As Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 nears its halfway point, the animated series peels back the curtain on D'Vana Tendi's backstory among the Orion Syndicate in a sudden trip back home. The season's fourth episode, titled "Something Borrowed, Something Green," mostly takes place off the USS Cerritos as it gives Tendi a well-deserved spotlight with a complicated homecoming. With its strong character beats and doubling down on admittedly absurd humor, the episode is one of the more memorable installments in Season 4, paying off years of character development while maintaining its comical tone.
Tendi learns her sister is slated to be married, prompting her to reluctantly return home for the event, with Beckett Mariner and T'Lyn in tow to witness an Orion wedding firsthand. Tendi must come to terms with her and her family's reputation with the Orion Syndicate as well as her uncomfortable upbringing when her sister is kidnapped before the wedding. Meanwhile, back on the Cerritos, Brad Boimler and Sam Rutherford have to learn how to live together as roommates while Captain Carol Freeman conducts an important diplomatic mission.
Tendi and her Orion heritage have been highlighted in previous seasons of Lower Decks, but not to the same degree as showcased here. Noël Wells delivers some of her best work as Tendi, showing the complexity and nuance behind such a normally chipper and effervescent character as Tendi faces ghosts from her past. Tendi's history as a secret master fighter and fearsome warlord was explored in a return to the Orion Syndicate as early as Season 2, but there is more substance for her to work with, including a surprising amount of vulnerability.
Juxtaposing Tendi's reconciling her past and heritage are Mariner and T'Lyn, with the writers wisely contrasting Mariner's exuberant excitement with T'Lyn in her usually stoic Vulcan demeanor. The dynamic between this trio works well, especially given Tendi's arc in this episode, with an objective perspective and a largely impulsively emotional one helping inform Tendi's journey. As Tendi is out of her element, Mariner and T'Lyn are both in their nominal comfort zones, something that Lower Decks Season 4 has not demonstrated as much for either of them.
The comedy in "Something Borrowed, Something Green" comes primarily from Boimler and Rutherford's story arc, as their normally unflappable bromance is tested by their living together. Some of the biggest laughs come from Lower Decks allowing itself to get weird, with Boimler and Rutherford managing to find common ground and patching things up through a thoroughly funny Holodeck program, which they attempt to replicate on a grander and more important scale. Shows like Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites live on their absurdist humor, and the tactic works well in this episode without compromising the overall tone and premise behind Lower Decks.
Lower Decks tends to work at its best when it narrows its narrative focus to a single character to carry an individual episode's story, with the rest of the main cast helping provide natural breaks or furthering the narrative. This is particularly true in "Something Borrowed, Something Green," with Tendi serving as a strong protagonist as the crew delves deep into the rarely-seen side of the Orion Syndicate. By the end, much of Tendi's personality and backstory stands explained as Lower Decks Season 4 continues merrily along toward its back half, with threads of its overarching story coming into focus as the action escalates.
Created by Mike McMahan, Star Trek: Lower Decks releases new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.