3-21. The Die Is Cast.

Garak interrogates Odo.

THE PLOT

Garak has joined his old mentor, Enabran Tain (Paul Dooley), as Tain prepares to launch a first strike against the Dominion. Tain's plan is to attack the Founders' home world, eliminating them as a threat. The drug dependency used to control the Jem'Hadar will then neutralize them, as they will die within weeks of the Founders' destruction. This will remove the Dominion threat and, on a more personal level, provide Tain with a path back to power and Garak with an opportunity to take revenge on his old enemies in the Cardassian Empire.

This does, however, leave Odo as a prisoner on Tain's ship. Tain, for his part, requires a show of loyalty from Garak. A vigorous interrogation of Odo, with use of a stasis field to disable his shapeshifting abilities and make him vulnerable to torture!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Even under orders to stay at the station and take no action regarding the Cardassian/Romulan fleet, he will not simply sit by while one of his officers is taken into a war zone. He disregards orders and takes the Defiant through the wormhole to rescue Odo. When this takes him directly into combat, he is very ready for it - though as soon as the constable and Garak are rescued, he is equally ready to get away as quickly as possible.

Odo: Rene Auberjonois gets a great scene, as Odo is interrogated by Garak. He never displays any fear, even as the Cardassian stasis field keeps him from reverting to his liquid state, leaving him a dried out husk with skin literally peeling away. As Odo stands there, a living wreck, he continues to batter Garak with his observations, recognizing that this is far from the return to glory the Cardassian had dreamt of.

Dr. Bashir: The teaser sees Bashir attempting to have lunch with his other best friend, Chief O'Brien. Bashir expounds on theatre, while O'Brien basically ignores him and eats. The doctor's frustration at his failed attempt to replicate his lunches with Garak is very funny, and this brief interaction shows just how important Bashir's friendship with Garak is to him - as important in its own way as his friendship with O'Brien.

Commander Eddington: I'd completely forgotten about Eddington. I think the writers had, too. Much was made of his introduction, but he's gone not only unseen, but entirely unmentioned in the twenty episodes since. Given that he was placed in charge of Starfleet security on the station, I'd have thought he'd at least receive some mention in some of the intervening episodes. As it stands, it took me a moment to remember who this extra character was. "Odo's my friend, too," he insists - but since these two characters have shared no screen time since Eddington's appointment, we can't even judge this statement as a lie. A rare missed opportunity for this series, as it keeps any of the character's actions in this episode from having any resonance at all.

Garak: "Do you know what the sad part is, Odo? I'm a very good tailor." Back in his old role as Enabran Tain's right hand, Garak finds he has no taste for the job anymore. Some of this is down to Tain, whose orders are immediately too ruthless. He talks of eliminating his housekeeper, the very woman who pleaded with Garak to help Tain just one episode ago. He orders Garak to interrogate Odo, refusing to accept Garak's belief that Odo has nothing to tell. It's no surprise that the episode ends with Garak back at his tailor's shop - but he's emotionally in a very different place, which will hopefully result in further developments down the line.


THOUGHTS

A rare case of Part Two being even better than Part One. The Die Is Cast picks up on the idea of Enabran Tain's first strike against the Dominion. What's interesting is that all of the Alpha Quadrant governments have the same basic idea: To sit back and wait, not dirty their hands on this "rogue operation," but hope for its success just the same. This approach defines not only the Cardassians and the Romulans, but also Starfleet. "I never hope for war," a Starfleet official tells Sisko, "but if it comes, I want the Dominion to be on the losing side."

The Garak scenes are predictably the best in the show. Put back in a position of power, Garak finds that his ability to lie with absolute smoothness only goes so far. It's clear from the start that he's trying to protect Odo - but it's also clear to Tain and the Romulan captain, and Garak is forced to do what he least wants: torture someone he might have considered a friend.

