HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

“Kayshon: His Eyes Open” while a fun romp through a ship full of Easter Eggs, mostly serves as the means by which Lower Decks reintroduces Boimler back to the Cerritos. There are some fun character beats, but “Kayshon” doesn’t really offer us much that we don’t know about either the Titan or the Cerritos. Neither does the episode offer us more insight into Mariner or Boimler, but as I have said before, not every episode has to be deep in order to be fun. “Kayshon” knows it’s light on substance and so makes up for it with nods at previous Trek canon, and honestly, spotting Easter Eggs isn’t a terrible way to spend thirty-ish minutes. I’m going to miss the characters on the Titan, but I am looking forward to the reintroduction of Boimler to the Cerritos as we get back on track for the rest of season two.

Plot Ahoy!

Aboard the Cerritos, it’s mostly business as usual with the lower deckers wandering to the communal sonic showers only to have Jet join them as he’s been assigned to their shift. Mariner and Jet immediately fall into an intense rivalry that drives everyone else out of the sonic showers. On the Bridge, Captain Freeman grits her teeth and smiles about having to help the Collector’s Guild go through a ship full of strange and possibly dangerous objects at the Guild’s request. Freeman assigns Mariner, Jet, Tendi, and Rutherford to the Away Team as well as newly minted Chief of Security Kayshon, the first Tamarian in Starfleet. Initially, all goes well. However, because this is Lower Decks, the supervising Guild member, Siggi, steals a Fornication Helmet that allegedly belonged to Kahless, triggering the ship’s defenses. Kayshon shoves Mariner out of the path of a laser beam, and it transforms him into a puppet.

The remaining Away Team members plus Siggi flee into a different antechamber, where Mariner begins to detail an overly complicated plot to get to Engineering where they can shut off the ship’s defense systems. Jet argues that the escape pods are both closer and easier to access, meaning that they all have better chances to get to them alive and intact. They go with Jet’s plan, much to Mariner’s displeasure. In the next gallery, they discover that Siggi stole the helmet and triggered the ship, but he doesn’t last much longer, getting crushed by falling debris. They flee into yet another gallery where Mariner whacks a floating Roomba, triggering yet more peril as a fleet of floating Roombas swarm the Away Team and attempt to suck them to death (Mariner’s terminology, not mine).

Jet advises that they barricade themselves behind a pile of bones, and while they set it up, Mariner berates him for being essentially a rank-obsessed poser. Jet replies that he’s no Ransom, and the two of them cease their rivalry. They ask Tendi and Rutherford what they should do next, and the brain trust devises a plan that gets them back to the Cerritos expeditiously.

Aboard the Titan, Boimler continues screaming his way through evasive maneuvers against Pakled hostiles. They survive, and Riker brings his crew into the observation lounge for a briefing. Starfleet Command suspects the Pakleds of targeting a mining colony in order to acquire the ore for a shadowy puppet master, so they plan to send the Titan to insert an Away Team undercover as miners in order to attach a tracking devices to the Pakled ship in the hopes that they’ll lead Starfleet to this puppet master. Riker assigns Boimler to the Away Team as well as his bridge crew, and all goes mostly according to plan until one of them alerts the Pakleds to their position by attacking a pile of snacks. Boimler attempts to dissuade her on the basis that killing the Pakled is unnecessary, but he fails. The Away Team takes cover in a building, awaiting beam-out. However, interference blocks the Titan from being able to secure transporter locks on the team members. They resolve themselves to death, and Boimler reminds his fellow crewmates that Starfleet isn’t just about defeating the enemy. He emphasizes that it’s about exploring like Riker did aboard the Enterprise-D.

During his recitation, he recalls the event that created Thomas Riker, and he devises a quick solution. The Titan gets a lock and successfully beams out every member of the Away Team but Boimler. They have to do some Trek-typical finagling to beam him out, but eventually they do. However, just as he materializes, a Starfleet shuttle escapes the planet, and the pilot requests a beam-out. Riker permits it, and a second Boimler appears. Later, Riker informs the Boimlers that he can only keep one of them, and the original Boimler agrees to return to the Cerritos, leaving the transporter clone aboard the Titan. The clone opts to rename himself William.

Aboard the Cerritos, Mariner gleefully accepts Boimler back into the fold, and Dr. T’Ana restores Kayshon to non-puppet form. Captain Freeman continues to lament the results of her leadership assessment, and everything returns to normal, for the given value of normal that exists for the Cerritos.

Analysis

As I said in my introduction, “Kayshon: His Eyes Open” isn’t an episode focused on plot. The clear intent driving the episode is to reintroduce Boimler to the lower decker crowd and introduce us to Kayshon, and frankly, I appreciate that the episode doesn’t shy away from that. Rather, scriptwriter Chris Kula embraces it, giving us a fantastic explanation for Boimler’s return that doesn’t require the sacrifice of Boimler’s competence that season one worked so hard to have him earn. Moreover, Kula’s script fits within existing Trek canon with the wink wink-nudge nudge ambiance we’ve come to expect from Lower Decks. I have been wondering how Boimler would return to the Cerritos, and I found this solution satisfying. Boimler gets to demonstrate his growth as a character on the Titan by stepping up to the plate and finding the life-saving solution, and he also gets to go back to doing what he ultimately preferred to do anyway, which is the mission set on the Cerritos.

