Rutherford is asleep in his bunk, writhing and sweating through a dream. In it, he is desperately working the controls to a severely malfunctioning machine of some kind. It explodes, and Rutherford wakes with a scream...
Meanwhile, the Cerritos has arrived at Tulgana IV to perform a routine upgrade of the local Federation consulate's equipment. Mariner is frustrated to discover that she and Boimler have been assigned to one of the most boring jobs she can think of: staffing a recruitment booth for Starfleet at a career festival down on the planet. As she is still under the watchful eye of her disciplinarian, Commander Ransom, Mariner has no choice but to follow his orders to the letter. Ransom warns her in advance that he will transfer her to Starbase 80 if he sees her place so much as a foot outside of the booth.
Tendi notices that Rutherford is barely able to stay awake. He explains that this nightmare of his has been plaguing him for a week now. Tendi runs a quick scan of his implant and notices that its memory cache is overflowing a bit, so with his permission, she clears it out and suggests he take a nap. He does, but as soon as he closes his eyes, the implant sparks and turns red. He wakes with his personality changed, confused about where he is. When he notices that he is wearing a cybernetic implant, he looks at the window. The reflection looking back at him... is the real Samanthan Rutherford, demanding his body back!
Down on the planet, Mariner is doing her best to draw in passers-by with feigned excitement about life in Starfleet. A Tellarite shows some momentary interest, but her sales pitch is sabotaged by the woman in the neighboring booth, for the Independent Archaeologists Guild, who starts talking trash about Starfleet and its constraining rules and responsibilities.
Speaking of talking trash, the impostor in Rutherford's body also has a lot of negative things to say about the Cerritos. He runs into Ensign Barnes and makes some skeevy comments that quickly drive her away. The real Rutherford, again reflected against a nearby terminal, tries to call out to her, but it's clear that no one else can hear him. When he accidentally name-drops Tendi while talking to himself, the impostor overhears and decides to see who he's talking about.
Tendi is in their usual repair bay. Rutherford's hijacker does a better job of affecting his mannerisms this time, so the reflection looks for a way to raise Tendi's suspicions. He gives his implant a couple whacks with his fist, which makes the real implant spark and sputter. The enraged impostor lashes out at his reflection. Tendi has no idea what's going on, but she can clearly tell something is wrong with her friend. She calls in a medical emergency as evil Rutherford takes off.
Back on the planet, the snarky archaeologist continues to push Mariner's buttons with her smug, condescending attitude towards Starfleet. Mariner's attempts at comebacks all fall flat — it turns out this woman, Petra Aberdeen, also did a tour in Starfleet, and she has an answer to everything. Anyone who shows interest in their booth ends up turning away after hearing Petra's pessimistic rebuttals, which has Mariner's temper on a razor's edge.
Evil Rutherford attempts to escape from the Cerritos, but Shaxs eventually manages to corner and stun him, causing his implant to spaz out once again. He is taken to sickbay, comatose. Dr. T'Ana confirms that there is no foreign presence in his mind, instead finding that his memory and personality have regressed ten years.
Deep in his subconscious, Rutherford finds himself face-to-face with the mysterious personality: his past self. A self he doesn't even remember being. His alter ego explains that he, and the memories he carried, were erased by his implant... almost. That part of his past that refuses to die has struggled to break free — which is why the implant has malfunctioned so many times — and has at last succeeded. Now he wants his body back.
Both Rutherfords attempt to escape back to the real world, but after a scuffle it becomes clear that neither is able to overpower the other. They decide on a gentleman's wager. Past Rutherford used to be an illegal starship racer, so he suggests a run through the Neutral Zone in ships of their choice to see who's engineering skills are more worthy of survival. Rutherford's past self recreates the Sampaguita, a hotrod he once built, little more than a cockpit with engines bolted on. The other goes for a replica of the Delta Flyer.
