Which episode was it...

[Sketcher]

that introduced Sisko as being the Emissary. I know the pilot sets it up, but which episode has the bajorans calling him the Emissary?

 

[startrekwatcher]

I think it was Destiny.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I think Bajorans started to refer to Sisko as the Emissary right after the events of the pilot movie. Take Kai Opaka in the episode "Battle Lines" (1x13) or the Vedeks Bareil and Winn in "In the Hands of the Prophets" (1x20) for example.

Of course, Winn's personal attitude towards the Emissary was also a bit of a patronizing and arrogant one... she probably just accepted him as the Emissary because she didn't want to piss off her followers and damage her "political" career. You have to float with the current.

The aforementioned episode "Destiny" (Season 3) constituted an important step in Sisko's struggle towards accepting his religious role. And maybe the events of the episode also helped to convince the few remaining Bajorans who still had been skeptical. Kira seemed to be one of them... perhaps because Sisko also happened to be her commanding officer and he always had refused to be seen as the Emissary himself.

 

[nx1701g]

Sisko really started to accept his destiny in the Season 4 episode Accession when he and the false Emissary visited the wormhole and essentially asked who the Emissary was and the Bajoran disappeared.

 

[chrinFinity]

Script excerpt from Emissary:

    Opaka's hand moves to Sisko's ear... a finger runs down the 
    outer rim slowly...

                    KAI OPAKA
            A Bajoran draws courage from his 
            spiritual life... our lifeforce, our 
            pagh, is replenished by the 
            prophets...

    An inner calm coming to her eyes, a witness to a miracle... 
    terribly moved... Opaka squeezes the earlobe... surprising 
    Sisko who's head jerks with pain...

                    KAI OPAKA
                (knowingly, with 
                sympathy)
            Breathe.

                    SISKO
                (uncomfortable)
            Kai Opaka, if we could discuss your 
            role in the post-Cardassian 
            transition...

                    KAI OPAKA
            Breathe.

    And begins to run her fingers back up the edge of the ear...


        DEEP SPACE: "Emissary" REV. FINAL 08/25/92 - ACT TWO        34.

52   CONTINUED:    (2)

                    KAI OPAKA
            Ironic.  One who does not wish to be 
            among us is to be the emissary.

    Sisko reacts, the emissary to Bajor?  What did she mean?  Is 
    his lack of interest so obvious?  Her face studies every 
    microridge... finally she is finished.