The scene in which Garak interrogates Odo is the episode's strongest, with Rene Auberjonois and Andrew Robinson both outstanding. I particularly like the way writer Ronald D. Moore's script keeps each character determined to betray no sign of weakness. Garak is silky, charming, and utterly terrifying as he presses Odo for answers. Odo, in turn, is defiant, spitting sarcasm back at Garak even under torture. Both characters do give, just a little: Garak, practically whispering in Odo's ear as he begs the shapeshifter to say something - "lie if you have to!" - and Odo confiding his desire to join his people's Great Link. It is only when Garak shuts off the field, though, that they show their weakness: Odo returning to liquid form, Garak allowing himself to bury his head in his hands in exhaustion and self-disgust.

This is an episode which should have far-reaching consequences. The Dominion has been a background threat throughout the season - frequently mentioned, but largely passive save for a single attempt to get Odo to join them. Now they have been officially engaged, which should make them a more active threat. At the same time, this should cause a shift in the Cardassians' internal balance of power, which might be rather interesting to see. Whatever the case, I look forward to seeing the fallout from this - doubtless around the season's end.

The best episode of the season, and one which promises much to come as the series continues.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: Improbable Cause

Next Episode: Explorers

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3-20. Improbable Cause.

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3-09. Defiant.

Commander William Riker (Jonathan
Frakes) - or so it appears...

THE PLOT

The station gets an unexpected visitor: Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Forced by Dr. Crusher to take some long-overdue vacation time, Riker has stopped by Deep Space 9 on his way to Risa. He quickly bonds with Kira, who responds well to his warmth and confidence. Kira gives him a tour of the station and of its new starship, the Defiant.

...Which is when everything suddenly turns upside-down. Riker turns his phaser on Kira, stunning her. He creates a fake warp core breach so that Sisko will let him get clear of the station, then takes the ship into warp. It isn't long before Sisko discovers that his visitor wasn't Will Riker at all. It was Thomas Riker, Will's clone from a transporter accident. Now a member of the Maquis, Tom is taking the cloaked and heavily-armed Defiant direct into Cardassian space - leaving Sisko no choice but to partner with Starfleet's one-time enemies to stop him!


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: The relationship between Sisko and Dukat is an increasingly fascinating one. They are not friends, and with the backstory of this series they never could be. But in many ways, they are reflections of each other. Both fathers, who share a moment in this episode discussing the challenges of balancing military careers with raising young children. Both frequently at odds with their own governments, Sisko frustrated at Starfleet's inaction regarding Cardassia's treaty breaches, Dukat frustrated at the secretiveness of the Obsidian Order. Sisko has a moral center that Dukat lacks... but I think it's a very small and thin shade of gray that separates them. As in The Maquis, you can see Sisko recognizing a lot of himself in his Cardassian counterpart, and not necessarily finding comfort in that.

Major Kira: Draws a distinction between her own background fighting the Cardassians and what Thomas is doing now. She fought the Cardassians because they invaded her home, while she sees no similar justification for Tom. "You don't live in the demilitarized zone," she spits at him, adding that his actions will lead to more deaths than if he had simply done nothing. She criticizes his tactics, recognizing them not as those of a terrorist but rather those of a Starfleet officer. For all of that, she sympathizes with his intentions, closing the episode with a promise to get him out of the Cardassian labor camp... though as I don't believe that Frakes guest starred again, I'm guessing that promise goes unrealized.

Thomas Riker: Seems driven by a couple of forces. As Kira recognizes, he is determined to distinguish himself from Will Riker. At one point, he dismisses a prudent course of action, stating that while it may be "what Will Riker would do," it's not what he's going to do. There is genuine moral outrage also at work, however. He is clearly appalled that Federation citizens are dying and that Starfleet is doing nothing to stop it. His theft of the Defiant has a clear goal, and the ending seems to prove him right. Jonathan Frakes is very good playing the angry, slightly embittered Thomas - quite a contrast with the off-putting stiffness of his early scenes in this episode (probably intentional, to show Thomas' discomfort passing himself off as Will).

Gul Dukat: This episode sees him once again put at odds with forces within his own government. We've already had indications that he isn't fully trusted by Cardassia. Now we see him making enemies out of the Obsidian Order as a whole. At the same time, Dukat has to be building up some resentment from the repeated shows of disrespect. Here, we see the Obsidian Order representative praising Sisko's strategic sense - in such a way as to make it clear that her real goal is to put Dukat in his place. I have the feeling that all these insults are things a man like Dukat will not forget, and certainly will not forgive.


