Boimler's holodeck simulation of the Cerritos is hijacked by Mariner, who turns it into a feature-film style adventure in which she plays the villain Vindicta.
To prepare for an evaluation with Freeman, Boimler builds a holodeck recreation of the Cerritos and its crew from their logs. Mariner, ordered by her mother to see the ship's counselor, Dr. Migleemo, insists she is fine and instead hijacks the program, recasting it as a Star Trek movie in which she plays the villain Vindicta and slaughters the holographic crew.
Boimler and Rutherford team up with the holograms to stop her, while Tendi walks out, disturbed by what Mariner is doing. Facing a holographic copy of herself forces Mariner to confront her feelings about her mother and Starfleet. Boimler learns from the simulation that Freeman is Mariner's mother and panics through his meeting with the captain. The idea returned in the third season's Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus.