‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Recap – ‘The Stars at Night’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Season Three finale of ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.

With everything that happened last time, the Federation is fully prepared to retire the California Class ships and replace them with the fully automated Texas Class ships. Captain Freeman is not about to stand for this, however, and she is fully prepared to fight for it. Freeman challenges Admiral Buenamigo to a second contact fight. Whoever visits the most planets for second contact/resupply/upgrades, wins. Buenamigo agrees and even gives the Cerritos a head start. Unfortunately, no matter how hard the Cerritos tries, they’re behind.

On one planet, however, Tendi discovers possible sentient organisms in the soil, which causes the Cerritos to stop what they’re doing and run proper tests. The Texas Class keeps going, and wins. Throughout the entire day, however, Rutherford has been searching through the code of the Texas class ships programming. It looks familiar and it is bothering him for some reason. But he can’t quite figure it out. Tendi feels awful, like she caused them all to lose, but she actually helps Freeman realize something. The Texas Class didn’t stop and scan the planets properly, unlike Tendi. While the rules are sometimes annoying, they’re also important. The Prime Directive is no joke. Admittedly, Admiral Buenamigo isn’t really wanting to hear that.

Rutherford has finally figured out why the Texas code is bothering him. It’s his code. He rushes in to tell the Captain, and confront the Admiral. Turns out, Buenamigo was there during Rutherford’s accident. He’s the one who ordered Rutherford’s memory to be wiped. Too bad for Carol and the Cerritos. Buenamigo gives full autonomy to the Texas ships and launches them to destroy the Cerritos. The ships would much rather kill Buenamigo and the Starbase in question. The Cerritos is doing its best to fight against the ships, but things are looking dire.

---

Meanwhile, Mariner has some questions for her new workmate. Like where’s all the money coming from if they’re just giving the artifacts they take to museums. The answer is simple, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard is the only one financing their freelance work. The irony of all ironies. It’s then that Mariner learns of what’s happening with the Cerritos. She’s quick to take action.
​
Mariner flies in to help and she arrives just in time for the Cerritos to be facing off against one remaining Texas ship. How did they evade the other two? By dropping the Warp Core mid Warp. It was Shaxs’ idea. It’s a win! Mariner doesn’t show up alone either. She shows up with the entire California Class Fleet.

Together, they defend the Cerritos and win! It’s back at Douglas Station where all the ships crews are mingling that Mariner returns to her friends. Notably, ignoring Jennifer. She’s back. She’s taking her old position, even with Ransom back as her mentor. She even admits that her mom had a right not to trust her. Mariner did work hard for a while to be untrustworthy. Even still, Mariner’s loyalty never once faltered. Carol still apologizes, so do Tendi, Rutherford, and Boimler. Boims is also now a part of the Bear family now. Welcome aboard, new Baby Bear. All is right as it should be.

---

Powered by JustWatch