DS9: “Improbable Cause” and “The Die is Cast”

Date: July 8, 2020

Season 3, Episodes 20 and 21

Musical Accompaniment: Antonio Vivaldi – La Stravaganza Op.4

Interstellar News: I was warned this was a two-part episode, so many thanks to my two loyal readers.

Favorite Quotes:

Bashir: But 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: That you should never tell the same lie twice.

Bashir explaining a fable to Garak and Garak totally missing the point.

Garak: Well I had hoped a few hours alone might jog your memory but I can see I’m going to have to take some steps I’d hoped to avoid.

Odo: Oh, no. You’re going to torture me, aren’t you? How I’ve been dreading this. Please have mercy, Garak.

Garak: You do have a certain flair for sarcasm. It’s one of the things I like about you.

Odo is waving his hands around in sarcasm, can’t you see?

“Improbable Cause” – “I want you to take that rod and eat it.”: Garak’s shop explodes, O’Brien determines it was not an accident, and Bashir tells Garak about “the boy who cried wolf” to mixed reviews. Odo interrogates a merchant who was hired by the Romulans to assassinate Garak, but there’s no proof so Odo goes to tail his ship and Garak comes along. Just as the merchant’s ship heads to warp it blows up, so Odo and Garak contact the Romulans who turn the investigation into a dead end. Odo meets with a Cardassian informant who explains the Romulans and Cardassians are about to invade the GQ and that five Cardassian operatives were also killed. Odo tells Garak he knows he blew up his own shop and the two go off to find Enabran Tain, though they are captured by a Romulan warbird that has Tain on it. Apparently the Obsidian Order of Cardassia and the Tal Shiar of Romulus took it upon themselves to strike the Founder’s planet to end the threat of the Dominion. Tain plans to come out of retirement and gives Garak the choice to join him, which Garak gleefully accepts.

“The Die is Cast” – “I’m a very good tailor.”: 20 Romulan and Cardassian ships approach DS9 and go through the wormhole. Tain and Garak reminisce while DS9 is evacuated and the Defiant ordered to keep Bajor safe. Sisko ignores that order and goes after Odo but Eddington sabotages their cloak so they are delayed in their rescue. Garak interrogates Odo by using a machine that doesn’t allow him to change shape, and he’s close to his 16 hours. Odo tells Garak he wants to be with his people more than anything, Garak lies to Tain, and the Romulans want to study Odo. They arrive at the Founder’s planet only to find it’s been abandoned and just as 150 Jem’hadar ships come out of the nebula. Garak goes to free Odo as their ship is under attack and it turns out Lovok is no Romulan but a Founder pretending in order to remove two of the four biggest threats in the AQ (the other two being The Federation and the Klingons). Garak tries to help Tain but he and Odo have to leave and are picked up by the Defiant and they all head back to AQ. Odo invites Garak for breakfast sometime despite the fact that Odo does not eat.

My Thoughts and Impressions: Two killer episodes that kept me on the edge of my seat. Garak was absolutely on fire especially when he gives Bashir tons of shit with “the boy who cried wolf” and putting him on when it came to the isolinear rod. He also gets a taste of hope that his exile will come to an end but it’s short lived. My favorite Garak moment, though, is when he’s interrogating Odo and basically begs him to tell him ANYTHING. When Odo does Garak is visibly relieved and then doesn’t even tell Tain anything, he really has in some small way come to care for those he’s been living with. There are also some really great Odo moments because he’s extra snarky and sarcastic up until he meets his threshold and he eventually breaks. He’s not unflappable, no matter his chosen exterior, and he finds out what happens when he’s unable to change his shape. Odo also surprises EVERYONE by again denying himself the thing he most wants when he tells his fellow changeling no.

We finally get to find out what was happening in the Orias system after the event of “Defiant” and it totally makes sense that the black ops of the Cardassians and Romulans got together and decided to make a stand. It’s interesting that their decision is to go take on the Founders instead of blowing up the wormhole, especially since the Romulans were all hot and heavy about blowing it up just a while ago. It’s wonderful that the Founders were way ahead of the game and I was sad I didn’t have anyone to watch this episode with because they couldn’t see my mouth gape when the big reveal happened. Tain was so stunned and I was right there with him.

The rest of the crew is stuck on the Defiant because Eddington is a rat bastard, but how did they not see it coming? O’Brien is a bad ass engineer and in true Trek fashion they are able to come to the rescue at the last minute and, in the end, no one is court martialed. I rate these two episodes a total of 9 tribbles.

TA Out!