Day 151: DS9, Afterimage

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S7EP3, “Afterimage”

 Summary: Ezri is still trying to adjust to having the Dax symbiont inside her, and being on the station is simultaneously easy and hard for her. Sisko and Quark seem to have accepted her, but the rest of the crew isn’t quite sure what to make of her, and Worf is avoiding her entirely. While she’s trying to figure out what to do, Garak, who has been helping Starfleet decode Cardassian messages in an attempt to aid the war effort, has a panic attack relating to his claustrophobia. As Ezri is an assistant counselor, Sisko assigns her to try to help Garak, partly because they need Garak’s help and partly for Ezri’s sake. But as Garak points out, problems can’t simply be solved by saying “Tell me about your father.” Although the episode itself may feel somewhat differently about that.

Standalone Thoughts: I like a lot of this episode. It makes sense that both Ezri and the rest of the crew would have trouble adjusting to the new Dax, and all the actors do a pretty good job of conveying that in varying ways. Plus, it features Garak in a way that works to simultaneously develop his character and Ezri’s character, which is skillful writing. But for all that…it’s not a very strong episode.

I think my problem is one of pacing. I’m guessing the showrunners knew at this point that this would be the last season, so they couldn’t linger on things that weren’t important to the Dominion War plot. Furthermore, it was in their best interest to establish Ezri quickly, both to get her up to speed with the rest of the characters we’ve been watching for six years (theoretically) and again so they could get back to the Dominion War. What this actually meant, however, was that they kind of had to resolve a lot of things in one episode, and it just doesn’t feel natural. Based on what we see of Ezri, she’s still confused and vulnerable. She hides in a corner and cries at one point, and though I feel tremendous sympathy for her, it suggests she’s not ready to return to work, much less work as a counselor. The line we hear several times in this episode is right; she’s not ready to help other people if she can’t help herself. And I refuse to believe that hearing some hard truths and stumbling into the solution to Garak’s problem (which is rushed in and of itself) suddenly made her feel like she was capable of doing this. Yes, the ending of the episode suggests that everything hasn’t been magically resolved, and it’s still going to take time for Ezri to get comfortable with the symbiont and for the crew (especially Worf) to be comfortable with her, but the fact that it fixed the bulk of the problem in one episode just doesn’t feel realistic.

I also feel like Sisko’s not helping the situation here. Encouraging Ezri to do her job and help Garak makes some sense (it helps Garak and maybe allows Ezri to gain some confidence), but given how confused she is, there is a chance it could backfire. And when it does backfire, leading to the aforementioned crying scene, Sisko’s decision to use tough love seems like the worst thing he could do. The reason Ezri broke down was because Garak told her she wasn’t helping and was a mess herself; Sisko trying to talk her out of resigning from Starfleet by saying she doesn’t deserve the symbiont and maybe she should go back to Trill and live a boring life tending the symbiont pools just seems like it could have made matters worse. He says later that he was just using a technique Curzon used on him, but while it may be effective in some cases, there was no guarantee it would work here.

And for the record, while Ezri shouldn’t have tried to resign from Starfleet entirely, I don’t see why continuing to take a leave of absence and going to Trill for some counseling or advice from people who actually know what they’re talking about would be a bad thing. Even if there wasn’t much they could do, having experienced joined Trills to talk to (or maybe doing that ritual from “Facets”) might help things settle down a little in Ezri’s mind. Unfortunately, the writers couldn’t do that because of the time constraints, so I guess they wanted to shut that option down, even though it actually makes the most sense.

While this is an essential episode to watch, its quality isn’t quite as good as other important episodes. On the bright side, the material is decent, the problems are being addressed, and despite the rushed nature of things, it does mean that we can now settle in for new material without the question “What about Ezri?” looming over our heads. Even if it’s not perfect, it can lead to interesting things, and maybe that’s the best way to look at this episode.

How it Relates to the Whole: Obviously, this episode mainly exists to ensure Ezri’s continued presence on the station and her relationships with the main characters, but it does a few other things too. Specifically, it really gets the ball rolling on the Alamo running gag and it sets up Garak to play a larger role in later events of the season (although I’m not sure if it’s a direct correlation or not). And naturally, I won’t complain about that.

Other: *I do like the use of title here. Even though the wormhole plot was resolved last episode, using “Afterimage” when the first episode of the season was called “Image in the Sand” creates a throughline that gets resolved here. Furthermore, you can consider it the unofficial fourth part of the set, because it’s an epilogue explaining what happened to Ezri. All this, and it also relates to the fact that Ezri is an afterimage of Jadzia. Whoever came up with the title here really knew what they were doing.

*Ezri has a scene where she struggles to find something to order at the replicator, rejecting a steak because one of her previous hosts was a vegetarian. I’m well aware that she’s still trying to sort things out, but if she’s craving a steak, she should have the steak. I would think that at least trying the steak might help her to figure out what parts of her are Ezri and what parts are the symbiont. I also feel like a real world therapist would probably agree with me on that.

Best Line/Exchange: As much as I love Garak, the honor goes to someone else this time around;

Ezri: I talked with Worf. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.

Sisko: Perhaps I should have a talk with him.

Ezri: Absolutely not. You intimidate him.

Sisko: Me?

Ezri: Don’t tell him I told you.

Sisko (laughs): I intimidate Worf, eh? (laughs again)

Ezri: You like that, don’t you?

Sisko (immediately stops laughing, although he still seems amused): Of course not.

Ezri: Come on. I’ve been a man, I know.

I think we can all agree there’s something amusing about a Klingon being intimidated by a human. Respecting them or being friends with them, sure, but since Klingons are the big tough guys of the galaxy, having them afraid of us is a nice shakeup. The only way it could get any funnier would be if they were scared of something innocuous like ladybugs. Now there’s a story idea…

After the Fact Update: Once the episode was completed, some of the staff talked to actual therapists who confirmed that a lot of Ezri’s techniques in this episode wouldn’t work in the real world. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one who felt like something was off.