History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor

* BackToSchool: Adult Jake earns a degree in temporal mechanics as part of his plan to save his father.

** Rather than [[spoiler:[[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence joining The Prophets]]]], Sisko is caught in a temporal shift that sends him popping in and out of time at random intervals. His seeming death scares the Bajorans, who enter into a defensive alliance with the Cardiassians, angering the Klingons enough that they kick Starfleet off the station, and only let them back into the Gamma Quadrant a few years later thanks to Worf being a major influence on them--Worf in particular does not rejoin Starfleet, or becomes Captain of the ''Enterprise''-E like he did in the Prime reality.

** And Jake himself [[spoiler:never stays behind on the station]], but is forced to leave down a path that leads him to desperately try to save his father, at the cost of throwing his own life away.

Jake goes back to school for a degree in temporal mechanics, abandoning his writing career. His rockets through his education, not realizing until it's too late that let his marriage fall apart in the process. Undeterred, he deduces that his best opportunity to get his father back will be to take the old ''Defiant'' back to the wormhole as it undergoes another inversion. Aided by Captain Nog and the now-elderly Bashir and Dax, he sets up a device that will hopefully pull Sisko back into the timestream. Instead, it pulls ''him'' out of time for a short chat. In the a WhiteVoidRoom, Sisko again begs Jake to move on and live his life, but to no avail. Jake gets sucked back to normal space-time more determined than ever.

* AdultFear: A father dies, and his beloved son never truly recovers from the loss - progressively throwing the rest of his life away in his inability to move on. Sisko gets small glimpses of his son's life over the decades as Jake loses sight of everything that made him happy, and is progressively more distraught with each encounter.

It's now morning, and time for Melanie to go. Sisko gifts Melanie a copy of his last unpublished work, with all his notes still intact, to give her inspiration. As she opens the door, he repeats his father's advice to look around every once and a while to experience life. She completes the quote, "And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes."

This brings us back to "the present," where the elderly Jake and the young Melanie sit in that house in Louisiana. Jake explains that he has finally worked out the nature of the connection between himself and his father: Jake acts like an anchor, continuing to drag his father forward through time. If Jake were to somehow sever that connection when his father is present, it should act as a giant ResetButton, sending his father back to the moment of the accident. He gifts Melanie a copy of his last unpublished work, with all his notes still intact, to give her inspiration. As she goes, he repeats his father's advice to look around every once and a while to experience life. She completes the quote, "And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes."

Jake settles himself in to wait, eventually drowsing; when he wakes up, Sisko is there. Sisko clearly plans to make the best of what little time he has with his son, but Jake reveals his plan to "sever the connection," and Sisko finds the hypospray that he'd injected himself with at he beginning of the episode. It's poison, and Jake has only a few moments left. Sisko is heartbroken that his son has tossed his life away for his sake, but Jake assures him that his sacrifice is not just for Sisko, but "for the boy that I was. He needs you, more than you know. Don't you see? We're going to get a second... chance."

* BackToSchool: Adult Jake earns a degree in temporal mechanics, as part of his plan to save his father.

* TheSlowPath: A rare example of seeing this trope from the perspective of the one on said path.

** OutOfFocus: Odo appears at Sisko's funeral, but gets no lines. Miles O'Brien was in the script with a large role, but Colm Meaney was unavailable.
** MandatoryLine: Worf gets one. (The episode was written before it was decided that he would join the show.)

* BigNo: Ben, when he realizes that Jake has committed suicide for him.

* ManlyTears: Jake practically spends half the episode with this! ([[TearJerker/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine As will the viewers]], in all likelihood.)

* PetTheDog: Quark gives Nog some time off work so that he and Jake can use the holosuite.

** Writer Michael Taylor said the episode was inspired by reclusive writer Creator/JDSalinger doing an interview with a high school student in 1980 who just showed up at his door.

* ThisIsMyStory[=/=]WholeEpisodeFlashback: The general FramingDevice of the episode, as an elderly Jake tells Melanie about his tragic tale.

[[ManlyTears Bring tissues for]] [[TearJerker this one.]]

The first shot of the episode gives us an old man, injecting himself with a hypospray, just prior to a young woman (Rachel Robinson) knocking at his door. So, [[MayDecemberRomance what was in the hypospray?...]] Oh: the young woman, Melanie, claims that the old man (Creator/TonyTodd) is Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton). ...[[InMediasRes What?]] Oh: Melanie claims that Jake is her favorite author, and always wondered why he stopped writing after ''Anslem'' and ''Collected Stories'' were published. She has tracked him down, and Jake decides that tonight, of all nights, is the time to tell the story of why he stopped telling stories: "[[WhamLine My father died.]]"