THOUGHTS

It's been a fair while since The Maquis introduced the guerrilla conflict against the Cardassians. That strand was quickly sidelined with the introduction of the Dominion, and it is only now that it finally gets followed up (probably at least in part to refresh that strand for the debut of Voyager). As with The Maquis, the script prominently pairs Sisko and Gul Dukat. Add in that it's a script by Ronald D. Moore, and it's little surprise that the resulting episode is a good one.

It's a tight, fast-paced piece. Moore reveals Tom Riker and has him steal the Defiant by the end of the first Act, leaving the bulk of the show for the chase. Of course, there's no budget for a true action piece. Instead, we get a strong character piece that doubles as an effective strategic thriller. The structure of the episode cuts between two pairs of characters: Sisko and Dukat, Tom Riker and Kira. We see them reasoning against each other, and it's made clear that both character sets are formidable. Nobody among our four leads does anything glaringly stupid. Tom loses because the odds against him are such that he can't possibly win - and even there, Sisko's compromise with Dukat means that his act probably wasn't in vain.

It's a well-directed episode, with plenty of atmosphere gained from tight compositions and smart lighting choices. Deep Space 9 is the darkest Star Trek show, in lighting terms as well as tone. Floodlit sets are a rarity. Instead, this series plays with shadows and tinted lights. Characters converse in tight frames, usually with one character in the background of the other so that you see both faces during urgent conversations. Even in a large set, there is claustrophobia in those tight frames, and with reason - Sisko and Dukat are effectively conspiring out of earshot of Obsidian Order forces in the same room as them, while Kira is pushing Tom to look at his own demons and motives. The production choices and script feed each other, making for a polished and effective end product.


Overall Rating: 8/10

Previous Episode: Meridian

Next Episode: Fascination

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3-05. Second Skin.

Kira as a Cardassian.

"Treason, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder."
-Garak, the most consistently quotable character in the whole Trek universe.


THE PLOT

Kira is contacted by a Bajoran scholar, who is researching a Cardassian prison camp from the Occupation. Cardassian records show that Kira was an inmate there - something she has no recollection of. She assumes a records glitch, until she contacts the sole survivor from that week. When the man confirms that Kira was with him at the prison, she decides to go to the prison's visitor's center to investigate. Are the records mistaken, or was something done to her memory?

She never reaches her destination. When she awakens, she is not on Bajor, but on Cardassia. She is told that she has been working undercover for the Obsidian Order, a ten-year mission in which her memories were altered along with her appearance, to make her an undetectable agent within the Bajoran resistance. It goes without saying that Kira doesn't believe a word. But if this is a deception, what could the Cardassians possibly hope to gain from it?


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: When he receives information that Kira is being held by the Obsidian Order, he doesn't dither around with Starfleet channels. I don't think he has any remaining faith in Starfleet's ability to act decisively. Instead, he goes straight to Garak, directly extorting the tailor/spy for his help. When Garak calls him on the extortion, Sisko barely hesitates in acknowledging it.  He doesn't even blink as he fixes Garak with a glare that makes sure the Cardassian knows that he is not bluffing.

Major Kira: It's been said that if a lie is simply repeated often enough, in the absence of the truth a person will believe the lie. Without rushing to any real-life examples, Kira's reactions to her situation are a disturbing example of this. She spends most of the episode stubbornly refusing to buy into her new Cardassian identity. The Obsidian Order never comes close to convincing her. But the decent Legate Ghemor (Lawrence Pressman), her counterpart's father, is so consistently good to her over the course of the episode that his gentleness makes her doubt. She never fully buys into the lie - Kira's simply too smart and too stubborn to stay broken long - but she does have a moment in which she seems to believe the lie more than the truth. Only when all the pieces finally come together does she realize what the Obsidian Order's actual agenda is. At that point, she figures it out very quickly - but still too late, had she been left entirely to her own devices.

