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The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is called ‘Reflections’ which is one of those multifaceted meanings that is utilized multiple ways here. Of course we have Rutherford seeing himself in a reflection aspect of it, but the reflection is also something we see in the away mission as Boimler and Mariner face a sort of reflection of how Starfleet is perceived by other people.
Rutherford’s storyline is more of a classic dramatic type, a nice change of pace this season. We see him suffering nightmares about explosions in engineering (with a joke about a ‘cinematic’ Spock and Kirk), so Tendi helps him by ‘clearing his cache’ (a classic computer reference). But then he seems to be taken over by a more sinister person, with a now red colored glass on his face.
The dude seems out of place, unsure of where he is, and he then spots our version of Rutherford in the reflection (although we soon find out it’s more than that). It gets even worse when he is quite mean to Barnes (who he just calls ‘Trill’ in a dehumanizing way) but thankfully Tendi knows him well enough to immediately call for security in a way that doesn’t insult the viewer, which I appreciated.
We find out that this other ‘evil’ Rutherford is the younger, more rageful version of himself (which is an interesting parallel to the Boimler/Mariner storyline too). They do a sort of metaphorical imagination space race, with the younger Rutherford making a ‘cool’ styled ship that seems better, while our version packs his ship with his friends — it’s the wisdom of the years he’s had, and the ability to be a part of a team.
In the realm of the meta-story, we get just a hint more of his mysterious backstory — his implant was put in as part of the results of something called ‘the program’ and other than hearing some familiar voice actors it remains a mystery for now. But it was a sweet ending with Tendi hugging Rutherford after they realize he’s the one that emerged.
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On the planetside, Mariner and Boimler have been assigned a Starfleet recruiting booth, which is a pretty funny concept. Normally Mariner would easily rebel against this idea as her rage keeps spiking (with Boims holding her back), but there’s still the running gag of how awful Starbase 80 is — I always love to hear the Tamarian phrases, and the ‘Coltar, when he drowned in the swamp’ was no exception.
A cool space archaeologist named Petra gets under Mariner’s skin but ultimately ends up trying to recruit her at the end of the episode — an interesting potential idea for the excitement craving Mariner even if she clearly has love for Starfleet. We also get a boatload of other booths, including a visit from some ‘conspiracy truthers’ asking about the truth of Sisko (which sounds like it’s covered up) and a reference to the old TNG episode ‘Conspiracy’ which did actually happen.
But the true funny part happens when some jerks smash Boimler’s pip (which is immensely disrespectful) and given how he’s doing his ‘Bold’ thing and his love of Starfleet, it makes perfect sense he snaps and starts going off on everyone else. There were too many references to mention, but I did quite enjoy hearing him correctly say that the holographic Doctor from Voyager has rights.
It even ends in an nice place, where Ransom respects the act even if he must send Boimler to the brig, and all of his friends hang out to spend the time with him. Ultimately I wouldn’t call it the deepest of episodes, but it was a very strong one for this season. I felt that we had strong character moments from our three main characters, even if the focus was mainly on Mariner and Rutherford, who usually doesn’t get as much. Hopefully the season continues on this stronger path.
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