LizstarTrek - DS9 Season 7, Episodes 20-25

Every Sunday my Twitch subs and I watch Star Trek in my Discord. Here are my reviews and thoughts on each of the episodes as I see it. If you’re curious about a nerd’s views on Star Trek episodes, please read on, I go quite in depth with some of these episodes! I’ve watched some Star Trek before but not all of it!

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When It Rains… - DS9 6/10

Things are rough. It’s pouring, pretty hard. The Breen have an energy dampening weapon that fucks up ALL the allied Fleets. They do have one plan, though. ONE Klingon ship was able to defend against it, cause the engineer had just done some Tech Babbelry with his engines. Unfortunately, ONLY Klingon ships can do this, so the rest of the fleet is fucked. This means the Klingons are rushing to stop an advancement, all by themselves. Meanwhile, Damar’s rebellion is already going poorly. Their first push failed, and they’re in hiding. They need help, an expert at murdering occupiers. Luckily, we got one of those!

This just in, worst person you know has a point. Kai Winn is working with Dukat, sure, but it’s mostly out of neccesity and to keep power, NOT because she likes her. Yes, they fucked, but holy HELL that was before she knew who he was, GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME. Their alliance is currently very strenuous.

The Cardassians do need the help, but the idea of a Bajoran helping them disgusts them. They’re a proud people. Damar doesn’t give a shit. He literally said “I did hate her, but that’s a luxary I can no longer afford”. He’s come a LONG way. His people though, they’re not quite there yet. So they do what they can to make her less threatening and not remind them that they’re being helped by Bajor: They give her a commission and make her official part of Star Fleet. Odo, Kira, and Garak head off to help.

Meanwhile, Bashir is working on a passion project where he wants to make replicatable stem-cell-ish organs. To do that, he borrows some of Odo’s goo. He literally says “I need to borrow some Goo”. He also has a lot of weird shit with Dax. Bashir is really regressing, IMO. He’s not season 1 bad, that was very VERY bad. Like, AWFUL, I HATED Season 1 Bashir more than any other character in Star Trek, but he’s pretty rough. He’s smiling weirdly, like when he’s telling Odo that he’s infected with the disease that’s killing his people, he’s smiling so weirdly. And he’s all super horny about Dax and it’s so uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Gowron is visiting the station. This episode has a lot of plot points. This is like, the D Plot. He’s here to award a big honor to Martok, and puts all that shit with Worf under the bridge. Looks like he’s FINALLY coming to. Unfortunately, he ALSO takes Martok’s power and station away from him, putting himself in the position as leading the war forces. Ahhh, he’s a glory hound.

Bashir tries to get some of Odo’s medical records to cure him of the disease he has. Starfleet refuses to give them over, and when Bashir calls up to ask why, they basically accuse him of colluding with the enemy and working to cure them. I can smell what’s happening here a mile away. Luckily, Sisko has clearance for the file, so he gets it. Aaaand then Bashir can tell, immediately. It’s a fake. It’s not Odo’s real file. They immediately come to an assumption. It’s the work of Section 31, they’re trying to stop Bashir from curing them, even if it means Odo’s death.

Oh btw, Gul Dukat tries to read The Necronomicon and gets his sight taken from him because he’s not Satan Pope. I’m actually surprised, the Pah Wraiths are ACTUALLY treating Kai Winn like she matters. And now that Gul Dukat is blind, AND not in the good graces of the Pah Wraiths, she’s throwing him out on the streets as a blind beggar. Maybe eventually they’ll find pity on him and restore his sight. God, if you can’t trust THE ANTI-POPE.

Gowron has a strategy to win this war. He’ll surprise the Dominion with an astonishingly bad strategy. He’s going to throw all of the reserves at them, while the Federation and Romulans are out for the count. THey can barely hold the line NOW, but a full on attack? That’s GENIUS!