After the credits, we begin one of the episode's many {{Flashback}}s: to the USS ''Defiant'' in the "present day" of ''[=DS9=]'' (i.e., Lofton as Jake), with the elder Jake narrating. Though Jake was nose-deep in the writing of ''Anslem'' at the time, his father convinced him to come out to the Bajoran Wormhole to watch it undergo an "inversion," a natural wonder that only happens every 50 years or so.

->'''Sisko:''' I'm no writer, but if I were, it seems to me I'd wanna poke my head up every once in a while and take a look around, see what's going on. It's ''life'', Jake. You can miss it if you don't open your eyes.

Unfortunately, most natural wonders involve the StarTrekShake, which rattles something loose in the ''Defiant'''s warp core. Disobeying orders, Jake follows Sisko down to Engineering, and father and son successfully get the core stabilized before it explodes. All is well, and Sisko hands back the bit of AppliedPhlebotinum Jake gave him... as a bolt of energy slants out of the warp core and vaporizes him.

->'''Melanie:''' I'm not sure I could ever get over losing somebody like that, right in front of my eyes.\\
'''Old Jake:''' People do. Time passes, and they realize that the person they lost is really gone. And they heal.\\
'''Melanie:''' Is that what happened to you?\\
'''Old Jake:''' No. I suppose not.

Jake, now totally orphaned, rattles around [=DS9=]; everybody is nice to him, but that doesn't help a whole lot. Even worse, his father appears to him while he sleeps--not as a ghost or a nightmare, but seemingly whole and disoriented, before immediately disappearing again. The first time Jake thinks it was a dream, but the second he is able to rush Sisko down to Sickbay, where Dax and Bashir confirm that this is the real Sisko, somehow UnstuckInTime. Unfortunately they are not able to re-stick him before he disappears again. Even worse, between the loss of [[CrystalDragonJesus The Emissary]] and the increased Klingon aggression showcased in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E01E02TheWayOfTheWarrior the previous episode]], the Bajorans have lost faith in TheFederation. Jake and all other Starfleet personnel are obliged to withdraw from the station. While on Earth, Jake (now played by Tony Todd in flashbacks as well as in "the present") settles down in Louisiana with his grandfather, marries a Bajoran painter, Korena, and appears ready to put everything behind him. ...Until Sisko drops in again, drawing Jake's attention away from his life and back to that of his father's.

Jake goes back to school for a degree in temporal mechanics, abandoning his writing career and his wife to do so, and deduces that his best opportunity to get his father back will be to take the old ''Defiant'' back to the wormhole as it undergoes another inversion. Aided by Captain Nog and the now-elderly Bashir and Dax, he sets up a device that will hopefully pull Sisko back into the timestream. Instead, it pulls ''him'' [[WhiteVoidRoom out of time]] for a short chat. Sisko begs Jake to move on and live his life, to put the tragedy behind him, but to no avail.

This brings us back to "the present," where the elderly Jake and the young Melanie sit in that house in Louisiana. Jake explains that he has finally worked out the nature of the connection between himself and his father: Jake acts like an anchor, continuing to drag his father forward through time. If Jake were to somehow sever that connection when his father is present, it should act as a giant ResetButton, sending his father back to the moment of the accident. But how is he going to mash the... [[DrivenToSuicide Is that what was in the hypospray]]?? Is that why Jake chose today of all days to tell this story? Evidently so. He gives Melanie a copy of the work of fiction he was toiling over before she arrived, and some parting words of wisdom:
->'''Old Jake:''' While you're studying my stories, poke your head up every once in a while. Take a look around. See what's going on. [[MeaningfulEcho It's life, Melanie]].
->'''Melanie:''' And you can miss it if you don't open your eyes.

Jake settles himself in to wait, eventually drowsing; when he wakes up, Sisko is there. Sisko clearly plans to make the best of what little time he has with his son, but Jake has even less.

->'''Sisko:''' Jake... [[ManlyTears you didn't have to do this]]. Not for me.\\
'''Old Jake:''' For you, and for the boy that I was. He needs you, more than you know. Don't you see? We're going to get a second... chance.

Courtesy of his son's warning, Sisko is this time prepared. He makes a DivingSave, shielding both him and Jake from the blast of energy. Jake is astonished: how did Sisko know that was going to happen? But Sisko is more preoccupied with his son, who gave up his life to save them both.

* ForWantOfANail: Sisko's "death" somehow prevents Gul Dukat's rise to power and the resulting Dominion-Cardassian alliance, thus averting the Dominion establishing a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant and eventually kicking off the Dominion War. As a result Earth seems to be in pretty good shape even several decades after the "present day". The Klingon-Cardassian war does drag on for decades, but does eventually cool to a "cold war" state.

'''Old Jake:''' For you, and for the boy that I was. He needs you, more than you know. [[FamousLastWords Don't you see? We're going to get a second... chance.]]

* FamousLastWords: ''[[TearJerker/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine "Don't you see? We're finally going to get a second.....chance....."]]''