Day 64: DS9, Through the Looking Glass

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S3EP19, “Through the Looking Glass”

A note: Technically, there was an episode shot before this one, but the order was swapped for some reason. Given that the next episode was an unofficial two parter, that comes as a surprise to me.

 Summary: To everybody’s surprise, O’Brien kidnaps Sisko and beams him off the station. All becomes clear shortly thereafter, when O’Brien reveals that he’s the O’Brien from the Mirror Universe (last seen in “Crossover”) and he kidnapped Sisko because he needs help. The humans have been rebelling against their oppressors since “Crossover”, with mirror Sisko leading the charge. But Sisko died in an attack, and O’Brien needs our Sisko to finish the mission mirror Sisko was on. Said mission involves preventing Sisko’s wife Jennifer (Felecia M. Bell) from building a sensor device that would make the rebels easier to find, with the optimal result being bringing her over to the rebel’s cause. Sisko, perhaps swayed by the prospect of seeing his wife again in any form, agrees, and gets to see the oddness of this universe first hand. To us, of course, it’s a bit more familiar, and in some cases, welcoming.

Standalone Thoughts: While there’s nothing wrong with this episode, there also isn’t much to say about it. The idea of Sisko having to confront another version of his wife is an interesting one, but I feel like the script doesn’t play with it to the fullest. A little more internal, emotional conflict on Sisko’s end probably would have added a little extra to the material. What we actually get is fine, but I think we spend more time on how Jennifer is feeling than on how Sisko is handling the situation. Given how much Jennifer’s death affected him, seeing her again should have had more of an impact on both him and us, and it just…doesn’t.

But like I said, the episode is entertaining enough. Intendant Kira is always fun to watch, I’ll never say no to Garak no matter what form he takes, there’s some good action in the climax, and generally everybody from the actors to the set dressers are doing a good job. On a more personal note, we also get introduced to mirror Bashir, who is both scruffier and more aggressive than his counterpart. He’s not someone I’d want to spend all my time with, but in small doses…I like it. Then again, I like Bashir in almost anything, now that we’re past the growing pains. So just take that bit as some fangirl gushing and move on.

How it Relates to the Whole: As this is a separate universe we only see sporadically, it’s hard to tell how big an impact this episode has. It certainly doesn’t really tie into the main story. Still, we’ve now seen all the mirror counterparts of the main characters, and the rebellion seems to be well under way. We’ll just have to wait until next season (probably) to see how things are panning out.

Other: *I do have to wonder what happened to our O’Brien after mirror O’Brien beamed Sisko away. Did he show up to Ops a minute later and immediately get arrested? Presumably Sisko got it all straightened out in the end, but it might have been entertaining to see how that all played out.

*In what I assume was some cross-show promotion, there’s a scene where we briefly see Tuvok from Voyager assisting the rebellion. Given that he doesn’t do much, and that the mirror universe has no connection to the main universe, I’m not sure how much good it did Voyager’s brand.

*In this universe, Dax is Sisko’s mistress. After our Sisko learns this, Dax attempts to put the moves on him. He tries to deflect, but in order to not blow his cover, he eventually allows her to start kissing him. We then cut away for awhile, and when we next see the two, they’re discussing plans, with their clothes on. In other words, it’s hard to tell just how far Sisko went to keep his cover. Given his relationship to our Dax, I can’t believe he’d have been comfortable enough to sleep with her counterpart, and it probably would have been obvious to her that something was wrong. But we never get any sort of confirmation either way, and while it’s not a big deal, it’s a little disturbing to think about on multiple levels, so I wish the writers could have given us something.

Best Line/Exchange: Got a fairly simple one today;

Jennifer: Then why did you leave me to go run and play pirate for the Intendant?

Sisko: That’s a good question.

I enjoy lines that can have double meanings, and Brooks delivers his line just right. To Jennifer’s ears, it probably sounds somewhat sarcastic, but to us, we know Sisko really is wondering why his counterpart did it, and is deflecting so he doesn’t have to give a proper answer. It may not be the heights of clever writing, but it’s clever nonetheless.

After The Fact Update: In the minds of the writers, at least, Sisko did indeed sleep with mirror Dax in order to maintain his cover. Again, I feel like we could have got some mileage out of Sisko’s conflicted feelings over doing that, but it goes nowhere. But at least I’ve sort of got an answer to my question, even if it’s an answer I’m not entirely on board with.