"Necessary Evil"
Super neo-noir. If they made this black-and-white, it could be like a movie from the 1940s. Quark and a sexily dressed Bajoran woman, Mrs. Vaatrik Pallra, are in a darkened room. Rain, thunder, and lightening outside. Quark is sitting down while Mrs. Vaatrik is standing, offering to pay Quark to do a job for her. Then enticing him with something extra without saying it explicitly, much like was done during the Hays Code. Quark agrees to do it. Then out comes a Bajoran man who, if this were a '40s movie, would be a gangster. I loved the way all the shots were blocked. When Quark sits, you can tell he's listening. When Mrs. Vaatrik is standing and walking, the camera follows as if asking, "Where are you going with this?" She wants Quark to steal something without getting caught.
Back on the station, Quark brings Rom with him, and at first I'm asking, "Why the Hell is Quark bringing Rom with him?!" Then Rom reveals he knows ways of breaking in that Quark didn't know about. The very FIRST sign in the series of Rom being underestimated and turning out to be smarter than everyone thought.
Turns out that Quark and Rom stole a lockbox that had in it a list with eight Bajoran names. I completely forgot about this. And they take a picture of the list before putting it back into the box. If this were 2024, he'd take a cellphone picture of it. But anyway...
I love when the Bajoran Gangster (that's what I'm calling him) shows up, behind Quark and Rom, cloaked in shadows. Really keeping up with the neo-noir. Jaro never scared me, even with his Cardassian tactics. But this guy partially hidden shadows? That scares me. Makes me think he's capable of anything... and it turns out he is. The gangster shoots Quark and takes the list! BAM! I love not remembering everything! It's like watching for the first time.
Quark is hauled off to the infirmary. Meanwhile Sisko and Odo play Good Gop and Bad Cop respectively, trying to find out from Rom what happened. Odo makes for a great Bad Cop, accusing Rom of killing Quark, telling Rom he has his eye on him and that he's not as stupid as he pretends. Then Sisko asks Rom what happened. Rom explains that a Bajoran stole a list of names they found. When Rom shows Odo where they found the list. It was hidden in an old establishment on the Promenade that's no longer there. A chemical shop...
... then Odo thinks back to when
he first came onboard Terok Nor. The lighting is dark, except for some neon lights overhead, it looks gray, black, gray-ish blue, and now it even really does feel like an old black-and-white movie.
When Dukat meets Odo for the first time he says that he thinks Odo would make a good investigator since he can shapeshift his way into places other people can't. That's Dukat for you. It's not that he's looking at what Odo can do, he's looking at what Odo can do for
him. Actually, it's the same with any employer, but it has added meaning when it comes to Dukat, given how one-track-minded he is.
Dukat has a great line when he asks Odo if he's seen death before, distinguishing between different types of death, "Those were casualties [of war]. This is murder."
I was interested to see how they'd square the circle of Odo working for the Cardassians. Dukat says Odo has handled disputes before. Odo says it's because he's seen as a neutral party. Dukat wants Odo to help him as someone neutral as well. He wants him as an investigator and wants him to investigate this murder.
I'm going to break this review up into two posts. The second part will come later.
I'll finish off by saying Odo's log at the beginning of the episode feels less like a log and more like a Private Eye Detective giving his own inner-monologue. All that was missing was the accompanying jazz music.
And I'll leave you with some of this music right here.