DS9 Episode 6x07 - "You Are Cordially Invited..."

Note: I am doing this as a separate post rather than a comment on Miramanee's post because, apparently, it's too long to be a comment!

"We are not accorded the luxury of choosing the women we fall in love with. Do you think Sirella is anything like the woman I thought that I'd marry? She is a prideful, arrogant, mercurial woman who shares my bed far too infrequently for my taste. And yet... I love her deeply. We Klingons often tout our prowess in battle, our desire for glory and honor above all else... but how hollow is the sound of victory without someone to share it with? Honor gives little comfort to a man alone in his home... and in his heart."  ~ General Martok

"You Are Cordially Invited..." is, of course, the payoff we've been hearing about since "Call to Arms."  We all knew it was coming; it's mentioned as the pending event in almost every episode of "The Dominion War Arc."  It's nice to see, and very satisfying in some ways... and sorely lacking in others.

There are two small points that I want to disagree with fellow contributor Miramanee on.  First, the jump from Sisko and Dax talking in her quarters to the wedding.  I may be completely wrong in this, but I think we all know what happened.  Jadzia finally gave in, went "crawling on hands and knees" to Sirella, and "begged forgiveness."  I imagine the scene would have gone something along the lines of Jadzia saying she had acted shamefully, and wished to bring no dishonor to the House of Martok, and that if Sirella accepted her she would proudly fight many battles in the name of the House, bring honor, blah blah...  I personally think it's enough that we know she was strong enough to swallow her pride and do this, and we didn't actually need to see it.  If we had, I think it may have had the opposite effect; namely, it would have weakened her character in the eyes of the audience.  Again, just my opinion, so feel free to disagree.

The other is at the very end.  I LOVED the cut to black with the THUMP THUMP sound.  I thought it was a very humorous way to end the episode, and leaves to the imagination of the viewer just what that attack would have looked like.  I can see Bashir and O'Brien pummeling Worf, completely ignoring Jadzia, and both Worf and Jadzia "rolling their eyes" at them.  I think anything they could have shown on screen wouldn't do justice to the look of crazed frenzy on their faces as they lunge past the camera at the happy couple.

One point, however, that has usually been agreed upon by viewers and DS9 staffers alike is the lack of resolution to the Kira/Odo storyline.  Originally, a whole subplot had been written for Odo in which he cuts himself off from the entire rest of the population of Deep Space Nine.  According to episode writer Ronald D. Moore,

"We had originally planned that in this episode we were going to start having Odo lock himself away, refusing to mingle with anyone else on the station. The events of "Behind the Lines" and "Favor the Bold" had really shaken him and made him wonder, 'What am I doing, where do I belong, look at what I almost did.' So he was going to show up at the wedding and make an unexpected announcement. He would say, 'I've decided I can't be friends with any of you anymore, because clearly you can't trust me, so I need to go my own way. I'll do my job but that's it and that's all that's ever going to be.' And then he would walk out again. And the people there were going to go 'Whoa, what does this mean?' Then we were going to play Odo completely different for the rest of the season."  (Memory Alpha: "You Are Cordially Invited...")

However, a few people on staff, most notably Odo actor Rene Auberjonois, were concerned about where the character would be going in the long run.  Moore admitted that he hadn't thought that far ahead yet.  The planned subplot was abandoned, and with very little time left for a rewrite, the writers had to come up with something as they felt to completely ignore it would be a mistake.  Unfortunately, the end result is very disappointing.  It is left to the viewers' imaginations what was said between Kira and Odo.

And now, to end on a humorous note:  the dance that Nog does?  Completely improvised, as is Dax's joining him in his ridiculous dance moves!  The director told Aron Eisenberg to dance "as goofy as you want." 

NEXT EPISODE: "Resurrection," not one of my favorites.