Shock Has Value.

Sacrifice of Angels

Oh wow.  Just when I thought the episodes couldn’t get any better, this one goes and proves me wrong!  I don’t remember feeling so conflicted and confused before! 

Where to start… how about at the beginning?  I enjoyed the poem that Bashir and O’Brien recited.  It made me feel inspired, even if Nog didn’t enjoy it.  Poor kid, he seemed scared out of his wits!   

Dukat really confused me this episode:

“But she is my daughter. That may mean nothing to you, but it means everything to me.”   He so willingly left Ziyal behind and deleted her from his life once before- now she suddenly means everything to him?  What the hell?  I guess one could chalk up his previous actions to pride and maybe he has realized now that she is more important…but I am uncertain.  It’s hard to think that someone who is as cruel as Dukat, could actually be so loving.

And just when you think Dukat has turned a leaf and is quite caring, he goes and shows just how deluded he is.

“Perhaps the biggest disappointment in my life is that the Bajoran people still refuse to appreciate how lucky they were to have me as their liberator.  I protected them in so many ways… cared for them as if they were my own children, but to this day, is there a single… statue of me on Bajor?”  Um, no.  Even Sisko refuses to grant Dukat the respect he deserves.  Dukat asking the Bajorans to appreciate him as their liberator is like Hitler asking the Jews the same thing- not going to happen.  How could the Bajorans respect or appreciate their oppressors?  How could they appreciate being put into labour camps and watching their family and friends being murdered year, after year, after year?    Anyone who expects to be idolized for such acts is simply deluded and should be locked away.

And then we come to the end of the episode and once again Dukat throws you for a loop.

Dukat seems quite broken at the end of the episode.  I was not expecting Ziyal to die- it made me tear up.  Fucking Damar, I want to shoot him.  I also felt bad for Garak, he seemed to love Ziyal in his own way.   I have trouble feeling pity for Dukat.  It’s hard to feel pity for someone who is so deluded and cruel.  But if you can look at a man who has just lost his child, and who is visibly broken and not feel a thing, you are just as broken as he is.  It’s quite heart wrenching to see someone who stood so tall, just fall to pieces like that.  To be crouched in a corner, talking to a child who has just died about plans for the future… it’s very sad.  At this point, I feel the need to set aside what Dukat has done and just look at the man who just lost his child.  I can’t imagine what that must feel like.  I have witnessed other parents fall apart just like Dukat did, right after the death of their child- it’s heart wrenching to watch.  I feel sympathy for Dukat- I never really expected that I would.  Damn the writers for the show- they are too good.  

Dukat giving Sisko his baseball back feels very significant.  Dukat said that Sisko leaving it was a message that Sisko would one day return.  I think it’s a fine piece of writing to take something so small from a previous episode and bring it back and make it so huge.  Dukat says he forgives Sisko.  I’m not entirely sure I am willing to believe Dukat at this point.  He is obviously grieving and may feel differently once the shock has worn off.  If it is true though, it marks a huge character change in Dukat.    One thing does still bother me though- Dukat so willingly offered his forgiveness but I don’t remember him asking for forgiveness himself.   

Again, I reiterate, Dukat has thoroughly confused me this episode.

Something else that kind of confused and unnerved me was the storyline involving the Prophets.  I feel inept to comment on what happened with Sisko and the Prophets in the wormhole.  I’m not sure I completely understand what happened there.  Was he punished?  Did the Prophets mean that Sisko will never find peace within himself?  I am confused.

