"Just keep circling..."
The Cerritos stops at Deep Space Nine, leading to Continuity Porn as the station appears for the first time in over twenty years (outside of flashbacks). The show almost immediately splits into multiple plotlines.
- Captain Freeman is unexpectedly designated the lead diplomat in negotiations with the Karemma (DS9: "Starship Down"), with very little time to prepare.
- Bold Boimler visits Quark's and proves an unexpected success at the dabo tables.
- Tendi and Rutherford are accosted by Mesk, another Orion Starfleet officer, who immediately triggers Tendi's "Stop Being Stereotypical" sensibilities.
- Shaxs reunites with his old friend, station commander Col. Kira Nerys... but the two immediately get into arguments over who owes whom after a long chain of saving each other's behinds during their tenure in the Bajoran Resistance.
- The Karemma are negotiating as a cover for nefarious business: they have a grudge with Quark.
- Mariner remains onboard, hanging out with Jennifer and her friends... who turn out to be incredibly pretentious.
Chronologically followed by "Those Old Scientists".
Tropes:
- Almost Out of Oxygen: When the EMP takes out the Cerritos, one of Jennifer's friends immediately starts complaining about it getting hard to breathe. Mariner thinks they're overreacting at first, then she realizes the candles they made actually consume oxygen at twice the normal rate. The rest of the ladies start panicking and hyperventilating, which doesn't help at all; they also refuse to blow out the candles. Mariner solves this problem by stunning all of them so they use less oxygen.
- Awkward First Sleepover: Mariner hanging out with Jennifer's friends has shades of this, with her showing up in her uniform instead of sweatpants and T-shirts like the rest. It doesn't help that said friends are into Incredibly Lame Fun.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the Karemma arrive, they complain about the Federation winning the war and discuss a backup plan involving what looks like a bomb strapped to the chest of one representative. This later turns out to be an EMP and they're actually investigating Quark's theft of their technology.
- Be Yourself: The aesop of the episode for several characters.
- Mariner spends an uncomfortable day with Jennifer's friends being uncharacteristically polite to them for fear of losing face, before Jennifer tells her that she was looking forward to seeing her no-nonsense, bossy girlfriend take her Valley Girl friends down a peg — that's why she likes her.
- Mesk, the Orion Starfleet officer Tendi and Rutherford meet on DS9, is a walking stereotype of Orion pirates and makes Tendi extremely uncomfortable. It's not until they actually need some pirating skills to escape the Karemma ship that he admits he's an adoptee who grew up in Cincinnati and everything he knows about Orion culture is from trashy holonovels ("The ones with the boobs on the cover"). Tendi empathizes, telling him he's better off being the man he wants to be instead of what he thinks others expect him to be.
- Tendi herself, though already happy not being a "capitalist, hyper-libertarian gangster pirate" Orion, still feels some embarrassment being from a family who is (despite already being told by Mariner that she shouldn't be). Rutherford's acceptance of her past helps Tendi to do the same.
- Big "NO!": Quark yells this when Captain Freeman asks if he's happy being poor instead of arrested.
- Blackmail: Mariner gets Quark to clear her tab at his bar using an isolinear chip with a holoimage of his face on Kira's body, especially when Kira appears over Mariner's shoulder.
- Blatant Lies: Mariner denies being bossy when her friends tell her to go easy on that aspect of her personality. All of them laugh in her face in response.
- Butt-Monkey:
- True to form, Quark ends up in this role. He's kidnapped/arrested by the Karemma, rescued by Rutherford and Tendi (unwittingly), and made to give up most of his profits once the reasoning for everything comes to light.
- Surprisingly averted by Boimler for once, who walks away from Quark's Dabo table having made a tidy profit (albeit in the form of a gift card).
- The Cameo: Morn briefly appears, still sitting at Quark's bar after all these years.
- Character Development: A few instances:
- Up until this episode, Mariner was always squeamish about going overboard with her relationship with Jennifer. When Jennifer reveals that she really likes her more destructive side, she decides to embrace it a little more.