Back at the recruitment fair, more and more of the attendees have been emboldened to join in on Petra's mockery of Starfleet. Ransom's earlier threat of reassignment is the only thing keeping Mariner from going ballistic. The final straw comes when a pair of hecklers making fun of their uniforms disdainfully plucks Boimler's rank pip from his collar and throws it to the ground to be stepped on. Boimler, not Mariner, lashes out in a rage. Amid a flurry of obscenity-laced diatribes against everyone who has been taunting them all day, he trashes the other booths one by one. This sudden display of assertiveness has the unexpected effect of encouraging several bystanders not already cowering in fear to reconsider the merits of serving in Starfleet. When Ransom finally makes his apperance, he sees the exact opposite of what he was expecting: Mariner pleasantly schmoozing with more interested people than she has time for, and Boimler still in the middle of his rampage.
What nobody noticed during the commotion was that Petra snuck away into the nearby museum with a devious grin on her face...
The Race of the Rutherfords is about to begin on an imaginary, but still dangerous track through the Neutral Zone. After several tense turns with the Delta Flyer only just trailing its opponent, a Romulan warbird decloaks directly astern of them. Its main disruptor knocks young Rutherford's Fragile Speedster off course. The other Rutherford follows, his ship still holding together thanks to the help of his crew. Tendi, Mariner, and Boimler are all in the cockpit with him.
Past Rutherford: Man, that ain't fair!
Rutherford: You said anything goes.
Past Rutherford's ship is taking a beating, and he himself is in even worse shape. Tendi beams him aboard the Flyer just before his ship explodes and they escape to warp. It's clear now who has won the contest, and their shared imaginary world dissolves, leaving the two of them alone together in the void. Rutherford holds his dying former self in his arms, desperate for a way to save him, but he can't. His past self seems to have made his peace, accepting that his life was bitter and lonely without the friends and purpose they now have in Starfleet. But suddenly, he remembers the origin of their implant, and passes the memory onto present-day Rutherford while he still can.
The nightmare that Rutherford has been having recently of being caught by an exploding engine is what injured his left side so badly. His next memory is of being in a hospital. A mysterious Starfleet officer, obscured by the blinding lights of an operating theater, tells a pair of surgeons to erase all of Rutherford's memories of "The Project" by means of the implant now covering his scarred face. Whatever he had been up to back then, someone else was pulling the strings and tried to cover it up after the accident. Rutherford finally wakes up from his coma, still with many unanswered questions, but back to his old new self.
Protocol requires that Boimler be punished for his antics back on the planet, but Ransom was impressed by his vociferous defense of Starfleet. Instead of being sent to Starbase 80, which he says was an empty threat to begin with, Boimler will be spending the night in the brig for the first time in his career. And when he gets out, Ransom wants to take him out for drinks to hear how he stuck it to those louts.
That night, as Mariner is filling out the log for their eventful day in Boimler's stead, she receives a call on her PADD from Petra. She lets Mariner in on the mystery of her disappearance during the scuffle planetside, which she deliberately provoked so she could steal the Grand Nagus's staff (which, she says, was itself stolen from its rightful owner) from Tulgana IV's museum to sell back to the Ferengi. But the reason Petra called is because she sees a kindred spirit in Mariner and wants her to consider ditching Starfleet to join her in a more free-spirited lifestyle. Mariner rolls her eyes at the idea and exits the conversation, but when it comes time to delete Petra's contact information from the PADD, she hesitates, and presses "save" instead.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: "Hero" might be an over-exaggeration in this case, but while Boimler has his meltdown and tears apart the booths of the various Starfleet hecklers while ranting about them, he indirectly convinces a few civilians to signup for Starfleet themselves due to the level of confidence he shows. He also manages to impress Ransom by standing up for Starfleet when everyone was disparaging the organization.
- Actor Allusion: Eugene Cordero is Filipino-American. The ship that Rutherford was working on was called the Sampaguita, which is the national flower of the Philippines.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: It turns out that Rutherford's personality from before his implant was supplanted by his cybernetics. Before them he was a womanizing jerkass and a reckless engineer who scoffed at Starfleet's regulations and engaged in illegal racing.
- Anything but That!: When Mariner complains about having to run the booth, Ransom threatens to send her to Starbase 80, which quickly shuts her up. Ransom had no plans on sending anyone there, though, as he later acknowledges to Boimler that Starbase 80 is an empty threat because not even Mariner deserves that.
