OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)While investigating the mysterious disappearance of the Lapeerians, the Cerritos crew bring on ambassadors from their sister planet Laapoonia.OUR TAKEHuh, last issue had almost no Tendi to speak of, but while she gets considerable focus this time, Mariner and Rutherford have basically vanished. Who will get the temporary metaphorical axe next time?! Anywho, we’re now two parts deep into this six part arc and we meet the sister species of the Lapeerians, the Laapoonians. Within the show, the Lapeerians appeared in “First First Contact”, the second season finale of Lower Decks, and were portrayed as basically green lizard people, though with not much more distinct about them culturally. Wherever the hell they went is something that we probably won’t know for at least a couple more issues, but in the meantime, the Laapoonians seem basically the same, aside from having a more varied color pallet, with some darker greens on some and shades of blue on others. Also they apparently really like to party, as some rage hard in Cetacean Ops, but paradoxically they also have a nearly religious obsession for Vulcans and their logical philosophy, as T’Lyn finds out when the crowd can’t get enough of her. As for the other two present main Lower Deckers, Tendi finds herself desperately trying to compete with T’Lyn in importance, even going so far as to paint her eyebrows to look more Vulcan, while Boimler tries weaseling himself into being Ransom’s right hand man, to predictably bad results.While none of these things are necessarily bad on their own, it’s a similar issue that I had with last issue’s plots for Boimler and Rutherford making that android and Mariner avoiding the dentist bot. They all just feel like “stuff to do” sort of plots instead of being about character development or even giving them at least something INTERESTING to do. Instead of doing something with his unique skill set to try and help the investigation, Boimler’s just undercutting fellow officers to try and get ahead, which seems uncharacteristically malicious of Boimler. Meanwhile, Tendi and T’Lyn’s plot is at least more consistent for them and more connected to the current problem of the disappearance, but we actually already saw a Tendi and T’Lyn competition plot in the show itself (that takes place chronologically AFTER this) and that was a lot more nuanced and interesting. And then there’s Captain Freeman dealing with rowdy aliens that also feels just kinda flat and overly comedic with a weirdly flat resolution. That’s two issues into this arc that have felt weaker than the previous twelve issues we’ve gotten, but there’s a decent cliffhanger at the end that may get us closer to answers, so we’ll see where that takes us as we continue this arc in 2026.