- Tendi decides to embrace her more adventurous and aggressive side when it saves Rutherford and Mesk.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The Quark 2000 replicator, which Quark boasts to be superior to standard Federation/Cardassian replicators, turns out to be stolen Karemma tech.
- Mesk's Orion pirating tool he keeps on him for "religious reasons" is later invaluable as Tendi uses it to bypass security and sabotage the Karemma ship.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Mariner learns that two of the women at the party have an interest in Boimler. She decides to finish the bottle. This comes after the season premiere which shows him similarly oblivious to female interest back on Earth.
- Comically Small Bribe: Subverted when the worker at Quark's offers Boimler a gift certificate in exchange for the enormous sums of money he's won at dabo. Boimler takes it, revealing he was just playing for fun because none of the money would be useful in Starfleet anyway.
- Connected All Along:
- Kira and Shaxs worked together in the Bajoran Resistance.
- Mariner continues her streak of knowing just about everyone that's in Starfleet or Starfleet-adjacent, being on friendly terms with Kira and even possessing blackmail material on Quark.
- Continuity Nod:
- Quark mentions that he has done business with the Karemma before, which led to the discovery of the Dominion.
- Quark's had been franchised in earlier episodes of Lower Decks and an episode of Star Trek: Picard. The original Bar also now sports the franchise logo that we saw in Picard.
- Kira still has Sisko's baseball. She also looks at the wormhole with a sad expression, clearly missing Sisko who is still with the Prophets.
- One of the "salon" attendees has a "Ritos" shirt similar to the "Disco" shirts worn by the crew on Star Trek: Discovery, which Freeman had been shown wearing in the previous season.
- Mariner has a copy of the holosuite program of Quark's head on Kira's body.
- This is not the first time that a group tried to arrest someone on the station by kidnapping them.
- Creepy Souvenir: Subverted when Tendi considers keeping the latinum tooth she extracted in order to rig the Karemma's navigation system... but decides on second thought that it's kinda gross. Quark, by contrast, doesn't skip a beat.
- Crossover: 20 years after Star Trek: Deep Space Nine concluded (about 5 years in-universe), its setting and some of its principal characters appear on Lower Decks.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- Boimler has always been good at games and tests, and that extends to games like Dabo. And because of the moneyless society of the Federationnote , he is indifferent towards the massive payout and happily takes a Quarks Reward card in its place. This infuriates the Ferengi pit bosses.
- Tendi has always been trying to avoid the "All Orions are Thieves and Pirates" stigma and is annoyed at how Mesk embraces it. But when the situation calls for some actual pirate ingenuity, Mesk turns out to be almost useless while Tendi reveals she still grew up in a pirate crew and quickly bypasses security doors, overpowers the guards and sabotages engine control.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Before stunning herself and Jennifer, Mariner holds the phaser above her head level and peeks at it as if she were setting up a selfie.
- Eat the Evidence: Quark chews up an isolinear chip that has a holoimage of his face on Kira's body.
- EMP: The Karemma toss a device at a panel in Quark's. Not only does it shut down the entirety of Deep Space 9, but the docked Cerritos as well.
- Everyone Has Standards: Quark did plenty of shady things on DS9, but he's unwilling to work with the Karemma because they are members of the Dominion and did nothing to stop the killing of his customers during the war. Then you recall that he actually got along with the other Karemma representative pretty well in DS9, and it's subverted when it's revealed that he is trying to drive them out before they realize that his custom replicator has stolen Karemma tech.Kira: What is your problem?
Quark: I have principles!
Kira: No, you don't! - Failsafe Failure: After the power is knocked out on the Cerritos, Mariner and Jennifer try to use the manual release to open the door, only to find that the power surge fused it.
- Fish out of Water: Mariner seems to be this around Jennifer's friends. She shows up in her work uniform, is eventually shown to have brought along a phaser, and in general seems to have trouble opening up or relaxing around the others.
