Lower Decks S4E8: Caves

It’s been a while since we’ve had an episode that just focused on our main foursome, and this episode opens by lampshading that, as Lower Deckers talk about how long it’s been since they’ve been on a mission together. The four are assigned to explore an alien cave, and as if to reinforce the group dynamic, as soon as they beam down, they immediately revert to type. Mariner thinks the mission is stupid and pointless, and Rutherford and Tendi are overenthusiastic about science.

Boimler’s really the only one who’s changed, as Lt. Boimler is far more relaxed and confident than the skittish, overeager Ensign Boimler of the early seasons. He’s also more able to ignore Mariner’s griping — they’ve beamed down to a cave, and she hates “cave missions.” Everyone weirdly makes a big point of how often they do missions in caves, and how often they end up trapped in them, which is odd, since to my recollection we’ve never been in a cave before on Lower Decks.

Unsurprisingly, that’s all setup, as the cave collapses, trapping them with glowing, carnivorous moss. As they try and figure a way out, each of them tells a story about a previous adventure where they were trapped in a cave and how they got out. Boimler was stuck with a conspiracy theory-obsessed lieutenant, whose weird suspicions turn out to be true. Rutherford was impregnated by a dying alien and quickly gives birth to her clone, then spends a day with Dr. T’Ana being temporary new parents. Mariner’s shuttle crashes into a cave that ages people, like that M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Beach That Makes People Old. And Tendi keeps insisting her story about getting stuck in a turbolift is relevant, and it isn’t. In the end, she tells it anyway, and it’s the story of how she met the other three and became friends.

So we get a warm fuzzy ending with our four leads… but it took splitting them up for three flashbacks to get there. So we still don’t entirely get an episode that focuses on the leads, but it’s still an entertaining one, and it’s always nice to see the crew on low-stakes, workaday missions, on or off the ship, as that’s always been the backbone of the show. And with two episodes left in the season, this is likely the last light, breezy episode we’ll get before wrapping up our season-long mystery of the mysterious ship that’s been stealing other ships.

Stray tachyons:
• Last week I made a joke about Boimler ending up pantsless and covered in goo by the end of every episode, and sure enough, this week he loses his pants (for science!) and then ends up covered in goo.

• In other Trek news, animated kids’ series Star Trek: Prodigy has found a new home after being unceremoniously yanked from Paramount+’s library in June. Paramount has sold the series to Netflix, who will make the first season available before the end of the year, and will premiere season two (already in production when Paramount killed the show) in early 2024.