Whispers

[konitzlee]

Hello people!!

So I'm watching DS9 for the first time, and I got to Sx14.

I have a few questions. First of all, when O'Brien has come back from the mission, on the station they basically know from the start that he might be a replicant. Why do they let him free when they know there's a good chance he's not the real O'Brien? Only in the end they realize that he must have been programmed to be an assassin or a saboteur to the peace conference, but they did not know that for sure. Wouldn't it have made more sense to put him in a brig (or confine him to quarters) until things could be ascertained?

Also, why wasn't Odo informed about the fact that O'Brien wasn't O'Brien?


Thanks.

 

[Timo]

It might be argued that the uncertainty works both ways. What if there are no replicants, and it's all a malicious Rebel lie? In that case, the Rebels specifically want O'Brien out of the picture - meaning it is to the advantage of the heroes and the peace talks that O'Brien stays in the picture.

A more probable reason is that the replicant, if caught and realizing this, could well enact an emergency protocol that might not be limited to suicide...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I thought they knew he was a copy from the beginning and were watching him carefully to see what his target was. Or was it that they didn't want to tip off the enemies that they were on to them yet?

 

[Timo]

It turned out fine in the end: the replica hurt nobody. But the events did not quite confirm the Rebel story that this was a Government plot (after all, the original O'Brien was apparently "found" by the Rebels!), so the "carefully watching" bit didn't really work...

Still, marching O'Brien to the conference without allowing him to intervene was probably the best possible outcome. Since it left nobody the wiser about "secret plots", there would be less finger-pointing there.

Timo Saloniemi