Star Trek: Lower Decks S04E04: 'Something Borrowed, Something Green'

©Paramount+

‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ gives us loads of laughs in the season highlight so far.
by Jeremy Fogelman

The latest episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is called “Something Borrowed, Something Green” after the common wedding tradition except with the Orion green skin as a reference. The main storyline is about Tendi returning to her homeworld after being away since she left for Starfleet. It gives us the most expansive look at the Orion culture perhaps we’ve ever seen in the Star Trek universe, and although it’s still pretty exaggerated -- is it any more ridiculous than the warrior culture of the Klingons?

We still have that lingering mysterious ship blowing up cliched examples of starships, this time an Orion ship so that does seem to be some season-long mystery. Tendi gets an invitation to her home planet for his sister’s wedding and Mariner and T’Lyn immediately ask to join, for somewhat similar reasons, to understand that mysterious culture better.

It’s the first combination of these three characters together and it’s great -- Tendi is normally so emotionally present and passionate about science, but here she’s forced to leverage her scary backstory. Mariner keeps getting knives thrown at the same place, a great gag, but all of her little witticism are contrasted more effectively when T’Lyn agrees in her deadpan way -- some of the best examples of that were “He is aesthetically pleasing” and “I, too, was alarmed by your combat abilities”.

I don’t think we’ve gotten a T’Lyn and Rutherford pairing yet, but so far she’s been a home run in every combination so far. She even delivers the heartfelt lesson at the end, in her Vulcan way, telling Tendi that she’s actually who she chooses to be, a science geek and a loyal friend. It’s a very sweet ending especially when contrasted with Tendi reconnecting with her estranged sister D’Erika (voiced by Ariel Winter) about misunderstandings when Tendi left her life of being a cool assassin to be a scientist in Starfleet.

© Paramount+

Sure, some of the whole pheromone “this is funny because it’s women in charge” is a little dated, but it works better here than when it was done in Strange New Worlds and the show was a little chained to the historical canon about Orions. This was all fun enough, but the side story of Boimler and Rutherford was very funny, even if it had one fairly stupid part.

I absolutely loved how easily they got along and their twin Mark Twain costumes were very funny -- it’s not remotely a correct accent, but it’s funny because of how much they get into it. Sure, the integration with saving the day for the Cerritos is fine, but the resolution of the alien eating their bonsai plant was a little dumb. At least it ended with Brutherford using similarly terrible accents as a pair of Mozarts.

Overall I was very pleased by this episode, which was easily the funniest of the season, and even had some heartfelt moments. It’s nice to see that although the team is no longer just ensigns that they can still find room to grow and learn more about each other. Makes me more optimistic about the rest of the season.

Note: We support the current WGA/SAG strike and emphasize the importance of writers and actors and ensuring they and fellow creatives are compensated and treated fairly for their work. This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.