him booming footsteps.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Freeman, when told that the Pakled Queen doesn't have a big enough helmet to negotiate a ceasefire.Are you sh**ing me?
