DS9: “The House of Quark” and “Equilibrium”

Date: June 29, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 3 and 4

Musical Accompaniment: Violin instrumentals tonight

Interstellar News: Today was a better day.

Favorite Quote from “The House of Quark”:

Grilka: Thank you, Quark. You may have saved my family.

Quark: Well, it is the House of Quark, after all.

Grilka: I really am very grateful for all you’ve done, Quark. That is why I’m going to let you take your hand off my thigh instead of shattering every bone in your body.

This is the exact moment Quark fell in love, I just know it.

So what had happened in “The House of Quark” was…: Morn goes home with a Dabo girl and the only patron at Quark’s is a very drunk Klingon named Kozak who can’t pay his bill so he attacks Quark and accidentally kills himself. Quark and Rom believe this is a chance to improve profits so they lie and say Quark beat Kozak in self-defense. Kozak’s brother comes to make sure Quark tells everyone his brother died an honorable death, but Kozak’s widow Grilka explains that Kozak had no brother nor a male heir and then she kidnaps him. She performs the brek’tal ritual which means she and Quark marry and Quark offers to help figure out how to stop D’Ghor from taking her lands. Quark finds out D’Ghor has been dishonorable but is challenged to personal combat, so he goes to run away but then is suddenly overcome with the need to be the good guy. He shows up with a bat’leth and accepts the challenge from D’Ghor but throws the weapon away and says everyone knows it’s just an execution. D’Ghor goes to kill Quark but Gowron stops D’Ghor and they turn their backs on him and allow Grilka to run her house due to extenuating circumstances. Grilka gives Quark a speedy divorce and a kiss.

Meanwhile Kieko has had to close the school as Jake and Nog were the only two left. O’Brien tries to lift her spirits, which works for an evening until she realizes she had nothing to look forward to. He has the idea to have her begin an arboretum in an empty cargo bay, but Bashir helps O’Brien realize Keiko needs to be a botanist again. O’Brien finds an expedition heading to Bajor where she can take Molly and O’Brien can shuttle over in a mere three hours for the next six months.

“Oh, definitely fireworks.”: The main story line involves Quark, which I’ll get to, but I absolutely love the O’Briens, they are just so adorable. O’Brien just wants his wife to be happy because he is a good partner and he sees that without school there’s just no more joy in her life. He also finally let Bashir into his life and Bashir actually turned out to give damn good advice. While it’s absolutely possible for Keiko to be more things over the course of her life, her passion is for plants.

The Quark story line from start to finish is fantastic. Quark is an excellent storyteller from the lie at the bar all the way through the very end where Rom is fascinated by his big brother showing so much courage. There were so many twists and turns and the best was when Quark actually cared enough to help out Grilka even though she’s a female. Gowron was fantastic when he shamed D’Ghor for using money instead of combat to cripple the House and he even realized what lengths Grilka was willing to do to lead her own house. Do I hate that the Klingons are sexist? Yes. Do I believe Gowron made the right call? Also, yes. I loved absolutely everything about every scene Quark was in, it was delightful and I would absolutely watch it again… although I’m not sure the shock value will be the same when Quark brandishes a weapon and bluffs with his life. 9 perfectly sharpened bat’leths for this episode.

Favorite Quote from “Equilibrium”:

Sisko: I suppose it would have been easier if you’d never found out about Joran.

Dax: No, I’m glad I did. If you want to know who you are, it’s important to know who you’ve been.

While this doesn’t work for those of us who do not have more than one life, or do not remember our past lives, it is certainly a good quote to consider.

So what had happened in “Equilibrium” was…: Sisko is cooking for everyone in his quarters when Dax starts playing a tune she doesn’t know. Later she gets angry and upset with Sisko and Kira and hallucinates, but a quick trip to Bashir shows that there might be something wrong with her and the symbiont so they head to the Trill home world so she can be examined. Dax has some tests done but hallucinates again so she heads to The Guardians for help and one believes she’s unbalanced. The computer identifies the music and as soon as the composer’s picture is on the screen, a Trill named Belar, Dax passes out and the doctors think they will have to save the symbiont instead of the host. Bashir and Sisko investigate and find out that Belar was joined with Dax for six months although he was an unsuitable candidate, which would throw all of Trill society into chaos. Sisko threatens to expose the doctor if they don’t do whatever they need to in order to save Jadzia, so she welcomes another host into her memories.

“I just think you look so cute.”: The beginning scene where Sisko is cooking, Odo is trying so hard to keep stirring the right way, Kira commenting on how cute he is, and Jake being just adorable was so great, but the rest of the episode was such a downer until the very end. Jadzia welcoming in Belar was actually kind of a nice ending even though he was a crazy murderous man, but it seemed to have brought her peace. It was wonderful to see how much Sisko and Bashir really care about Dax. I thought this was an interesting episode that taught me more about the Trills, but I hate that they have to lie to their own people in order to keep order. Considering how strong the previous episode was, this one just doesn’t live up. Only 4 hosts for this symbiont.

TA Out!