The Cerritos arrives at the Ferengi homeworld, where Captain Freeman sits in with an admiral for a formal meeting with Grand Nagus Rom and First Clerk Leeta... and watches as he's totally blowing it. Tendi and Rutherford must pose as a newlywed couple to research local hospitality. Mariner also visits the planet to blow off steam with an old friend. And Boimler's planet-side plans are disrupted when he becomes addicted to the hotel television.
There's a lot of story packed into this single episode. Hell, I didn't even mention the opening sequence that continues the season-long tease of the "mysterious ship" by taking us to yet another alien culture's "lower decks." Life in the low ranks aboard a Ferengi ship is hilarious, and a fun table-setter for a fun episode. And while I'm starting to get a bit tired of how slowly this overarcing story line is being spooled out, I'm loving all these vignettes aboard different starships -- and actually looking to a few more before the season ends.
It's another good episode for Captain Freeman, achieved by putting "some admiral" in the role often given to her in a story: the hubris-stuffed know-it-all who causes more troubles than they solve. It's classic sitcom stuff, and indeed we have seen it before on Lower Decks several times. Yet I don't mind the repetition here at all, because it's the way we get the return of Rom and Leeta!
I love that this half-hour comedy series gets to pick up on the situation left at the end of Deep Space Nine, showing how Rom and Leeta are slowly transforming Ferengi society. It's still the capitalist fever dream we've always known (and were meant to laugh at; that's why it fits so well here on Lower Decks), but it's now softened enough to be moving to join the Federation. And how they're joining is delightful to watch. I love the con set up by Rom and Leeta... and I can believe that, given a little time to adjust to their powerful new roles, they'd actually be capable of clever manipulations like this. (After all, they once spear-headed a labor strike together.) Most of all, I'm happy that Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson get to come back one more time to play their characters again.
The rest of the episode isn't as strong, though it does have its moments. Boimler isn't up to much this week, but the conceit of "stuck watching TV" allows for a series of funny one-off gags in the form of the shows he watches. Plus, of course, best of all was the gag about putting commercials directly into the show, staged in front of a twinkling proxy for the Paramount logo.
I'm not as thrilled about the "will they, won't they" of the Tendi-Rutherford relationship; I really just like that they've been 100% in-sync, guileless friends. (Though one of the TV shows Boimler watched had a fun meta-commentary on this.) Still, watching them band together to make it through an uncomfortable situation was nice. And I loved the sight gag of them basically visiting the now-defunct Star Trek Experience that used to be at the Hilton Las Vegas years ago.
I give "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place" a B+. Realizing we're now on the downhill stretch of the season, with fewer episodes ahead than we've already watched, I feel like I'm already starting to miss Lower Decks a bit.
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