"He's with the Prophets now."
WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
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Season 1
"Second Contact"
- Boimler loses some of his idealism when he realizes that Mariner had a point when she said that the senior staff cares more about getting the glory than giving Lower Deckers the recognition they deserve.
"Envoys"
- Boimler's breakdown is heartbreaking if you've ever had a similar experience or have seen a friend give up on one of their dreams. The fact that he describes a horrible death like so many episodes of TOS makes it Crosses the Line Twice, though. Made even worse when he decides to quit Starfleet and throws his badge away before storming off. He doesn't luckily, but still...
"Moist Vessel"
- Tendi wins over O'Connor's friendship only to lose him when he ascends, and it is not a pleasant experience for either of them.
"Cupid's Errant Arrow"
- Although the scene is admittedly Played for Laughs with the over-the-top visuals, the flashback to Mariner's best friend getting devoured alive by her "perfect boyfriend" does show that Mariner's checkered past in Starfleet wasn't all fun and insubordination — when she says "I've seen things" she is not kidding around in the slightest.
- Boimler loses his girlfriend and is humiliated in a particularly crushing way. After all the time thinking that he had someone who really liked him for himself, then giving into his insecurities about not being good enough for her, she ends up dumping him as well as confirming his worst fears.
"No Small Parts"
- The introductory scene brings back Captain Dayton in her brand-new ship Solvang with her same nervy personality, having mandated her bridge crew to wear socks on the new carpet and refusing to peel off the screen protectors. Then they are ambushed by a fearsome Frankenstein's monster of a ship that instantly begins carving them up and Dayton's desperate order to warp out results in the total destruction of the Solvang when the grapple rips out its nacelles. The Cerritos' scanners confirm later that there were no survivors.
- Shaxs's death. He saves Rutherford by ripping out his implant, putting him into the shuttle, and kicking it out of the hull breach they rammed it through. Then he turns to fight off half a dozen Pakleds, roaring with laughter and declaring that it's the best day of his life just before Badgey's self-destruct goes off.
- Subsequently, there is a memorial service on the Cerritos.Freeman: He's with the Prophets now.
- Dr. T'Ana expresses earlier in the episode that she's interested in hooking up with Shaxs. Now she'll never get the chance.
- Subverted as of Season 2, with Shax's return.
- Subsequently, there is a memorial service on the Cerritos.
- A slightly different kind of tearjerker: longtime Star Trek fans could be forgiven for getting a bit emotional during the Titan's Big Damn Heroes moment. Captain Riker coming to the rescue as the Next Generation theme plays? It could definitely bring a tear to the eye.
- When Rutherford wakes up in sickbay, he asks if Tendi is his nurse. She cheerfully replies that she's just keeping him company in her off-time. He then introduces himself and asks who she is. Veers into a Heartwarming moment when Tendi realizes this means they get to become best friends again!
- Boimler ghosting Mariner following his promotion to the Titan. It's especially upsetting considering that earlier in the episode Boimler confessed to Mariner that he does care about her and wouldn't want her to leave for another ship, something he does himself despite promising to her that he will no longer prioritize rank over what he already has.
Season 2
"Mugato, Gumato"
- The reveal that Mariner herself started the rumor that she was a black-op. She wanted to keep weirdoes away, her deep-seated trust issues about connecting with people intimately clashing with her desire to just be a bit of a lone wolf. Mariner was also genuinely hurt that Boimler and Rutherford thought that she was using them as cover and wasn't their friend.
- The Ferengi poachers tear a Mugato baby away from its mother.
"An Embarrassment Of Dooplers"
- Rutherford brings up insecurities about his pre-amnesia self, noting that he's behind his friendship with Tendi and that he can't understand his past self's notes for making the model, making him feel like he's competing with his own ghost.
"wej Duj"
- The treatment of T'Lyn on the Vulcan ship, constantly berating her for the smallest infractions and even after the Captain takes her advice which allows them to rescue the Cerritos and is critical to them winning the fight against the Pakled, is still forcibly removed from the ship and moved, against her preferences, to Starfleet. While she genuinely will do better there, it's described as a punishment an assessment her Captain does not dispute.
