Concerned primarily with the efforts of Sisko to repair the damage done by a crazed Gul Dukat in releasing the pah-wraiths into the worm hole, this tedious outing traces Sisko slowly uncovers evidence that his mother was a prophet and that his entire life has been engineered by these redoubtable gods. Back on DS9, we learn of infighting within the unsteady Federation Alliance as hostilities break out between the Romulans and Bajorans. The installment closes with Sisko convinced that he must travel to Tyree in order to restore the worm hole.
Sisko, his father and son Jake, as well as the new Dax host, Ezri, travel to Tyree in the hopes of uncovering the Orb of the Emissary somewhere on its surface. While these four stumble about in the desert, the confrontation between the Romulans and the Bajorans comes to a head and the newly promoted Colonel Kira is forced to employ all of her considerable deviousness to outwit her villainous adversaries. In the story’s comic subplot, Worf and the other underlings of DS9 head out on a Klingon cruiser intent upon destroying a Dominion shipyard in order to earn Jadzia a place in Sto-vo-kor, the Klingon heaven. After some fumbling, they succeed, primarily through luck. Sisko manages to find the Orb of the Emissary and restores the wormhole. His mission fulfilled, he returns to DS9.
One of the most tragic episodes in the entire chronicle, this installment reveals the disease planted in the Founders by the Federation and examines the rare but saddening results of flaws in the nearly perfect Dominion cloning system. Corrupted by a flaw in his cloning process, Weyoun defects to the Federation by surrendering himself to Odo. A newer Weyoun clone sends Jem’hadar ships to stop his traitorous predecessor, but the traitor uses his knowledge of Dominion ships to destroy his own people. During the escape, he reveals to Odo that the Founders have contracted a disease which infects the entire Great Link. Only Odo is free from the disease. At last caught by his own conscience, the defective Weyoun realizes that he cannot betray his own people and commits suicide. Odo is left to ponder the implications of the burden that has been placed on him as the would be savior of the Founders.
This episode constitutes an almost certainly fictionalized account meant to boost the morale of the Klingon warriors in which a senile war hero, Kor, is given a position on board Martok’s ship. Infighting ensues between Kor and Martok, who is jealous of the attention paid to Kor by his crew. When Kor is forced to take command of the ship in the heat of battle with the Dominion, he becomes disoriented and nearly gets the ship destroyed before Martok is able to retake command. Chagrined by his behavior and eager to prove himself a viable warrior once more, Kor volunteers for a suicide mission to take one ship against ten Jem’hadar vessels. Though the episode would have us believe he succeeds, this unbelievably improbable outcome cannot be credited as anything more than propaganda.
On a supply run to the front lines, Sisko and crew are forced to assist in the occupation of a Dominion communications array when no more competent personnel can be found to reinforce the flagging troops. Subjected to a constant barrage of Jem’hadar troops and anti-personnel mines, the Starfleet troops have become demoralized and are nearly defeated. Despite cleverly reprogramming the Dominion’s mines to act against the Jem’hadar soldiers, the Starfleet troops barely survive until reinforcements arrive and young Lieutenant Nog loses a leg in the process. With reinforcements in place, Sisko and his people gratefully return to their comfortable life on DS9.
This installment features a reunion between Odo and one of the other hundred Founders sent out into the galaxy. However, unlike Odo, this Founder, Laas, has recognized the inherent inferiority of solids and longs reunite with other Founders with whom he can link. Harassed by a pair of bigoted Klingons, Laas is forced to kill one in self-defense and is then prosecuted for murder. Recognizing the anti-Dominion hysteria finding voice in this sham case, Kira and Odo help Laas to escape to continue his search for other Founders.
WARNING:This portion of the editorials contains spoilers for the final episodes of DS9. Read on at your own risk.
Signifying the beginning of the episode arc which anthologizes the Federation’s versions of the events leading up to the strategic withdrawal of the Dominion from Cardassia Prime, the episode begins with the cheery news that Worf has been lost in a skirmish with the Dominion somewhere in the badlands. Obsessed with his memory, Ezri sets out on a suicide mission to rescue him. Though she eventually finds him, their runabout is destroyed by the Jem’hadar, and they are forced to make an emergency beam out to a nearby planet. Stranded on the planet’s surface, we are subjected to petty bickering between the two that culminates in the abomination of them mating. Meanwhile on Cardassia Prime, Dukat appears before an increasingly disillusioned Damar soliciting his help in some secret endeavor. Closing the episode on a just note, Ezri and Worf are incapacitated by the Breen and awaken to find themselves captives of this mysterious power.
Much of this episode focuses on Sisko’s ill-fated engagement to Kassidy Yates, a freighter captain. Warned against marrying her by the prophets, Sisko seeks solace from Kira and Kai Winn before ultimately choosing to betray his gods in order to keep Kassidy happy. Worf and Ezri remain in the custody of the Breen until Weyoun and a Founder rendezvous with them to finalize a treaty of alliance between the two powers. The Breen present the two wayward officers to their new allies to seal the treaty.
Damar moves further away from the Dominion fold as he is alienated by the new alliance between the Dominion and the Breen. Selfishly insisting that no territorial concessions be made to the Breen, Damar comes to harbor resentment towards his allies when they request that he think in terms of what is best for all of the Dominion. Held captive by the Dominion, Ezri and Worf reconcile their differences just in time to learn that they are to be put to death for their actions against the Dominion. In a fit of rage, Worf demonstrates his boorishness by murdering Weyoun. (An ultimately fruitless act as a new clone is quickly prepared.) Like a child, angry that the Dominion has turned it attentions towards the Breen, Damar strikes out by freeing Dax and Worf and murdering two innocent Jem’hadar soldiers. However, he disguises his actions and, for the present, remains in the service of the Dominion.
