What You Leave Behind: I don’t even want to click play because I’m going to cry a whole lot.

I forgot Kassidy was pregnant. Did I even mention that in the last blog? Oh I forgot Jake was even on this show still.

I love Worf’s sense of humor.

“I have an even better reason. Revenge.” “That works, too.” Kira and Garak work excellently together. I loved watching them burst into laughter when they couldn’t get through the door. She hates that she has to work with him, she finds him deceitful and immoral, and she’s right, but he can do what she can’t, and vice versa.

The religion plotline is a little off the rails for me. Of course we need a sacrifice. That said Winn’s hair is GORGEOUS.

When Garak is talking to Julian, crying about the loss of the old Cardassia, I wanted Julian to just whip around and hug him. Neither are the type. But I just needed it.

Trivia people: is the Admiral’s quote at the peace treaty signing a real earth quote or a made up show quote?

OH ODO. Is there a single blog where I don’t say something like that?

I love that we got to see Vic again. And Quark and Jake, who have been a little absent (although Quark had his moment in the last episode). Oh oops I forgot about the wraiths while Vic was singing. Y’all this got a lil ridiculous. Or a lot. This is just straight up not scifi anymore. Was I still crying when he said goodbye to Kassidy? Of course I am. And now, for obvious reasons I’m crying a WHOLE LOT MORE. Jake was almost the hardest to watch. Because I remember the episode where he spends his whole life getting his father back. And it’s like he was losing him all over again. And then Kira and Odo...

Sisko left his baseball guys he has to come back. And we defend the mountain pass tonight. Oh, man, he’s out there, miniSisko.

I love the message that this had to end because it was beautiful. Because it couldn’t keep on forever and because we have to accept change.

My one big negative of this episode is that the wraith/prophet plotline had NOTHING to do with the Dominion war. Now, I suppose that makes sense, because they’re two independent events, but honestly, we didn’t need both of them, and the wraith thing got a little out of hand to me. Kassidy being pregnant is also a weird plot point to bring up and then not use for anything.

Final Series Thoughts:

My favourite character by a mile was Bashir. He represents so much optimism, so much care. He obviously has his faults: he may be optimistic to the point of naivety, and he’s definitely arrogant. But I think that’s a fair trade off for what he could accomplish with that motivation. Bashir means a lot to me outside of the show as well. I’m always interested in the medical characters on these shows but Bashir is the first one I’ve found totally transfixing. He was also so young when they started which was a really interesting dynamic to me.

Quark was my least favourite character but I did come a long way with him. I found a lot about him and his plotlines distracting from the bigger picture of the show, or even from the other things happening during his episodes. I liked Nog and Rom a lot better, especially Nog, because while he wasn’t trying to deiberately destabilize Ferengi society, he was trying to figure out who he was and how he could fit into it. He also had a really important message about how we can respect our parents and still not want to end up like them. The story of why he wants to join Star Fleet was a real turning point for me and the way that I viewed the entire Ferengi species.

I also didn’t consistently like Sisko until mid season six. And then, I liked his resolve and I respected him more than anything else. I didn’t like most of his command decisions. I didn’t agree with his ethical stances. But I understand the validity of his arguments and I think that’s more important than completely agreeing.

Kira had the most growth to me, especially in the last few episodes. Seeing the way she loved Odo in the end was enchanting. But I do wish we had gotten to know her outside of work and religion.

I think Dax is one of the best overall ideas on this show. There was always something new to learn about her. I loved both Jadzia and Ezri, especially the Klingon episodes or the ones that caused us to learn more about her previous hosts. The episode where Ezri’s brother was a murderer is also one of my favourite episodes in the show. It was sickeningly creepy at points, without being gory. We got to know Ezri but we also saw how the symbiont was changing who Ezri used to be. Not that I minded the gory episodes. Empok Nor was also incredible despite being pretty dark and gory for Star Trek.

