Deep Space Nine 7x19 "Strange Bedfellows"

rating: ***

the story: Damar decides enough is enough and defects from the Dominion.

what it's all about: With all the heavy serialization, each episode in the final ten-hour arc needs to have a definitive character moment to stand out, and, well, as my summary above suggests, "Strange Bedfellows" is Damar finally coming into his own. 

Damar was a character who first showed up in the fourth season, a seemingly unimportant ally of Dukat's in "Return to Grace" who kept appearing, a little like Martok, until he became indispensable.  When he took over for Dukat as the lead Cardassian in the Dominion, he was a familiar presence, but gradually this strangely reticent Cardassian turned out to be the rare Cardassian who cared more for the fate of his people than his grandiose ego (even beloved Garak was always more concerned about his own fortunes).

It was a subtle arc.  He was shown drinking.  We'd seen Garak use elaborate coping mechanisms, so that wasn't out of character for a Cardassian.  But the drinking got a little out of control, and finally in "Bedfellows" he realizes that the Dominion doesn't care about the Cardassians at all.  He becomes the ultimate incarnation of the sympathetic Cardassian the series had been searching for all along, since "Duet" in the first season, someone who finally takes a definitive stand for the sake of justice, regardless of whether or not it's for his own people. 

There's a bunch of other stuff going on, too, but this is the plot thread with the most weight to it, and the most significance.  Competing with it, on any level, is the continuing crisis of faith from Kai Winn, who's dealing with the mysterious Bajoran (who's really Dukat) and whether or not it's the Pah Wraiths rather than Prophets who've come whispering in her ear.  It's the clearest parallel to Damar's story: Damar chooses to do the selfless thing, and Winn one last time decides to be selfish...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Yes, it's a version of the classic defector scenario (see Next Generation's..."The Defector"), but without a conclusion in the episode itself I wonder how much casual fans will care.
• series - Regardless, Deep Space Nine fans will eat it up.
• character - Damar finally commands the spotlight.
• essential - Which proves important through the end of the series.

notable guest-stars:
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 7x18 "'Til Death Do Us Part"

rating: ***

the story: Dukat enacts a deception against Kai Winn, posing as a simple Bajoran farmer to gain her trust.

what it's all about: Putting aside Kasidy and Sisko dealing with last episode's engagement and this episode's wedding, and all the angst therein between, given how the Prophets don't think it's in Sisko's best interests...The real meat of this episode is the beginning of the Dukat/Winn arc in the final arc of the series, which is possibly the most fascinating thing either character ever got to do.

Winn was a character who never gave much room for sympathy, from her first appearance in the first season finale "In the Hands of the Prophets" to her most callous and selfish moment in the third season's "Life Support," really it was only in the previous season's "The Reckoning," the first time she crossed paths with the Pah Wraiths, where Winn might have found some.  In that episode she was finally and at last presented with something that she couldn't muscle beneath her.  So it's ironic that it's the Pah Wraiths, or perhaps appropriate, that put her in such a position again.

With Dukat, this was a character who'd struggled to find his footing from the very start, and with him it's not really worth referencing a first appearance or any particular subsequent one, because he was always being thrown off-kilter.  It was only when he embraced his role as the Emissary of the Pah Wraiths that Dukat regained the confidence he'd once had as commander of Terok Nor (the name of the station when it was still under Cardassian control).

What made Winn so ironic was that she was the main representative of the Bajorans, a hugely religious people, and yet she was never particular religious.  No, she was the consummate politician, so caught up in her ambition that it never occurred to take her faith seriously except as a stepping stone ("kai" is akin to the Catholic pope, by the way!); at one point she was also First Minister, but she lost that position in the third season.

So she never realized how important the Prophets were to her until she finally had her first vision. Or so she thought.  Really, it was a deception cooked up by Dukat and the Pah Wraiths, one of the most brilliant maneuvers, really, ever featured in the series, something that seems downright inevitable in hindsight, so at least it happened in the final episodes, which also seems appropriate.

Seeing Dukat and Winn together, at last, is one of those perfect moments.  Winn had had previous climactic associations (way back in the three-episode arc at the beginning of the second season, when she worked alongside Frank Langella, one of the biggest acting coups Star Trek ever landed), but this was the climax of all climactic moments in a career of evil.  Of course, she had no idea she was getting in bed with the devil...

