[Loved Trope] The one random episode that doesn't follow the main characters

[u/BagOfSmallerBags]

Heated Rivalry Episode 3 "Hunter": The show stops following Hollander and Rozanov's love story to follow another hockey player, Scott Hunter, and his romance with a smoothie store employee.

The Last of Us S1E3 "Long Long Time": Joel and Ellie need a car. So to explain why there's a car waiting around for them to use, they show us an incredibly heartbreaking love story lasting 20 years between two men Joel knows. They have a car.

Doctor Who S3E10 "Blink": With no explanation given, this episode begins with a character we've never met, one Sally Sparrow, poking around an abandoned building. Our lead character, The Doctor, is glimpsed seemingly randomly on TVs. What is going on? Did that statue just move!?

MythicQuest S1E5 "A Dark Quiet Death": Rather than continuing to follow our lead characters as they develop an MMORPG, we flash back many years to witness the history of a couple who start a videogame company, and how over the years the pressure to drive sales causes them to give up on their artistic integrity.

[u/Giant_Enemy_Cliche]

Lower Decks is the first star trek in like 20 years to not be embarrassed about being star trek.

[u/Drsits → u/Giant_Enemy_Cliche]

And it was STOLEN FROM US.

[u/DamnitGravity → u/Drsits]

I dunno, as much as I would've liked another season or two, at the same time, it's kinda nice that it ended where it did, on a high and very strong, rather than getting lower and lower quality as time went on and they ran out of ideas.

Also, they tied together so many different stories and plotlines in that final season, picking up threads that were deliberately left a few seasons earlier.

I'd rather it end early and good than long and meh, or worse, bad.