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Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10, ‘The Stars at Night,’ Recap & Spoilers
Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10, 'The Stars at Night,' Recap & Spoilers,Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3 ends with the show's most shocking and explosive episode to date. Here is a spoiler-filled Paramount+ recap.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10, ‘The Stars at Night,’ Recap & Spoilers

The following contains spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 3, Episode 10, "The Stars at Night," now streaming on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 3 finale presents the USS Cerritos and its crew with its biggest threat yet, with a sinister enemy that has been manipulating the crew finally revealed as the show takes a break from its usual adult humor. This bold betrayal comes at a time when the Cerritos’ reputation has been publicly disgraced and Beckett Mariner has left Starfleet over suspected misconduct involving a supposed trusted source. However, as the Cerritos fights for the viability of California-class starships, they find themselves in a larger battle to save Starfleet from itself.

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In the face of the disastrous news report about the Cerritos and narrowly being destroyed by the Breen, commanding officer Captain Carol Freeman faces serious questioning by Starfleet Command bwhile her starship undergoes repairs. Freeman is shocked when the admirals decide to shutter the California-class section of the fleet in lieu of recent events, with the newly launched and automated Texas-class inheriting its duties. Though Freeman tries to keep this development a secret as she argues for the continued importance of the Cerritos, the junior officers learn about the news secondhand.

Freeman rejects an administrative role overseeing the Texas-class line and instead challenges Admiral Buenamigo to carry out a series of diplomatic missions around Federation space to prove the California-class vessels' worth. Though Buenamigo’s automated USS Aledo wins the race, Freeman and D’Vana Tendi realize the ship ignored the Prime Directive. When Sam Rutherford reviews data on the Aledo, he discovers that the Texas-class code runs on artificial intelligence he designed and that it was Buenamigo that erased his memory and rewrote his personality.

When Rutherford and Freeman confront Buenamigo, he admits that he set up Freeman for attacking the Pakleds, nearly foiled the diplomatic mission on Deep Space Nine and lured the Cerritos into the Breen ambush. As a cornered Buenamigo activates the rest of the Texas-class starships, they become hostile and turn on him before attacking Spacedock. Rutherford identifies himself to the automated starships as their creator — prompting them to focus their attacks on the Cerritos, which falls back to mitigate further civilian casualties.

While all this is happening, Mariner loves her career change as an archeologically oriented pirate with Petra Aberdeen, but is suspicious about who is funding their activities across the galaxy. Instead of a nefarious figure, Mariner is surprised that Admiral Jean-Luc Picard has personally been financing the two to ensure that precious antiquities are properly preserved. The matter is tabled when Mariner is alerted to the Texas-class starships' attack on the Federation and rushes back to Earth to help the Cerritos.

Boimler convinces Freeman to listen to Shaxs and eject the Cerritos’ warp core at the pursuing Texas-class enemies, destroying all of them but the Aledo, which attacks the defenseless Cerritos. Fortunately, Mariner arrives in the nick of time to save her old ship. The rest of the California-class starships rally behind her to overwhelm and destroy the Aledo and end the automated threat. As the crews celebrate their victory together, Freeman formally reinstates Mariner back into Starfleet while the Cerritos welcomes Vulcan officer T’lyn aboard. They continue their bold mission with renewed relevance as the series cruises toward the upcoming Lower Decks Season 4.

Created by Mike McMahan, the first three seasons of Star Trek: Lower Decks are available to stream in their entirety on Paramount+.