“CHIMERA”
“I’m SO glad we took that ‘Tantra For Changelings And Their Partners’ workshop.”
I must confess, I tend to forget about this episode, yet when I get to it I’m astounded by just how...well, marvellous it is. Up to this point, the seventh season has been a somewhat mixed and meandering affair, with the mid part bogged down by too much Ezri and too little quality control. Fortunately, Rene Echevarria single-handedly manages to restore my faith by delivering one of the most beautiful, revealing and poignant character pieces the show has ever done. “Chimera” is a quiet, low-key episode but there’s actually a heck of a lot to it. It’s filled with bold, challenging themes and, like the very best of Star Trek, serves as a powerful, if complicated, morality play, exploring the nature of love, identity, prejudice and belonging.
It’s neat to finally encounter another of “the hundred” Changelings sent out into the galaxy, and one who has no ties with the Founders. Laas is a fascinating and compelling character even if he’s not exactly the nicest of guys. It’s clear that centuries of living among human beings has soured his outlook on “monoforms”, who he sees as violent and bigoted (and considering most of the Quadrant is currently locked in a vicious interstellar war, that’s an interesting point). Alas, Laas is arguably just as bigoted himself, and he certainly displays what might be considered an anti-social and perhaps even sociopathic streak. He wants to set off with Odo to find the rest of his people, and begins sowing seeds of doubt in Odo’s mind, trying to get him to see that the solids around him only accept him because he imitates them, while deep down secretly fearing and distrusting him him. Odo’s grief at being estranged from his own people is definitely colouring his feelings and rationale here, and his joy at reconnecting (quite literally) with another of his kind is as palpable as his subsequent confusion and despair.
Of course, it’s not long before Laas’s presence starts causing problems for Odo’s relationship with Kira. Kira is naturally alarmed when she discovers that Odo linked with Laas, and rightly so given what happened the last time Odo started getting “linky” with other Changelings. This spotlight on Odo and Kira’s relationship works splendidly and was perhaps the first time the show truly SOLD me on the relationship. To begin with, the start of the relationship (in “His Way”) was altogether too fluffy to have any emotional resonance and a lot of their loved-up scenes since then have been a little too cloying and forced. But there’s genuine emotion at work here and we can really feel not only Odo’s dilemma but also Kira’s fear at losing him (and her sudden inadequacy that she’s not able to link with him in the way he can with his own people).
The resolution, where Kira frees Laas so he can leave with Odo is eye-opening, to say the least. I do have a couple of quibbles about the episode, and one is that Kira can jailbreak an indicted man without facing any consequences, although I guess we can assume she perhaps received some vein-bulging Sisko-shouting at some unseen point. It’s also not as though Kira, the woman who decided to kill her own mother and alter the course of history, isn’t prone to rash, impulsive actions. What’s moving is seeing some extraordinary character growth as she realises that if you truly love someone, you sometimes have to let them go. That’s something not everyone will ever learn. Most people will only love you as long as it suits them to love you (ie., conditionally—“I love because it pleases me to love you, but the moment you start to displease me, you can beat it, baby”).
The realisation that Odo already has a connection as deep as any he could have with his own people, is rather beautiful. He expresses his pity for Laas, who has never known true love, and the episode ends in one of the most extraordinary and beautiful scenes in the show’s entire run, as Kira makes it clear she wants to know Odo as he truly is, and he duly complies by enveloping her in a blaze of light. The episode is beautifully written by Echevarria and, it goes without saying, superbly performed by Rene Auberjonois and Nana Visitor. This is a true Star Trek love story, and a million times more effective than the formulaic romance-of-the-week drivel Trek inflicted on us with painful regularity.
