Odo was kind of a jerk in Seasons 1 and 2. Spoilers alert in case

Especially in the episode where Jadzia Dax was on "trial" for that so called murder of that war hero.

Odo got out of line when he said something such as that he would love to put a noose around Kurzon Dax's neck.

 

That's Odo. He was quite the curmudgeon.

That's a misrepresentation of what he said.

"But treason, plus the murder of his own best friend? Strange business. If those charges are true, I'd want to hang Curzon Dax up by his heels myself."

 

He's still a jerk for saying that in the first place. He believed the charges and he was in gruff cop mode taking the other person's side anyway. Plus his meeting with the wife was pretty lousy since he was giving her the third degree also giving her a hard time the whole time.

 

Police work is a tough job, they're not there to make friends but to dig deep in getting the facts.

 

As it's been awhile since I've seen the episode, can you please provide a quote backing up your claim that Odo believed the charges?

 

That's Odo (at least in the beginning) perfectly happy being Bad Cop and not requiring a Good Cop. In later series he mellowed which I always thought was as much to do with Auberjonois settling into the role as character development.

 

Why?

 

Odo is doing his job, following the clues and evidence where it takes him, regardless of his personal feelings about suspects. He was also right about giving the wife a hard time, she was lying and knew more than she'd previously let on, if Odo didn't get to the truth then an innocent person would've suffered because of it.

We should all be so lucky to have a law enforcement officer like Odo looking out for public safety.

 

He had just switched over from being a Cardassian cop who were pretty Nazi most of the time. Pretty sure Odo laments how much easier his job was then too.

Is it ever explained who Odo was handed over with the station like he was part of the equipment?

 

Why not? Essentially, he had always been that: while other people on Terok Nor might have been, well, people, Odo had no life or existence outside his job.

Had the station continued to refine ore, the workers involved might have been retained, too. Only, the ones previously called slaves might receive some sort of a minimal wage and a bit less electro-whipping in the afternoons, while the ones previous called specialists and engineers might be executed for collaboration if a corresponding skill set could be found elsewhere. But even the slaves had families, or at least family histories. Odo was but a lump of goo, both to the people interacting with him, and to himself.

Timo Saloniemi

 

He wasn't with the Cardassians or the Bajorans, he was a neutral party that worked on the station, so when the Union forces withdrew he was under no obligation to go with them. When Bajor took over the station, he'd already be known to the people, know the base, and have a proven track record so makes sense for him to be offered the post of Security Chief.

 

I didn't think he was neutral but aligned to Bajor as they'd found him? Either way, once the Cardassians left where else was he going to go and, at that point in his development, what else was he going to find to do with his existence?

 

The allegiances of people up there on the much-accursed "Space Station" weren't important to either the Union or the Provisional Government. That place was only good for banishment, a dumping grounds for people who'd already smell to high heaven or were about to pick up the vile odor of the Federation. If Odo wanted to stay, this would mean he'd get to stay - he'd essentially be signing his own banishment warrant there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

And I liked that he was a curmudgeon.

 

Did you complain about how Tuvok was indifferent to Tom Paris in tone, when he told him he would have locked him up accordingly if found guility, in Ex Post Facto?

 

It perhaps is theoretically odd that the Cardassians would have left Odo behind versus taking him with them as a unique individual and a scientific curiosity. But as a practical matter, taking Odo with them if he didn't want to go would probably have been more trouble than it would have been worth.

I can't remember how the Terok Nor novels resolved this question.

 

I think he was off the station by that time of the withdrawal in the novels, but I think he helped the resistance sabotage Terok Nor in some way.

 

It's coming back to me...IIRC Odo helps sabotage the Bajoran security grid so that the Cardassians can no longer as effectively track the resistance, and I believe there is a part where Dukat is looking for Odo (I like that the novels and the series, if you look for it, portray Dukat as always looking to be validated by other people) but can't find him.

 

I think gruff, stiff, uncompromising cop is Odo's MO. He softens over the run of DS9 but doesn't nearly everyone?

 

Also, Odo is a veteran of doing justice his own way, independently of the laws of the current rulers. During the occupation, he probably often chose to show more mercy than Cardassian law would have called for. But he'd be extremely distrustful of Bajoran and Federation law, too, and of Trill law, any law: being out of the line would be his standard reaction to pretty much everything.

This is not to say that execution by hanging would be rare in Bajoran law; we never hear otherwise, and tensions do run high in the post-occupation setting. Or, if we take Odo literally, punitive suspension torture might be what the law does call for in cases like this, and Odo merely feels he would enjoy playing a role some other official generally performs in such cases. But the spirit of the scene is not one of Odo either gladly serving the law or feeling restrained by it. It's one of him feeling he has the right to do whatever he pleases, just as always, and he merely gives the benefit of doubt to Curzon until further evidence comes up.

Timo Saloniemi