Somewhere in space, a Romulan Bird of Prey coasts through the stars. Inside, two crewmen clean up what remains of a Reman who was tortured to death by Subcommander Vrek. They pass the time by arguing over which of them will be the first to betray their commander, until they are saved from their janitorial duties by a ship-wide alert. As they arrive on the bridge, one of the officers reports a ship in their path... the same ship which, unbeknownst to the Romulans, destroyed the IKS Che'Ta' in the previous episode. Vrek orders the ship destroyed, but the crew finds that all systems have suddenly become unresponsive. The mysterious ship turns to face them. Vrek barely has time to gasp before he and his crew are sent to the same fate as the Klingons...
All is well aboard the Cerritos, however. Ransom and Shaxs are helping each other with some therapeutic stretching exercises in the gym and sharing some gossip. Mariner is about to enter when she overhears Shaxs asking about the newly-promoted batch of Lieutenants. Ransom's only comment is about Mariner, whom he says, somewhat ominously, "won't be my problem for long." Mariner leaves with a quiet grumble as she ponders the implications of this statement.
The rest of the former Ensigns are packing up their things for their move to better quarters, reminiscing about the stage of their lives they are preparing to leave behind. Mariner, however, decides she might as well stay put if Ransom is just going to bust her back down to Ensign. The rest of her friends are puzzled when they learn about the exchange she overheard. They all thought Ransom was earnest about giving Mariner a chance, especially since she has so far risen to the challenge. Mariner decides that, if he's just messing with her after all, she might as well go back to her old insubordinate self.
Tendi and Boimler are excited to go check out their new digs, until they remember that Rutherford isn't coming with them. They lament that he was the only member of the posse who didn't get a promotion, particularly when he's done so much to deserve one, but Rutherford keeps a positive attitude and says he'll just have to work extra hard to make it happen so they can keep the band together.
Mariner reports to the shuttle bay for an assignment with Commander Ransom and a new officer, Ensign Gary. Ransom is clearly displeased that Mariner is out of uniform and acting more flippant than usual, but decides not to comment on it, instead asking her to fill Gary in on their mission. The three of them are visiting an orbital space menagerie specializing in exotic alien creatures to retrieve a pair of humans who were picked up and made into an exhibit by accident.
Boimler, meanwhile, approaches his new quarters with eager anticipation. As soon as he enters, though, his eyes are assaulted by the bright, lurid red glow of the port bussard collector. He attempts to reassure himself that it'll just take some getting used to, even as his pupils shrink into pinholes.
The away team's shuttle approaches the menagerie. Mariner suddenly decides to launch them into an aggressively high-speed landing that causes Ensign Gary a Brown Alert, but is disappointed when Ransom decides to yet again ignore her flagrant breach of protocol. Disembarking, they are politely greeted by the station's curator, a humanoid plant named Narj, who apologizes for the mix-up with the humans and is happy to release them to Starfleet. Mariner continues her provocations, being passive-aggressively judgmental towards Narj about his zoo, including his favorite animal, a chubby little furball called a Moopsy. To her frustration, Ransom consistently refuses to take the bait, leaving her convinced as ever that he's playing a twisted mind game to set her up for eventual humiliation.
Rutherford's first attempt to get a promotion from Billups is to pull out an engineering project he's been working on to reduce the ship's warp manifold vibration. Billups is pleased as always by Rutherford's enthusiasm, but tells him engineering's new wunderkind, Ensign Livik, already found a way to reduce it even further. Rutherford grimaces angrily as Livik gives him a smug smirk from across the room.
Billups puts the engine improvement into action. The glow of the nacelles reaches a new intensity. Tragically for Boimler, the visor he just found to filter the light in his new quaters is completely inadequate for the job now.
Back on the station, Narj is getting ready to release the humans to Ransom's custody. As he absent-mindedly flips through his keychain, a tiny cry of "Moopsy" comes from behind them. It takes a moment for this to register with Narj, but when it does, he suddenly turns around and lets out a terrified expletive to see the Moopsy walking free of its enclosure. The others don't understand his reaction to the cute critter, but Narj explains that everything in his menagerie is dangerous, especially the Moopsy, which drinks the bones of other animals. Mariner scoffs at the ridiculousness of this idea, until she sees it emerge from a ventilation duct inside the Pyrithian swamp gobbler enclosure. Despite their menacing size and appearance, the swamp gobblers cower in fear of the tiny osteovore. It sinks its long fangs into the back of the closest one and slurps it empty within a second.
