Day 110: DS9, In Purgatory's Shadow

Show: Star Trek; Deep Space Nine

Episode Particulars: S5EP14, “In Purgatory’s Shadow”

Summary: When the station picks up a Cardassian transmission from the Gamma Quadrant and calls Garak in to translate, he claims it’s just from an old survey mission…but then Bashir catches him trying to steal a runabout. Garak confesses that it’s a distress call of sorts from Enabran Tain, and Sisko is eventually persuaded to let Garak check it out, albeit with Worf accompanying him. Before he leaves, Garak says goodbye to Zyial (now played by Melanie Smith, who will be playing Zyial from now on), who has developed feelings for Garak, to Garak’s discomfort and Gul Dukat’s disgust. But Garak soon finds himself with bigger problems; his search puts him and Worf right in the middle of a huge Dominion fleet. Naturally, a runabout is no match for that, and when he and Worf are captured and brought to an internment camp, things just wind up getting messier…

Standalone Thoughts: While I confess that I spent most of this episode slightly distracted because I was finally going to get an answer to a plot point that’s been bugging me for ages, I think I’m still objective enough to say that this episode is pretty good. There’s a lot of great moments in the first half, which I think relaxes the audience enough that when things suddenly get very serious in the second half, they’re thrown for a loop and are now off-kilter enough to want to see what happens next. Which is always a good thing, especially when you’re heading into a two-parter.

That being said, I think they tried to cram a little too much into a forty-five minute episode. Worf and Garak’s plot and what happens on the station in the second half go together nicely (they were designed to, after all), but the whole thing with Dukat being protective of his daughter feels out of place. Maybe this will come into play in the second half, but for now, it feels like something that could have been saved for another episode. Furthermore, the time spent on that plot means that the actions of the station in the second half are given short shrift, so while we know what’s happened, it all feels a little rushed. But perhaps that also helps contribute to that off-kilter feeling, so I won’t come down too harshly on it. Besides, I can’t fully judge the situation until I see what tomorrow brings…

How it Relates to the Whole: I’ll be holding off on really discussing this side of things until tomorrow’s episode, both for spoiler reasons and because I cannot remember for certain how exactly everything plays out. Suffice it to say that this episode definitely contributes to the rest of the show. How much it contributes remains to be seen.

Other: *I love the opening scene between Odo and Kira. It works as banter between friends, but when you take Odo’s feelings for Kira into account, it becomes kind of endearing, because then it looks like a man with a crush being flustered when the object of his affections talks in a complimentary way about him. By contrast, a later scene between Dax and Worf is clearly supposed to be romantic banter, but all it does is continue to remind me why I don’t like Dax. Because while she may have a point that Worf should have been the one to tell her he was going on a dangerous mission, her responses during their conversation get more and more petty. What can I say? I may be a romantic at heart, but clearly there are certain kinds of romances I just don’t get.

*Two separate times during the episode, Garak and Zyial say goodbye while pressing their hands together. It’s an odd detail, but after seeing the episode in full, I like it. While you can interpret it as a gesture of intimacy, it seems more likely that it’s a Cardassian gesture for goodbye, kind of like the cheek kisses Europeans do. It’s nonverbal worldbuilding, and as you know, that’s always something I can get behind.

*SPOILER WARNING (even though it’ll all come out in tomorrow’s review). After being so sure of myself for years, I now must admit that I was wrong. Ever since I first watched this show, I had assumed Bashir had been replaced by a changeling back in “Nor the Battle to the Strong”, since he says in this episode he was taken during a medical conference, and he and Jake were returning from a medical conference in that episode. However, in “Nor the Battle to the Strong”, he talks about presenting a theory about prions, while in this episode he says the conference was specifically a “burn treatment conference”, and that he was taken “over a month ago”. I still don’t know how stardates work, but I highly doubt the events from “Nor the Battle to the Strong” to now took place over the space of a month (“Let He Who is Without Sin” alone was supposed to take place over a week). So based on the fact that he’s wearing the old uniform without the grey, it appears he was actually taken sometime before or after “The Ascent” (although some digging on Memory Alpha reveals that apparently nobody’s really sure when it happened). I’m glad he wasn’t suffering for as long as I’d thought, but I must confess to being slightly disappointed at the same time; the thought that it was the changeling that broke up with Leeta was a twist that seemed delightfully perverse to me.

Best Line/Exchange: Today’s episode was a bonanza of great exchanges, so I had some trouble picking only one. As you might guess, Garak was involved in my pick, though for once, it was indirectly;

Sisko: Remember, this is a reconnaissance mission. You are to avoid Dominion ships at all costs. I want you back here in one piece.

Worf (pauses): What about Garak?

Sisko: I want him back too. I suppose I don’t have to tell you to keep a close eye on him.

Worf: At the first sign of betrayal, I will kill him, but I promise to return the body intact.

Sisko: I assume that’s a joke.

Worf: We will see.

Whether or not Worf meant it as a joke, this scene (and a later scene between Worf and Garak that was also up for consideration) winds up being funny precisely because Worf’s being so deadpan about it. It’s also a good glimpse of Worf and Sisko’s characters, with Worf ready to resort to violence if he thinks it’s necessary and Sisko having clear instructions but allowing his crew a certain amount of leeway. I also like the small implication in Sisko’s “I want him back too” that Garak has become an important part of the station, although I can’t blame you if you interpret that line as something less heartwarming. But since I like Garak, I choose to think it means that other people appreciate him too.