As the war wages on, Kira’s resistance cell is succeeding in messing with things on the station. Meanwhile, Sisko continues to make an impression as a smart tactician and is made part of Admiral Ross’s staff. That leaves Dax in command of the Defiant, which goes off and completes a dangerous mission. Back on the station, our old buddy the female Changeling (Salome Jens) shows up and starts testing Odo’s loyalties once again — and Damar finds a way to disable the minefield keeping Dominion shifts from entering the Alpha Quadrant. Kira sends Rom to sabotage the station and disrupt Damar’s strategy, a plan hinging on Odo’s help. But Odo is too busy linking with the female Changeling at a key moment, allowing Rom to get caught. Kira confronts him as the episode ends, and after she leaves, the female Changeling appears, having heard the whole exchange from the next room. Will Odo be lost to the bad guys forever?

Why it’s important

This is another review where the plot summary describes most of the immediate significance of the episode. But, otherwise, it is actually extremely important in that it’s where Odo is infected by the disease affecting the Great Link, created by a rogue part of Starfleet. Odo apparently unknowingly infected the link with the disease when he was brought to the Founders’ homeworld and stripped of his shapeshifting abilities in “Broken Link”. We’ll get to that in future reviews, of course.

What doesn’t hold up

I suppose I could quibble with the idea that Starfleet would leave a lieutenant commander – one with a non-command specialty – in charge of one of the Federation’s most powerful ships. This is where it would have made sense for Worf to stay on the Defiant (which would have had the side benefit of negating the need for “Sons and Daughters”). But oh, well.

The other question, of course, is whether Odo would have been so likely to be friendly with the Founder after she took away his shapeshifting abilities and whether she would want anything to do with him. The idea that the link (hehe) among the Changelings was very strong was such a core part of the DS9 that I can sort of accept what we see in this episode. But it’s very close to being a stretch.

But I don’t buy that the female Changeling would apparently sit on the information she gets by linking with Odo — to say nothing of what she overheard in his conversation with Kira. The female Changeling should have had Kira arrested, which likely would have prevented the station from falling back into Federation hands two episodes later (for a host of reasons). I guess the idea is the Changelings are above it all and don’t want to get their hands dirty (unless impersonating key Alpha Quadrant figures?). But that’s an easy answer, not to mention a weak one.

You could probably come up with some sort of explanation about how Odo is more important than anything to the Founders to the point where the female Changeling would put keeping his trust above all else. But Odo was sort of out of it at this point, so it’s likely the female Changeling could have had Weyoun do something to Kira without Odo even knowing.

Final thoughts

This is a strong character episode that shows how comfortable the DS9 cast was after five-plus seasons and how much the characters had changed. Compare Sisko, Kira or Odo from season one to this episode and you see a dramatic, and mostly believable, evolution. This was really one of DS9’s strengths, in that it was the series that evolved the most. However, there is one exception …

Terry Farrell, once again, showed that she was the weakest actor in the main ensemble. Her role as the Defiant’s captain in the scene after the successful mission – mirroring Sisko’s action at the beginning of the episode – was just so weak. In early DS9, the Dax character was so inconsistently written – from a higher-plain type in season one to a party girl by season two – that I kind of shrugged off Farrell’s weak performance. But by this point, when all the other actors were really clicking (with the occasional misfire from Avery Brooks) it really stands out.

Finally, the scene where a drunk Quark relays information about Damar’s plan to Kira and her team is one of my favorites of the entire series. It’s a good example of how the Ferengi characters contributed to the DS9 universe (Rom, in this six-episode arc, plays a huge role, too). It’s just unfortunate that there were so many Ferengi-focused episodes throughout DS9 that sucked so hard.

Coming next week …

Shit gets real(er) in the war.

Sisko and Co., chased by Jem’Hadar ships after the events of the previous episode, crash land on an uncharted planet with little hope of rescue. Meanwhile, Kira and Odo are adjusting — too well — to life aboard occupied DS9. After a vedek publicly hangs herself to protest the Dominion sending Vorta facilitators to Bajor, Kira decides to form a new resistance. Back on the planet, Sisko and Co. encounter a group of Jem’Hadar led by an injured Vorta, Keevan (Christopher Shea). The Vorta, who has run out of ketracel white to feed the Jem’Hadar, manipulates Sisko into killing the Jem’Hadar — who know they’re walking into a trap but accept it as part of blind loyalty to the Dominion. Kevan surrenders himself afterward and provides a transmitter our heroes can likely repair and use to escape.

Why it’s important

The events on the planet, while compelling, really aren’t that tapestry worthy. They show how bad and ugly the war is and can get, but we saw a lot of that in “A Time to Stand”.

Events on the station are more important, as Kira’s decision to oppose the Dominion — despite Sisko’s advice in “Call to Arms” — is a key domino going forward. There’s some goofiness with the resistance, as noted below. But the decision to create a resistance cell is significant.