Narj: RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Meanwhile, back on the Cerritos, Rutherford's efforts to get a promotion continue to be stymied by Ensign Livik. Though Rutherford has found a way to increase the performance of the Tucker tubes in engineering, Livik has outdone him again by adding an additional one (and renamed them Billups tubes for extra ass-kissing points). Rutherford storms out in frustration.
Boimler's own woes also continue. Shaxs has just helped him move to new quarters without any light pollution problems, conveniently located next to the holodeck. Unfortunately, these quarters have problems of their own. The soundproofing in the walls leaves much to be desired, and Boimler can't help but overhear T'Ana brutalizing a holographic Robin Hood next door. He moves his bed to the other side of the room, but that wall is next to a holodeck, too. One currently occupied by Captain Freeman noisily scat singing.
As for the away team, the Moopsy has waddled them into a dead-end corridor, but they find safety in the room at the end. Ransom takes this opportunity to call Mariner out on her behavior, believing that she must have been the one to let the Moopsy out after the objections she raised earlier. Mariner admits her insubordination was intentional, retribution for her impending demotion, but Ransom doesn't know what she's talking about. When he finds out Mariner overheard him in the gym earlier, he contextualizes what he said about her "not being his problem anymore". He understands now that Mariner's constant demotions aren't from malice or incompetence, but because she habitually self-sabotages by manipulating her commanding officers: something Ransom has resolved to not let her do with him. Mariner tries to argue, but realizes she has no good answer when confronted with her past behavior. But that's a question she'll need to sort out for herself later. Mariner tells Ransom that she had nothing to do with the Moopsy's escape, and he takes her at her word.
But that means they still have no idea who is responsible. Ensign Gary points the finger at Narj, suggesting that he might have wanted it to kill them so he wouldn't have to give up his pet humans. He's a plant, after all, and wouldn't be prey for the Moopsy. Or so they think...
A metal grate falls on them from the ventilation duct overhead. They look up and see the adorable Moopsy staring back. It drops onto Narj's shoulder, clamps down, and vacuums him up entirely, leaving nothing but clothes behind. The three officers flee the room, locking the door behind them. It seems they're finally safe and no longer cornered, until they look back through the window and see that the room they just left was the station's navigation control. The Moopsy carelessly waddles over the panels, pressing random buttons. Alarms wail as the station starts to deorbit.
Back on the Cerritos, Boimler has set up a makeshift bunk in one of the Jefferies tubes, trying to convince himself through his insomnia that this is all a-ok. Before he can get any sleep, Rutherford stumbles across him, pursuing his latest promotion-bait project. Boimler mentions that some other ensign named Livik already came by doing the same thing. Looks like today isn't going well for either Boimler or Rutherford.
As the menagerie starts to enter the planet's atmosphere, Mariner decides the only solution is for her to bait the Moopsy out of the control room so the others can stabilize the station, but Ransom doesn't like how much danger that will put her in. Mariner says they don't have time to argue — even if it works, they'll only escape destruction by the skin of their teeth. That last word gives Ransom an idea! To Mariner's confusion, he orders her to punch him in the face as hard as she can! She does, and Ransom pulls out a tooth loosened by the impact and holds it up triumphantly. He has an entire mouth full of Delicious Distractions for their little predator, which stares at the tooth through the porthole with lust in its eyes.
Tendi is starting to worry about Rutherford's state of mind. He continues to obsess over engineering improvements in pursuit of a Lieutenant's promotion in spite of his growing stress and fatigue. He approaches Billups with his latest idea, but the Chief Engineer tells him to save it for later: he's about to give Livik a new rank pip. Dejected, Rutherford walks back to Tendi and apologizes for disappointing her. To his surprise, Tendi orders Rutherford to attention in her most authoritative voice. She tells him rank doesn't matter between them, and that they'll continue to be friends and spend time together no matter what happens, and That's an Order!