- Flat "What": The Ferengi dealer's reaction when, after Boimler wins a huge amount of latinum and the dealer tries to trick him into taking a gift certificate instead, Boimler gladly takes it since they don't use money in Starfleet, meaning that all that money that Boimler won was all for nothing to the dealer, and since the gift certificate was for double Boimler's pot, that means the house still lost out on the deal.
- Foreshadowing: Mesk's ignorance of his own species' physiology (he is unaware that Orion females do not all possess those infamous pheromones) hints that he hasn't been educated by or even grown up with other Orions.
- Friendship Moment: Tendi is briefly worried that Rutherford knowing that she comes from a pirate family will affect how he sees her. He reassures her that that isn't the case.
- Furry Reminder: T'Ana laps her drink from her cup in the same way that a cat would.
- Gambler Groupies: When Boimler starts building up a winning streak in Dabo, he's surrounded by a couple of women.
- Gave Up Too Soon: After stunning all of her friends into unconsciousness, Mariner does the same for herself and Jennifer because it would be a bad look otherwise. Seconds later, the power comes back on.
- Happy Ending Override: The episode goes out of its way to do it for Quark in a way that perfectly fits his The Chew Toy status from Deep Space Nine. Picard has the titular character visiting a Quark's, establishing that it's become a franchise, and the upscale nature of the place implies that Quark has finally hit it big. This episode reveals that as a result of yet another get-rich-quick-scheme gone awry, Quark was forced to sign over the lion's share of the profits to the Karemma after he stole their technology for the attractions. Meaning that regardless of how successful the franchise is, Quark himself is just as miserable as ever. Though knowing Quark, he'll likely find some way to recoup his losses eventually. The closing moments of the episode even hint at this when he acquires the latinum tooth from Tendi while citing the 9th Rule of Acquisition: "Opportunity plus instinct equals profit".
- Have I Mentioned I Am a Dwarf Today?: Mesk constantly plays up being an Orion pirate, much to Tendi's annoyance, because he's overcompensating for being a human-raised Orion whose sole source of knowledge on his people is smutty holonovels.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Mariner pours herself a drink before hanging with Jennifer's friends. When they start asking if Boimler is single, she drains the whole bottle.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Jennifer's friends enjoy candle making, storytelling, and interpretive dance, much to Mariner's dismay. Jennifer likewise isn't that enthused, and invited Mariner because she hoped that Mariner would be her usual self and tear into them.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Jennifer actually finds her friends as annoying as Mariner does, and was hoping that she'd tear them a new one. When Mariner starts stunning them all to conserve oxygen, she is giddy.
- Insistent Terminology: Jennifer's friend insists that her little get-together is a "salon".
- Internal Reveal: While various hints have been dropped in past episodes that Tendi comes from a shady background (including having a cousin who works as an art forger), this is the first time that she outright admits to Rutherford that her family are Orion Syndicate pirates. She then comprehensively demonstrates that her father taught her everything he knows and that her time in Starfleet hasn't dulled her skills.
- I Owe You My Life: Kira and Shaxs have an argument on who presently owes the other for saving their life, with both trying not to be the one who is owed. The back-and-forth gets increasingly hostile as they try to one-up each other. Kira eventually "wins" thanks to Shaxs pushing Kira out of the path of the Karemma's EMP device, much to his dismay.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: When showing a panning shot of Ops before showing Kira in her office, there are only Bajoran Militia members shown working there, with no Starfleet officers present.
- Leitmotif: When the Cerritos circles Deep Space Nine, the theme from the series plays (complete with the wormhole opening at exactly the point it does in the DS9 titles). And replays when Ransom tells helm to keep circling.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: When the Karemma capture Quark and attempt to escape with Tendi, Rutherford, and Mesk trapped on their ship, Tendi reveals that she is capable of being a very amazing badass, coming from a family of pirates.
- Literary Allusion Title: The episode name hails from the 190th Rule of Acquisition.
