Can we stop with all this kink-based character design? Blacksad does it with no shame. Disney’s Zootopia/Zootropolis does it while trying to avoid the weird glances. Zelda does it with less of a wink for the furries, and now Lower Decks has given Rule34 a whole backlog of sexy birds to draw. Migleemo was fine, he looks like Orville (not the Hulu/Disney show) once he stopped wearing nappies and Keith Harris took his hand out. I know for a fact those eyebrows on Rawda have some people readjusting themselves on every rewatch.

Ann Kim’s “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption” is the next chapter in the story of Peanut Hamper, the other story we were being told back when the Pakled (the race) were doing their thing. I.e something stupid. For the benefit of my editor, she’s the booty little cow that joined Starfleet but didn’t want to help anyone or do anything in the realm of what Starfleet is famous for. Instead, she wants to be treated like a princess.

So the selfish-snooty little bot has a “previously on” with her perspective from the teleportation from the Cerritos in “No Small Parts,” which gives us the exposition-heavy explanation for why she’s floating about in space like junk. According to Rawda, she’s more than just junk, she has some junk in her rear USB ports. As an enjoyably more sedate title sequence, I like when shows can break up the usual with odd things like this. It isn’t all about thrill-seeking adventure, and this is exactly that.

In a bit of a Cast Away homage, there is a lot of exposition to keep us from suffering the silence of space as she Macgyver’s herself a (Port?) nacelle into working and getting out of Junksville. Drookmani scavengers and a rash shot of warp-speed transport later, she wakes up in a village of sexy birds with their aforementioned thick eyebrows. Quickly it is realized she’s gotten her dream. Starfleet wanted her to look out for the needs of the many, she wanted to look out for the needs of the Peanut Hamper (so herself). Now the Areore worships the ground she doesn’t stand on.

This could be a truly happy ending if it weren’t for being 5 minutes in. We’re covering a lot of ground as we’ve experienced a season and a half in the time it has taken to get to Peanut Hamper’s queendom. I’ve said it throughout the 26 episodes I’ve covered already, the swearing in Lower Decks and its being censored is often a hit-and-miss with me. Peanut Hamper being abrasive and saying “Oh f***” when she realizes she’s on one of the worlds that doesn’t see many travelers works for me. I also wonder where the line lies, but I think it is the moment, the character, and the danger it comes in.

What I don’t get, and you can call me ignorant on this front if you want, is why are the women of this Areore tribe covering where human women would have nipples? Also, why does Rawda have a set of chiseled abs like my new neighbor in his 20s who happens to sit outside topless a lot? Why are we sexualizing anthropomorphized ornithoids for the Prophet’s sake? I get that we’re going for the “attracted to the alluring bird man” idea, but for his friend in his introduction, she is also wearing a tube top.

I enjoy the overall story we’ve got here in “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption,” a title that I’ve been questioned about as it is quite long. The allegory of racism/xenophobia crossed with the projection of an image that is made up to appeal to and make one’s self look better is great. The village elder being bitten by a sky snake is interesting. Yes, even a society of winged creatures calls flying snakes, sky snakes. Peanut’s eventual use of her replicator to save him, changing Rawda’s opinion of her, also brings about a change of opinion.

It is a change of pace. When we’re focused on doing two or three stories that intersect around our main characters, this narrowed focus on one main story of a character we know a little bit about is different. Is it good? Well, there are a few issues. They are bird people, and if they were mammals I might get covering the nipples, but it is in the name that they aren’t. That said the sex scene being written like a bad porno or 1970s fade-out and fade-in scene works in a ridiculous way. If you look at Lower Decks straight-faced, you’ll hate it and probably enjoy the company of lawyers and beige paint.

If you’re looking for an episode to break up the friendship saves the day story we’ve had a couple of times this season now, it works. It isn’t “Hear all, Trust Nothing,” but certainly something I found at least a little more enjoyable than the attempt at horror we had before in “Mining the Mind’s Mine.” The pacing, the disparity away from our A, B, and C Plots, and the complete difference in characters we’re focusing on do enough for me. I think I said early on when starting these reviews, it is a cartoon, and I want the variety that this brings.

The battle of the Drookmani and the attempt at a semi-redemption of Peanut Hamper is a little quick for an episode with a slower, calmer pacing up to that point. Though, it is more a constraint of the established format than a problem with the episode itself. I’m not trying to convince you “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption” is in any way perfect or even great, but it is a fun breakup of the monotony you fall into writing a show. It isn’t great, but a fun step away from an otherwise human-focused episode. Plus it is interesting following one of the robots that ends up in Daystrom.

Ultimately, if we’re not building to an attempted breakout of Daystrom by AGIMUS and Peanut Hamper, then I don’t know what we are doing with those closing shots. If it was just a reference back to “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie,” then I think it was a waste of an episode just for that. As a break from following our main four on a story of friendship, I find it enjoyable enough and it is something different from the realm of Star Trek. That is evidently the purpose of Lower Decks as a whole, to do something a bit different with this iconography while making references.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks "A Mathematically Perfect Redemption"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• A possible setup for something fun and interesting later on down the line.
• A change of pace from the friendship storylines we've seen a lot of.
• Evil CBS computer makes a return!
• The stripped-back intro is nice to see.

Cons

• Why did the birds have nipples?