Then Tendi drops the act and giggles with the excitement of giving her first order. The two share a hug, and that's when Rutherford casually drops an unexpected bombshell. As it turns out, all of the promotion-worthy feats he's done for the Cerritos recently did actually earn him promotions, but he kept declining them because he wanted to stay close to Tendi in the ensigns' quarters. Tendi asks why he can't just cash in on one of those promotions now, but Rutherford explains it doesn't work like that in Engineering. There's a very specific—
Billups: Oh, sure. Ah, sorry, Livik, maybe next time.
And just like that, Billups tosses Rutherford his new pip. The whole engineering team cheers for him! (Except for Livik.)
In the menagerie, Mariner uses Ransom's knocked-out teeth like breadcrumbs to lure the Moopsy back into its cell. Slurring through his toothless mouth, Ransom reports that they've corrected the station's orbit. They still don't know how the Moopsy got out, but at least the danger has passed. That's when Mariner notices something odd about the captive humans' enclosure next door. A section of the wall decoration is upside-down. One of them tries to hastily conceal it, but it's clear from the wiring behind that they were the ones who overrode the door on the adjoining Moopsy's room... especially when Mariner has to hurriedly close said door lest the emergency they just went through repeat itself. It was all a plot to take over the menagerie by arranging an "accident" for Narj. The Cerritos decides to leave the imprisoned humans behind and let them wait to be rescued by someone else... which Mariner notes could be a while.
Dr. T'Ana sets Ransom up with a flashy new set of teeth. Mariner takes a few moments apologize to him for misjudging his intentions and creating more conflict between them, and Ransom reaffirms his confidence in her potential as a leader.
With Rutherford now a Lieutenant JG, he and Boimler decide to room it up together. They enter their new quarters, and Boimler reels in horror as he sees it is filled with the same painfully bright red light as his first quarters. Rutherford nonchalantly taps a few buttons on the control panel to polarize the windows, which brings everything back to normal. Once he comes down from his panic attack, Boimler cheers up, saying their new room already feels like home.
Tropes:
- Admiring the Abomination: Narj says that the moopsy is his favorite exhibit — as long as it's in its enclosure. When it gets loose, he damn near shits himself.
- Always Someone Better: Livik is always one step ahead of any attempts from Rutherford to impress Billups, and always manages to do it slightly better.
- Bait-and-Switch: Context clues imply that Mariner released the Moopsy, an adorable looking yet deadly creature, from captivity and nearly killed everyone present. She didn't, the humans that she was sent to rescue did.
- Black Comedy: Much fun is had during the menagerie subplot with the fact our characters are fleeing in terror from an adorable little Cartoon Creature, even if it is dangerous.
- Black-Hole Belly: The moopsy can seemingly drink a limitless amount of bones without growing visibly larger, even though everything it attacks should possess more mass in bones than the moopsy could hold.
- Blinded by the Light: When Boimler enters his first quarters, he's immediately blinded by the red lights of the Cerritos' nacelles, damaging his eyes with intense light. Boimler puts on visors to help him deal with the light, which works until Billups made the lights brighter after implementing Livek's improvements to the nacelles, making Boimer's visors useless. At the end of the episode, where Boimler decides to be roommates with Rutherford, their new quarters is by the nacelles again, but Rutherford easily deals with the situation by adjusting the settings in his quarters to block out the lights.
- Brick Joke: Boimler admires a dent on the ceiling of his bed from all the times he was startled by a Red Alert. After he and Rutherford end up sharing a room, he ends up making a new dent in the similarly-sized bed and feels a little more at home.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Ensign Gary ruins two pairs of pants, one during Mariner's Coming in Hot landing and one while fleeing the moopsy.
- Call-Back:
- In their opening conversation while they stretch, Ransom and Shaxs are wearing the same leotards that Dr. Crusher and Counselor Troi wore in TNG: "The Price." (The originals are featured in the Recap picture.)
