Star Trek: Lower Decks 2.4 Review - Ups & Downs From Mugato, Gumato
2. Rutherford And Boimler In General - UP
This week sees another rejigging of the Lower Decks pairings, with Boimler and Rutherford striking out on their mission to a) expose Mariner and b) survive the Mugato. This follows last week's episode that saw Mariner and Tendi go on a girls' trip to find T'ana's heirloom. One of the strengths of Lower Decks overall is the instantly engaging characters and their interactions, though by the end of the first season there seemed to be a different Tendi/Rutherford, Boimler/Mariner split.
Season two seems to be going to pains to change this. Rutherford and Boimler, neither of them fit the stereotype of alpha, brave male i.e. Ransom. Therefore seeing them try to figure out how to survive the Mugato is a hoot, while also trying to survive their friend, or so they think.
Lower Decks has delivered some excellent entries in the canon of characters but seeing them split into different friend and team groups is a great way to avoid them becoming any one thing over another.
UP - let's keep this repairing of characters going. It benefits them, and it helps to show the various traits that don't always come out in other situations.