Date: June 22, 2020
Season 2, Episodes 16 and 17
Musical Accompaniment: Some more Top 40 Piano covers
Interstellar News: I’m quite mad at all of you. The last three posts I wrote “Season 1” and no one told me I was wrong! Boooooooooo to all of you! They are all fixed now.
Favorite Quotes from “Shadow Play”:
Dax, She’s Too Old For You Bro: “The point is that sometimes we don’t see true love even when it’s staring us right in the face.”
Bareil: Prylar Rhit invited me to speak at the station shrine. But, to be honest, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to see you.
Kira: Really? I’m honored.
Bareil: Honored? Actually, I was hoping you’d be happy to see me.
Kira: Oh, I am. Very happy.
Bareil is smitten and is momentarily saddened that Kira doesn’t think the same.
Sage Sisko: “Find something you love, then do it the best you can.”
So what had happened in “Shadow Play” was…: Dax and Odo are in the Gamma Quadrant talking about relationships when they find super rare omicron particles. They encounter a community where people have started to disappear so, naturally, Odo takes an interest in the case. Odo also takes a liking to Taya, a young girl who lost her mother, and the granddaughter of Rurigan who is a community founder. Dax and Odo figure out the community and all of its members are holograms so they shut the system off to try to fix it and that reveals that Rurigan is the only human who settled here after the Dominion took over. Dax fixes the reactor, all of the missing people reappear, and Odo made a few new friends.
On the station Kira and Quark have a run in because of his cousin, so she asks Bashir to spy on Quark while Odo is away. Sisko thinks Jake should get a job and apply to Starfleet, though it’s clear Jake doesn’t want to do either. O’Brien has the perfect story for Jake that helps Jake talk to his dad, and Sisko is super supportive of Jake’s decision. Vedek Bareil comes aboard to give a talk, verbally spars with Kira, flirts a bit, plays spring ball on the holosuite, and then they smooch after dinner. It was pretty busy while Dax and Odo were away.
…”But who’s to say that our definition of life is the only valid one?“: I’ll start with the parts on the station. Sisko is a wonderful parent and that’s all I really have to say about that. O’Brien always has a story to tell that fits the situation exactly and part of me wonders if it’s all true and he’s just lived a very exciting life, or if he’s just really good at making everything sound true. Either way he’s a wonderful story teller and I think he’s able to help Jake out a lot here. Bareil is not as good in this episode as he was in the season openers or the Season 1 Finale, because he seems a little awkward with Kira at first and then he’s talking while they were kissing and that is just wrong for a first kiss. There was a great moment after the talk and before they played spring ball that had them both light up, but Kira steals the scene every time.
On the planet with the omicron particles I loved every bit of it. Before they land, Dax and Odo bantering in the runabout was fantastic because Dax is really settling into her seven lifetimes and the personalities are really merging plus Odo is super grumpy and doesn’t get the fascination of “coupling”. Once they arrive they do their best to be nice guests and watching Odo with Taya is just so fucking adorable, especially when he changes at the end because he thought it would make her smile and it did. He also had the biggest damn grin on his face as they beamed out. Odo is quite possibly beating out everyone else on the station to secure his place as my favorite character. Dax also proves her science officer worth by fixing the reactor. This is now the third time the Dominion has been mentioned, I’m sure it will be important soon. Overall, a fantastic episode and I give it 9 lives to live… all of them as a cat because that means MORE LIVES!
Favorite Quote from “Playing God”:
Odo: You can’t just wipe out a civilization. We would be committing mass murder.
Kira: It’s like stepping on ants, Odo.
Odo: I don’t step on ants, Major. Just because we don’t understand a life form doesn’t mean we can destroy it.
Sometimes you will step on ants, but intent it everything. As long as you are not malicious then you are very likely following the circle of life, otherwise you are taking life into your own hands.
So what had happened in “Playing God” was…: A Trill initiate named Arjin is coming to study under Jadzia Dax to make sure he’s ready to be joined. O’Brien and Kira, meanwhile, are trying to get rid of Cardassian voles that have gotten into every part of the station. While in the Gamma Quadrant Dax and Arjin pick up some “space seaweed” that actually turns out to be a protouniverse. They get it back to DS9 and into a containment field, but the voles disrupt the field and the protouniverse continues to expand and breaches part of the station.
At first they plan to destroy it, but then Dax finds signs of life. Kira still wants to take it out, she’s still in the “it’s them or me” mindset, but everyone else is torn. Eventually O’Brien does some engineering magic and they decide on a plan. Dax and Arjin have a few heated discussions but he’s an excellent pilot and the two of them have to navigate super carefully through the wormhole in order to get the protouniverse back to its home. Jadzia Dax and Arjin come to an understanding.
…”Don’t play with my ears, unless you’re serious about it.”: So the voles were an excellent plot device, but where did they go after they caused the protouniverse to escape from its first containment field? It’s like they just disappeared because the plot forgot about them. I love that the Klingon restaurant is now a buffet and the chef has moved onto the accordion and loves to flirt with Dax. Quark tries to be the helpful bartender but instead drops the rule “never sleep with the boss’s sister” and that isn’t quite the comfort level Arjin was looking for. There’s a lot of funny going on when O’Brien and Kira, and later Dax, are on their knees looking for the voles but those parts were fleeting. I will say Sisko did an amazing job in all of his delivery, but overall it was just a very “meh” episode… especially on the heels of the last episode. It’s 5 voles of unusual size for this episode.
TA Out!
To Boldly Go Where Everyone Has Gone Before 