- Apologetic Attacker: Shaxs apologizes to Rutherford before stunning him.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: While running the recruiting booth, Boimler and Mariner are confronted by Conspiracy Theorists who rattle off a couple of disconnected ideas surrounding real events, but when mentioning parasites taking over Starfleet Command, Mariner admits that did happen. In the Star Trek universe, the difference between reality and conspiracy is pretty negligible.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Past Rutherford makes a highly risky and flashy experimental ship, while Present Rutherford makes the more conservative but reliable Delta Flyer. The experimental ship proves slightly faster but gets shredded easily, while the Flyer is nearly as fast, better manned, and well-armored.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Rutherford competes against his past self in a race through the Neutral Zone to determine who gets control over his body.
- Berserk Button: Boimler's is pressed when his rank pip is tossed into the street and stepped on, leading him to trash every booth on the street while angrily ranting about their criticisms of Starfleet.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: During the race, Mariner says "Okey-dokey!" Justified as Present Rutherford has imagined her up to help, so it makes sense she'd have some of his personality.
- Buddy Snaps First: Mariner is not pleased with being stuck working at a recruitment booth for Starfleet, even less so due to having to deal with hecklers all day. The only thing holding her back is Boimler and the threat from Ransom to transfer her to Starbase 80 if she steps out of line. However, it is Boimler who finally ends up snapping, when one of the hecklers removes his rank pin from his uniform and tosses it into the street where it's stepped on. Mariner even tries to calm Boimler by telling him she can replicate him a new one later and tells him to get back in the booth when he goes on a rampage.
- Call-Back: Starbase 80 is still a Place Worse Than Death, and the mere threat of a transfer there is enough to cow Mariner into doing the Starfleet recruitment job.
- Catapult Nightmare: In the teaser, Rutherford wakes up screaming from a dream in which something goes critical and explodes in his face (eventually revealed to be the accident which led to him acquiring his implants).
- Cerebus Call-Back: The many instances of Rutherford's implant malfunctioning or just behaving unexpectedly over the past two seasons have frequently been Played for Laughs. That time he suddenly started liking pears, losing his memory at the end of Season 1, his bouts of missing time while installing updates, etc. Now the audience learns that most, if not all of these were caused by the remnants of his past self struggling to resurface after being forcibly erased as part of a sinister cover-up.
- Chew-Out Fake-Out: Ransom sends Boimler to the brig for his rampage but congratulates him for sticking it to the hecklers.
- Comically Missing the Point: Boimler mentions that he failed the Kobayashi Maru test (where the lesson is meant to be that sometimes Failure Is the Only Option and officers have to work with that) seventeen times. Clearly, no one told him that Kirk cheated.
- Continuity Nod:
- Tulgana IV's ion field that restricts transporters comes up again, this time keeping Bad Rutherford on the ship.
- Rutherford not only recreates the Delta Flyer, he also gives himself Tom Paris' racing suit from the Antarean Trans-Stellar Rally.
- The conspiracy booth has a model of the parasites from TNG: "Conspiracy", and the pair running it confront Mariner and Boimler about their existence. Boimler thinks the parasites a hoax, but Mariner knows it to be true. They also believe the parasites enter through the ass (that's a different show), rather than attaching at the base of the neck.
- Ransom wants to hear about Boimler destroying the scientist's booth, a callback to his hatred of non-Starfleet scientists.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: Petra has been trying to find the right opportunity to sneak in the Museum of Antiquities to emancipate an artifact that was stolen from the Grand Nagus. She tries to aggravate Mariner hoping for her to cause a scene, but instead she gets her distraction when Boimler loses his temper and goes ballistic on the other recruitment booths.
- Cool Starship: Past Rutherford creates a highly customized single seat ship for their race while Present Rutherford makes a recreation of the Delta Flyer made by Tom Paris on Voyager. Past Rutherford dismisses it as being uncreative, while Present Rutherford praises it as one of the most advanced and well-designed shuttles ever made. While the custom craft edges it slightly in speed it is fragile and can't outmaneuver a Romulan Warbird attacking it, the Delta Flyer is much better engineered and Present Rutherford is able to conjure a crew of his friends to aid him.
- Costume Evolution: While being mocked by civilians while attending a recruitment booth, one of the complaints is why they change uniforms all the time. Both Boimler and Mariner comment that it's not that crazy of an idea to update uniforms, while also commenting that not every ship wears the same thing.
- A Day in the Limelight: Rutherford gets his first A-plot of the season. In a rare occurrence, Mariner and Boimler, the two leads, share the B-plot.
- Death of Personality: It seems that this happened to Rutherford when he first received his implant. A mysterious figure insisted on removing all his memories of an unspecified "project," resulting in a completely different personality. The procedure didn't entirely take, with his old personality manifesting as Past Rutherford. It's ultimately successful, however, when Present Rutherford wins the race and his past self peacefully fades away.
- Didn't See That Coming: Boimler's rampage baffles both Petra and Ransom when it happens. With Petra, she actually shows concern that maybe she went a little too far before she shakes it off and dips away to find what she's looking for. For Ransom, he's completely baffled when he walks in and sees Mariner doing the recruiting and Boimler literally hopping mad as he stomps on a table.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Current Rutherford holds Past Rutherford as he fades away.
- Double Meaning: At the recruiting booth, Mariner encourages passersby to join Starfleet to "experience Warp 10 excitement!" and "discover the undiscovered country!" Appealing-sounding slogans based on references to Star Trek's history, but traveling at Warp 10 evolves people into salamanders, and the undiscovered country is death.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ransom threatens to send Mariner to Starbase 80 to get her to play ball, but when Boimler fears he may be sent there for his outburst, Ransom balks and insists he would never send anyone to that "hellhole".
- A Father to His Men: A subtle moment that isn't called attention to in dialogue, but Freeman is attending Rutherford at his bedside, a far cry indeed from the aloof and distant Captain of the pilot.
- Fighting from the Inside: Rutherford's glitching implant is revealed to be his past self attempting to fight the mental programming it forces on him. When Present Rutherford ends up out of control of his own body, he manages to exploit this fact for himself by quite literally fighting himself, specifically attacking his implant, causing the actual implant to respond in kind.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: During the escape from the Romulan Warbird, Tendi can be (just barely) seen over Present Rutherford's shoulder right before he starts giving them orders.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Look closely in the background when Boimler is yelling at the Wadi to "STOP GETTING PEOPLE TRAPPED INSIDE OF GAMES!". A Klingon is watching and seems to be enjoying Boimler's rage. And when Boimler is defending the Doctor while chasing one of the hecklers, a Vulcan can be seen remaining calm during Boimler's rage.
- Graceful Loser: Past Rutherford, after being rescued, concedes to Present Rutherford and admits he's a better person as he is now.
- Grand Theft Me: Subverted, after a fashion. Rutherford's implant malfunction causes his consciousness to be supplanted by another, but it turns out to be a past version of himself whose memories were being suppressed by the implant, and thus can't really be said to have "stolen" what was rightfully his to begin with. But the past Rutherford eventually yields after losing their Battle in the Center of the Mind and accepting that his newer self has a better and more fulfilling life to live.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Past Rutherford recreates a race through the Neutral Zone, and ends up being shot down by a Romulan Warbird.
- Hyde Plays Jekyll: Past Rutherford attempts to imitate his present self to trick Tendi. It works since all he has to do is play nice, but Present Rutherford tosses a wrench in that plan by causing their implant to malfunction, which in turn causes Past Rutherford to break character.
- Hyperspeed Escape: The illusory Delta Flyer jumps to warp to escape the Romulans.
- I Hate Past Me: Rutherford isn't happy to see what a jerk he used to be. By the same token, his past self is contemptuous of what he's become.
- I Lied: Ransom orders Mariner to stay at the booth and get recruits for Starfleet or he will send her to Starbase 80. After Boimler is the one to disobey the order, he admits he was never actually going to send anyone there since that place is a "hellhole", and simply puts Boimler in the brig for the night.
- Insufferable Genius: Past Rutherford has shades of this, being a talented engineer who quickly loses his temper when others don't seem to immediately recognize his greatness.