- Loveable Rogue: Mesk talks a lot about being a scheming, thieving Orion pirate, but is still an amicable Starfleet officer. Played with in that he's not actually what he claims to be, and is just playing up the stereotype because he doesn't know any better.
- Mirror Character: Tendi and Rutherford meet Mesk, another Orion Starfleet officer, on DS9. Similar to Worf, he was raised by humans on Earth and, having no other connection to Orion culture, tried relating through what he could research. This led to him adopting a stereotypical persona of an Orion pirate that he's very vocal about living up to, even getting judgmental towards Tendi for denouncing it. Unlike Worf, Mesk doesn't actually possess the skills that he claims to have, and winds up breaking down when faced by a situation requiring piracy.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Inverted with Mesk. Knowing nothing of Orion culture, he plays up his Orion heritage because he'd never met another Orion before and thus couldn't be challenged. Meanwhile, Tendi is a genuine example, a former pirate who wishes to reform upon joining Starfleet and only uses her skills when pressed to stop the Karemma ship.
- Negative Space Wedgie: The Vancouver is pulled away from the negotiations to deal with a "brown hole", which Freeman protests isn't even a thing.
- Noodle Incident: Shaxs and Kira discuss several battles that they fought in together during the Occupation of Bajor.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The fact that Quark — who once sung the praise of monopolies — claims he doesn't want to oversatute the market with his replicators is another hint there's something suspicious going on.
- Opening Shout-Out: When Freeman tells Ransom to buy time so she can read up on the Karemma, Ransom orders the Cerritos to orbit Deep Space Nine and pretend they're "admiring the pylons". Cut to the Cerritos orbiting the station in a recreation of the opening credits for the eponymous show, even the wormhole opening up at the end.
- Orc Raised by Elves: Mesk eventually reveals that he was actually raised by humans in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- Remember the New Guy?: Shaxs is revealed to be an old resistance buddy of Kira's, with the two of them keeping a running tally of the times that they've saved each other's lives. Mariner is also recognized by both Kira and Quark (who remembers her outstanding tab) which fits with the previous reference that she served on the station at the same time Worf was there.
- Reverse the Polarity: Tendi uses the latinum tooth she stole to reverse the polarity of the Karemma ship's engines, stalling it out long enough for DS9 to lock on with a tractor beam.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: As Quark laments losing most of his profits to the Karemma, Freeman tries to console him that it's preferable to prison. Quark makes it clear that he disagrees.
- Rules Lawyer: Mesk managed to convince Starfleet that his Orion pirating multi-tool is a religious icon, and thus he's allowed to carry it wherever he wants.
- Screaming Warrior: Tendi turns out to be so good at this, a surprised Karemma crewmember chooses to jump off a literal bridge rather than fight her.
- Sequel Episode: The episode serves as one for DS9, revisiting some of the characters about six years after the Dominion War.
- Sex Sells: During his breakdown, Mesk mentions that he learned everything he knows about Orions from really bad holonovels. "The ones with the boobs on the cover!"
- Shadow Archetype: Mesk is one for Worf. Both were aliens raised by humans from races with long histories of conflict with humans. Worf decided to learn everything about his Klingon heritage, and embraced only the best parts of it, making him a better Klingon than most Klingons. Mesk just learned the Theme Park Version of Orion culture from dubious sources and walks around pretending to be a stereotype to cover up his insecurities, essentially a shallow parody of the worst of his species.
- Shipper on Deck: The other Beta Shifters enthusiastically support Mariner and Jennifer's relationship, greeting the latter cheerfully when she shows up. They also encourage Mariner to go meet Jennifer's friends.
- Ship Tease: Present between Tendi and Rutherford. Tendi tells him that she'd prefer to just spend time with him as opposed to her fellow Orion Mesk, while Rutherford accepts Tendi's past as a pirate without question, saying he finds it to be a fascinating aspect of her and he would like to know more.