I equally loved that Mariner and Jet had to set aside not only their bizarre rivalry but also their assumptions that their solutions were the best options. A good leader takes advantage of all of the resources available, which neither Mariner nor Jet do because they’re caught up in their own nonsense. For Mariner, especially, to step back and acknowledge that perhaps she doesn’t have all the answers is a pretty big move for her, and allowing both Tendi and Rutherford save the day seems to indicate that the show might be moving toward making better use of both of those characters. I hope Team Lower Decks continues to build on both of those points.

However, there’s a lot about “Kayshon” that doesn’t work. I don’t exactly understand the point of having Boimler’s fellow bridge crewmembers complain so hard about the Enterprise D. Perhaps there’s meant to be a sub-theme involving self-awareness and a realistic idea of where your happiness lies, but if that’s true, the sub-theme is only an afterthought. “Kayshon” does try to establish good leadership as a running theme. In addition to the structural plot elements I reference above, that’s why Freeman has to wait for her evaluation results and then complain about them. Unfortunately, the episode gets too caught up in visual gags and Easter Eggs for the theme to land.

I also found the hostility between Mariner and Jet to be grating. Mariner clearly resents the idea of anyone coming to replace Boimler. That resentment then forms the basis of her initial dislike of Jet, or rather it should. Mariner, unreliable narrator that she is, frames her dislike in terms of characteristics of Jet that we’ve never had the chance to observe. Therefore, her resentment comes across as irrational. Jet, for his part, responds to Mariner’s hostility with his own and does make several valid points regarding how Mariner does things. Yes, the crazy complicated strategy has worked for her, but it isn’t always the best solution. Jet’s focus is on getting everyone out alive, but Mariner gets tunnel vision and focuses on different values. Forcing her to face that is one of the episode’s strengths, but her resentment just evaporates. The ease with which she lets it go and allows Jet to step into the Boimler-space is far from commensurate with the intensity of her hostility. Mariner’s motivations make sense in terms of both character and story, but this episode does not deal with them as fully as it should have. As a result, the entire thing just comes out of left-field and then magically disappears into the ether.

“Kayshon” isn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination, particularly for an entry in the show’s sophomore season, but I do wish that it had relied less on Trek inside jokes and more on story.

Rating:

Three cups of Earl Grey Tea

The Egg Hunt

1. Whoo boy, strap in because this one’s a long one. Virtually everything you see in the collector’s ship is a reference to something in canon. You can clearly see the salt vampire from the “Man Trap.” The skeleton in the blue science uniform is likely the Spock clone’s from “The Infinite Vulcan,” which also hints at the episode’s resolution. I guess things didn’t go well for clone Spock.
2. The Collectors as an entity comes from “The Most Toys,” in which yes, someone tries to collect Data. It doesn’t go well for him.
3. The reference to debating the rights of a robot likely refers to “Measure of a Man,” though some of that occurs in “The Offspring” as well.
4. Kayshon is a Tamarian, the species encountered in “Darmok.” They speak exclusively in metaphors, which is why Kayshon periodically struggles with Standard. You might also recognize his voice as Fred Tatasciore returns to voice Kayshon. Does that make him an Easter Egg?
5. Thanks, Lower Decks. A Helmet of Fornication is now a canonical item in Star Trek. The reference stems from just about every discussion or portrayal of Klingon sexuality in Trek. Please don’t make me list them all.
6. Mariner grabs a lirpa, which is the weapon used by Kirk and Spock in “Amok Time.”
7. There’s a female ops uniform in a case that might reference TOS generally.
8. The string quartet shows up a few times, but my favorite is when it does in “The Ensigns of Command.”
9. Riker acting in a play is from “Frame of Mind.”
10. Riker asks for “Night Bird,” which is a song he never quite mastered during TNG and is from “Second Chances.”
11. Thomas Riker also comes to us from “Second Chances” and will reappear on DS9 as a member of the Maquis in “Defiant.”
12. Boimler mentions “catching love disease,” which likely refers to the events in “The Game.” I’m pretty sure we see the game’s headset in one of the collection galleries.
13. The crack about how the Enterprise-D had multiple daycare centers could refer back to what we saw in “Rascals,” but it’s pretty solidly canon.
14. Boimler getting demoted back to ensign probably refers to Harry Kim‘s eternal ensign status. I’m sure there are other Easter Eggs I could mention, but this list is already long enough.
15. In terms of stray thoughts, this episode airs on what would have been Gene Roddenberry’s 100th birthday. Happy birthday, Great Bird of the Galaxy.
16. I do want to know the story behind T’Ana’s other experience fixing a crew-member’s transformation into a doll.