- Irony: Boimler, the Nice Guy who constantly follows rules and orders, is the first one to reach a Rage Breaking Point from the hecklers and goes on a rampage tearing apart their booths, while Mariner, the Military Maverick who is always eager to break protocol and kick ass, tries to get him back in the booth and ends up being the one to sign up new recruits. When Commander Ransom finally arrives, he is clearly shocked by this himself.
- Karmic Thief: Petra Aberdeen steals the Grand Nagus' staff from the museum on Tulgana IV which, if she is to be believed, was itself stolen from the Ferengi. It would explain why they have apparently put a bounty on its safe return.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When a crowd starts gathering to mock Starfleet at the recruitment booth most, if not all, of the complaints are related to things said by critics of the franchise or the more militant fans.
- Loophole Abuse: The rules for the race between the two Rutherfords allow them to use 'anything you can imagine' to help them. Present Rutherford uses this to imagine his friends as being part of his crew.
- Mildly Military: Starfleet's qualities like having a uniform and regularly engaging in armed conflict as a "pseudo-navy" are all thoroughly mocked by the hecklers of Boimler and Mariner's booth. Boimler eventually raves back that Starfleet doesn't want to be the last line of defense against hostile armies across space, but they do it anyway for the greater good.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Of a sort. Post-implant Rutherford is seen as trapped in various reflections while pre-implant Rutherford is running amok. Only Rutherford is aware of the internal conversations and the reflection follows him all over the ship.
- Mythology Gag:
- Apparently, Rutherford has a recurring dream in which he's in an alternate timeline with Kirk and Spock, and they have "cinematic chemistry" (presumably the Kelvin Timeline).
- Mariner tells the Tellarite that he can become an NCO without going to the Academy, and he then asks if transporter operators ever get to go to the bridge, calling to mind the most important man in Starfleet history: Chief Miles Edward O'Brien (who in fact first appeared as a nameless bridge officer in "Encounter at Farpoint.")
- As the past version of Rutherford starts to disappear, having remembered what happened to him, he places his hand to his older self's cheek and tells him to "remember".
- Before that, one panel on past-Rutherford's shuttle shows an M-5 style sequence, which also counts as foreshadowing of the season 3 finale.
- Not Himself: Past Rutherford inadvertently alerts Tendi by arguing with himself and shoving her when she tries to scan him. Shaxs also twigs on pretty quick when Past Rutherford tries to beam into an area that he should know can't be beamed into due to atmospheric interference and stuns him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: With a title called "Reflections", this is played for both laughs and drama.
- The threat of being reassigned to Starbase 80 is enough to cow Mariner, and she (mostly) behaves the entire episode. She's also the one recruiting people, which shocks Ransom when he shows up at the end.
- Boimler, usually the straight-laced and careful of the group, goes on a rampage when pushed too far, also shocking Ransom.
- Tendi, T'Ana, and Shaxs are all worried when Rutherford suddenly starts acting weird and Rutherford's change in personality is played deathly seriously.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Past Rutherford shares none of his present self's memories and has no idea how to behave, only gaining the barest of ideas through Present Rutherford. He manages to trick Tendi for all of five seconds before Present Rutherford disrupts his implant and Past Rutherford starts arguing with his own reflection, before shoving Tendi to the ground and trying to escape. Shaxs also lampshades that the real Rutherford would know that transporters are blocked by Tulgana IV's ion shield, followed by Rutherford calling his "Baby Bear" nickname stupid.
- The Power of Friendship: Current Rutherford wins his race against Past Rutherford by summoning the memories of his friends from the Cerritos to help him fly his shuttle. Past Rutherford even acknowledges that Current Rutherford is happier and more fulfilled than he was because of his connections to other people and tells him "don't lose those friends".
- Rage Breaking Point: Boimler spends all day holding Mariner back from fighting numerous hecklers, but when one of them takes his rank pip and steps on it, he goes completely apeshit.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Ransom holds the threat of being reassigned to Starbase 80 over Mariner's head to keep her in line, though near the episode's end, he admits to Boimler that he was bluffing.