Bashir uses some shenanigans to find out when Odo was infected, and finds out it was three years ago, far before he joined with the Female Shapeshifter, and was in fact the day Odo was tested by Starfleet Medical. Section 31 infected Odo to use him as a carrier to infect the Changelings and genocide their entire race. Fucking Christ.

And it ends like that. This episode is fine, but it has its hands in too many pies. It’s trying to wrap up every plot line, and it’s a bit disjointed.

Tacking into the Wind - DS9 8/10

The Cardassians are very bad at terrorism. They’re good at being a military. But this is not a military. They’re bad at whatever THIS is supposed to be. Even when they succeed, they fail, basically.

Meanwhile Odo is falling apart. He’s deteriorating VERY fast now. Garak finds him like this, and it’s heart wrenching, but he doesn’t want anyone to know about it, and he wants no pity. He ESPECIALLY doesn’t want Kira to know about it, and he fully intends to keep doing his job as long as he can. He won’t just sit there and die.

Gowron’s stupid-ass plans were stupid. Martok was nearly killed. Worf is certain it was a plan by Gowron to get Martok either killed, or dishonored. Martok is VERY popular, and Gowron is trying to politik basically. Worf wants Martok to challenge Gowron to become the Chancellor. Martok is like “What the fuck no. I’m a soldier. I don’t want to do that.”

Damar’s family is killed. He’s floored by it. They were innocents. They weren’t in the rebellion, and the Dominion knew that. What kind of government would murder innocents just to break the hearts of its people? What kind of person could GIVE that order?

This is one of the best lines in DS9. Fucking Christ. Her delivery of this is FANTASTIC. It’s soft, it’s sad.

They go on a mission. Kira pretends to be a prisoner. Odo was the handcuffs, take a drink. The Female changeling then comes in and grabs one of their guns to inspect it, and hands it to Garak to “inspect it”. He immediatley starts blasting. God, I love Garak. Also, Odo was the uh, Changeling, take a drink.

We finally get the culmination of TEN YEARS of Star Trek plot. Gowron is still being a politiking dufus. Worf calls him out, and then Gowron challenges him to murderizing. It uh, doesn’t go well for Gowron. He is, in fact, just a politician, not much of a warrior. And thus, Worf is now the leader… for ten seconds.

Martok doesn’t want to lead. That’s why he should.

Damar’s friend, and second in command of the rebellion, turns on Kira cause he’s a racist who hates her. It becomes a standoff. “Garak, you wouldn’t shoot me, a Cardassian, for a Bajoran woman?!” “Oh how little you understand me.” Damar then joins the standoff, telling them BOTH to stand the fuck down. Notably, Damar this episode? Been doing his best. He’s swallowed his pride. He’s swallowed his sadness. He’s here to do one thing. And that’s help his people. He’s done doing anything else. Even when Kira snapped back at him, he didn’t raise his voice. And now? When his long time friend tells him to kill both Garak, AND Kira, so that they can bring the Empire back to the glory it once was?

He shoots him. That Empire is gone. And it isn’t coming back.

The Damar Stans are WINNING, y’all.

Fun episode, lots of good scenes.

Extreme Measures - DS9 6/10

Odo’s lookin’ like shit. He’s taking this WAY worse than the Female Changeling. He looks GROSS. Bashir gives him one week to live, maybe two, if we’re lucky. Odo isn’t giving up, but he’s practically given up. Kira wants to stay by him, but he tells her to get the hell out. He’s being a bit selfish. They have a heart to heart and kiss and tell each other they love each other. It’s cute, and sad.

Sisko is FINALLY brought into the loop about all of this stuff. So you see, they plan to lure an operative here by lying about a cure being found. Bashir didn’t want to tell Sisko, cause Sisko would tell Starfleet, cause that’s his job, and then Section 31 would get win of it and go deeper into hiding. Plus, Bashir is using an illegal Romulan mind scanner. So uh, fighting illegal with illegal here. Hey, we do what we can.