This episode is most significant in its detailing of the final days of Damar’s allegiance to the Dominion. However, it also serves as a rallying point for supporters of the Dominion as, with the help of their new Breen allies, Dominion forces are able to overrun the Federation’s last conquered region in Dominion space. In a triumphant strike against the Federation, the Breen unleash a weapon capable of disrupting the shields of Starfleet ships, decimating the fleet and destroying Sisko’s beloved Defiant. This overwhelming victory, however, is tainted by news that Damar has betrayed the Dominion and is leading rebel forces against Dominion outposts.
In a tragic turn, Bashir discovers that Odo is also infected with the disease plaguing the Great Link. Sobered by this dire news, Odo nonetheless insists on travelling with Garak and Kira to offer aid to Damar and his band of Cardassian rebels. Seeking to help his sick friends, Bashir attempts to retrieve Odo’s medical records from Starfleet only to be stonewalled. His own investigation ultimately leads him to the horrifying revelation that the Federation’s Section 31 deliberately infected Odo with the disease in the hopes that he would pass it on to the Great Link and, in so doing, eliminate the Dominion by facilitating the genocide of the Founders. Valiantly acting against the prejudices of his people, Bashir vows to find a cure for the Founder’s disease despite restrictions placed on him by the Federation.
In a coup for the Dominion, the utterly inept Chancellor Gowron takes command of Klingon forces arrayed against the Dominion, instantly demolishing what Is left of the Federation Alliance’s ability to withstand attacks by the Breen. Working with Damar’s terrorist troops, Kira engineers a plan to hijack a Dominion vessel outfitted with the Breen’s shield disrupting weapon in order to aid the Federation in developing counter measures, but hostilities between Kira and the Cardassians hamper their effectiveness. Forced to use his shapeshifting abilities to aid the terrorists, Odo’s condition continues to worsen. Concerned about Gowron’s mismanagement of the Klingon fleet, Worf urges Martok to move against the chancellor but is rebuffed by Martok who remains obedient to the chain of command. In a poor ruse which we scarcely can credit as accurate, Kira and Damar’s terrorists seize control of a Jem’hadar vessel but not before Odo collapses, stricken by illness. At last able to endure Gowron’s incompetence no longer, Worf challenges him to single combat and murders the Klingon chancellor. However, he declines ascension to the chancellorship and passes this honor off on the unwilling Martok instead.
A fantastic account of Bashir and O’Brien’s attempt to extract the cure to the disease with which the Founders were infected from an unwilling informant within Section 31, much of this installment purports to take place inside the informant’s brain as the doctor and his slow-witted pal crawl through neurons searching for the cure. After much tedium and misdirection, the two emerge, victorious, with the cure which they deliver to the crippled Odo.
This installment traces the ascension of the criminal mastermind, Rom, to the position of Grand Nagus of the Ferengi. Although his bumbling brother, Quark at first attempts to usurp the position, the confusion is ultimately dispelled and the crafty, Federation sympathizer, Rom, takes the helm of the Ferengi ship of state. In other matters, Odo pleads with Bashir to release the cure to the Founders’ disease in the name of humanitarianism and justice but Bashir hues to the Federation party line and insists that the Federation will not permit it. Kira, Damar and Garak are forced into hiding on Cardassia Prime when the tides of fate turn against their band of terrorists. With their terrorist cell shattered, Kira urges Damar to turn to the Cardassian people to act against the Dominion. Rallying the Cardassians against their Dominion allies, Damar begins to take on the first of his legendary status among his people. With all of the Cardassians’ territory back in the hands of the Dominion, the Founder adopts a conservative strategy, choosing to turn inwards and consolidate reinforcements until the Dominion is prepared to utterly destroy the Federation Alliance. Recognizing that once this reinforcement has begun the Federation will stand no chance against the Dominion, the Federation chooses to adopt the reckless strategy of launching a massive strike against Cardassia.
Detailing the last days of the Dominion’s tenure on Cardassia Prime, this installment is considered to be almost entirely a work of fiction, engineered as Federation propaganda to obscure Federation war crimes perpetrated against Cardassia and the Dominion in seizing control of Cardassia Prime and forcing the Dominion into retreat. However, as detailed in this episode, Damar, Kira and Garak plot to overrun the Dominion’s command center with the aid of the Cardassian people. However, their past activities bring down the wrath of the Dominion, and Weyoun orders the sacking of Cardassia Prime. Through a stroke of luck, the terrorists manage to breech the Dominion’s command center, but Damar is killed during the maneuver. After murdering Weyoun, Garak and Kira take custody of the Founder and attempt to use her life to extort the surrender of the Dominion fleet. Meanwhile, Sisko and crew take a new, Breen resistant Defiant into battle against the Dominion. The fight turns against the Federation alliance until, learning of Dominion atrocities committed on Cardassia Prime, the Cardassian fleet joins the Federation Alliance, taking up arms against their Dominion allies. Stunned by the defection of the Cardassians, the Jem’hadar and Breen fleets are shattered by the Federation Alliance which penetrates Dominion space all the way to Cardassia Prime. There Odo pleads with Kira to allow him to cure the Founder whom she holds captive before she is stricken down by the Federation engineered disease. After curing the Founder, she agrees to stop hostilities against the Federation if Odo will return to the Great Link and save his people. The installment ends by revealing the fate of Captain Sisko who travels to the Bajoran Fire Caves to stop a crazed Kai Winn and Legate Dukat from releasing the pah-wraiths once more. Though he succeeds in destroying Dukat and his evil scheme it is at the cost of his life. Sisko is assumed into the Bajoran temple of the prophets, never more to plague the Dominion with his ill conceived schemes.
