The Lower Decks ending received some additions when the reality of its ending kicked in.

Lower coversThis week’s grand finale was less of a goodbye and more of a reminder that chapters begin and end in trip to the stars all the time, but it still took a while for the cast and crew behind the show to really accept that season five was going to be the last. That process was apparently reflected in early drafts of the final episode, which didn’t really feel “final” at all… until realizations began to sink in.

“Doing that episode was really interesting. It felt like there was a little bit of like, ‘Is this it? In fact end?’ Because we keep re-recording it. Mike (McMahan, Lower covers‘ showrunner) kept rewriting it,” Tawny Newsome, who played Beckett Mariner on the show, recently said. Variety. According to the actress, early footage for the final episode, “The New Next Generation,” did not include Mariner’s climactic reflection on how far she and her friends have come in their years together aboard the ship. Cerritos.

“I remember the first time I recorded the episode ago, you know, 13 months ago or whenever, the bar scene didn’t exist. I remember saying in the session, ‘If this is the end, we’re not going to end up with a big send,’” Newsome continued. “It just felt like the end of a season. I think there was a little (feeling) like, ‘Well, maybe it’s not, so maybe we’re just not going to end up that way.'”

Unfortunately, the closer one came to the realization that this would be the case, the more material was written to give Lower covers a more solid farewell. But, as Newsome also points out, Lower covers he does not definitively close the books on himself. in a proper way trip to the stars-ian, the final message of the show is that these adventures will continue, regardless of whether we get to see them or not. “Mike wrote that really lovely speech for Mariner at the end and I was like, ‘Okay, this sounds like an appropriate speech to me.’ pause to history. It’s the end of a chapter,’” Newsome concluded. “I could go on. But I was glad he gave us a little button, in case it’s the last we see of them.”

Part of that send-off, of course, is that the finale concludes with Mariner and Boimler getting a promotion, acting as shared candidates for First Officer under the Cerritos‘The newly appointed Captain Ransom. “It’s a perfect harmony to have them share this position,” Newsome added of the ending. “We’re a true duo, so giving us a shared role at the end, one that Boimer has been dreaming of forever and one that Mariner has resisted for so long, feels like a pretty touching move.”

Fingers crossed this won’t be the last time we see them, but what if it is? It’s a great way to get the show out. Star Trek: Lower Decks is now streaming in its entirety on Paramount+.

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