Alright, I've finished DS9
Inter Arma Enim Slient Leges
Now I'm not a fan this one, Exploring the darker side of The Federation is one of the consistent praised points of DS9. But here with Ross & S31 setting Cretak and just felt too dark for me. And it didn't clear up some of the questions I had regrading S31, and tbh it was boring at times for me. It was seeing the Intrepid ship & VOY mess hall. Overall an okay episode
Penumbra
I like the beginning of this one with showing how far Sisko has come in regard to his role as Emissary, with him purchasing Bajoran land, him and Kasidy discussing Sarah and The Prophets. in the beginning he was reculent to really place himself in the role & share that view of himself, Now he's fully embraced it, showing off DS9's strongest suit with its character development. The scene with Quark comforting Ezri in classic Quark fashion was so nice, esp in lines like
QUARK: "Absolutely. The night before he went on patrol, he brought the Koraga's crew in here and bought them three barrels of bloodwine."
EZRI: "And?"
QUARK: "And he didn't pay the tab. Do you really think he'd go to Sto'Vo'Kor owing me money?"
EZRI: "He doesn't even like you."
QUARK: "Exactly. He couldn't enjoy the afterlife knowing I had something on him."
And the scene with Damar & Weyoun discussing The Founder with exchange
DAMAR: "I wonder what she does in her quarters all day? She didn't look well the last time I saw her. I hope she's not ill."
WEYOUN: "How can a god be ill?"
DAMAR: "Maybe she's not a god." And then Weyoun's disgusted look afterwords.
The animosity between them also sets up Damar's arc which I enjoy quite it(per my icon). Now the way they set up Ezri-goes-Worf plotline didn't well with me, It felt like they undid alot of episodes that had Ezri separating herself from Jadzia by having her go to her into as listen(?) to all her/Jadzia's & Worf's memory. Tho I did like Sisko line
SISKO: "She's a Dax. Sometimes they don't think. They just do." Showing his experience with not 1, not 2 but 3 Daxes.
And then Ezri trying to fake him out with "static interference" and then caption
(Dax imitating static) 
. Now while I usually don't enjoy romance centered scenes the proposal scene with Sisko & Kasidy was so sweet and good keeping the usual flair with their interactions(SISKO: "If you want to play hard to get. Ah ha." KASIDY: "What a beautiful ring.") tho also taking sadder undertones given Sisko fate in
What You Leave Behind (But thats a essay for later). The Klingon opera with Ezri & Worf in the runabout was also great, the prodding and back-and-forth really adding to my enjoyment. Tho the scenes after didn't and I found rather awkward, the conflict just didn't work for me and they felt thorny. Overall a good episode
Til Death Do Us Part
So this one puts right where we left off, along with Jake & Sisko and interactions with Jake showing his muddy relationship with The Prophets. And then Winn's classic passive agressivism
WINN: "I wouldn't know, as they've never spoken to me directly" And then her joy upon speaking with The Prophets and subsequent confusion when The Prophets aren't as clear as she assumed, along with Kira's worried look as she wonders when Winn reveals what's wrong and how she will take the vision. The scene with Weyoun and Damar with Weyoun's insults and Damar general disheveledness and revealing how unslick he thought he was trying to hide that Dukat wasn't there. And the moment where Damar looks himself(and really stares) only for him to turn away, great acting by Casey Biggs as Damar really realizes what he's become. Now I didn't like drama surrounding whether or not Ben would marry Kasidy, it just felt too much like a
Will they, Won't they situation, but the part where Kasidy silently packs up her bag and leaves without saying a word is so tragic and heartbreaking, they love eachother but certain forces seem destined to keep them apart
.
I also wasn't a fan of this episode setting up Ezri/Julian romance which felt very contrived and out-of-nowhere in the same vein of C/7. The scene with Winn revealing why Dukat's really with Duakt's face has she says that he was sent to her to be her guide from The Prophets was hilarious(in a dramatic irony kinda of way) since he follows The Pai-Wraiths, and is now working(at least for the time being) for the enemy. Then going to Quark & SIsko scene where Quark is clearly out of his element delivering the ring to Sisko and then the line QUARK: "It seems a shame to let something so beautiful go to waste."
With the deceleration at the end near the airlock, and then Sisko's and Kasidy's wedding with all of the senior staff there very good, I only some of Kasidy's crew could've shown of up aswell, since they didn't a good job at really developing Kasidy out side here relationship to Ben, Overall a good episode.
Strange Bedfellows
The animosity between Weyoun and Damar ramps up making his defection all more forthcoming. Then with Ezri & Worf hanging upside down(why did Weyoun/The Breen do that?) along with a great exchange
EZRI: "I hate to say it, but this is doing wonders for my back."
WORF: "I doubt that is what our captors had in mind."