Sloan does his thing he does, sitting in Bashir’s room as Bashir sleeps, like a dickhead. This time Bashir is ready for him. He traps him in a forcefield, and then shoots him. When he wakes up, he finds himself on a table with O’Brien and Bashir looking down on him. He tries to reason with them, but no, they have him dead to rights, and with that scanner, he’s fucked. Soooo he chews a tablet and kills himself. It scrambles his brain too, so they can’t just scan it.

Also that quote is SO deliciously ironic.

Bashir keeps him alive, just barely. He’ll die in an hour, but they can’t just scan his brain, it’s jumbled. So Bashir rigs up a scientific thingamajig, and allows him to dive into his dreams so that they can MAYBE find the cure before he dies. Yep, it’s a DREAM DIVE EPISODE! O’Brien comes too. It’s nice to see him having something to do.

While in Sloan’s Brain Meats, they meet Sloan. He’s friendly, and very helpful. Well, he WANTS to be, but he can’t. When he tries to tell them the cure, it comes out all jumbled. And then he’s shot by Evil Sloan, who runs off. Yep, one of those. O’Brien and Bashir then get shot by a part of his psyche, who’s “protecting the Federation”, and we get one of the WEIRDEST scenes I’ve ever seen in all of Star Trek, where Bashir basically just tells O’Brien he loves him, cause they both think they’re going to die. It’s really weird.

And then they’re woken up by Sisko and Worf and some doctors. And then they watch Sloan die. And with him, any hopes of a cure. As Bashir lies down, depressed, ready to read his evening book, he finds that his copy of A Tale of Two Cities is… weird. He’s still in the dream.

Bashir and O’Brien makes their way to the depths of Sloan’s mind, and find him, and all his files on Section 31. They find the cure, but also so, SO many other things. Sloan says that if they want to take down Section 31, there’s no better time than now, to gather data.. But… that’s what he wants. If he can keep Bashir in his mind, he’ll die and he’ll win. But O’Brien is there. And he realizes it. So he convinces Bashir, and they leave, and save Odo.

This episode was alright. Trying to be a sendoff to O’Brien and Bashir’s Bromance, but it’s just so weird.

The Dogs of War - DS9 7.5/10

Our episode starts with Ezri and Bashir being awkward. If they DO get together, it’ll last like two years at most. And then they get a new ship. The Sao Paolo, a Defiant-class. But as they take it off the Admiral’s hands, he tells them they’re allowed to change the name, so they did. To “The Defiant”. Yep. The real IRL reason was so they could re-use Defiant footage, and that footage had The Defiant written on it. Very funny.

Meanwhile, Kira, Damar, and Garak go to Cardassia to try and get some high ranking Cardassian military to join their side. Unfortunately, one of the ones who was going to help them immediately betrays them, and they’re stranded on the planet. They only have ONE place they can hide. Garak’s old home, with his old nanny. The LAST person on Cardassia he can trust.

Meanwhile, Quark gets a message from the Grand Nagus. God, I’ve been thinking we need more Quark this season. The transmision is coming in spotty, though, and the Grand Nagus can barely hear Quark, though he tells him that he’s retiring, and coming to DS9 to announce his successor. Why, it’ll be HIM! Congratulations… Then the message garbeled. Though the astute who have listened to a LOT of garbled messages, like me, might realize… he doesn’t say “Quark” at the end, but something else…

Quark immediately starts researching what happened in Ferenginar lately. And by that I mean, his new advisor, Brunt, kisses up to him and tells him what’s going on. He’s basically spouting right wing republican bullshit and saying “IT’S A DISEASE. CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY MADE MONOPOLIES ILLEGAL?! AND MADE IT SO I CAN’T DUMP TOXINS? I HAVE TO CARE ABOUT ANIMALS NOW?” Then he sells the bar to Rom for “only” 5000. He’s gone SOFT. He’s going to REFUSE the Nagus position, unless he can stop this POISON.

