It could be worse. My tamagotchi was lost when I dropped it down the toilet.
Drowning is a terrible way to go.
That sense of contrivance doesn't sit easily with the admirable decision to have her death be sudden and pointless, and that weakens the impact.
Agreed. Randomly dying in a car crash is tragic and says something about the frailty of life. Randomly dying to a demonically-possessed madman is just weird and doesn't say anything.
My personal suggestion regarding Jadzia's death was that the Dominion should have invaded Trill instead of Betazed, that that's what would have driven Sisko to bring the Romulans into the war, and that the season ending arc would have been Starfleet's attempts to free Trill. That would have brought the Trill into the core story of the series in a way they never were, and given Jadzia an excellent opportunity to die in battle. The ultimate direction of the series would have barely been changed at all, but Dax's role in the whole thing would have been greatly improved.
.
That's an excellent idea. The Trill are an extremely generic species that are very hard to care about even though two main cast members are Trill. Making Trill a focal point of the war, and witnessing Dax's response to that, would have given them more character and added weight to previous episodes that focused on the Trill.
That's pretty dark but it would have been good. Better than her death by Dukat anyway. Actually I think anything would have been better than what we did get. Perhaps she could have gone to spend her life with that guy from Meridian?
Too risky, the mere mention of the name of that planet would have driven a substantial portion of the audience to suicide. And that would have been bad for season 7's ratings.
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night (*½)
I don't like retcons, but if they add something worthwhile to the show, if they explain some previous uncertainty, or if they introduce something which is built upon meaningfully later, I can be at peace with them. Sadly, the revelation that Kira's mother was shacked up with Dukat several decades ago doesn't do any of these things, and I actually feel it hurts the show overall. The Kira/Dukat dynamic was perfect the way it was, and it felt as real as a relationship between a former alien terrorist and a former alien dictator could feel. It was complex, it was layered, it was multi-faceted, and a whole bunch of other clichés. But this episode tried to add more complexity to their relationship that it really didn't need, and the end-result actually made things simpler and less interesting. It's like a Jenga tower that has grown into a wonderfully chaotic shape, but then someone has the bright idea of putting a cement brick on top of it and in the aftermath all you're left with is the bottom layers of the tower and the brick.
I hope at least someone out there understands what that metaphor is supposed to mean.
Then there's the time-travel aspect of the story. Oh boy. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't like the casual use of time-travel, and this is about as casual as things get. Kira wants to know whether her mother was romantically involved with Dukat, so rather than continue her investigation in the present by checking the records or interviewing Bajorans that worked on the station at that time, SHE TRAVELS BACK IN TIME! She decides to do one of the most reckless things a person can do, to mess around with causality itself, and not only does Sisko consider this a reasonable request, the Gods do too. I'm beginning to sympathise with the Dominion, they wouldn't stand for this kind of shit.
The episode isn't all bad, any chance to see Terok Nor again is welcome, although it's not nearly as visually interesting this time because it's too bright. When we saw Terok Nor in previous episodes it was moody and dark, but in this episode the station seems to be even brighter than it is when the Federation is in charge, which makes no sense considering the Cardassians don't like things too bright. Another plus for the episode is that Nana Visitor has gotten to be really good at playing a tormented soul dealing with morally complex issues, and she almost makes the episode work. Almost.