Garak: Practically seems like a regular by this point. Even though he really hasn't been in that many episodes (even this season, he's only at two appearances out of five shows), he just makes such a strong impression every time he turns up. Here, we get more hints about his past.  It's indicated that he stays on Deep Space 9 because it is the only place he is safe. Julian jokingly wonders if the Obsidian Order would have him killed if he left the station. From the way Sisko blackmails Garak into assisting with the rescue, I'd say that's not far from the truth. The episode ends with a warning about Garak, from the honorable Legate Ghemor to Kira: "Don't trust him, Nerys, ever! He's a dangerous man, and he'd betray you and all your friends in an instant if he thought it would help him."

Cardassians: We continue to see how fragmented Cardassian society is. All the power is concentrated in the hands of the Obsidian Order and the Central Command. One senses that the Order would as soon see that balance shift firmly in its own direction. With dissidents clearly gaining some influential friends among Cardassian society, it is clear that something major will have to happen on Cardassia before the series runs its course. Either the dissidents will succeed in pushing for a more open society, or the Obsidian Order will clamp down harder on its own people - with a civil war seeming an almost certain result.


THOUGHTS

A Kira-centric episode, focused on the Cardassian Occupation, with a script by Robert Hewitt Wolfe (In the Hands of the Prophets, The Wire, The Collaborator, among others). The question was never whether Second Skin would be good. It was merely a question of how good it would be.

With a strong script and typically dynamic direction by Les Landau, the answer is: Very good indeed. The teleplay wisely doesn't overplay the question of whether or not Kira is a Cardassian spy. Obviously, she's not (heck, we've already seen that her mirror universe counterpart is a Bajoran). Instead, the episode plays with the question of why this game is being played on her. The result allows Nana Visitor to give a typically emotional performance, all without sacrificing Kira's inherent intelligence and wariness. The answers, when they come, fit perfectly with what we've seen and with what we've heard of the Obsidian Order in earlier episodes, making for a tidy structure.

Legate Ghemor (Lawrence Pressman) and his actual daughter show us a different Cardassian face than what we've normally encountered. Ghemor is, in Kira's words, "an honorable man," and clearly an excellent father as well. When Kira views the recording the real Iliana made prior to her assignment, she sees an earnest young woman, committed to doing what is right to stop the "terrorism on Bajor." Clearly, the terrorism and violence occurring on the occupied world were used by the Cardassian government to "sell" the Occupation back home. Though Iliana clearly bought that line completely, that makes her merely young, earnest, and naive. In her determination to simply make her parents proud of her, and her worries over her parents' reactions to her choice, she is instantly relatable even though we only see that one brief clip of her. It would be interesting to revisit this thread, to see what became of the real Iliana.

The episode falls short of full marks for two reasons. The set-up is unnecessarily convoluted. It would have been sufficient to have opened with Kira on Cardassia, with scenes on the station telling us that she had disappeared on Bajor. The "Kira's memory" bit does little except delay the real meat of the episode. Also, the timing of the rescue ends up being far too convenient to be entirely plausible. These aren't big issues - the opening is actually fairly well done, even intriguing, and credibility issues with the rescue are quickly glossed over when Garak begins being massively entertaining. But Deep Space 9 has set the bar pretty high for "full marks" episodes. Though still an excellent episode, this falls just short of that mark, leaving it with a still-strong:


Overall Rating: 9/10

Previous Episode: Equilibrium

Next Episode: The Abandoned

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2-22. The Wire.

Garak lashes out at Dr. Bashir.

THE PLOT

Garak is unwell. He's uncharacteristically short-tempered, his skin is clammy, and he is having regular headaches. Despite this, he resists Dr. Bashir's attempts to get him to the infirmary for a check up. Instead, he goes to Quark, making clandestine arrangements for a secret piece of Cardassian biotech - so secret that not even Quark's contacts will be able to obtain it.

When Garak collapses, Bashir discovers there is an implant inside Garak's head, connected to his entire central nervous system. He confronts Garak, who confesses that the implant was put there by the Obsidian Order, the Cardassian secret police. It was designed to make Garak immune to torture, by increasing his body's production of endorphins. Pain literally becomes pleasure. But the device "was never designed for continuous use," Garak tells Bashir. Finding his exile to the Bajoran-controlled Deep Space 9 to be a living torture, Garak simply switched the device on and left it run. Now it is malfunctioning, and Garak insists that there is nothing Bashir can do to help him...


