WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, “The Inner Fight.”
If Star Trek: Lower Decks is about to bring a tragic Star Trek: The Next Generation character back from the dead then their former mentor Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) needs to know about it. Lower Decks season 4, episode 9, “The Inner Fight” revealed a connection between Lieutenant junior grade Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), and several minor TNG characters. In a heart-to-heart with a Klingon warrior named Ma’ah (Jon Curry), Mariner revealed that she was close friends with Ensign Sito Jaxa (Shannon Fill), who was killed by the Cardassians in the TNG episode “Lower Decks.”
Mariner’s links to Star Trek: The Next Generation will likely factor into the season 4 finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks. Captured by disgraced Starfleet Academy dropout Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), there’s a sense that Mariner may finally be reunited with Sito. After her death in TNG, there were attempts made to resurrect Sito Jaxa, but they never made it to screen. Mariner’s revelations about her time at the Academy do tease the very real possibility that Sito may be alive after all. If that’s the case, then her former mentor Captain Worf will want to be informed.
Worf Needs To Know If Star Trek: Lower Decks Resurrects Sito Jaxa
In Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Lower Decks”, Lt. Worf suggests Ensign Sito for a promotion to Lieutenant junior grade. While she was a security officer, Worf believed strongly that she would be a valuable addition to the ops team, despite Sito’s own anxieties. When Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) gave Ensign Sito a harsh dressing down for her role in the Nova Squadron conspiracy led by Nick Locarno at Starfleet Academy, Worf gave her the nudge to defend herself. In truth, Worf and Picard were working in tandem to vet Sito for a dangerous mission into Cardassian space – the mission that ultimately claimed her life.
Worf was visibly stricken by the death of Sito, and even mourned her passing with the other Lower Deckers. If she did survive, either in a Cardassian prison or on the run, then Worf may be able to assuage the guilt he clearly felt at the end of “Lower Decks”. By this point in the Star Trek: Lower Decks timeline, Picard has been promoted to Admiral, so Worf is presumably the Captain of the USS Enterprise-E. Therefore, Worf will now be more used to making fateful decisions that risk the lives of his crew and a reunion with a resurrected Sito Jaxa could further embolden him not to give up on the officers that serve under him.
What Sito Jaxa’s Resurrection Would Mean To Star Trek
If Star Trek brings back Ensign Sito then it pays off a long-standing desire of 1990s producers Jeri Taylor and Michael Piller. The Star Trek: The Next Generation character made such an impression during “Lower Decks” that Michael Piller changed his mind about her fate. “Lower Decks” is Mike McMahan’s favorite TNG episode, so it would be interesting to know if he was one of the fans that wrote in to lament Sito’s fate after the episode was broadcast. Ensign Sito’s return in the Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 finale would heighten the dramatic stakes for Mariner, too.
In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4, Mariner has struggled with the pressures of progressing through Starfleet’s ranks, knowing that she’ll soon have to make fateful decisions like that of Worf in “Lower Decks.” Mariner believes that Starfleet has lost its way by engaging in war and espionage, but she also knows it can be better. By sharing her lesson with Locarno, and a potentially resurrected Sito, she could save and redeem two of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s most tragic characters.
Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ season 4 finale streams November 2nd on Paramount+.