EZRI: "Probably not."
And the part where it all comes to a head with Worf killing Weyoun and then just laughing and snarking
DAMAR: "Overconfidence. The hallmark of the Weyouns. Maybe the Founders should eliminate that from your genetic recipe next time. They'll just make another copy of him, you know. You should've killed me. There's only one Damar." Then Worf's bite back
WORF: "I will keep that in mind." I also always found it funny how Kai Winn says "Who are you?" and then when Dukat is rightfully is confused and taken aback when she says that out of nowhere she just repeats "I mean, who are you, Anjohl Tennan? I want to know everything about your family, your childhood." Like he's the idiot. And then scene where its confirmed Winn's been speaking to the Pai-wraiths with Winn shock and horror juxtaposed with Dukat's smirk and smile as he leaves her quarters. The delivery of "Well hello" and Damar's smug happiness has Weyoun is dead and replaced immediately taken away as more of his power is taken away and he and Cardassia's influence is taken away. And the look he has as he just slightly shakes, oh yeah you tell this is the last straw. Then the little scene where Quark, Miles and Bashir just have some little regarding them being missing( but somewhat cut down as tries to set up a romance with Ezri & Juilan)
Leading to Winn & Dukat and Dukat trying to convert Winn to Pai-wraiths, then just for tell him to "Get out!" with such anger to see him slipping back his real voice and let the mask slip. The just for Kai Winn to breakdown crying...
. To have just trying to talk to The Prophets and getting no response only to call Kira, And for their heart-to-heart and Winn juts lets it all out and breakdown and open up and admit to Kira that she wants change with Kira telling her "that the worse of us can change" Just to see it fall it apart as even with that admission Winn still can't see past her thirst for power and just Kira face looking so disappointed, she tried, she really tried, she hoped that finally after so long Winn had started to see the light just for it be cut down as she slips right back into her ways. And then the parallel with the mirror as Damar throws it and then his face falls as he once again realizes what he's become. And the Ezri's & Worf heart-to-heart as Worf finally admits opens up & him and Ezri finally make boundaries and move their friendship(and more!) forward esp poignant with the line
EZRI: "Worf, we're not gods or prophets. We're people. We make mistakes." Cut to Damar letting them go and then his feel of i've got smth planned with lines
DAMAR: "You're the one that put the Jem'Hadar in charge of the detention area."
DAMAR: "Oh, I'm sure she'll understand. But if she doesn't, I look forward to meeting Weyoun Nine." And then we see Winn's downfall as her anger leads her to Pai-wraiths fully embracing them and their "love". Overall a great episode
The Changing Face of Evil
Alright, Bringing us right into the action with The Breen acttacking Earth, then for Damar to try and stir up shit with The Breen and The Dominion, with the relationship between Cardassia and then Damar conferring with Rusot to begin rebelling and taking back Cardassia. I also like how I got somewhat invested in Solbar, and his distain for "Anjohl" (props to James Otis) as he watches the Kai go down a dark path. I also enjoyed the Miles & Bashir interaction regarding The Alamo model, with talking to Quark abt a possible attack and then immediately going right back into program while Quark just stands anxious. And the pan to Ezri & Worf just discussing them and Ezri "feelings
" for Bashir. But there still is nice quality to the interaction
WORF: "He is a child."
EZRI: "Miles does have a certain cherubic quality."
WORF: "I was talking about Doctor Bashir, and you know it. Are you certain he's the one?"
EZRI: "You're a good friend, Worf."
WORF: "I know." I also love the part where Weyoun tries to engage Damar in some conversation, then to see him realize Damar's missing a bottle, then he thinks that "Finally! Damar has come to his senses and realized where he stands" oh what a rude awaking he's gonna get. The scene with Kasidy & Sisko discussing his actions regrading her cargo runs, and Kasidy standing up for herself and setting boundaries, really liked that
. The scene with the Defiant crew doing per-flight checks while talking to eachother them is so good really emphasizes the ties and relationship build up with these characters. And all those ships flying into battle god I love it, DS9 giving the best ship porn. And Goodbye to the Defiant, a good ship gone too soon, And then Solbor realization as he sees how Winn has betrays them and then added punch that all The Kosst Amojan needed was the blood of a Vedek to reveal the texts. And only that but Damar's speech across the quadrant, mirroring Dukat's speech when The Dominion first arrived. Chills. Overall a pretty good episode.
When It Rains...
