Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 9 - "The Inner Fight"

Summary

• Lieutenant Beckett Mariner's connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation are revealed in a jaw-dropping twist in Lower Decks season 4, episode 9.
• Mariner's past as a cadet at Starfleet Academy and her friendship with Ensign Sito Jaxa shed light on her self-destructive tendencies and reluctance for promotion.
• The revelation that disgraced ex-Starfleet Cadet Nicholas Locarno is behind the destruction of alien starships raises questions about why he involved Mariner and the possible return of Sito Jaxa.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9 revealed Lieutenant Beckett Mariner's (Tawny Newsome) jaw-dropping connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation, specifically the classic TNG episodes, "The First Duty" and "Lower Decks." In Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, Mariner's self-destructive tendencies worry her mother, Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis). Freeman sends Mariner on a routine mission with her friends to keep her out of trouble, but Mariner inadvertently meets the culprit behind the destruction of several alien starships, disgraced ex-Starfleet Cadet Nicholas Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill).

Prior to coming face-to-face with Nick Locarno in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, Mariner confesses some of her secrets to a Klingon named Ma'ah (Jon Curry) she fought and befriended. The details of Mariner's life story have been revealed in dollops throughout Star Trek: Lower Decks, but in her past, Beckett was a Cadet at the top of her class at Starfleet Academy. Mariner served on five different Starfleet ships prior to the USS Cerritos, including the USS Quito, and she saw action in the Dominion War, which also meant Beckett spent time on the Deep Space Nine space station. At some point, Mariner also became friends with her mother's mentor, Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) of the USS Enterprise-D. Still, there are many questions surrounding Mariner and her connections to Star Trek: The Next Generation that Star Trek: Lower Decks' "The Inner Fight" dropped in a series of bombshells.

How Lower Decks’ Mariner Connects To TNG’s Tragic Ensign Sito

In a stunning revelation, Lt. Beckett Mariner told Ma'ah that she was once best friends with Ensign Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill) when Sito and Mariner attended Starfleet Academy at the same time. In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 19, "The First Duty," Sito was a member of Nova Squadron, a group of elite Starfleet Academy cadets that included Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) and Nicholas Locarno. Nova Squadron covered up the death of a classmate during an illegal flight maneuver, and Sito had to repeat the year at Starfleet Academy after she confessed to her role in the crime. However, three years later, in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7, episode 15, "Lower Decks," Sito was stationed on the USS Enterprise-D, which she later learned was at the request of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in order to give the young Bajoran a second chance.

Sito is believed to have been killed during a secret mission when she posed as the prisoner of the Cardassians. Mariner was devastated by Sito's death, and this convinced Beckett that she no longer wanted her dream of becoming a starship captain. Instead, Mariner decided to remain an Ensign so that she would never have to send her friends to die in one of Starfleet's costly wars. Mariner being Sito Jaxa's best friend is revelatory. Obviously, Beckett was not part of Nova Squadron despite being at the top of her class at Starfleet Academy, but this insight into why Mariner resents being promoted to Lieutenant and wants to remain a Lower Decker (because if "being an Ensign was good enough for Sito, it's good enough for me" is a glimpse into Beckett's psyche that makes perfect sense.

How Lower Decks’ Mariner Connects To TNG’s Disgraced Nick Locarno

Nicholas Locarno was the leader of Nova Squadron, and he was the ringleader of the conspiracy to conceal the truth about the death of their classmate, Joshua Albert. Locarno was expelled from Starfleet Academy at the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The First Duty," and his whereabouts were unknown until Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, which revealed Locarno is the pilot of the mysterious enemy starship destroying other ships around the galaxy. However, Locarno has also been kidnapping the crews of those Ferengi, Cardassian, Romulan, Orion, Bynar, and Klingon ships and depositing the survivors on the planet Sherbal V.

Prior to Locarno beaming Mariner from Sherbal V onto his starship, Star Trek: Lower Decks revealed he was one of four people Starfleet needed to locate and protect from the mystery ship that Nick was actually behind. After he was drummed out of the Academy, Locarno became a pilot for hire who based himself out of the criminal world of New Axton. Mariner clearly knows Locarno from their days in Starfleet Academy in 2368, which is about 13 or so years before Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4. Locarno brought Mariner aboard his starship and promised they were "gonna cause some trouble together." Why Locarno has been attacking and kidnapping other species will be revealed in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4's finale, but could this all be leading to the discovery that Sito Jaxa has been alive all along?

Star Trek: Lower Decks Proved Its TNG Namesake

Star Trek: Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan has stated that "Lower Decks" is his favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he named his own Star Trek show after it as well as adopted its basic concept. Star Trek: Lower Decks is essentially a love letter to TNG that continues the era of Star Trek it started, but "The Inner Fight" now solidifies the bond between TNG's "Lower Decks" and the animated Lower Decks in profound ways. Mariner's history in Starfleet Academy is an ingenious retcon that ties directly into TNG's "The First Duty," which introduced Sito Jaxa and Nick Locarno, as well as TNG's "Lower Decks" episode that led to Sito's tragic death.

"Lower Decks" was the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that showed a career in Starfleet can be tragic and unfair, and that exploring strange new worlds can have a terrible cost to those dreamers who want to see the stars and earn a place on the bridge of a starship. Mariner is defined by what happened to Ensign Sito in TNG, and this explains so much about her behavior and rejection of any rank higher than Ensign that can lead to sending other Starfleet Officers to their potential death. Rapid-fire, relentlessly funny comedy aside, Star Trek: Lower Decks laudably has palpable emotional stakes and characters who feel, love, and experience tragic loss, such as what Lt. Beckett Mariner lives with every day.

Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.