- The idea of being an outpost scientist as an alternative to a Starfleet career is brought up again. When it was first brought up in "Envoys", Boimler used it to indulge in some Biting-the-Hand Humor about how that career would likely end with him being mysteriously killed, and Starfleet would need to piece together what happened from his logs; Mariner told him not to even joke about the possibility. This time, it's Ensign Gary's turn to contemplate a career change- and he actually considers it, because outpost scientists don't often see their commanders ordering people to knock their teeth out.
- Rutherford's belief that he can't just ask Billips about getting a promotion he's already turned down calls back to his inexplicable first season conviction that Billips is some kind of martinet who runs a tight ship, rather than one of the most easygoing officers on the ship.
- Captain's Log: Mariner records her first log entry as a lieutenant (j.g.) before deciding that her new rank just sounds weird."Lieutenant Junior Grade's Log...Nope, no, too weird. Uh, let's go with "Mariner's Log". So, yeah, of course it was the humans in the menagerie that set the moopsy free. They'd seen how profitable they were as an attraction, so they wanted to kill Narj and keep the station for themselves. Humans... we really are the worst. (laughs) So, anyway, instead of bringing them to the Cerritos, we left them in the menagerie until somebody else has time to pick them up. Could take a while. As for Ransom, it took some doing, but Dr. T'Ana was able to fix him up with a new set of chompers."
- Card-Carrying Villain: Both Romulan ensigns are openly plotting to betray the subcommander of their ship, and he himself is aware and completely unconcerned by their plotting—he just wants them to fix the problem so he can "go back to being suspicious."
- Canon Immigrant: Of a sort: the Romulan ship seen in the Cold Open is based on the original design of the D’Deridex from Star Trek: The Next Generation (more specifically, a Next Generation-related calendar image).
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Everyone on the Romulan ship wants their Commander dead, and he knows it. Just don't let it interfere with the mission.
- Colony Drop: The moopsy accidentally sends the Menagerie hurtling towards the planet below, but thankfully, Ransom and the new guy stop it.
- Continuity Nod:
- The "Ad Astra" Starfleet recruitment poster from "Those Old Scientists" is visible among Boimler's stuff.
- Rutherford's multiple promotion-worthy accomplishments and ideas are brought up, when Tendi comes up with the idea of him accepting a previously turned-down promotion.
- Boimler is able to call in a favor with Shaxs, who addresses him as "Baby Bear", indicating that he's holding true to his promise back in "The Stars At Night" to take him under his wing.
- As shown in Star Trek The Next Generation S 7 E 14 Lower Decks, as described by Ensign (soon Lt. jg.) Sam Lavalle, getting promoted from Ensign to Lieutenant Junior Grade awards you better quarters aboard a starship (though with what Boimler is going through to find quarters that doesn't cause him problems, "better" is relative).
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
- Boimler's whole dilemma is created by him not realizing he could adjust the settings in his quarters to block out the lights from the Bussard Ramscoops, till Rutherford shows him later on when they move into their shared quarters.
- Rutherford has turned down plenty of promotions, and never considered simply asking for one of them until Tendi does it for him.
- Cruel Mercy: Mariner and Ransom decide to leave the humans at the zoo until someone else can be bothered to pick them up.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The mystery ship from last episode one-shots a Romulan ship as easily as it did the Che'Ta.
- Cute Approaches Camera: The moopsy approaches the camera in all its deadly cuteness.
- Deceptively Cute Critter: The Moopsy is an adorable alien creature that resembles a quadruped land-based axolotl that invokes Pokémon Speak, only saying its name. It's also a vicious bone-sucking (literally) predator. When it gets out of its cage, Mariner dismisses it as harmless until she and everyone there watches it do its work in which case, they all run for the hills.
- Didn't Think This Through: The entire plan by the two human prisoners to take over Narj's menagerie for profit involves setting a predatory osteovore loose and having it consume Narj. The osteovore also destroyed the menagerie's most valuable exhibits and caused the station's orbit to decay, almost resulting in its destruction by planetary reentry.
- Dissonant Serenity: The moopsy still has the same cute smile and voice after sucking out the bones of two creatures and while chasing the Cerritos away team.