So I love this particular episode in the arc.  The ending also reveals the Breen as having joined the Dominion, after a few more moments of Ezri and Worf struggling to reconcile their relationship, which sets up Damar's defection later. But because this is serialized material, more on all that later...

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Still pretty convinced that this arc is impenetrable to casual fans.
• series - Though to Deep Space Nine devotees, it begins to work better and better.
• character - Dukat and Winn own this one.
• essential - They've been waiting for this moment since they first debuted.

notable guest-stars:
Louise Fletcher (Winn)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)

Deep Space Nine 7x17 "Penumbra"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko proposes to Kasidy; Ezri goes in search of the missing Worf.

what it's all about: Here's where the series begins its endgame, the start of ten heavily serialized hours (including the two-hour final episode, "What You Leave Behind").  "Penumbra" is one of the few episodes in this stretch that have a definitive story within it, which is Sisko plotting a future that he won't get to enjoy, settling down with Kasidy and plotting their home on Bajor.  Parallel to that certainty is the doubt between Ezri and Worf, who've had problems all season reconciling their relationship, since Ezri is the next host of the Dax symbiont who was once married to Worf as Jadzia.

Of the two, Ezri and Worf have a more compelling story, considering that they finally confront the messiness of their relationship, something Worf has long avoided.  If anything complicates it, the fact that they get caught by the Breen, who are soon revealed as new allies of the Dominion, which ultimately has nothing to do with Ezri or Worf, and that Ezri undertook Worf's rescue without the rest of the crew, diminishes "Penumbra" as a definitive moment, if that makes sense.  While the element has more weight to it, you almost wish Sisko and Kasidy had been allowed to have their moment.  Sisko is forced to wonder if he's made the right call, but only because his Prophet mom gives him a vision of doubt, but that doesn't end up meaning anything until the final hour of the series, which is still a long way off.

There's also Dukat surgically altering himself to appear as a Bajoran, which has more significance once we learn why he does it.  He meets with Damar, who has become an alcoholic, which has more significance once we learn what that leads him to.  And the Female Founder is suffering from a plague, which has...you get the point.

The problem with these serialized episodes is that they're so serialized that they don't stop to tell any single story in a single episode.  Even if the six-episode arc at the start of the sixth season had some strong and some weak material, there were still standout episodes that stood alone within it.  I don't think that's the case in the coming episodes.

But I'll continue giving my thoughts about what each of them adds to the arc, and whether or not they provide something that might sell them individually.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Even though there's at least one big moment general fans might appreciate, it's buried in a lot of other material that you need to keep watching to appreciate, and thus meant squarely for fans.
• series - Which by definition means there's a lot of significant things happening.
• character - To a lot of characters, but most obviously Sisko & Kasidy, Ezri & Worf.
• essential - Sisko finding new and lasting happiness is something that was unthinkable when the series began, and this is the culmination of that journey.

notable guest-stars:
Penny Johnson (Kasidy)
Deborah Lacey (Sarah)
Marc Alaimo (Dukat)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
Salome Jens (Female Founder)

Deep Space Nine 7x2 "Shadows and Symbols"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko searches for the Orb of the Prophets, but finds himself plagued by visions from the Pah-wraiths to prevent him from succeeding.

what it's all about: This is probably the biggest creative leap of faith the series ever did.  In "Shadows and Symbols," a direction continuation of the season premiere ("Image in the Sand"), Sisko discovers that his mother was actually a Prophet, which means that Sisko is the Emissary of the Prophets in kind of the same way, well, Jesus was the son of god.  That's right: the main character of a Star Trek series becomes a truly messianic figure.  Kind of smacks in the face of just about every franchise tenet, right?

But that's what Deep Space Nine was all about, challenging every assumption, in the very best Star Trek tradition.  Gene Roddenberry created a platform that allowed any concept to be explored.  The fact that often he and his follow creators in the original series tended to come down on a certain side of cultural conclusions did not make those conclusions the only possible ones; it was the ability to explore the ideas that defined the vision Roddenberry gave birth to, not the conclusions.  Only Deep Space Nine really seemed to get that. 