I am also at odds as to how I feel about the Prophets eradicating an entire Dominion fleet.  I’m also not sure how I feel about Sisko asking for help from the Prophets.  His whole speech to them was built up so that they could not say no to helping him.  He knew what he was asking of the Prophets it seemed, even before he entered the wormhole.  I could be wrong, but the second Sisko ordered the Defiant into the wormhole, I suspected that he was really going there to ask the Prophets for help.  He acted like he had no idea why the Prophets would bring him to speak with them.  Maybe that was to trick the Prophets, I don’t know, but it certainly didn’t feel unplanned.  I am torn between being happy that the Prophets helped to save the Alpha quadrant and the way Sisko went about helping to make sure that happened.  Maybe my sense of what’s right and wrong is skewed but it feels like a cheap move to just eradicate an entire fleet without them knowing what hit them.  It was quite the sight to see just the Defiant come through the wormhole.  A small part of me let out a whoop and another part felt a sadness I couldn’t quite explain.  It was almost like Sisko had stooped to the level of Dukat and I didn’t like it.  Like the good guys had somehow become the bad guys and your sense of what is right and what is wrong had been completely torn apart.

…Or maybe I’m just looking too much into the situation and I should be happy the Federation and Klingons won this battle.  I just don’t know.

Weyoun is still as creepy as ever.  His plan to eradicate Earth to prevent any revolt was just plain scary.  His thought process scares me in a way that Dukats does not.  I have to admit though, that his retort to Dukat ““Perhaps if you didn’t talk so much, your throat wouldn’t get so dry”, was hilarious.  I also enjoyed Damars threat to throw Weyoun out an airlock.  Hahaha, DRINK!

I enjoyed Quark in this episode:

“A bomb?!?!”  What kind of bomb?- Oh Quark, you make me laugh.  He did a complete switch in two sentences, I love it!  I was also really happy to see that he took the initiative to help break Kira, Rom, Leeta and Jake out of jail.  However, he looked more shocked than everyone else when he shot the Jem’Hadar soldiers. 

I was excited when Rom and Kira were free and were headed to shut down the main computer.  I was not expecting they wouldn’t make it in time and that the entire mine field would be destroyed.  My hands actually flew to my mouth in complete surprise.  This episode had nothing if not complete shock value.

And Odo!!!  Who knew he would come to the rescue?!?!  (I sorta did but I wasn’t going to plan on it, not in this season where the unpredictable seems to be the main storyline). 

“I know, but they still mean something to me”.  I’m so happy that Odo finally figure that out.  The only power the female Changeling seems to have over Odo anymore seems to be linking with him.  If she can’t do that, she is powerless.  It almost makes her seem less powerful than she has in the past.  She kind of had this air of authority and grace and power.  Now she seems more like someone who has to resort to trickery in order to get people to do what she wants.  I guess I should have seen that earlier.

 It seems the only real way that the Founders gained control of the Gamma quadrant was to genetically engineer the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar.  They could not exert power or have people follow them like the Federation does, they have to use fear, “the white” and guns.  The Founders seem to have trouble understanding why the Federation and Klingons fight against them.  And why shouldn’t they?  How can a race that has seen the benefits of using power, fear and dependence to rule over others, understand how people who use the exact opposite tactics, obtain a ruling power and hold on to it?  Furthermore, how can people, who use power, fear and dependence and who have created loyal followers using those tactics, completely understand why people would follow a ruling body without those same tactics?  It couldn’t possibly make any sense to them!   …Just a few thoughts I’m throwing out there.  I hope they make sense.

“The Link… was paradise.  But it appears I’m not ready for paradise.”  I felt sympathy for Odo.  He wanted the link so bad and yet, he could not have it and his relationships with the solids at the same time.  I can’t imagine how difficult a decision that was for him.

Well I think I’m done with all the heavy thinking.  Now onto some fun notes from the episode!

First, I would like to point out that I thought the music in this episode was so mood fitting!  It was just great!  I loved it.

Second- the battle scenes.  They were awesome!!  It’s always fun to watch the bad guys get blown up.  Wait… does that make me a bad person…or an action junkie…  hmmm…

Third- once again the Klingons enter the mix and save the day!  Woot!!  They always seem to come in the nick of time (haha- that’s what she said…).

I was also thought it was pretty neat that Sisko referred to the station as Deep Space Nine.  They have not only taken back the station but the name.  It is no longer Terok Nor.

And to top off the episode, I found it humorous that O’Brien was already asking about the holosuites.  I guess everyone is anxious to have things return to normal.

LLAP

-B