- Drives Like Crazy: Rather than take the shuttle into the starbase "nice and easy" like Ransom wants, Mariner flies in at full speed and screeches to a stop just before hitting the back wall of the hangar.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Mariner plans to sacrifice herself to lure away the moopsy from the station's main control room so Ransom and Gary can stop the station from plummeting into the planet but Ransom stops her, Mariner tells him if her plan works then they'll only stop the station's re-entry by the skin of their teeth. Ransom hearing "teeth" gives him the idea to have Mariner punch his teeth out from his mouth so they can use it to lure the moopsy out from the control room and back into its cage.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Played for comedy as the Romulan Commander suspects an underling of sabotaging the cloaking field, who denies it claiming that he wouldn't do that just to betray his commander.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After Ransom's team confines the moopsy in the room where they were just hiding.Mariner: Phew, no ladders. Now it can't get back through those vents.
Gary: Yeah. Now it's trapped in the... station's main control room!
(the moopsy hits a control that sends the station falling out of orbit) - "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Ransom knew Mariner's history of acting out to get demoted, so he knew he had to weather out her bad behavior and not fall for it like previous senior officers. Mariner overheard and misunderstood a conversation he had with Shaxs, thinking he was setting her up as a power play to later demote her. So she was even more overt in efforts to be demoted on her own terms and he was allowing a lot to slip by. He eventually explains what he was trying to accomplish, which caused her a real moment of reflection on her self-sabotage.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Narj's fear of the moopsy is backed up by its first two victims trembling before it breaks into their cage.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Moopsy may look cute and say its own name in a form of Pokémon Speak, but is actually very dangerous and sucks up the bones of much more intimidating animals.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Mariner takes a close up look at the moopsy in its enclosure, it crouches its front and rears up its hindquarters for a wiggle. This isn't just generically cutesy behavior, people familiar with cats (big and small) will recognize this as preparing for a pounce at prey.
- In the scene where Narj first notices the moopsy escaped, one of the wall panels in the human enclosure is upside down and the girl is always leaning on it; at the end we find out they sabotaged the moopsy enclosure by using controls hidden behind the wall panel. And before that, when Narj is saying the line, "I've given these sweet creatures a safe home", the two humans are looking at something off-screen in their cage which also happens to be in the direction of the moopsy's cage, and it's later revealed to be the controls.
- When Narj states "Everything here is incredibly dangerous!", that also includes the two humans in the zoo who freed the moopsy in order to kill Narj so they could take over his Menagerie.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Mentioned as the crew are reminiscing about what they've been through in their bunks. Evidently they were body-swapped by cosmic rays offscreen at some point, which resulted in them 'learning way too much about each other.'
- From Bad to Worse: After the moopsy chows down on Narj, Mariner notes that it lacks the means to crawl back out of the room it just jumped into and which it can't open by itself. Unfortunately, the room is in fact the main control room, and the little beast ignorantly crawling over the controls causes the station to de-orbit. Now they're faced with death by reentry if they do nothing, or death by bone-drinking monster if they open the door to solve the problem.
- Funny Background Event: When Mariner starts punching Ransom's teeth out, the moopsy's eyes light up and it presses its wide-open mouth against the glass.
- Furry Reminder: Shaxs is having relationship problems with T'Ana, saying that she's been crawling under the bed when mad. Ransom recommends scratching the bed and going "psp-psp-psp-psp," which Shaxs already did.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs:Ransom: (to Narj) We'll be out of your leaves* lickety-split.
- Horrifying the Horror: Even the swamp gobblers are terrified of the moopsy... and with good reason, given it slips into their enclosure and sucks their bones out.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Played for Laughs. After the moopsy is successfully put back into containment, the new ensign expresses relief that the trouble wasn't caused by the human residents of the Menagerie like one would expect. He's disappointed to learn that they are actually responsible for letting the moopsy out, scheming to take control of the facility from Narj for the money.
- Hungry Menace: Or thirsty menace, the moopsy is relentless in pursuit of its next victim.
- Impending Doom P.O.V.: As Narj and the Starfleet officers flee into the station's control center, the camera briefly shows them through the eyes of the moopsy as it relentlessly waddles closer.
