Fridge / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 03 E 18 Distant Voices

Fridge Brilliance

• Mental Altovar is articulate and insightful, whereas the real deal (and the Lethean we see in a future episode) acts more like Dumb Muscle. That's because Mental Altovar isn't the real thing, just a construction drawing off Bashir's own mind, as demonstrated by its access to his memories.
• That a typical Cardassian murder-mystery would assume that everyone is guilty, with the mystery being who is guilty of what, makes sense. First of all their society is rife with intrigue, so everyone in a position to matter would indeed be 'guilty' of something as part of the wheeling-and-dealing needed to get ahead. Secondly a Cardassian trial runs on the presumption that everyone brought before the court is already guilty: the trial involves laying out this guilt for the public.
• At the end of the episode, Bashir notes that recovering from a Lethean psychic attack like he did is a very rare occurrence, which Garak attributes to Bashir's mental fortitude. Given the later reveal that Bashir is in fact a genetically enhanced human it's very likely Bashir's enhanced brain was a factor in him being able to successfully fend off the attack.