CHARACTERS

Commander Sisko: Barely present, though he does amusingly describe his yelling at an admiral (from the previous episode, perhaps?) as expressing his opinion, "loudly."

Dr. Bashir: After being an insufferably boor for the bulk of the first season, Dr. Bashir has grown into a strong character in Season Two. This episode gives him a particularly meaty role, showcasing his dedication to his patients and the strength of his friendship. He refuses to allow Garak to push him away, either when Garak tells him the most brutal version of his story or when he physically assaults him. He also refuses to allow Odo to intimidate him into questioning Garak while he's still in critical condition. By the end, Bashir knows that he hasn't learned much about Garak, with the connection to the Obsidian Order probably being the only new information truly confirmed. But he seems willing to accept the subterfuge and contradictions as simply part and parcel of a friendship with Garak.

Quark: Gleeful at the prospect of making the elusive Garak into one of his clients, and perhaps at the idea of repaying Garak for his mercy. Whether hoping for future business, repaying a personal debt, or a bit of both, Quark does his very best to assist Garak - though when the words, "Obsidian Order" are mentioned by his Cardassian contact, his self-preservation instincts kick in very, very quickly.

Garak: Garak hasn't actually been in very many episodes, with this being his fourth appearance in more than 40 shows, but he already feels like an integral part of the show. Between the shaded writing of the character and the performance by Andrew Robinson, which I think may be the very best work of Robinson's long career, he is a character who is as fascinatingly complex as he is fun to watch. We learn a lot about Garak's past in this episode... though most of it contradicts itself.

Garak was exiled in disgrace to Deep Space 9, after having been a powerful figure within the Obsidian Order. That much we know for sure. We don't know which of Garak's other stories are true, though - the one in which he was exiled for showing mercy, or the one in which he was exiled for being relentlessly merciless. It seems entirely possible that both incidents he related are true, and simply occurred on different occasions. It is certain, however, that Garak was an influential figure, and that his existence has not simply been forgotten back on the home to which he can never return. I look forward to his next appearance, though I'm guessing that won't occur until next season.


THOUGHTS

"My dear doctor, (the stories are) all true... especially the lies." The odd, mistrustful friendship between Garak and Bashir is the focus of this episode. After the teaser, the episode begins with Dax observing that Bashir and Garak aren't really friends, they simply have lunch together once a week. The episode then moves on to firmly establish that Bashir's friendship with Garak is genuine. Bashir may not truly know Garak, with even the end leaving him (and us) with a mass of contradictions.

Though a Garak-centered episode is always good news, The Wire is a particularly fine show. It's a character-centered episode that doesn't feel the need to graft on some extra, external threat to the station. This story is about the relationship between Bashir and Garak, and the contradictions of Garak's past. There's no looming military threat tenuously tied to Garak's implant. It's all character-centric, and remains that way. It's a very tightly-focused episode as a result, and that focus combines with excellent acting by Andrew Robinson and Siddig El-Fadil to make this one of the best of the season.

It's also an expertly-structured script, with the stakes rising steadily throughout. Bashir overcomes the barriers Garak throws in front of him, only to encounter new barriers due to the lack of medical information about Cardassians. Given that we've seen him treat Cardassians before, I'd have thought he'd have developed a lot of that information by now - but the episode's so good that I'm more than willing to let that slide. Bashir's commitment is tested at every point. He must overcome Garak's resistance, he must face down Odo at one point. Finally, he is forced to go to Cardassian space to confront a particularly infamous Cardassian (wonderfully played by Paul Dooley). And even at the end, neither he nor we know what crimes Garak is truly guilty of.

Dooley's cameo, by the way, is yet another instance in which Deep Space 9 has lured terrific character actors into its fold. All the Trek shows have had snared strong guest stars, probably a tribue to the franchise's iconic status even when it was in its dying days. But Deep Space 9 seems to get this calibre of actor more regularly than other Trek shows, and gets more out of their casting as well. I can't help but think that the show's consistently fine character writing - which far outstrips that of any other Trek, at any point in the franchise's history - probably has something to do with that.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: The Maquis

Next Episode: Crossover

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