So ofc the first thing is irony, irony at that fact that a ex-spy, Ziyal's murderer and bajoran freedom fighter, have to work together with eachother to teach cardassians to be a resistance cell. Now Gorwon coming to DS9 after being absent felt out of place for me, like they couldn't find a way to make drama anywhere else, I'm also not a fan Ezri/Julian plotline, the romance is so out-of-nowhere and forced that it doesn't feel believable to me, and it falls right into
Will they, Won't They Territory which is a trope I am absolutely sick of why they simply couldn't have Ezri & Julian be friends and handle Ezri's character that didn't just boil to her romantic relationships is forever a mystery. a very irritating mystery
. The S31 stuff aswell I didn't care for, alot of things I'd ended up enjoying was during The Cardassian resistance plotline. This episode is also goes by faster/ seems alot shorter to me than the other ones for some reason perhaps my boredom regrading this at times. Overall an alright episode
Tacking Into the Wind
So this one is alot more engaging for me than
When It Rains... Such as the Garak & Odo scene when he admits that he's been keeping his condition a secret to Kira, only for us to learn that Kira knows and is just a secret herself that she already and is just sparing(?) his feelings. This episode also sets up some Miles & Bashir conflict which plays out in
Extreme Measures But that episode was disappointing to me (more in that review(?)). The Founder & Weyoun relationship here is also shown breaking down here in the same vein of The Founder themselves, This one also gets into the minutiae of Kilngon poltics and The Empire. The tension between Rusot and Kira is also strong aspect here, esp the part after Kira kicks Rusot ass and then Garak coming out of the shadows giving his advice to Kira very in character & cool. And the part where Damar revives the news of family's murder and the exchange
DAMAR: "They're dead. They weren't a part of this rebellion. The Dominion knew that, the Founder knew that. Weyoun knew that. To kill her and my son. The casual brutality of it. A waste of life. What kind of state tolerates the murder of innocent women and children? What kind of people give those orders?"
KIRA: "Yeah, Damar, what kind of people give those orders?"
With Damar immediate shock as he steps forward knowing exactly what she's talking only to realize Kira's right and walk away and then Garak's reasuroes at the end
KIRA: "Oh, that was stupid."
GARAK: "Not at all. Damar has a certain romanticism about the past. He could use a dose of cold water."
KIRA: "I could have picked a better time."
GARAK: "If he's the man to lead a new Cardassia, if he's the man we hope him to be, then the pain of this news made him more receptive to what you said, not less."
And then Ezri & Worf's convo abt The Empire with fun exchanges
EZRI: "That's very sweet of him."
WORF: "Sweet?"
EZRI: "Not a very Klingon word, is it?"
WORF: "No."
EZRI: "It's very honourable."
WORF: "Better, albeit a little obvious. Now, tell me what you think."
But getting into the serious stuff with Ezri's opinion on The Empire, and inner unhonorable politics, and deep corruption runs in it with Worf just taking it all in, thinking over her thoughts. And the leading scene with Worf's fight with Gorwon just standing and simply saying "No." and pulling no punches with calling Gorwon out. And the conculsion with Martok finally being back in leader position.
And then comes my favorite scene(I even made part of it my icon!) where the tension finally reaches it breaking point, with Kira just trying to comfront Odo as Rusot and Garak tug it out, just lines & exchanges like this one building it all up.
RUSOT: "You're still a Cardassian, Garak. You're not going to kill one of your own people for a Bajoran woman."
GARAK: "How little you understand me." And the final point
RUSOT: "Damar, shoot him. We can kill them both and keep the Breen weapon for ourselves. I believe in you, Damar. I know you're the right man to restore the Empire we loyally served. The Empire we loved. Together we can lead our people to greatness again. Just aim and fire."
"DAMAR: He was my friend. But his Cardassia's dead, and it won't be coming back." And everyone's reaction as Damar looks over him just shock and surprise. Beautifully showing how serious Damar is abt the rebellion. Overall a great episode
Extreme Measures
The scene with Odo asking Kira leave because he doesn't want see pain as he dies, despite me not being fan of the development of their romance once the writiers got with they made it work. Very sweet and sad scene. Some small fun interactions here are also nice
O'BRIEN: "Sir, we should inform you that research is not the only avenue we've been pursuing."
BASHIR: "Miles."
O'BRIEN: "He needs to know."
SISKO: "Whatever's going on, I want to know it right now." Now the premise of this episode sounds right up my alley, a trip into someone's mind episode are usually some of my favorites tho they are a bit rare in regards to
Star Trek , But here I feel that didn't push the concept far enough, I also kind of wonder how Sloan didn't antiscipate the possibility that Bashir could've had bait, or that cure message could've been faked. And the scene where Bashir & Miles just sit and talk on their "deathbed" seems clunky to me. Tho there are so fun interactions
BASHIR: "You mean we can let go?"
O'BRIEN: "I don't see why not. Well?"
BASHIR: "Well what? You first."
O'BRIEN: "Oh, no. This little trip wasn't my idea."
BASHIR: "All right, we'll let go together."
O'BRIEN: "On the count of three."
BASHIR + O'BRIEN: "One, two, three."
