Review: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Among The Lotus Eaters" | Season 2, Episode 4
Pike and Ortegas forget almost everything but still remember what matters
Four episodes into the season—almost at the halfway mark, if anyone wants to get depressed—and we finally get the whole crew together for some space explorin’. Oh sure, they’re actually revisiting a planet the Enterprise has already been to, but that was years ago, before the show started, and if it’s new to us, it counts. (Heck, if you stay on Rigel VII long enough, everything is new to you.) Structurally, this follows a standard Trek template: endangered away team, with chaos back on the ship to prevent any easy answers, complete with a satisfying resolution and lessons learned. You could, if you squint, argue that earlier episodes in the season took bigger risks, fragmenting the ensemble or even removing them entirely, or else slowing the action down for a courtroom drama. “Among the Lotus Eaters” is back on more familiar ground. And, like the bulk of the season so far, it absolutely owns.
I know I keep harping on this, but I am legitimately surprised…