- Killer Rabbit: The moopsy is an adorable pink ball of cuteness that purrs... and sucks your bones out!
- Laser-Guided Karma: The humans who set the moopsy free end up telling on themselves by putting the panel back on upside-down, leading to the away team discovering what they did. This gets them abandoned on the station as punishment, leaving them with a long wait for another ship, whose crew will be aware that they're murderers, to have time to pick them up.
- Mythology Gag: When Ransom and Shaxs are in the rec room, their stretching poses and leotard outfits resemble a similar scene between Troi and Crusher in TNG.
- New Meat: A new ensign named Gary accompanies Ransom and Mariner to the menagerie, only to witness some of Mariner's extreme behaviors first-hand while almost getting killed by a bone-drinking marshmallow.
- Nice Guy: Narj is very polite to others and caring of the creatures in his Menaje. He also has a policy against keeping sentient beings; he's genuinely apologetic about accidentally capturing two humans and happy to release them to Starfleet.
- No OSHA Compliance:
- Boimler's first new quarters has an unfiltered view of one of the Cerritos' nacelles, damaging his eyes with intense light. He eventually learns from Rutherford that the windows can be dimmed, but the fact that this is not the default setting (or that quarters with windows are even located there at all) is still a problem.
- Boimler's second new quarters are not in sight of the bussard collectors of the Cerritos, but they are sandwiched between two holodecks, for some reason, and there is insufficient soundproofing that you can hear the holodeck simulations within the quarters, when they are active.
- Not Me This Time: Despite one scene suggesting it, Mariner is not behind the moopsy escaping, and Ransom believes her once she comes clean about why she's been acting out. It was actually the human prisoners.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Narj is terrified when he sees the moopsy out of its cage. The others don't understand why until they see it drink the bones of two Pyrithian swamp gobblers.Moopsy: (standing outside the swamp habitat as the gobblers recoil in fear) Moopsy.
Narj: Hmm? (sees the moopsy outside its cage and does a Double Take) OH [BLEEP]! THE MOOPSY IS FREE!
Mariner: Oh, no, your cuddliest prisoner is loose. Whatever shall we do?
Narj: You don't understand! Everything here is incredibly dangerous!
Moopsy: (crawls into a floor vent) Moopsy. (emerges in the swamp habitat)
Ransom: Can't be worse than the Swamp Gobblers.
Narj: Of course it's worse! They only gobble you. The moopsy drinks your bones!
Mariner: How does something drink bones?
(The moopsy jumps onto a swamp gobbler and sucks out its bones)
Mariner: HOLY [BLEEP]!
Narj: (running away as the moopsy kills the other gobbler) RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
(everyone else runs out of the room)
Moopsy: (waddles away from the swamp) Moopsy. - If you watch the Pyrithian swamp gobblers when they first see the Moopsy, they back up defensively and their legs are shaking, indicating they already know the danger the Moopsy is to them.
- Narj is terrified when he sees the moopsy out of its cage. The others don't understand why until they see it drink the bones of two Pyrithian swamp gobblers.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: The male human exhibit does this when Mariner notices an upside-down umbrella painting, followed by the female exhibit when she has to stop the panel in question from falling off the wall, causing the moopsy enclosure to open again.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Mariner overhears Ransom telling Shaxs that Mariner "won't be my problem for long" and concludes that he's going to demote her back to Ensign. What Ransom really meant was that he had made the opposite decision: to no longer give in to her habitual self-sabotaging attempts so that she can finally mature into the capable leader he knows she can be.
- Plant Aliens: Narj, the curator of the Menagerie, is a mobile plant-based organism (he basically looks like a corn cob without the kernels) whose physiology is completely ossified, meaning there is No Body Left Behind when the moopsy sinks its fangs into him.
- Pokémon Speak: The moopsy's only dialogue is its name.
- Poor Communication Kills: This episode suggests this has been Mariner’s problem the entire time, at least in part: whenever she gets promoted, she becomes convinced they're looking for a reason to bust her back down and decides to give it to them. Ransom, having figured this out, refuses to take the bait and explains as much to her, which allows Mariner to suffer a Jerkass Realization. That said, this only scratches the surface of her issues, not explaining the underlying paranoia.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is based off of Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.
