Day 65: DS9, Improbable Cause

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S3EP20, “Improbable Cause”

 Summary: After years of mostly flying under the radar, Garak finally gets pulled into the station’s spotlight when a bomb goes off in his tailor shop, nearly killing him. Odo starts an investigation, though Garak, true to form, isn’t being forthright with him. Things immediately get complicated when the presumed assassin is himself assassinated, and it starts to look like the Romulans are involved. In the end, Garak and a very suspicious Odo decide to work together to find out what’s going on. And what’s going on is way more elaborate than either of them suspected.

Standalone Thoughts: Garak fans rejoice, because this episode is everything you could want. We get more hints of Garak’s backstory (though he himself isn’t giving up much information), some intrigue and danger, and of course, almost every line out of Andrew Robinson’s mouth is delivered wonderfully. So for that alone, this episode is good.

Looking at the rest of the material, though, I’d say it’s equally good, though something keeps me from nudging it up to great (wanting to see how it all plays out, perhaps). Besides Garak, Odo is the main character this episode, and Auberjonois plays it well, doing his usual routine of being skeptical and slightly sarcastic about everything but then breaking out genuine anger when required. The plot is well-handled also, since it starts out looking like the usual “situation of the week” (albeit a slightly darker one) and then morphs into something that actually ties into the Dominion plot, which has been mostly lying dormant after the season opener. Anybody who likes mysteries and/or cloak-and-dagger stories will probably have a good time here, although unlike a good mystery, the clues aren’t there for us to find. Still, the acting and fast pace do a lot to make up for that, and the grand reveal at the end definitely makes us want to know more. It’s a nice reminder of what the show will (hopefully) turn into in the near future, though I don’t think I can say this is where it starts. But it’s certainly whetting my appetite.

How it Relates to the Whole: As mentioned back in “Defiant”, we do in fact get some follow-up to what Riker was investigating, though I won’t go into details about that until tomorrow. It also (finally) connects up to the Dominion threat, though I can’t be certain of the ramifications until I see tomorrow’s episode. If nothing else, though, this episode on its own gives us a lot more to think about when it comes to Garak, and that’s reason enough to consider it relevant.

Other: *There’s not going to be a lot today, because some of my random observations might be subject to change when we finish the second part tomorrow. But as for things I can mention today…remember when I said that “almost” every line of Garak’s was great? The one exception is when he declares to a certain character “I never betrayed you…at least, not in my heart.” It’s an absolutely cliché, wince inducing line at the best of times; hearing it on DS9, and from Garak of all people, kind of makes it worse. Fortunately, it’s just a small pothole on a generally well-paved road, so I can mostly overlook it. That doesn’t mean I can’t make a little fun of it, though.

Best Line/Exchange: Given that my family quotes this line on a regular basis, I kind of feel obligated to give it the Best Line, although there’s a lot of fun ones in this episode:

(Bashir is attempting to explain the tale of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to Garak, drawing a parallel to Garak’s situation)

Bashir: The point is, if you lie all the time, nobody’s going to believe you. Even when you’re telling the truth.

Garak: Are you sure that’s the point, Doctor?

Bashir: Of course. What else could it be?

Garak (turning and walking away as he speaks): That you should never tell the same lie twice.

I think my entire family burst out laughing the first time we heard Garak’s interpretation, because it fit him so well. It also ties in well to the main plot, and highlights the difference between Bashir and Garak’s way of thinking (or Starfleet vs. Cardassian thinking, if you want to broaden it). If you’re a Garak fan, you can’t really ask for something better than this.

After the Fact Update: I said yesterday that I wasn’t sure why “Through the Looking Glass” aired before this one did, even though “Improbable Cause” was shot first. The DS9 Companion explains that this episode was originally meant to be one episode, but when they couldn’t find a non-cliché way of ending it, a two-parter was suggested. It took a little scrambling, but they managed it. In other words, this was not a planned two-parter. I’ll have to withhold judgment until tomorrow to be absolutely sure, but given my memory of how things turn out, they did an excellent job for something that kind of happened on the fly.