- Normally one would think a Klingon officer would be thrilled upon defeating and killing his treacherous captain. However, Ma'ah seems rather reserved and almost somber as he gazes upon the floor after Dorg's death. Though he's not granted much time to dwell on what had just happened.
"First First Contact"
- After Mariner tells the Senior Staff that Freeman is getting promoted after the mission, they all start giving Freeman attitude for not keeping them informed.
- Rutherford's implant has constantly been giving him error messages, which is explained to be because he has too many backup memories of Tendi. After he lost his memories of her last year, he started keeping backups of her because he was afraid it would happen again otherwise.
- The Sudden Downer Ending of the episode that leaves the season on a cliffhanger. Freeman is accused of being responsible for the destruction of Pakled Planet and arrested. What makes it worse is she is escorted off the ship in cuffs in front of her entire crew, who showed up to congratulate her and bid her a happy farewell, believing she was going to get promoted.
- All of the plot threads of the season come together in the worst possible way. Freeman's visit to Pakled Planet and being in the vicinity of the corrupt Klingon ship selling them weapons were mistaken for conspiracy. Even her recent first contact mission where she saved the Archimedes from accidentally destroying a planet was thought by Starfleet Command to be a clever alibi.
- The giant hole in Pakled Planet, akin to Praxis exploding. Either the Pakleds had gotten careless with the large amount of weapons they had acquired, or their benefactors decided they'd outlived their usefulness. Either way, their homeworld is dead, and presumably the vast majority of their people with it.
- The heartbroken faces on the Bridge Crew and the Lower Decks officers as they see Freeman taken away in a shuttle.
Season 3
"Grounded"
- The entire episode is an exercise in All for Nothing - because she’s convinced that Starfleet would believe everything about Captain Freeman’s evidence against her, Mariner attempts a Clear Their Name stunt, only to find out the entire thing was a False Flag Operation to root out the truth. Now Mariner’s on her last chance in Starfleet with Ransom holding the leash.
- Mariner finally drops her bravado and admits how helpless she felt when they took her mom away in handcuffs, and how scared she is that she may never see her again.
- The Pakleds, in hopes of getting the Federation to move them to a new planet with more resources, ended up blowing up their own homeworld with who knows how many dead in the process. And it was all for nothing, as Starfleet quickly saw through their ruse. The worst part is, the Federation would have likely helped them to obtain supplies and resources had they simply asked for them.
"Mining the Mind's Mines"
- It's subtle but Mariner freezes up when she sees the Jennifer-Fantasy torn in half, she actually has to be rescued by Boimler.
"Room for Growth"
- Freeman suffers a massive Sanity Slippage due to Engineering refusing to relax, instead wanting to just keep working. When she stuck in the room full of puppies and rabbits, she has no reaction to them whatsoever. Then you realize that not only has she been transformed a few times before now, there's been everything else happening to her and you've never seen her take a break before this point. She's always been one incident away from snapping like this!
- Freeman's breakdown is even worse when you realize that Engineers were relaxing, albeit in their own way and not according to the plans that the Dove staff had planned out for them, i.e. designing a new system in the rock garden and fiddling with equipment during their massages.
"Reflections"
- When Past Rutherford takes back control of his body, his actions freak out those who know him. This goes to O.O.C. Is Serious Business as the usually snarky T'Ana is deathly serious and Shaxs is impassionately calling out to his "Baby Bear" trying to figure out what's wrong with him.
- While Shaxs doesn't show a reaction, it had to hurt hearing Past Rutherford call "Baby Bear" a stupid nickname.
- Past Rutherford is rude and creepy towards Ensign Barnes, and when she calls him out, he insults her so badly that she starts crying.
- Past Rutherford's entire existence. Yes, he was a jerkass, but he also had to spend years trapped in his own mind. When he does escape, he discovers that everyone around him prefers the new personality he was forcibly given. Worse of all, he comes to realize that the new personality is BETTER than him, causing him to allow himself to be erased from existence.
- Rutherford's Split Personality crisis begins when Tendi casually clears his implant's memory cache to help him sleep, allowing Past Rutherford to take over. While the episode doesn't dwell on it, there's likely a period of several hours where she has to face the possibility she's just lost Rutherford again... only this time, it's all her fault.Tendi: Did I erase my best friend?!
"Hear All, Trust Nothing"
- Kira watching the Bajoran Wormhole from the Station Commander's Office is played with a sense of quiet melancholy. While it's not explicitly stated, it's not hard to imagine she's thinking about the friends no longer with the Station: Sisko (still at home with her gods) and Odo (tens of thousands of light years away in the Gamma Quadrant and still working to redeem and reform the Great Link). The latter's even more of a implied tearjerker given the passing of René Auberjonois before the premiere of Lower Decks.
- Tendi's immediate reaction to Mesk, even before he turns out to lean into Pirate stereotypes is one of extreme discomfort and it only gets worse from there.
"A Mathematically Perfect Redemption"
- The episode is really rough as we watch Peanut Hamper become The Sociopath, using people that trusted her for her selfish needs and nearly getting them killed.
"Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus"
- Boimler's reaction to his transporter clone William's death. He suffers an existential crisis at the idea that a perfect copy of himself was killed by a freak gas leak in a pointless, meaningless, death. He spends most of the episode shifting between depression, anger and desperately trying to find meaning in his own life and in William's death.
- His friends are so distracted by the holomovie he created, they fail to notice Boimler is having a crisis. Mariner gets so frustrated by his erratic behavior that they end up having a blow-up over it, only for Ransom to fill Mariner in about what happened to Will. She puts Boimler's behavior into context and has a Heel Realization before running back to be with him.
- Having been sucked into the holomovie's plot, Tendi takes the death of Holo-T'Ana's extremely hard when the doctor dives in front of a disruptor blast meant for her. She's left in tears as her (simulated) mentor dissolves into ash in her arms.
"Trusted Sources"
- Mariner getting kicked off the Cerritos for bad-mouthing the ship is a gut-punch, both for her (having to lose another group of friends) and her fellow Lower Deckers. What makes it worse is The Reveal that it was everyone else who made the Cerritos look bad, while Mariner herself was full of nothing but praise for the ship and her mother. Once this gets out, Freeman has a "My God, What Have I Done?" moment as she tries (and fails) to reach out to her daughter.
- Not to mention that the addition to the crew giving her the Silent Treatment on her mother's order and her girlfriend viewing her as guilty as everyone else on the ship views her causes Mariner to actually tear up for the first time on the show.
- Additionally, this is only one episode after Jack Ransom had literally nothing bad to say to Mariner in her performance evaluation, and it's his job to ride her ass. She's been working super hard all year to make up for a lot of bad blood! And despite finding Mariner a pain in his ass, even he's shocked when Freeman effectively disowns her.
- The clips from the exposé. Under any other circumstances, it would be hilarious to see everyone Freeman hand-picked to be "credible" instead making the ship look ridiculous. Instead, they're hit in the face with the fact that they are all guilty of what they ostracized Mariner for, and they didn't even realize they were doing it.
- The final shot of Mariner trudging across the shuttlebay, totally alone, is a grim contrast to the touching sendoff a Starfleet officer usually gets when they leave the ship in any other series.
- If the theory that Admiral Buenamigo knowing about the Breen presence when he sent the Cerritos to Brekka holds water, then he was willing to sacrifice not only an entire California-class ship and crew, but also a close friend of his, to prove that his new Texas-class ships were viable.
