Star Trek: Lower Decks isn’t writing out a character.
Star Trek: Lower Decks just wrapped up season four and sent off the season’s storyline in a fairly big way. There was nearly an invasion of rebel ships, departing from their various fleets to form a multi-national, multi-species centric fleet, dubbed Nova Fleet. Thanks to Beckett Mariner, the fleet disbanded at the end of the season and the threat has been, mostly, resolved.
But that wasn’t the only big moment from the season finale, as D’Vana Tendi has seemingly left the U.S.S. Cerritos. She’s returned to Orion to take her place among her family, a notoriously important family on Orioin. It’s expected that she’ll start season five possibly doing some very un-Starfleet-like things, and for those worried this may be the beginning of the end of the bubbly Tendi, fear not.
Speaking to both Inverse and the Mary Sue, Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan has revealed that Tendi isn’t going anywhere, first telling Inverse;
"Tendi will return. Tendi is not being written out of the show… this isn’t a bad thing for Tendi. She is going to go and kick some ass."
And then telling The Mary Sue;
"“Tendi’s been trying to figure out is she Starfleet or is she the Mistress of the Winter Constellations? And, at the end of this episode, she’s like, “No, I’m D’ Vana Tendi. I’m something new that that exists in both. And my sister wants me to come back to Orion. Well, she might’ve bit off a little more than she can chew.”"
Shaking up the status quo may help Star Trek: Lower Decks
The decision to put Tendi back on Orion to star in the fifth season may be the right call long-term. Even though she’ll likely be back on the Cerritos after just a few episodes (if that many), Tendi being sent away will at least shock the status quo enough to provide enough fresh storylines to get through the first few episodes.