What doesn’t hold up

The big conceit, of course, is that Sisko’s crew would just happen to crash on an uncharted world so close to a Dominion team that did the same thing. Keep in mind that the Jem’Hadar seen here aren’t the ones who were chasing Sisko to start the episode. This was totally random — which is hard to swallow.

Beyond that, it’s weird that the only Bajoran we see consulting Kira here or going forward is the random vedek. Where’s Kai Winn? Where’s First Minister Shakaar? This actually ties into my biggest complaint about the otherwise stellar six-episode arc, so now’s as good as time as any to bring it up …

After Kira forms her resistance cell, it’s made up of Odo, Rom, Leeta and Jake (and Quark, to a point). It makes sense that all of them would be involved — but where the hell are the other Bajorans? It’s just inexplicable that none of the other adult Bajorans on the station — all of whom would have remembered the first Cardassian occupation, which was going on six years prior to this episode — would have opposed a new Cardassian occupation, even if it was kinder and gentler and even if their government was OK with it. By this point in DS9, Bajorans other than Kira, Leeta (sort of) and (later) Kai Winn essentially become red shirts. It’s really a shame, because so much time was used (mostly successfully) early in the series establishing the species.

Final thoughts

This is probably as down and dirty as DS9 got with actual combat episodes, other than “The Siege of AR-558” in the seventh season. It might be Avery Brooks’ best showing as Sisko, as he really does a great job conveying Sisko’s struggle with a very difficult decision. Brooks was probably the most inconsistent actor who played a captain in Star Trek, but he also achieved some of the highest highs, as he did here. For a low, watch his breakdown in the totally overrated “Far Beyond the Stars” or his over-the-top performance in “For the Uniform”.

Nana Visitor also excels in this episode, and the two shots of her looking in the mirror are quite effective. It’s believable that Kira would have adhered to Sisko’s advice up until this point and that she would break with it. Visitor, one of Trek’s most underrated actors, nails it as Kira in this one.

Oh, and faithful readers might wonder if we’re planning to review the entire DS9 war arc that starts the sixth season. The answer, after much thought, is yes. DS9 gets into more episodic fair again soon, but these six episodes are all very significant.

Coming later this week …

Worf continues his work as the galaxy’s worst father.

The war is going very badly for the Federation and Dukat is walking on air back at re-christened Terok Nor, even though the minefield around the wormhole is preventing reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant. The Dominion is keeping the Cardassians from making things too rough on the station and Weyoun gets Odo to take a seat on the station’s ruling council — much to Kira’s worry. Meanwhile, Sisko and Co. are sent on a mission to destroy a Dominion facility that stores the Jem’Hadar’s food (ketracel white) using the Jem’Hadar attack ship Sisko captured back in “The Ship”. They’re successful, but their vessel is badly damaged in the process, and the crew’s ability to return to friendly space is in question as the episode ends.

Why it’s important

As the first episode in the arc that begins DS9’s sixth season, this episode sets a lot in motion, including Sisko’s rise to prominence in Starfleet and his association with Admiral Ross (Barry Jenner), who shows up here for the first time and becomes a recurring character for the rest of the series. The dynamics back on DS9 are more interesting, though, as the feeling clearly is that the Federation is doomed, that Dukat is becoming a major player in interstellar affairs and that Odo’s loyalties will be tested.

That said, it’s interesting that the destruction of the ketracel white facility seems to have such little effect going forward.

What doesn’t hold up

The issue of scope in DS9’s final seasons shows up again. Here, it appears that the entire Dominion/Cardassian war effort is being led by three guys on DS9 (Dukat, Damar, Weyoun). Given that we’re talking about two extremely large space empires, shouldn’t there be more people involved — even a few stray Vorta or Cardassians in meetings? I know the Founders leave the day -to-day to the Vorta, but still.

In early DS9, the stakes were so much smaller that you could kind of buy that a handful of people (usually, the DS9 staff) would be operating independently. But as DS9 took on heavier and more galaxy-shaking topics, it became harder to buy that more people wouldn’t be involved. Really, the creators did the best job with the Klingons on this point — Martok and later Gowron always seemed to have Klingon staff members around — but the Federation and especially the Dominion and the Cardassians seem to be run by so few people. Just wait until we see the Dominion headquarters on Cardassia Prime in a few reviews. Basically, Weyoun and Damar operate out of what barely surpasses a small closet.

Otherwise, it’s odd that it takes Sisko’s staff so long to learn how to run the Jem’Hadar ship. Sisko seemed to know how to operate it when he tried to get it off the planet in “The Ship” and a team led by Kira in the seventh season doesn’t have much trouble operating one without any training. And don’t even get me started on the idea that only two members of a Jem’Hadar ship crew can see what’s going on outside the ship. Please.

Final thoughts

As noted in our last review, the Dukat/Weyoun/Damar scenes really strengthen the mini-arc that begins here. But the Odo/Kira stuff is really strong, too. Given where those two characters have been, what they go through mostly makes sense for where they eventually end up. More on that later.

Coming next week …

Things get really bad. O’Brien tears his pants.