- And even if he didn't specifically know about the Breen, the entire situation reeks of him having the Aledo standing by just in case there was the kind of trouble that Operation Swing By was meant to find, just so it could charge in and very publicly save the day whether the Cerritos could actually handle the situation or not. He might not have expected that the Aledo would have to save their lives in the process, but he very definitely expected to upstage Carol in a moment of triumph, and if he was at all her actual friend, he'd know how she'd react to that.
"The Stars at Night"
- The truth is out: Buenamigo is an Insane Admiral. He was responsible for Rutherford's accident, and he betrayed Freeman. He also knew about last episode's Breen incursion, and knowingly put the Cerritos and her crew in mortal danger just to promote his new drone ship.
- The Texas-class ships inflict an incredible amount of casualties on the starbase. It's not said how many Starfleet personnel get killed, but the scene cuts to the interior multiple times to show officers getting obliterated by flames with no chance to escape. Every hole that gets punched in the starbase, the Cerritos, and the Sovereign-class Van Citters that tries and fails to help, represents deaths just like that, and there are many.
- When Mariner reunites with everyone at the end, the only person she doesn't interact with or even acknowledge is Jennifer. When Mariner walks past her, Jennifer has a clear look of shame for how she treated her in the previous episode, and how she essentially broke up with her for what turned out to be no reason.
Season 4
"Twovix"
- Captain Freeman reads up on how Janeway handled the Tuvix situation originally, and is horrified that she more-or-less murdered him so Tuvok and Neelix would live.
- Boimler finally gets offered a promotion, and begins having doubts whether he's actually capable. And a big reason he's hesitant to accept it is because he feels he's been a bad friend to Mariner (abandoning her for the Titan, not standing up for her when she got transferred to Starbase 80) and doesn't want to leave her in the lurch again.
"I Have No Bones, yet I Must Flee"
- Mariner is paranoid that Ransom is going to demote her again until he finally calls her out for sabotaging her career constantly. She's left momentarily stunned, as if the thought had never occurred to her.Mariner: ...Why would I do that?Ransom: (gently) I don't know.
- With their promotions, the gang is leaving the corridor bunks behind for real quarters. They pack up their things, power down the lights over the bunks, and head out... And the camera lingers in the emptied corridor for a long moment, an acknowledgement that this place is no longer their home, despite all the memories within.
"In the Cradle of Vexilon"
- Boimler freaking dies, his body landing by T'Lyn and the Ensigns with a sickening thud, horrifying them all and causing Ensign Taylor to perform a Vomit Discretion Shot at the sight. Even T'Lyn’s reaction, despite being The Stoic, is quite heartbreaking - she looks saddened and distressed, and even gapes (possibly in horror) when Boims lands.
"Empathalogical Fallacies"
- T'Lyn discovers she has symptoms similar to Bendii Syndrome, despite being only 62 years old.note Compared to Ambassador Sarek, who was just shy of 200 when it was discovered he had Bendii Syndrome, that is incredibly young for a Vulcan, as they age far slower than humans, and can live up to 250 years.
- T'Lyn also comes clean to Mariner about how she got kicked off the Sh'Val for following her instincts instead of logic, and feels she is no longer "a real Vulcan", which the Bendii symptoms only proves. It's the closest we've seen her get to genuine sadness, sitting in the Vulcan version of a fetal position.
"Parth Ferengi's Heart Place"
- Mariner spends the whole episode mad at nothing, she goes on a drinking spree and picks fights with a Ferengi Biker gang, just because. The episode doesn't resolve this: Mariner is just left struggling with her problems without any help at all.
"Caves"
- You probably can’t help but feel bad for Delta Shift. Unlike our Beta Shifters, they don’t get to see action the same time the rest of them do, so they don’t get opportunities to move up like they did or even a piece of that action. It’s no surprise they lash out at them.
- To a lesser extend, Steve Levy. The man’s career has stalled out at Lieutenant because of his Conspiracy Theorist tendencies. No sane person wants that kind of person in higher levels.
