History Recap / StarTrekLowerDecksS4E09TheInnerFight

'''Locarno''': We're gonna cause some trouble together.

* SeriesContinuityError: Mariner says that she was friends with Sito in the academy. In ''TNG'''s "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E14LowerDecks Lower Decks]]", Sito said that after the events of "The First Duty" she had no friends, and that she was such a pariah she had to take her final pilot test with the instructor because no one was willing to partner with her. This might be explained by Mariner distancing herself from Sito at some point following the Nova Squadron incident, but that doesn't square with Mariner's expressed admiration of Sito.

-->'''Mariner''': ...Nick?

** The episode references Seven of Nine and Beverly Crusher as former Starfleet officers, as established by ''Series/StarTrekPicard'', and Thomas Riker, who was last seen as a prisoner of the Cardassians on ''Series/DeepSpaceNine''.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: In order to retake the Bird-of-Prey, Ma'ah has a plan where they repurpose the monitoring station on the planet into a distress beacon in order to get help. When the Klingons on the Bird-of-Prey detect the signal, they go down to the planet to destroy it. Due to the beacon being shielded by the rock formations, the ship has to move in closer to destroy it, which was Ma'ah's plan as he and the others jump on the ship from the tall rock formations when it's low enough for them to get on. Once they breach inside, they easily retake the ship.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Since both Tom Paris and Nick Locarno were played by Creator/RobertDuncanMcNeill in live-action with his natural appearance, Tom Paris was previously portrayed on ''Lower Decks'' as he looked throughout ''Voyager'', while Locarno has some added grey hairs, a scar over his eyebrow and a [[PermaStubble moderate beard]] to distinguish him.

The mysterious ship that has been vaporizing non-Federation vessels is now going after former Starfleet officers, and the ''Cerritos'' is sent to pick up Nick Locarno for his own protection. Meanwhile, Beta Shift are assigned to repair a remote weather satellite in orbit of Sherbal V, as Mariner has been acting self-destructive as of late and Captain Freeman wants to keep her out of danger. Of course, it's the second-to-last episode of the season, and nothing is quite as it seems...

** Three of the four main quartet (plus T'Lyn) have no idea who Nick Lorcano is, as he's a particularly obscure character, not helped by the fact that his actor went on to play a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute on ''Voyager'' with a near-identical but more sympathetic backstory (with said character guest-starring in Season 2 of this show).

* MundaneSolution: It appeared that the mystery ship had somehow been hacking its targets into losing power right before it attacked. It turns out Locarno had actually bribed those ships' lower deckers into betraying their captains and deactivating systems.

* SeriesContinuityError: Mariner says that she was friends with Sito in the academy. In ''TNG'''s "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E14LowerDecks Lower Decks]]", Sito said that after the events of "The First Duty" she had no friends, and that she was such a pariah she had to take her final pilot test with the instructor because no one was willing to partner with her. This might be explained by Mariner distancing herself from Sito at some point following the Nova Squadron incident, but as of this writing remains unaddressed.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: When Mariner reveals to Ma'ah that she fought in the Dominion War, he expresses how he wishes he could have been part of it himself, seeing battle and dying a glorious death as a great honor. Mariner however says [[WarIsHell there was no honor, it was just a massacre]], Ma'ha states she was still victorious in the end in an almost confused tone, leading to Mariner snapping that Starfleet is supposed to be about exploration and discovery, not fighting wars.

** Mariner's aversion to being promoted comes from having known Ensign Sito at the Academy. Sito graduated ahead of her and was posted to the ''Enterprise'', only to be killed during a spy mission to Cardassia. Such a seemingly pointless death made Mariner wary of being placed in a position where she might have to command others to their deaths. [[FromBadToWorse And then the Dominion War happened]], [[WarIsHell which only compounded her trauma]].

** After Mariner recklessly gets all the tremble lizards back behind the fence, Mariner fails to notice that she has a tremble lizard on her back and she accidentally brings it inside the station, which ends up pouncing on one of the outpost scientist.

** Three of the four main quartet (plus T'Lyn) have no idea who Nick Lorcano is, as he's a particularly obscure character, not helped by the fact that his actor went on to play a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute on ''Voyager'' with a near-identical backstory (with said character guest-starring in Season 2 of this show).

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because by the time she actually started taking it seriously, the only therapist she had access to, and thus the therapist assigned to her, was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities. This resulted in repeated false starts because the root cause of the issue was never addressed.

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because the only therapist she had access to, and thus the therapist assigned to her, was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities. This resulted in repeated false starts because the root cause of the issue was never addressed.

* SeriesContinuityError: Mariner says that she was friends with Sito in the academy. In ''TNG'''s "Lower Decks," Sito said that after the events of "The First Duty" she had no friends, and that she was such a pariah she had to take her final pilot test with the instructor because no one was willing to partner with her. This might be explained by Mariner distancing herself from Sito at some point following the Nova Squadron incident, but as of this writing remains unanswered.

* SeriesContinuityError: Mariner says that she was friends with Sito in the academy up to graduation. In ''TNG'' Sito said that after the events of "The First Duty" she had no friends, and that she was such a pariah she had to take her final pilot test with the instructor because no one was willing to partner with her.

* DramaticIrony: Freeman sets the away mission up to keep Mariner, who's frequently been going LeeroyJenkins recently, out of danger. What she can't know is that the planet she's sending the away team to is the planet where Locarno's having his mutineers dump their commanding officers, meaning she's ''actually'' sending Mariner into the lion's den.

* DramaticIrony: Freeman sets the away mission up to keep Mariner out of a situation where she could go LeeroyJenkins. What she can't know is that the planet she's sending the away team to is the planet where Locarno's having his mutineers dump their commanding officers, meaning she's ''actually'' sending Mariner into the lion's den.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Played with. Boimler quite sensibly suggests sending Mariner to Dr. Migleemo, but Freeman rejects that because their mission to pick up Locarno is happening right now and they don't have time to have Mariner work out her issues before they wind up in another situation where Mariner will endanger herself. Tendi offers the weather station mission as a distraction. Even then, Mariner likely wouldn't have taken the help considering Dr. Migleemo hasn't done much to help her traumas in the past, and it's established in [[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E09CrisisPoint his debut episode]] that she doesn't trust him as a therapist.

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because the only therapist she had access to, and thus the therapist assigned to her, was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities. This resulted in repeated false starts because the root cause of the issue wasn't addressed.

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because at the time she realized she needed to work on it, the only therapist she had access to, and thus the therapist assigned to her, was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities. This resulted in repeated false starts because the root cause of the issue wasn't addressed.

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because she realized she needed to work on it when the therapist assigned to her was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities, resulting in repeated false starts.

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because the therapist assigned to her when she realized she needed to work on it was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities.

** Retroactively, Mariner's entire behavior cycle all series had proven itself to be a serious issue and she was working towards overcoming it, but continuously fell back into that cycle because the therapist assigned to her was [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Dr. Migleemo]], whose incompetence in the field made her unwilling to push past her initial trauma due to her lacking trust in his capabilities.