Below Deck with Lower Decks: Boiming the Rifts

What? You’re telling me we’re down to the last two episodes of ? Already? BUT WE DON’T WANT THE GAME TO END!

:: ahem ::

I'm just going to say up front that while I normally strive to avoid too many spoilers with these "Below Deck" articles, the simple truth is there's just too much going on this time around to avoid spoiling everything. That said, if you haven't yet seen this week's episode, then you probably shouldn't read too much further.

Like, here would be a good place to stop.

Okay, fine. You can read to here.

Look, I can't keep doing this.

[Picard] The line must be drawn here! This far! No further! [/Picard]

I mean it.
Seriously. It's gonna get spoilery in here.

Last chance.

Still here? All right, then. Don't say you weren't warned.

Moving on…..

First off, you should not be at all surprised to learn that William Boimler has been pretty busy since the last time we saw him. You may recall he's of our own lovable Boims, accidentally created during the second season episode "" during Prime Boimler's tour of duty aboard the U.S.S. Titan.

You might also remember that William's death was faked by the mysterious Section 31 at the end of the third season episode "," and he was transferred to a classified vessel and recruited to do who knows what.

When we catch up with William this week, he's a captain, commanding that very same ship, the U.S.S. Anaximander, and he's been given a highly sensitive mission — finding and stopping whoever's been opening spatial rifts all over the place, using a special ship which can create dimensional rifts in order to bridge different realities. Whoever it is, they're apparently trying to destroy the "multiverse." Pretty serious stuff, yo.

What's pretty cool about it is that he's not working alone, but instead with a veritable dream team of familiar faces from various other universes. There's Alternate T'Pol from over at the Nax's science station! Alternate from , is manning the helm!

Down in Sickbay, there's more DS9 representin' with Alt-Garak as a Starfleet doctor, and he's backed up by a holographic version of Alt-Julian Bashir! And they're married! Let the memes begin! But wait, there’s more! They rescue Lieutenant Harry Kim from a Starfleet escape pod that's drifting in space, and he’s just the latest Harry Kim to join the crew!

(You'll note that all of the other Harry Kims are still ensigns. Temporal Edict #47-74656 stipulates there can be only one Harry Kim higher-ranked than ensign per multiverse. It's totally true. You can look it up. I'll wait.)

When the Nax rescues a damaged shuttlecraft that's emerged from yet another rift, William is surprised so see Beckett Mariner from still another alternate quantum reality. Even better, she's figured out a way to track the ship that's creating all the dimensional rifts! William and the others realize that the other vessel opening such a rift has the effect of opening a second one, which the ship then uses to escape. They put this new knowledge to the test, setting a trap for the other vessel. Damaging the ship so that it's forced to land on the surface of a nearby planet, they eventually come face to face with the vessel's captain — Lily Sloane.

Lily Sloane showing up is just the icing on the alternate quantum reality personalities cake that is this episode. Amazingly, this is the first time we've seen her since Picard and the Enterprise gang met her in the film , when she was working in 21st Century Montana alongside , humanity's first warp-capable vessel. In the reality from which this version of Lily came, she commands a ship that explores different quantum realities. Much like how the Federation in our universe doesn't interfere with civilizations which haven't yet achieved warp travel, her universe's government has directives against contacting societies that are incapable of crossing between dimensions.

In other words, this whole thing's been a massive misunderstanding. Awkward, yeah?

Meanwhile, what's happening here with Captain Sloane and her ship causing so much trouble — albeit accidentally — should be an easy fix, after which everyone goes their merry way, right?

If you've been watching Lower Decks from the beginning, then you just know something weird's about to happen. You'll just have to tune in to this week’s all-new episode to see what happens next!