- Precision F-Strike: Two back-to-back examples. Narj's first, when when he realizes Moopsy's broken out of its cage. Then, Mariner's next after seeing Moopsy eating one of the Swamp Gobblers.
- Prop Recycling: The Most Important Device In The Universe makes an appearance here, and is revealed to be known in-universe as the "Tucker Tubes" (presumably after Trip Tucker). Livik figures out how to add a third tube without triggering a Heisenberg collapse, and names the result the "Billups Tubes", much to Rutherford's annoyance. Billups isn't even sure what they actually do.
- Rank Up: Rutherford gets promoted to lieutenant junior grade, just like his fellow Lower Deckers last episode.
- Redshirt: Subverted. While Gary doesn't contribute significantly to the resolution, Mariner and Ransom treat his potential death as unacceptable, and he survives the episode.
- Red Herring:
- When Narj first notices that the moopsy has escaped, Mariner dismissively refers to it as "your cuddliest prisoner," giving the impression that she might have thought it harmless enough to release as part of her campaign of insubordination. While Mariner was being Genre Blind about the moopsy, she had nothing to do with its escape.
- Implied with Ensign Gary, who no-one in the episode suspected but was seen as a likely candidate for releasing the Moopsy by some of the audience due to them being Beneath Suspicion.
- Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: After realising the humans they were sent to rescue on the menagerie let the moopsy out of its enclosure and nearly got them killed, Mariner and Ransom opt to leave them on the station until Starfleet can send another pick-up crew.
- Rewatch Bonus: At the end of the episode, Mariner realizes the cell the humans are in has the umbrella panel upside down, meaning they were the ones who let the moopsy loose. Going back to their first appearance, you can see it's been that way since that point, foreshadowing their guilt.
- Right Through the Wall: Boimler's second choice for a cabin is right between two holodecks, and the walls are so thin that he can hear what happens in each one— Shaxs and T'Ana roleplaying as Robin Hood in one, Freeman playing out her fantasy of being named "President of Starfleet" and performing "inaugural scatting" as part of her acceptance speech in the other.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Narj's screams while running away from the moopsy are high-pitched and rather undignified.
- Shout-Out:
- Two to Seinfeld:
- Boimler's quarters having a window facing a source of blinding red light is an obvious reference to Kramer's problem with the neon Kenny Rogers sign in "The Chicken Roaster".
- Rutherford bitterly cursing the name of his new Sitcom Arch-Nemesis evokes Jerry Seinfeld often doing the same to his nemesis, Newman.
- The moopsy is basically the Star Trek equivalent of a Pokémon. It only says its name, and its cute appearance belies its incredibly dangerous nature.
- Save for the color of its eyes, its face is near-identical to that of Kyubey, another cute and cuddly creature that's far more dangerous than it appears to be.
- The BGM when everyone flees the moopsy is similar to that from Jurassic Park (1993) when people are fleeing the Velociraptors.
- According
to Mike McMahan, Moopsy's bone drinking biology was inspired by Deep Rising. - In the final scene when Rutherford and Boimler start settling into their new shared quarters, Rutherford starts to tinker with a project using a sonic screwdriver, specifically the one used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. It even has the same sound effect.
- Two to Seinfeld:
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Livik keeps beating Rutherford to ways to marginally improve the ship's performance. They even curse each other's name akin to Seinfeld and Newman.
- Spanner in the Works: The upside down umbrella panel. Had Mariner not spotted it, the humans might have won.
- Spotting the Thread: When the away team goes to rescue the humans:Mariner: Hey, that umbrella is upside down, yeah?
[The panel Mariner notices starts to come loose, and the woman in the exhibit hurriedly stops it. This results in the moopsy enclosure opening again.]
Mariner: [hurriedly closes the moopsy's door] Did you [bleep]ers rewire the moopsy door?! You could've got us all killed! - Stating the Simple Solution:
- Boimler's first quarters was right next to the nacelle and was bathed in a blinding red glow. This inspired him to search for other available quarters, all of which had other problems. He then bunks with Rutherford only to find the same nacelle flood light problem... and Rutherford casually fixes the problem with window filter controls.