- The Reveal: Rutherford was actually a rule-breaking, womanizing Jerkass who participated in illegal races and flouted the rules. However, he ended up getting caught in an engine explosion he failed to stop. His own superior was breaking even more rules and erased Rutherford's mind to cover their own tracks, creating the goofy, kindly Rutherford we've seen for two and a half seasons.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Boimler hits his Rage Breaking Point, he goes to the other recruitment booths to tell them all off for being Ungrateful Bastards and then flips their tables.Boimler: Without Starfleet, none of you would exist! (leaps at Geologists' booth) We don't wanna protect you from the Klingons or the Borg, we just wanted to explore and study [bleep]ing quasars! But, y'know what? It's the right thing to do! (leaps at Truthers booth) Stupid [bleep]ing Truthers, you hate the truth! You're just a bunch of pathetic, gossiping weirdos! (leaps at Collectors' booth) Collecting is stupid! It doesn't make you happy! Your ships smell like ass! (at Wadi booth) You're always getting people trapped inside of games! Stop trapping people inside of games! (goes on a rampage, Mariner ends up recruiting people) The Doctor didn't spend seven years trapped in the Delta Quadrant for you [bleep]s to question his agency! He's got rights!
- Save the Villain: Present Rutherford saves his past self from the Romulans, and tries to think up a way they can preserve his consciousness. The latter doesn't work.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: When Rutherford springs up from his dream, the iconic "Towel Guy" screams like this due to being startled.
- Seen It All: It doesn't take much for the Cerritos crew to catch on something is wrong with Rutherford. Their first assumption was a non-corporeal alien had taken over, which in comparison is probably more fantastical than the digital Split Personality that actually happened.
- Sequel Hook:
- At the end of the episode, Petra explains her actions to Mariner and offers her a spot doing something outside of Starfleet's bureaucracy. Mariner rejects her but keeps the contact.
- Rutherford is at the heart of some sort of Insane Admiral conspiracy.
- Ship Tease: After initially slipping up, Rutherford immediately does whatever he can to keep his past self away from Tendi. For her part, Tendi is devastated when the inner conflict between the two versions of Rutherford puts him into a coma.
- Shout-Out:
- So Proud of You: Ransom throws Boimler in the brig for his freakout, but is actually quite proud of him standing up for Starfleet and offers to hear the tale over drinks once he gets out.
- Split-Personality Merge: Mentioned as a possible compromise by Present Rutherford. Past Rutherford rejects this, saying if they did that, they'd both be gone.
- Straw Civilian: Mariner and Boimler get repeatedly harassed by civilians who mock Starfleet for being quasi-military and constantly getting into battles and other dangerous situations. When Boimler finally snaps, his tirade makes it clear that Starfleet faces those dangers so that the civilians don't have to.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Past Rutherford hijacks a transporter aboard the Cerritos to get himself a shortcut to the captain's yacht to try and escape the ship, Present Rutherford only has to distract him momentarily for Shaxs to catch up and phaser them both into unconsciousness. The Offscreen Teleportation, in this case, is quite literal since Past Rutherford presumably left his destination coordinates programmed into the transporter and, even if he managed to lock it out, Shaxs is the ship's chief of security and undoubtedly has personal override codes that would allow him to unlock it again and follow within moments.
- Unishment: Due to his public meltdown Boimler is given an official reprimand and an overnight stay in the brig, but Ransom personally applauds his commitment to Starfleet and showing some backbone. In the past Boimler would have been a wreck over being sent to the brig, but here he takes pride in it.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Past Rutherford uses the last of his strength to show Present Rutherford the truth of how they got their implant. He also turns down an offer for both consciousnesses to merge into one, stating that they would both be gone if they did that.
- Wham Episode: The Rutherford we've known since the beginning is revealed to be a shell personality of the real Rutherford he replaced, who was a womanizing, rule-breaking jerk. In their efforts to determine which personality will control the body, Rutherford learns of a larger conspiracy in Starfleet that is working towards some unknown agenda. Meanwhile, Mariner is offered a position by Independent Archaeologist Petra to join her to do work that isn't constrained by Starfleet regulations, and while she doesn't accept yet, she doesn't get rid of the contact information.
- Your Mind Makes It Real:
- Present Rutherford attacking his implant while trapped as a reflection causes real-world disruption to his actual implant.
- Past Rutherford is injured by the Romulan attack despite knowing it to be fake, since he was the one that conjured the warbird as part of the race scenario.