- Shown Their Work: The animators lovingly recreate the familiar DS9 locales in animation, from the Promenade and Quark's to Ops and the Station Commander's Office.
- "Shut Up!" Gunshot: Mariner fires her phaser into the ceiling to quiet Jennifer's friends. When that doesn't work, she just starts stunning them directly.
- Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: Although Mariner is the primary protagonist of Lower Decks and is established to have pre-existing connections to DS9, she spends most of the episode in the B plot, not interacting with DS9 and its cast until the very end. Much the same is true of deuteragonist Boimler, who gets
Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer and stays that way. - Skewed Priorities:
- Quark outright admits that he would rather be in prison for theft than poor after giving up 76% of all his franchise profits to the Karemma.
- This also applies to Jennifer's friends after they get trapped in their quarters. When Mariner tries to blow out their candles to save oxygen, they try and stop her. She instead winds up solving the problem by stunning them all with a phaser.
- Sleep Cute: After Jennifer points out that it would be a bad look to be the only ones awake while surrounded by unconscious crewmates, she and Mariner have a quick kiss and then do a selfie stun, falling down while still hugging.
- Spoofs "R" Us: There's a "Bat'leths 'R Us" on the Promenade.
- Spotting the Thread: Kira realizes that Quark is lying when he says that he's clearing Mariner's tab as a favor after she handed him an isolinear chip instead of money, meaning that (coupled with him getting nervous when she walked up) he is hiding something that she needs to know about.note
- Status Quo Is God: For Quark at the end of the episode, as he had been on an uphill stride with numerous successes since his last appearance chronologically in Deep Space Nine as he became a massive entrepreneur running multiple franchises across the Alpha Quadrant, so it's only fitting that in his first on-screen appearance since that he winds up finally hitting the Karma Houdini Warranty of having banked his successes off stolen technology to be right back to being as poor as ever in his bar on the Deep Space Nine as to not end up in jail.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Mesk carries an Orion pirate tool, which he convinced Starfleet was a religious item, and it has features ranging from bypassing electronic locks to disemboweling someone. The device does apparently have multiple features that aren't pirate-related, as Tendi does wonders with the wine bottle opener function (using it to pin a guard's badge to a security scanner, opening the lock).
- Throw the Dog a Bone: For once, Boimler surprisingly doesn't go through any humiliating situations while at Deep Space Nine. He spends most of the episode playing Dabo and goes on a winning streak. When the Ferengi dealer accuses him of cheating, he triples what he's betting, and the station's power gets shut down precisely at the moment where his bet pays off, much to the dealer's horror. Eventually, the dealer tries to trick him into exchanging his latinum for a gift certificate for twice its value at Quark's gift store (so he will just funnel all that money back into food and overpriced merch), and he gladly takes it because they don't use money in Starfleet anyway, so it's still a net loss for the franchise.
- Too Dumb to Live: When the Cerritos loses power from the EMP and Mariner, Jennifer, and Jennifer's friends are trapped in a room together, Mariner quickly realizes all the candles in the room are consuming the oxygen more quickly. She tries to fix this by simply blowing them out, but Jennifer's friends won't let her since that will ruin their activity.
- The Tooth Hurts: Tendi yanks out a latinum tooth from one of the Karemma and uses it to disable their ship's engines, buying enough time for DS9 to tractor them back to the station.
- Utility Weapon: Mesk sports a multi-function Orion pirating tool that is basically a Swiss Army knife for breaking and entering. When he turns out to be a poser, Tendi grabs it and uses it to cleave a path straight through the Karemma ship's systems and staff.
- Vocal Evolution: 20 years later and Nana Visitor and Armin Shimerman have noticeably aged voices compared to back when DS9 ended. Time, what are you gonna do? With this case though, fans suspected that Shimerman recorded his lines without the Ferengi prosthetic teeth. Shimerman replied with a bit of playful offense, saying that he had kept a pair of the prosthetics just in case he had to break out Quark again.
