Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Finale – "Old Friends, New Planets"
Summary
- "Star Trek: Lower Decks" season 4 finale delivers an explosive and thrilling conclusion, as Mariner saves the galaxy from Locarno's plan to establish a new power.
- Mariner reaffirms her belief in Starfleet, contrasting with Locarno's resentment and lack of responsibility for his actions.
- Tendi leaves Starfleet to return to the Orion Syndicate, raising questions about her future and the exploration of Orion culture in "Lower Decks" season 5.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 ended with a thrilling and explosive finale where Lieutenant Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) saved the galaxy from disgraced ex-Starfleet Academy Cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), but at the cost of Lieutenant D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells) leaving Starfleet and returning to Orion. Locarno beamed Mariner aboard his starship, Nova One, revealing that he was the villain attacking non-Federation ships and stranding their command crews on the planet Sherbal V throughout Lower Decks season 4.
Locarno's plan was to establish himself as a new power in the galaxy. Thanks to the various crews of alien Lower Deckers who mutinied against their superior officers, Locarno assembled an armada he called Nova Fleet, named after Nova Squadron, the failed elite group of Starfleet Academy Cadets Nicholas Locarno led in the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5 episode, "The First Duty." Locarno's ace-in-the-hole was a Ferengi black market Genesis Device he planned to use to blackmail the United Federation of Planets. But Mariner stole the device and escaped on a stolen Starfleet ship, although she was trapped in the Detrion System by a Trynar Shield. Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) and the USS Cerritos successfully rescued Mariner, with explosive results that created a new planet.
