This episode brings back young ensign Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill), last seen in Season Five's 'The First Duty', a story in which she participated in a failed Kolvoord Starburst maneuver that wound up killing a fellow squad member. Even worse, the members of the squad, which at the time also included Wesley Crusher, tried to cover up the reason for their disastrous training maneuver. With Sito potentially up for a promotion aboard the Enterprise, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) found it appropriate to dress her down exceptionally hard over the incident in order to test her resolve. Her direct report, Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) also tested her mettle by frustrating her in a martial arts test to the point of challenging the unfairness of the trial. Both instances toughened her up in the eyes of the officer crew, leading the Captain to assign her to a dangerous mission impersonating a Bajoran prisoner of a Cardassian working undercover as a Federation operative. This was a poignant episode in which the viewer expects a successful mission for the young ensign, even when the escape pod prepared for her proved over thirty hours late in meeting a rendezvous with the Enterprise. Her loss hits her fellow ensigns particularly hard, but even though evidence pointed to her demise on the mission, I thought the story left it questionable enough that she may have survived to return at some point in a future story. At least I like to think so, as I did like the character. My only other reservation with this episode had to do with the civilian character Ben (Bruce Beatty) aboard the Enterprise; why would he have been welcomed to join in on a poker game among the officer crew?
Review of Lower Decks