The Dominion announces Damar is dead, but he’s obviously not, AND he’s become a Town Hero. So they take it over the edge. He bombs a military installation, and announces to the world he’s still alive, and calls for revolution. Open, bound revolution.

Anyways, this happens.

Plot twist, it was never going to be Quark. Obviously. Who the hell wants him to be Nagus??? Rom is going to be the new Nagus. Quark throws a hissy fit, but eventually comes to it. And yep. Rom deserves this. A great conclusion to one of the unsung best characters in all of DS9

Oh hey, Sisko’s wife is gregnant. We never DID find out what the Prophets were warning about with that. I dunno what’s funnier, that the prophets couldn’t judge the severity of a situation, or that it really was the pepper plant.

What You Leave Behind - DS9 7/10

We have everyone’s reactions to having to Battle of the Bulge the Dominion. Ezri and Bashir make out, to all of our collective groans. O’Brien is talking about retiring to teach at a university after the war ends. He’s ALSO not talked about it to Bashir, his Husband, which is Bad. I love that they tried to make Bashir less gay by seperating him from Garak and getting him a girlfriend, but then just made him MORE gay with all the subtext with Bashir and O’Brien.

Meanwhile, on Cardassia, everyone is awaiting the fleet patiently, but nervously. We have Cardassian Quisling, who’s Damar’s replacement to work with the Dominion. He’s doing his best. He has no respect. Just like a Quisling. Unfortunately, they are NOT happy cause of all the citizens rising up and attacking Dominion installations. Sooooo they retaliated. First they strangled the Quisling a bit, and theeen.

Everyone is ENRAGED. It’s time to strike back, and hard. As Garak says, “Chop of a snake’s head and the body will die.” Unfortunately, the Jem’Hadar find them, kill Garak’s nanny, and fucking THROW HER CORPSE AT THEM with a GERNADE ALONGSIDE IT. Poor Garak is NOT doing well. They’re all captured and to be IMMEDIATELY executed. Unfortunately for THEM, they’re IMMEDIATLEY shot in the back by their Cardassian allies, who go “THat’s for the city you blew up”. WOW. I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT TACTIC FAILED!! And then the Cardassian ships turn traitor and start attacking the Dominion ships, turning tides of battle.

The Female Changeling calls for a Cardassian genocide. Starting with their Quisling. Wow, what a fucking surprise.

Meanwhile, Kai Winn and Ducat reawaken the Fire Caves. Oh yeah that plot is happening! That feels a little out of context for everything ELSE thats happening, but it’s fine.

In the attack on the Dominion HQ, Damar is killed. His last order… Keep. Don’t give in. NEVER give in. Rest in peace, Damar. Genuinely NEVER seen a better turn around for a character than Damar. A nameless extra in the background of a villain, to a horrible hated villain, to a funny comedic villain drunkard, to someone you GENUINELY FEEL FOR. He wasn’t perfect, at all. He was awful. But he could have been better, and he was genuinely trying to be by the end.

Wow we’re killin people left and right! That was the last Weyoun clone. He’s gone for good. Odo comes down and links with the Female changeling, and she IMMEDIATELY surrenders. The war is over. The war is done. She’ll stay and stand on trial, though. So who’s going to go cure the Great Link? Odo. It’s Odo. Odo is the going away, take a drink ):

We get a VERY good scene with Garak and Bashir, and a sendoff to our boy. The last time we see him. Ohh, Garak. “Spare me your Federation optimism. Yes, Cardassia will surive. But not the Cardassia I knew.” But it WILL become better.

We get the final story threads closing. Worf leaves to become an ambassador to Kronos. Goodbye, Worf. So, I kinda hated DS9 Worf? But he’s been pretty good for the past 6 episodes. Much better as the sassy friend. Obrien is leaving Odo is leaving, Worf is leaving. We even get one last Vic Fontaine song! It’s a cute little sendoff to all of the main cast members. And that’s the end, a great send-off to-

Oh, yeah. We have one more thing. Sisko is suddenly like “Oh yeah, I now know what I need to do. But I WILL be back” and then he goes to the Fire Caves.

