Two households, both alike in dignity. On fair Cerritos, where we lay our scene, the crew hosts the Cubes and Orbs, each a species of pure energy and longtime enemies.

Mariner and company get company: the ship is swarming with floating, glowing cubes and sphere who can’t make peace with each other. Talk about round/square pegs and holes. That’s just the backdrop, though. We also meet new Ensign Olly, and it will be most interesting to see if she’s a new recurring character or not. This is her and Mariner’s story more than anything else.

This season, Lower Decks continues to show Captain Freeman actually acting like a captain, which is great to see. More importantly, since Beckett is the lead, they are also showing her growing into the role of Lieutenant, now in charge of other officers at times and no longer the perpetual (deliberate) screw-up. This comes into play because Ensign Olly is not settling in well on this new ship of hers. This is her sixth assignment, which shows shades of who Mariner may have been without mommy and daddy being a captain and admiral, respectively.

Not that Olly is completely without resources, seeing as her daddy is Zeus. Yes, that Zeus. And yes, reference is made to Kirk’s encounter with Apollo. Olly can’t always manage her powers – high energy, thanks to Zeus – which is a contributing factor to her frequent transfers. They cause her to constantly mess up and severely strain the patience of her COs.

Mariner and Olly are teamed up on the shipwide search for one of the Cube children who’s gone missing. No one has any luck locating him. Nevertheless, Olly saves the day, but it’s thanks to Mariner. Olly embraces her heritage and manages to use her excess energy for good: namely, overloading all the Orbs and Cubes so they – temporarily powered down – are forced to listen to reason. Right on cue, the formerly missing Cube kid reappears along with one of the Orb youngsters. Evidently neither is all that young – think older teens – because they show up with a kid of their own. However predictable, this still puts an amusing cap on the humorous episode. The warring Shapes makes peace, and Mariner convinces Captain Freeman to keep Ensign Olly on the ship at least for a while longer.

In contrast to Mariner, Boimler continues to regress after meeting his double in the season opening. He continues to lose more and more confidence which, frankly, is about as interesting as his ever-increasing facial hair – i.e. not at all. It is funny, however, how many people know about his ‘secret’ alternate-universe padd and the reasons they give as to how.

Verdict: Lots of good stuff in this fun episode. 8/10

Rigel Ailur

http://www.BluetrixBooks.com