The Biggest Unanswered Questions From Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2

As "Star Trek" finales boldly go, the second season capper for "Lower Decks" was one for the books. In the grand tradition of "Best of Both Worlds," "Redemption," and that one time when it turned out that Guinan was secretly best friends with a dinner theater-level Hal Holbrook, "First Contact" gives audiences hard-hitting plot beats that are hard to ignore, all voiced by a "Comedy Bang! Bang!" clip show's worth of familiar talent.

Most of the drama comes courtesy of the USS Cerritos's new nemeses, the Pakled. If you've been following the mumble-mouthed nogoodniks since their first go-round with Starfleet back in the "TNG" episode "The Samaritan Snare," you already know two things: The simple pleasures of an indoor recess, and that these slothful sons of guns are more treacherous than they appear. Their mean streak was on point during the "Lower Decks" season finale when an apparent scheme to frame Captain Freeman for the destruction of their homeworld landed the commander of the Cerritos in prison, awaiting trial for war crimes. Was the Pakled Planet actually destroyed? Was this the brand of shenanigan that the Klingons were planning to team up with the Pakled to accomplish during "wej Duj?"

Captain Freeman's incarceration was only the main twist in the events of "First Contact." Ensign Rutherford, the ship's chipper cyborg, uncovered another layer of intrigue in his backstory during a mandatory memory dump. As month after month of redundant video and audio files were erased from his system, the engineering greenhorn accidentally witnessed a fat load of shadowy backstory hidden in the annals of his implant. Upsettingly, the news that he uncovered involved enigmatic figures apparently fitting him with his distinctive cybernetics some time ago, all while chatting it up about how their patient would remember the procedure as a voluntary one. Insidious? Totally, and not a little creepy. The whole thing has Section 31's carefully wiped-down fingerprints all over it, but we'll have to wait for season three to know for sure exactly what's going on.

The biggest question, though? The one eclipsing the nature of Rutherford's mind and the fate of Captain Freeman?

Is Boimler going to get credit for making those flawless Captain Freeman Day banners?