As we make our way closer and closer to Lower Decks ‘ end this season , we’re getting a lot of reminders of the show at its best— returning to thematic ideas it’s always been strongest on, wrapping up and addressing where it lost its way . It’s perhaps fitting then, that this week it revisits elements from what remains as one of the show’s standout episodes, season two’s incredible “wej Duj”. But it’s not just Lower Decks replaying the hits here: again, it’s reminding us to reinforce its strongest themes, and exploring them through new, wider lenses.
“A Farewell to Farms” (we’re continuing a streak of very good pun titles) is largely about Mariner and Boimler tracking down the former’s Klingon “bestie” Ma’ah on Qo’noS as part of, it turns out, the overarching subplot this season of the fissures in spacetime the Cerritos is tracking here, there, and everywhere. But they find the Klingon in a very different state of affairs compared to when we saw him either in “wej Duj” or last season’s breakout “The Inner Fight” . Ma’ah is spending his days finding honor in his own form working on his family’s bloodwine farm , but still wrestling with what he wants for himself, especially after his promotion and demotion—at peace, but stuck in place.
But when Boimler (facial hair update of the week: folks, we have moustache) uses his own Klingon culture obsession to push Ma’ah into invoking the Ritual of J’ethurgh and reclaim his capta.
