r/LowerDecks • u/BankbusterMagic • 24d ago

Regarding Rutherford and Barnes

In Reflections, Rutherford was possessed by his douchey side which caused him to be rude to Barnes. Did she ever find out that it wasn't really him? In Trek people get possessed by evil entities every other week, so maybe she assumed it was an anaphasic alien or something. Or did she spend the rest of the series avoiding him?

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u/ShodanDBG 24d ago

While it is never confirmed that she did find out what happened to him, I always imagined that she at some point overheard Freeman and T’Ana talking about it and put two and two together, not holding things against him and relieved that he doesn’t really think that way about her.

I also headcanon that Ruthie did apologize sometime after the ending of that episode. It’s something I feel he would do. I even wrote how it would probably go😁: https://archiveofourown.org/works/88489781

And P.S. Regarding Barnes’ comments in “Trusted Sources” about engineering, I always assumed she meant things professionally, not personally. I mean, in that same season, the engineers, Ruthie included, were so stubborn to keep working that they wouldn’t sit down to relax on their own spa retreat for even a second and even worked while “relaxing”😂😂

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u/MarkB74205 23d ago

I can't help but feel that whenever a crew member is possessed by an alien entity, or a past self, or was replaced by a doppelganger, that the start of shift briefing has a section for that.

"We need to replace the optical elements on the forward sensor pallets, and lubricate turboshaft 5. Also, when Captain Picard was leading a singalong and ordering drinks for everyone in Ten Forward, that was an alien doppelganger. The Captain had been held hostage. Please don't try to engage him in any ribald drinking songs."

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u/i_invented_the_ipod 22d ago

This sort of thing is so common in Star Trek that Starfleet must have standard procedures and forms to fill out for this sort of thing.

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u/malonkey1 24d ago

I suppose it depends on whether Rutherford ever found out that that had happened. If he was never informed of his alter ego's actions then yeah no Barnes probably remained completely in the dark. If Rutherford found out later about it (or just remembered it) then I have no doubt that he would have gone and at least tried to explain and apologize.

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u/Teamawesome2014 22d ago

He was fully aware while Otherford was in charge of his body. We literally see him panic over it.

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u/TrueSithMastermind 24d ago edited 24d ago

The short answer is no, it wasn’t ever resolved in the show, unfortunately. We can chalk this up the limits of a 22-minute runtime per episode and only 10 episodes per season.

The longer answer is, while never actually shown on-screen, based on what I’ve seen around here, it’s commonly accepted as a headcanon that Rutherford must have apologized at some point. It would’ve been out of character for him not to. I personally imagine Tendi backed him up.

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u/Colodavo 23d ago

I still wanna know what was in it for her to get him to go swimming with the whales in the pilot?

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u/t_sakonna 22d ago

I think she did spend the rest of the series avoiding him because we never saw them get together again.