"The Inner Fight"
- Mariner finally reveals why she didn't want to rank up; she was friends with Sito Jaxa at Starfleet Academy. In fact, Mariner modelled herself after Sito, proud of the fact that she wasn't defined by her mistakes and managed to get posted to the Enterprise-D...and then she was killed by Cardassians. Then shortly after, Mariner got thrown into the Dominion War, causing her to be surrounded by death and destruction. Mariner only wanted to be an explorer, but was forced to become a warrior—and worse, while she was still reeling from the death of a friend she idolized.
In light of that, her thought process makes perfect sense: if she were ever to be promoted, not only would she be at a stage of her career her idol never reached, she might have to send people to their deaths. Previously, she could deal with this by intentionally getting herself demoted, but that hasn't worked this time, and though Freeman is planning to send her to Dr. Migleemo, it likely wouldn't work because he's incompetent and will just babble about food.Mariner: I don't want to be a general! I don't want to send my friends off to die! I just want to be an ensign! If it was good enough for Sito, then it's good enough for me.- It turns out Mariner actually has a connection to the original Lower Decks crew, but in the most tragic way. Worst of all, she thinks not ranking up is better, but Sito absolutely would not have wanted that for her. Mariner doesn't want to have to order people to die, but remember, Picard didn't do that because he knew he couldn't in this case. Sito volunteered, fully aware of the risks.
- Mariner apparently knows Nick Locarno well enough that she calls him by his first name. Given what he might be up to, she might have her heart broken by an old friend all over again.
- For context, Mariner usually calls even the members of her core friend group by their last names or nicknames based on their last names- T, Boims, and Ruthe, for instance. When she's calling someone by their first name, it's usually because they have Only One Name like T'Lyn, she's deliberately trying to anger them, like Ransom earlier this season… or she's particularly close to them, like Jennifer. We've yet to see which it is with Nick, but based on her track record, all signs point to tears.
- Freeman agreed to send Mariner to Sherbal V because she thought it would be a nice, safe mission where she couldn't go Leeroy Jenkins. However, unknown to her (or the away team until it's too late), Sherbal V is where Locarno is having his mutineers dump their commanding officers, so it just resulted in the whole away team, Mariner included, ending up stranded on a Death World with several mutually hostile species. Although Mariner's convinced them to pull an Enemy Mine, she ended up being abducted by Locarno himself. How will Freeman react when she finds out that her attempt to keep her little girl out of danger has backfired horribly?
"Old Friends, New Planets"
- The flashback to Starfleet Academy, where we see Locarno manipulating Nova Squadron into performing the maneuver that will get young Joshua killed.
- Mariner tries her hardest to save Nick Locarno and make him see the error of his ways, right to the very end. You can see her genuine disappointment as he's blown up along with the Genesis Device.
- In a way, Nick Locarno's entire situation. While he greets Mariner like an old friend, we see from flashbacks and from Mariner's own admission that she barely knew him. When you start looking at it further, the other people in the scene with Nick aside from Mariner are all gone. Wesley has ascended to a higher plane of existence, and both Joshua and Sito are dead. Mariner is clearly framed as the only person left from that time period. Take into account that Nick was essentially a counterpart to Tom Paris, who who went on to have an illustrious career in Starfleet, got the second chance Locarno never got and became a loving family man, while Locarno himself remained single and alone. It really highlights what a sad, bitter and lonely life Nick had.Mariner: And what about Josh?Locarno: That wasn't my fault! I-If my stupid professors had just let us practice...Mariner: Josh died because of your ego, man!Locarno: Shut up! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!!
- Just after our heroes have rescued Mariner and stopped Locarno, Tendi has to leave the Cerritos to fulfill her duty as Mistress of the Winter Constellations. Rutherford in particular sheds Manly Tears.
- Rutherford later seems depressed. The other three try to cheer him up with talk of Tendi coming back soon and warp manifolds. He briefly fakes a smile, but his mournful expression as they walk off-screen shows that it didn't work.
- Tendi was our Audience Surrogate when she first boarded Cerritos. Seeing her leave is a very bittersweet Book Ends.
