Lower Decks Wants To Redeem The Most Expendable Star Trek Characters

This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks."

There's no such thing as an "easy" job while aboard a Federation starship in the "Trek" universe, but some are definitely more thankless than others. After all, the entire concept of "Lower Decks" revolves around the idea of celebrating the forgotten crewmembers at the absolute bottom of the command food chain. In that light, there's probably no more fitting series in the entire franchise canon that's better equipped for a B-plot like the one that episode 5, titled "Empathological Fallacies," tackled this past week.

While the bulk of the hour follows Vulcan newcomer T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) and the mounting emotional chaos surrounding the arrival of the Betazoid guests, the freshly-appointed Lieutenant Junior Grade Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) is, as usual, suffering from a bit of an existential crisis. Recognizing the tremendous pressure he's putting on himself to live up to his new promotion, his friend and roomie (and still Ensign) Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) tries to give Boimler the perfect distraction. As it so happens, a day spent with Security Chief Shaxs (Fred Tatasciore) could be just what the doctor ordered.

In vintage "Lower Decks" style, however, this helps serve dual purposes. Not only does this storyline give the writers (and us viewers) a chance to spend more time with one of the funniest supporting characters in the entire show, but it also provides the perfect moment to flesh out a historically underappreciated subset of Starfleet officers. Sure, we've seen major "Trek" characters like Chekov and Worf (who gets name-dropped in hilarious fashion in this episode) fill this role in years past, but otherwise, security officers are where "red shirts" go to die. Not so in this episode, which redeems the most expendable characters in the canon.

For as much as "Lower Decks" can stir things up by poking fun (out of a sense of endearment, mind you) at classic "Star Trek" tropes, the show's creative team simply never misses an opportunity to shine a spotlight on any of the franchise's more underrepresented or unappreciated aspects. After decades of watching anonymous and nameless security officers typically show up in an emergency (quick, name any security officer from the early seasons of "The Original Series" — you probably can't!), only to die an unceremonious death as an episode's early casualty without so much as a second thought, "Empathological Fallacies" finally decides to set the record straight. The end result provides a new reason to love this small circle of the "Lower Decks" crew all over again.

The trick comes from upending expectations. Upon exploring this never-before-seen deck of the Cerritos, the amped-up Boimler is just a little too eager to get a crash course in all the butt-kicking action that the security team is typically known for. Instead, he's met with slam poetry, charades, and tarot cards as examples of how the security team seemingly passes their team between red alerts. But even as our lovable "Boims" gets more and more disheartened by what he assumes is an inability to take the job seriously, Shaxs' team shows exactly what they're made of when the B-plot dovetails nicely with the main action. As the Betazoid diplomats attack the paranoid Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), the security officers spring into action with nothing short of ruthless efficiency — even if part of that involves Shaxs talking down a rabid Dr. T'Ana (Gillian Vigman).

Once Boimler experiences them in their natural element, clearing the bridge of intruders and saving the ship, he finally sees the light.

So what did we learn on this week's episode of "Lower Decks," kids? "Don't antagonize telepathic Betazoids who may or may not be part of their version of the intelligence community" is probably a good one to keep in mind, along with the idea of even the most emotionally repressed among us (like the frustrated Vulcan T'Lyn) allowing themselves the grace to come to terms with their more volatile feelings. But even Boimler's silly little subplot provides one of the episode's most poignant touches.

In the aftermath of averting the rapidly developing crisis, Boimler and Shaxs share a brief moment to go over the latest unpredictable day in the life of the Cerritos. After apologizing for acting like a jerk, Boimler is keyed into the most important function of the security team. Obviously, their main role is to protect the ship, but Shaxs adds an equally important function to their role. When asked why they all went above and beyond to simply give Boimler a day off, the kindly security chief responds, "Because we're in charge of protecting the crew. Sometimes, that means grappling with enemy invaders. Other times, it means protecting your emotional well-being. Either way, security has your back."

With one heartwarming line, "Lower Decks" instantly adds all sorts of layers to the family unit that is a Federation starship. And it's all the more meaningful for coming from the head of the security officer division on board. If that doesn't sum up the show's greatest strength, nothing does.

New episodes of "Lower Decks" stream on Paramount+ every Thursday.