Other notable episodes: my favourite was Nor the Battle to the Strong. I loved that the show was willing to talk about and show ground war. I loved Bashir. I even loved Jake in this episode and I very rarely loved Jake (although I also liked the one where he dedicated his whole life to saving his dad and then everything reset). I think Jake led us through an incredibly powerful discussion. I also liked the other ground war episode.

Shadow Play is one episode that really stuck with me. If we had seen more of Odo like he was in that episode, he would have easily trumped Bashir for my favourite character. The way that he gives love carefully and hesitantly, but completely, is beautiful. The message of that episode, “She’s real to me,” is so personal for me (if you didn’t read my blog on that way back when I wrote it, I highly recommend you listen to the song Netflix Trip by AJR. It’s the exact same feeling. I’m going to listen to that on my way to work and cry because the show is over). All of this is very real to a lot of us because we take something from it into our real lives. I’ve said multiple times that I hope that I learned from Bashir because I think watching him could make me a better person. Odo and Bashir has a very interesting contrast which we see mostly clearly in the episode where Kira’s fake dad died (also an incredible episode). Odo tells Kira very gently that he read the file, and he knows what fake dad did, and he’s choosing to overlook it. She doesn’t tell Kira that she should do the same. He just says that’s the decision he’s made. Julian said that he doesn’t care what he did, he doesn’t deserve to die alone, and Kira should be in that room. Julian cares recklessly, Odo cares cautiously, but they both care entirely. I wish we could have seen more of that from Odo but we just had to keep breaking his heart, didn’t we?

I’m obviously missing a lot of good episodes so everyone please tell me favourite characters and episodes in the comments.

I didn’t mention Worf or Miles yet. I’m grateful both characters were on the show because it made it comfortable for me. It allowed me to again sit with things that helped me grow up, the characters and their beliefs. Also the Miles and Julian scenes were some of the best in the show. When they sang songs getting drunk together, the holosuite scenes. The scene inside Sloan’s head where Miles likes Julian more than his wife. Their argument when Julian wanted to cure the Jem’Hadar of their addiction was incredibly important. Worf had his moments too but he doesn’t stand out the same way. I just love the way he stuck to his beliefs at all times, except when he saved Jadzia. He had a really strong resolve, and I really came to respect Klingons on this show.

This show had a few bad habits- first, we kept bringing up really cool ideas and then dropping them. Where did the alpha/gamma Jem’Hadar conflict go? What happened to all the changlings that had infiltrated alpha quadrant powers? There were others but I can’t remember them, feel free to point them out!

And the other thing that bothered me, and you guys knew I was going to say this, is that there were rarely consequences for character actions! Just because they had good intentions does not excuse some of that stuff!

I had an incredible time watching this show. I cried a lot even when characters weren’t dying. I learned a lot from it and from you guys talking about it. It’s darker than most Star Trek, and I’m going to have to figure out how to reconcile Section 31 with my view of the Federation and Star Fleet. But the show also had an inherent sense of honesty. We can’t always find a 1 in 1 million solution. We don’t always win when we take a gamble. We don’t always make the best moral decision. I don’t have to agree with Sisko to know that he did his absolute best at all times. It also allowed us to pull to real world issues. Bajor had some really good talking points that can be extrapolated to real countries recovering from massive human rights violations. How do you recover?

So... this is the end of DS9. I would love to do another blog if anyone is interested in reading one/chatting with me about another series. I have already watched TOS, TNG, and Enterprise, but it was a long time ago and I would love to blog a rewatch. There was a lot I’ve forgotten from TNG in particular that probably would have helped me understand this one. I haven’t seen Voyager, Picard, or Discovery, and will find a way to watch them if that’s what you guys want. So please tell me what you would be interested in reading/talking about. Also let me know if you have ideas for how I can do the blog better!

Thank you for those of you who have been reading and participating throughout this. I have honestly loved every second of it. Even the episodes I didn’t love made me happy because this whole thing has mattered to me.