But I'll probably grant that not every fan will be willing to admit that.  Not every fan is willing to admit a lot of things about the franchise.  Most fans are in fact "protective" of the franchise.  They think rejecting a series or a movie protects the legacy of the franchise.  Right.  If the franchise needs to be protected, it doesn't deserve protecting.  Interesting little conundrum for you.

There's other stuff going on in the episode, by the way: Worf winning a great victory for his late wife Jadzia, spending time with the next Dax host (Ezri), Kira pulling a Kirk against the Romulans...and a kind of sequel to last season's "Far Beyond the Stars."

In "Stars," the Prophets send Sisko a vision about a life where he must choose to rise above his circumstances to reach his full potential, confront doubt and discover certainty.  In "Shadows," the Pah-wraiths try the same trick, except their vision is perverse; the doubt Sisko faces isn't external, as it was in "Stars," but internal.  He's made to believe he's crazy.  In a lot of ways, it's a kind of Wizard of Oz story.  In the controversial 1985 film Return to Oz, Dorothy is made to believe that her experiences in Oz were all a delusion.  In a way, not only Sisko's experiences as a 1950s pulp fiction writer named Benny Russell in "Stars" but all his time at the station and being declared the Emissary, they're all called into question.  It's as big a character moment as Sisko ever had.

I wish the whole episode had dealt with it.  Instead we have other moving parts, which I think is the main weakness of both "Shadows" and "Image" before it.  This was a story that should've focused entirely on Sisko.  To try anything more is to dilute the potential, which is exactly what I think happens.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans may be confused or even worse, offended by this episode.
• series - But it's a crucial development for Deep Space Nine.
• character - A lot of other characters have things going on, but this is Sisko's episode.
• essential - While I wish it had been done differently, it's still the biggest thing to happen to any Star Trek character...ever, really.

notable guest-stars:
Deborah Casey (Sarah Sisko)
Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)
Casey Biggs (Damar)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)

Deep Space Nine 7x1 "Image in the Sand"

rating: ***

the story: Sisko receives a puzzling vision of the future while Kira adjusts to temporary command of the station.

what it's all about: I don't know how impactful "Image in the Sand" is as a season premiere, especially since its story continues into the next episode ("Shadows and Symbols") before breaking off into a string of standalone episodes.  It's kind of a place-holder, a slow burn beginning.  On one hand it's kind of a status update.  Kira, for the first time ever, is in charge of the station, and finds that all over again she has to learn how complicated everything really is (kind of her life story over the course of the series). Sisko, meanwhile, is kind of moping at home on Earth, before being thrust into what will turn out to be a kind of radical revision of the character (more on that next episode).  There's also some of how Worf's dealing with the death of his wife, Jadzia Dax.  Plus the soft introduction of the new Dax.

All of it combines for an episode that feels far more like a continuation than anything.  Which at this point is probably just about right for a series that had been creeping toward serialization from the start.  As I said in my thoughts for the sixth season finale ("Tears of the Prophets"), the producers seem to have finally decided to move forward at any cost with their storytelling, which meant they were no longer waiting around for fans to catch up with them.  Which is just as well.  This was going to be the final season anyway; there was literally nothing to lose.

The only thing truly odd about all this is that "Image" and "Shadows" really should have been a two-part episode, like "The Search" at the beginning of the third season and "Way of the Warrior" at the beginning of the fourth.  The fifth began with a complete standalone ("Apocalypse Rising") while the sixth had a six-episode arc to help kick off the Dominion War.  The war, meanwhile, just sort of exists in the background of "Image," even though "Tears" had just made a point of Starfleet looking to ramp up the offensive.  Kind of weird.  But again, "Image" was a lot of character work, the hallmark of the series.  Which seems appropriate.

criteria analysis:

• franchise - Casual fans might find the episode somewhat impenetrable.
• series - Dedicated ones will suffer no such confusion.
• character - Sisko and Kira find themselves at turning points.
• essential - Sisko's on the verge of a big reveal, so this material is pivotal.

notable guest-stars:
Deborah Casey (Sarah Sisko)
Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko)
Aron Eisenberg (Nog)
Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun)
J.G. Hertzler (Martok)
Barry Jenner (Admiral Ross)
Casey Biggs (Damar)