What I love about the episode is just how much there is to unpack. Aside from the poignant love story, there’s some fascinating analysis on prejudice, culminating in an excellent scene between Quark and Odo, where Quark points out that prejudice actually has a biological basis. It’s one of the more interesting perspectives we’ve ever seen from Quark, even if does seem a little left of field for the barkeeper. Certainly, much of human behaviour is survival-based and evolutionarily hard-wired into us. This includes our tribe mentality, which is actually evident everywhere you look even today. DS9 is once again hammering the final nails in the coffin of Gene Roddenberry’s concept of “evolved humanity”, which gives me mixed feelings. I love the aspirational nature of Roddenberry’s idealism, even if DS9’s earthier, more pragmatic approach is closer to life—and I suspect will remain so three hundred years hence. Yet the episode’s ultimate message is that it’s
love that will bridge our differences and connect us all, and that’s about as “Star Trek” as I can ever imagine. Even if our prejudices and innate tribalism will always be lurking underneath the surface, as a remnant of our biological evolution, all differences fade to insignificance in the light of genuine love.
Another theme which is never overt, but which always jumped out at me, was the episode’s gay undertone. Just a couple of episodes ago I lamented the show’s lack of LGBT representation and while this doesn’t qualify, for there’s clearly no romantic connection, as such, between Odo and Laas, it’s nevertheless there, for linking has always had a quasi-sexual connotation. I have to credit the writers for not writing and casting Laas as female, which would basically have reduced the episode to a generic love triangle between Odo, Kira and a female-Laas (and also have retread old ground with the female Founder). Laas’s exhortations most definitely parallel the plight of LGBT people growing up in a fiercely heteronormative society. As Laas tells Odo, people are tolerant of differences so long as you imitate them and be careful not to show any sign of “differentness”. But, as he says, in a beautifully written monologue,
“Even when you make yourself in their image, they know you are not truly one of them. They know that what you appear to be does not reflect what you really are. It’s only a mask. What lies underneath is alien to them, and so they fear it. And that fear can turn to hate in the blink of an eye.”
This struck me forcibly as a gay teenager, struggling to accept a part of myself I feared and hated simply because I knew it set me apart from others, and at a time (and living in a place) when being openly gay would get you nothing but beaten to a pulp. I don’t think the gay parallel was something the writers explicitly intended, but the reference to a “Changeling pride demonstration on the Promenade” indicates they were certainly aware of it. I’m glad they didn’t shy away from it and actually dared to push boundaries by casting a male in the Laas part. It’s not much, but it’s something, and it meant a lot to me at a time when I was really quite tortured by my own fear of being judged and ostracised by the people around me. In some ways, it helped me understand Laas better: yes, he’s an asshole, but why is he an asshole? An entire life of being on the receiving end of prejudice, exclusion and being made to feel like “an other” will damage a person’s psyche like nothing else.
Speaking of Laas, full credit to J.G. “Garman” Hertzler who gives a phenomenally textured and rich performance, and never once did I think “hey, that’s actually Martok”. As I said, Laas is not a nice guy, but he’s a fascinating and complex character, and I did have a certain sympathy for him, up to a point. The incident with the Klingons is suitably ambiguous. Laas’s behaviour on the Promenade was out of line and it’s never truly clear whether he was acting out of self-defence or malice when killing the Klingon. I suspect it was a bit of both. I’m rather glad it’s not a black and white matter, but one that should generate debate and uncertainty. I will say that the Klingon died too easily—one quick stab and the guy dies, even though Klingons are a durable, exo-plated warrior race and with all the marvels and miracles of 24th century medicine at Bashir’s fingertips. Didn’t quite buy it. Also, given how these guys are basically bullies and always tend to go about harassing people and picking fights, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
Anyway, I’ve said enough. While I could quibble on a couple of details, this is nevertheless a brilliant, exceptionally well-written and performed episode, filled with fascinating, thought-provoking themes and a genuinely moving exploration of the true nature of love and connection. I confess I almost cried at that stunningly beautiful closing scene. Trek love stories were rarely this exceptional—this is a definite final season highlight.
Rating: 10
