DS9: “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” and “Inquisition”

Date: August 18, 2020

Season 6, Episodes 17 and 18

Musical Accompaniment: A hard rock instrumental compilation.

Interstellar News: Tonight I ate purple noodles (sweet potato and buckwheat) and they weren’t half-bad.

Favorite Quote from “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night”:

Sisko: Tell me something, Nerys. If you hate her that much, why did you save her life?

Kira: Believe me, there’s a part of me that wishes that I hadn’t. But the fact is, no matter what she did, she was still my mother.

Sisko already knew the answer, he just knew Kira needed to say it out loud.

So what had happened in “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night” was…: Kira gets a transmission from Dukat who reveals that her mother left their family to be with Dukat. After being irritable in Ops all morning Kira begs Sisko, the Emissary, to let her use the Orb of Time and see for herself. Kira is transported back in time, though it’s different than the last time we saw the Orb used, and she saves her family from thieves trying to steal their soup. Meru and Kira, however, are rounded up to become “comfort women” to the Cardassians and Gul Dukat is instantly smitten with Meru. Meru is moved into Dukat’s quarters and several weeks later calls for Kira to be her companion, but Kira is disgusted and calls her mother a collaborator. She agrees to plant a bomb for the resistance but, after activating it, she realizes that her mother made the choice to do this for her family and she saves Dukat and Meru. She returns to present time and debriefs with Sisko.

“Well, if you won’t talk about it, perhaps you should consider doing something about it.”: So Dukat did and did not tell the truth, as is true to his character. Meru didn’t leave her family to be with him by choice, she did it for them so they could have a chance to survive… though that doesn’t make it right as Kira explains. I find it interesting that Kira was the cause of Dukat’s one-month anniversary bombing just as I find it horribly creepy that Dukat has had the hots for Kira since early on. My favorite part was when Kira was with the Legate at the party and how well she handled him both before and after she got him drunk. He also helps tell Kira and the audience that this is not a new act and he’s seen it all before, Dukat really is a slime. While his feelings for Meru may be genuine he’s still doing horrible things to her people, and all to feed his massive ego and god-complex.

The entirety of this episode is what Sisko would say is a shade of grey because everyone has their price. Kira grew up wanting to kick Cardassian ass and that was that, nothing could change her mind, but what made that possible was her mother’s sacrifice. Her mother chose to accept the “easy” route, but what did it feel like for her to be away from her children and her husband for seven years? Did she willing go to his bed or did she feel guilted into it? The episode doesn’t delved into these things but maybe they would have helped Kira. Maybe Kira’s recent realization that she was briefly a collaborator during the Dominion occupation of DS9 helped or maybe it was Sisko’s order to not disturb the timeline that helped Kira save her mother and Dukat at the last minute. There are several things “off” about this episode; the Orb works weirdly, we don’t know if Kira looked like herself or if it was like when Odo had his weird vision, and Sisko just allowing Kira to go off and find out if her mom was sleeping with Dukat. I give this episode 6 Orbs that all sing the same song when you hold it up to your ear.

Favorite Quote from “Inquisition”:

Bashir: I was alone.

Sloan: Are you sure about that?

Bashir: Wait, let me think. Was I alone in solitary? Yes. I think I was.

Bashir with the sass and sarcasm… I approve.

So what had happened in “Inquisition” was…: Bashir is heading out to a medical conference but first he must fix O’Brien’s shoulder… again. The next morning Bashir is suuuuuuuuper tired and he is called to Ops with the other senior officers because Internal Affairs is there, relieves them of duty and confines them to quarters. Bashir is called in by Sloan who asks a few questions and then lets him go. After he is delivered Worf’s gagh by “accident” he also notices someone has been in his room and then he’s called back after O’Brien calls ahead to warn Bashir. Sloan believes Bashir is a spy and doesn’t even know it… blaming it all on his time in captivity. Sloan even puts doubt into Sisko’s head after discussing Bashir’s lying to Starfleet, his genetically engineered friends coming to visit, and his helping the Jem’Hadar try to become free of their addiction. They go to beam him out to Starbase 53 when he’s beamed onto Weyoun’s ship and Weyoun tells Bashir he’s been working for them. The Defiant catches up with the Dominion ship, Worf and Kira beam aboard and grab Bashir, but then all of the senior staff is acting off and O’Brien’s shoulder doesn’t hurt. Bashir finally realizes he’s in a holosuite when Sloan ends the program, explains he’s from Section 31, and offers Bashir a job. Back on DS9 Odo isn’t surprised that Starfleet has something like the Tal Shiar/Obsidian Order, Kira is both impressed and cautious, and Sisko is determined to use Bashir to find out what the hell is going on.

“Looks like you’re going to get to play a spy after all.”: After all those “O’Brien must suffer” episodes, now we have a “Bashir must suffer” episode… except it was all fake, kind of. From the moment he wakes up Bashir is in a holosuite program that is run by Sloan of Section 31, an organization no one has heard of but has been in existance since the first days of the Starfleet charter… SO WHY DOESN’T SOMEONE JUST GO LOOK AT Section 31 of the damn document? So I loved that the clues were there all along: Bashir feeling tired in the morning, the food being delivered incorrectly, someone going through his stuff, and even Weyoun pushing the same lies as Sloan. Sloan absolutely makes the episode, though, as he starts off all nice and then he’s nasty and mean and then he’s determined, and then you find out he just wants to offer Bashir a job now that he’s sure Bashir is not a spy. He manipulates the program just so that the audience really thinks it might be real, and the scones were a nice touch. I would have been really mad if they not only replaced Bashir with a changeling but also made him a spy, so I’m glad that wasn’t the case here. Bashir was also good with his progression of being sleepy, to having a nice chat, to being alarmed and suspicious, to being outraged, to being understanding because he’s been a liar in the past, to finally seeing what he’s been missing this whole time. He also continues to keep his doctor hat on the whole time and be sickened by the notion of a secret operation that is judge, jury, and executioner. Overall, not a terrible episode so it earns 7 of my favorite William Sadler roles (Grim Reaper, Heywood, Detterick, Sheriff Valenti, Milhoan, Janko, and (now) Sloan).

TA Out!