9 Ups & NO Downs From Star Trek: Lower Decks 5.7 — Fully Dilated
2. UP — Dilmer Girls
In our July interview, Gabrielle Ruiz also told Seán that,
There's some additional good girl-hang again [in season five] with T'Lyn and Mariner and Tendi. They let us have that again in a very different situation […]. I can't wait for that specific episode to air, because I think it's the best one. […] The dynamic of us trio of girls doing a thing is so much fun.
Ruiz must surely have been referring to Fully Dilated, here, unless there's another highly unique "girl-hang" to come. We can't help but also agree with her assessment of the quality of the episode, although with three more to go, we'll have to reserve judgment on the best of the ten. Certainly a contender!
Ultimately, Fully Dilated is what Star Trek does best. All the complex temporal mechanics on another world was, in reality, the story of three (girl)friends. Though two of them were technically pitted against each other, that was, in fact, a one-sided battle which led to character development and catharsis. Back on the Cerritos, both of those Dilmer girls got the promotion to senior science officer they deserved.