I found this season finale to be...disappointing to say the least. It's basically the same problem I had with "Strange New Worlds"-ie season long problems or major developments get resolved ridiculously fast with almost no consequence. And major character plots that COULD easily be mined for material over the course of multiple episodes or seasons quickly get resolved to an unsatisfying degree. And as the title of this review suggests, they "hit the reset button". Basically undoing any significant character development.
At the end of the season premiere Captain Freeman assigned Ransom to look over Mariner, essentially forcing her to be in the Bridge Officer program, but with the added threat of being booted off the ship if she screws up. Then halfway through the season, we're introduced to Petra Aberdeen, a rogue Archeologist who gives Mariner an Out- more or less a job offer if she ever got tired of Starfleet. Which Mariner immediately takes up after that highly contrived 9th episode.
At face value, I have no problem with this plot development, it could be interesting to see how the Cerritos and her crew would fair without Mariner there for few episodes or maybe an entire season, and occasionally check up on her in her new life, then slowly work on her somehow rejoining Starfleet. Maybe build on Petra's character a bit.
They do that...for like 5 minutes. It's like the showrunners were tripping over themselves to get Mariner back to the Cerritos and ditch Petra as quickly as possible.
The season finale ends with Mariner STILL not wanting to move up in rank (which has been her M. O. since season 1), but now she actually volunteered to be placed under Cmdr. Ransom again. But this time without the threat of being tossed off the ship. So, it's the same situation Mariner started the season with, but completely defanged of consequences.
As for Mariner's relationship with Jennifer, it's up in the air at this point. Given how they didn't even have a scene together after Mariner rejoined the Cerritos, and practically forgave everyone else on the ship except Jennifer. So, their relationship is effective reset back to how it was in season one-ie nonexistent. She's effectively back to being just another background character like Barnes & Jet. That's a rant for later**
Tendi is arguably doing the same type of work she has been doing for the past two seasons, just in a different Science department. The issue is that Dr. Migleemo is kind of an idiot. While he does have some good advice, it's mostly textbook fluff, with no real world weight behind his words, which is the exact opposite of Dr. T'Ana. So, Tendi still has to rely on Dr. T'Ana to be her true mentor. So, it's more like a lateral move for Tendi, but with an extra step.
Biomler had arguably the least amount of growth, the only significant thing about him is this "Bold Biomler" phase he's going through. However, the big moment he had at the climax of the episode, with Shax ejecting the Warp Core, has nothing to do with it. It's the same with thing Biomler does at least once per season, like "Temporal Edict", "Veritas", and "No Small Parts" in season one; "Strange Energies" and "First Contact" in season two. It's just what he does every season.
Then there's Rutherford, who simultaneously had the most development, and the biggest regression. In season one he just thought his cybernetics were a cool & useful tool, and didn't put much thought behind it. Then at the end of season two they hinted at some earthshaking conspiracy behind his implants. And this season he finds out his implant's true intentions and the badguy behind it all is conveniently killed off, effectively ending Rutherford's most important plot thread. And after all that, it's just another day, all it's significance disappeared as soon Buenoamigo & Texas class ships get destroyed. Rutherford goes back treating his implants like no big deal because it's still useful & cool, basically how his character was back in season one.
The only significant thing that happened is that T'Lyn, the fan favorite character from season two, finally joined the Cerritos, and that was in the last 2 minutes of the episode. And as much I love her character, her role next season is questionable-will she be a legitimate part of the main cast or just another reoccurring background character like Barnes, Jet, or Jennifer?
Now to my Jennifer rant**
Jennifer's character was incredibly short changed. First she was created to be a one note background character like Barnes or Jet. Then suddenly Jen gets setup to be Mariner's Deus Ex Machina in the season two finale, by saving her from being spaced. Then in season three she's setup to be Mariner's girlfriend only to symbolize how good Mariner's life was on the Cerritos AND how far she's fallen in "Trusted Sources". So, she only existed for cheap drama.
Jennifer unfortunately was never meant to be more than a plot device for Mariner, that became especially clear when Jennifer & Mariner never had a follow up scene in the season finale when Mariner was doling out forgiveness like it was Free Sample Day at the supermarket, purposely excluded Jennifer.
According to an Interview that YouTuber Jessie Gender did with Lower Decks creator, Mike McMahan, that is indeed WHY Mariner & Jennifer were allowed to have a relationship in season three. Which makes the whole relationship come off as incredibly cheap and disingenuous. It retroactively makes me kinda hate "Hear All, Trust Nothing", and I actually loved that episode the most out of this entire season. Just thinking that the whole B-plot of that episode existed for the sole purpose of quickly selling their relationship, so that it can artificially boost some contrived drama three episodes later actually pisses me off.
The fact that the showrunners have said that romantic relationships will never be a focus of this series, and yet when they somehow let Mariner x Jennifer become a thing was highly suspicious from the get-go, especially since EVERY romantic relationship featured on the show has been played off as a joke or a one-off plot device not meant to go anywhere beyond one episode.
If this show didn't haphazardly reset the status quo, I'd actually be excited about next season. But at this point, the only thing I'm looking forward to is T'Lyn and maybe whatever they're doing with Badgey-though I'm pretty sure they'll somehow drop the ball on that too.
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