We got Garak! I finally started understanding what he was saying, but then all the double triple agent stuff blew me away. For some reason I was blindsided by pretty much every scene after he had after the lunch with Julian. Just constantly shocked.

Quark was SUCH a jerk. And I mean more than usual. The way this show deals with women, sexuality and attraction is not my favourite from Star Trek in the first place, but this crossed so many lines. “Give up your whole life to stay with me or your students die.” What happened to no means no? This made my skin crawl. That being said, despite me generally liking Julian, I also think the way he treats women is problematic. I’m trying not to focus on the feminism in this series (and I think Dax and Kira do a lot to balance out a lot of the problematic stuff) but quite frankly, Quark’s behavior disgusted me.

Where was Julian that whole episode? I thought he was the one working with Garak, and I liked that. I thought the characters work well together. Julian is willing to fight to understand Garak and I felt like I struggled along with him. It’s not as fun when Sisko gets the point immediately.

And there were ZERO consequences for anyone. Kira and Siko agreed to a prisoner exchange. Odo freed the prisoners. He’s obviously not federation but Sisko is, and this action violated the Prime Directive. This was interference. And direct violation of orders. And did those Bajoran prisoners get released?

AND SPEAKING OF ZERO CONSEQUENCES- Dax has issues. Now. This is the Dax I prefer to see. She’s adventurous, committed to her values, and strong. She didn’t compromise on her values- kept her promise, but didn’t deliver the death blow. But! She violated a direct order from Sisko. And what happened? She walked right back onto the bridge. There is zero discipline on this station, regardless of whether they are Star Fleet or not.

And finally, the Maquis. I feel like Kira gets lost in translation here. She’s Bajoran and this is technically a Federation issue, but she’s also Sisko’s SO and he essentially told her to shut up. I miss the relationship between Riker and Picard. I know they are obviously different characters but we’re almost two seasons in, he fought to keep her, and they still can’t work together. Other concerns: Where was Garak? Why wasn’t the Federation admin more involved? We’re risking war here, and the admirals basically said, “You better get this under control, Commander.” I just don’t understand his role here. Is he a peacekeeper? I thought he was there to babysit in case Cardassia came back. Is he now supposed to mitigate all nearby conflict? And while we’re at it, what’s Kira’s job? She’s the liaison officer but she does pretty much... everything else. And I dunno what’s going on with the Cardassian dude (Gal DuKat?) in those episodes. The ending of that two part episode was also underwhelming to an extent but it makes sense for DS9- they aren’t equipped to fight wars. Their job is to maintain peace. So it was the most reasonable ending which we don’t always see in Star Trek.

I’m kind of hoping the next few episodes are a little more lighthearted. I want to see more of Kira. I miss Julian (who has been practically absent, maybe not in some of the last few at all), and I kind of want to see less focus on Dax but just watch her operate as part of the team instead of her own separate story. I also have a feeling we’re going to see more of the Marquis, and I’m just waiting to run into the Dominion they talked about in the Ferengi episode (which I forgot to talk about in that blog post because I did not like watching that episode).