BASHIR: "See? Nothing to worry about."
O'BRIEN: "I wasn't worried." But other than few sparse things I felt this one was out of place. Overall a whatever episode
The Dogs of War
Alright so the Defiant's back (Not
The Defiant but you get my gist) although I don't really see the purpose in destroying the Defiant only to bring a ship of the same class and then change the name back to the old one, feels like it cheapens the moment a bit. And another part this storyline I don't care is once again Ezri/Julian romance, once again repeating myself, I don't get this romance Julian & Ezri friendship wasn't really explored enough to make a believable foundation for a romance and it overall felt like they just paired these characters together just to have characters in romantic relationship.
And then wrapping up of the Ferengi plotlines, which are tonally at odds with rest of storylines, I feel it would've been better to wrap these up before finishing out the series. This also weird vibes with Qurak being constantly against the reforms, its in character but watching it during this political climate just feels odd. And then just Quark's ranting as Rom just buy the bar
ROM: "There's something to be said for keeping prices down by ensuring healthy competition. So what are you going to do with the bar?"
QUARK: "You can't even dump industrial waste anymore because it might harm the natural habitat. I'm supposed to start worrying about animals now? Look how they live, wallowing in dirt, sleeping in trees. That's not natural."
ROM: "I suppose you could argue that Ferenginar's biodiversity is a precious resource that belongs to everyone.
So, what are you going to do with the bar?"
QUARK: "And don't even get me started about this whole labour rights thing. What have we come to if you can't demand sexual favors from people in your employ?"
ROM: "Unharassed workers are productive workers.
SO, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THE BAR?"
But this one doesn't really do anything for idk, It has moments with advancing the Cardassian resistance plot, but Overall another whatever episode.
What You Leave Behind
I loved the interactions between the O'brien's with eachother
KEIKO: "Sounds good to me. Speaking of Julian. Have you told him about Starfleet's offer yet?"
O'BRIEN: "No, not yet."
MOLLY: "I knew it."
O'BRIEN: "What's that supposed to mean?"
MOLLY: "We're not going back to Earth."
O'BRIEN: "Of course we are. Daddy's going to teach at the Academy, when the war's over."
MOLLY: "Then why haven't you told Julian?"
KEIKO: "Out of the mouth of babes."
O'BRIEN: "I'll tell him, you know, when I think he's ready to hear it."
Even tho we don't see them often I still love the finale gave us the O'Brien the family man aspect in the end. And they twist the knife on this already heart-gunching episode
KASIDY: "Ben? Promise me something. Promise that you'll come home to us."
.
The ship porn in this one is also great hopefully one day we'll get DS9/VOY remaster these battle scenes would look even more impressive than they already are. along with the just scene with fleet just flying to Cardassia, so many shapes, sizes, colors, styles really emphasizes that this a unified fleet ready to put a end to this war. Now the Pai-wraith plotline wasn't as good as others around them, since it was all but forgotten in the last 2 episodes, which I feel made it suffer writing wise compared to Cardassia rebellion, and finishing the war arcs. I love the battle sequences here and that feeling triumph as Cardassian ships start attacking The Dominion after seeing many Federation ships go down, amazing. And then Cardassian soldier defecting from The Dominion and then lines
EKOOR: "That's for Lakarian City. Legate Damar, I pledge my life to free Cardassia from the Dominion."
DAMAR: "With men like you on our side, how can we fail?" And then tragedy of Broca one of few loyal Cardassian left, only to killed by The Founders he trusted, and last knowledge being that his people where going to killed a masse, and Damar leading the rebellion into the complex. And omg The scene where we see the Dominion defense premintier just all those ships, the music, the camera fully showing off the Dominion's guns, God what sequence. And oh Damar's death at least he got what he wanted, a freed Cardassia but only rubble and leveled building left of it. But the main core of sadness in this episode is the goodbyes everyone leaving behind close friends, family, people that they loved. Garak's admission of Cardassians, millions of deaths at the hands of The Dominion and Garak's final lines
GARAK: "Oh, it's quite all right, Doctor. You've been such a good friend. I'm going to miss our lunches together."
BASHIR: "I'm sure we'll see each other again."
GARAK: "I'd like to think so, but one can never say. We live in uncertain times." And the Bar scene with Sisko's toast to everyone at the near(and Worf's Minsk) and then Vic's sendoff with
The Way You Look Tonight . But the final scene with Jake & Kira looking out on the wormhole, the two people who didn't want Sisko to be the emissary, as the DS9 theme plays with just the horn along in the background...
. Overall a amazing episode with a beautiful send off for the series. And such a tear-jerker. Overall I'm so glad I watched the series and can call myself a Niner, Thank you DS9, Thank you.
) and the scene with Sisko and Vic just dueting is all kinds of fun.