Kai Winn thinks she’s been chosen as the Emissary of the Pah Wraiths, but no, it’s Gul Dukat. Wow what a surprise, if you can’t trust something called THE PAH WRAITHS. Now Dukat is a super powered evil satan. Sisko is doing his best to act in this, but it’s a bit silly. And doesn’t feel very Trekky to me.

Kai Winn is burned by the Pah Wraiths, and then Sisko throws himself into the fire, pushing Dukat into it, who’s burned away like fucking Gollum, with his book. This seals the Pah Wraiths away again, but also “kills” Sisko. He’s still here, of course. He’s in a white void, and is told that he’s with them now.

THIS is what they built up for the past seven seasons, since episode 1. The Prophet storyline hasn’t been super interesting, tbh, all together. And here it doesn’t make the story BETTER, IMO. But it’s not THAT bad.

Sisko Prophet Warps into Casidy’s mind and tells her he WILL be back. Maybe in a year. Maybe yesterday. He still has things to do, but he WILL be back. This is one of the major things in the ending, Sisko was going to just Die, but his actor was like “Fuck that, I’m not gonna be a disappeared dad”. So he WILL be back.

Then we get a weird-ass clip show with Bashir and O’Brien? I do NOT get it. And then we get clip shows with EVERYONE. I…. I don’t like this. It’s weird clip shows of all the characters and their relationships over the past 7 seasons, with cheesy 60s violin music behind it. If you were gonna do this, do it during Vic’s song. The thing is, this is the LAST WE’LL SEE OF MOST OF THESE CHARACTERS. THEY WON’T COME BACK IN ANY FUTURE TREK SHOWS.

At least after this we get Quark and Odo being sassy at each other. Quark LITERALLY says “That man loves me”. MY SHIP IS CANON. Odo returns to the link, with one last kiss for Kira. She says she’ll never forget him. I think the implication is she won’t date after him, but I like to imagine that right now in the current canon, 20 years in the future, she has like 4 girlfriend. Her story ends with her looking at Sisko’s baseball on her new desk with a smile. And our entire story ends with Quark going “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, as Jake watches the Wormhole with Kira.

The first half of this episode, with the battles and the action was very good. The second half kinda flubbed it. It’s hard to end a series like this, but I think all of this stuff actually worked, FOR THE MOST PART. By this stuff I mean the past 9 episodes, which all move into each other and tie up the loose threads. But this ending with them breaking up the band, just for dramatic tension? Not a fan.

….And that’s DS9.

Thoughts

It’s my favorite Trek, other than SNW. Too many good episodes to name, and honestly? I don’t think I had a single 1/10 here? The closest was that fucking Worf Terrorist episode I gave a 1.5/10. I stand by that. ONLY because it gave us nearly naked Jadzia. Oh man, Jadzia. Look, this show had some of the best Trek characters, and not all of them were handled well. But when they hit, they hiiiiittttt.

A lot of people say DS9 is the best because it “shows a dark mirror to the Federation” or whatever the fuck. That it’s darker, edgier, more willing to show the wicked evils at the heart of Socialist Utopia Future. That’s not why I like it. I like it because it shows that stuff but also the optimism at the heart of it. I like DS9 because it’s designed SPECIFICALLY to show the underdogs, the citizens, the regular shmoes. You’d never get a Rom on TNG. You’d never see a Garak on TNG. DS9 also introduced a lot of good recurring villains! TNG had like… Lore? I think that’s it? But here, Gul Dukat is MOSTLY really good! I didn’t like how his story ended very much, but he was very good for like 90% of the show. Kai Winn was AWFUL, I love hating her. Damar. DAMAR. FUCKING DAMAR. NONE of these characters could be on TNG, and they certainly couldn’t be on Voyager. But they’re here, and the show is all the better for it.

Goodbye, DS9. I’ll miss you.