- Rutherford decides to actively seek a promotion and starts looking into miniscule efficiency improvements to catch Billups' attention. After an entire episode of getting one-upped by Ensign Livik, he mentions to Tendi that he was actually offered several promotions in the past due to saving the day several times (stopping the Pakled attack, removing the hull plating) but rejected them to stay the same rank as his friends. Tendi suggests just asking for a promotion based on having one in the bank anyway, which works.
- Status Quo Is God: Subverted; the episode begins with the Beta Shifters leaving the bunks they lived in for the first three seasons, and a sad moment is shown as the lights go out one last time. In an earlier season, Mariner’s antics get her demoted, Rutherford gives up, Tendi joins him, and Boimler returns in defeat; instead, Mariner is convinced to keep going, Tendi gets Rutherford his promotion, and the boys bunk together, showcasing the Nothing Is the Same Anymore of this season.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: With Rutherford's multiple brilliant and life-saving feats of engineering genius meriting him promotion by now, it was a surprise that he wasn't promoted with the others in the previous episode; turns out this was because he had been promoted, multiple times, but he always turned them down in order to continue serving alongside Tendi.
- Teeth Flying: Ransom orders Mariner to punch his teeth out so they can use them to bait the moopsy. Gary is disturbed and remarks that he should have been an outpost scientist.
- That's an Order!:
- Ransom orders Mariner to punch his teeth out so he can use them to lead the moopsy back to its cage.
- When Rutherford becomes despondent over being unable to rank up and thus remain friends with Tendi and the other lower deckers, Tendi makes it an order that they will continue to remain friends, which both get a laugh out of after he affirms the order.Tendi: Mr. Rutherford, stand at attention!
Rutherford: What?
Tendi: I am your superior, Ensign. Do it!
(Rutherford stands at attention)
Tendi: We'll be friends no matter what our ranks are. We're going to spend tons of time hanging out and talking about science and telling jokes and, you know, do all the things we used to do. And that's an order!
Rutherford: Yes, ma'am!
(both laugh)
Tendi: Oh, my gosh, I just gave my first order.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: After overhearing Ransom talking about her, Mariner concludes (mistakenly) that he is planning to demote her back to Ensign, despite all the hard work she has done to reform herself to Starfleet standards. Mariner decides, if her scarlet letter refuses to go away no matter what she does, that she might as well go back to her insubordinate ways and get demoted on her own terms.
- Third-Person Person: Narj always calls himself "Narj." The moopsy always calls itself "moopsy," though given Pokémon Speak this might not signify anything.
- The Unsmile: The "new set of chompers" Ransom gets at the end is a couple of sizes too big for his mouth, making his encouraging speech to Mariner seem off.
- Trapped with the Therapy Session: The conflict between Ransom and Mariner is so hard to ignore that at one point Narj and Ensign Gary head over to check whether the moopsy is breaking in just to distance themselves from the argument.
- Underestimating Badassery: Nobody except for Narj takes the moopsy seriously as a threat (understandable, given how cute and harmless it looks) until it jumps onto a swamp gobbler and sucks out its bones.
- Uniqueness Decay: Menageries have become quite commonplace, with Narj even saying he maintains his according to Federation code. The main limitation is to not collect sentient aliens like humans.
- Wham Episode: After being passed up for a promotion last episode, Rutherford is promoted to Lieutenant Jr Grade after accepting one of the many promotions he has turned down over the years. This allows him to move out of the bunk quarters along with the rest of the main cast and into sharing a room with Boimler.
- While You Were in Diapers: The Romulan Commander tells a subordinate who he suspects of plotting against him that, "I've been stabbing commanders in the back since before your mother killed her first traitor."
- Workout Fanservice: Downplayed as she's not actually working out, but Mariner spends a majority of the episode in her workout clothes instead of her Starfleet uniform. This is part of her plan to EARN her demotion, although Gary does sense her Belligerent Sexual Tension with Ransom.
- Also Parodied when we see Ransom and Shax re-enacting the infamous Dr Crusher and Counselor Troi yoga scene from TNG with matching outfits.
