DS9 is practically empty. A plasma disruption has forced most of the station to evacuate. Still aboard is a skeleton crew of Sisko, Dax, Kira, Odo, O'Brien and... Quark, who is found acting suspiciously in an airlock.
And naturally, with the station mostly empty, bad guys show up. Feigning ship damage, two Klingons named T'Kar (Tim Russ) and Yeto, a Trill named Verad (John Glover), and a woman named Mareel board the station. Making sure to lock Odo up in a jar and sticking it in stasis for good measure, they head for Ops.
Verad is there for a specific reason. He's an un-joined Trill, dismissed as "unsuited" for joining, so he's decided to just take one for himself. The one he's selected is none other than Dax. The crew all rally behind her and refuse to cooperate, but Verad shoots O'Brien and threatens to continue hurting the crew. Jadzia complies so he won't kill any hostages. Bashir also makes a stand at refusing to perform the procedure, but more threats force his hand.
Sisko makes a play at attacking T'Kar, prompting Kira to join in, but Mareel knocks the hell out of Kira and then holds Sisko at phaserpoint, forcing him to back down. He then takes a different tack, trying to learn more about her. Apparently Mareel was a prostitute with no future when Verad picked her up out of nothing. Now she's hopelessly in love and willing to do anything for him. Sisko warns her, however, that becoming Dax will change Verad drastically.
The new Verad Dax emerges feeling like a completely new man, because he is. Sisko pointedly reminices with his old buddy, then tries to guilt him into giving his symbiont back to Jadzia, but Verad refuses. Even if he wanted to, the union is already underway.
At an impasse, everyone is stuck waiting out the storm before Verad and his cronies can leave. Jadzia cannot survive long without her symbiont and is barely holding on in the care of Bashir. Apparently feeling guilty for his role in the affair, Quark suddenly attacks T'Kar but gets beaten down. He's rushed to sick bay, where he feigns grievous injury and helps Bashir take down Yeto. Meanwhile, Sisko continues to pry at Mareel, arguing that the new Verad Dax doesn't need her anymore and plans to ditch her once he leaves. She finally gives in and hands over her phaser.
As Verad and T'Kar prepare to depart, Kira and the newly released Odo intercept them and take turns beating up T'Kar. Verad runs for another docking bay but gets intercepted by a phaser-toting Sisko. Verad states that Sisko would never shoot him and risk the life of the symbiont, but Sisko ain't fucking around. He guns Verad down.
Verad awakens with Mareel standing over him. The Dax symbiont has already been restored to Jadzia, who's feeling much better. She can remember everything that happened to the symbiont while it was apart from her, and it will always be a part of her. Meanwhile, Verad is a broken man, cursed to forevermore feel empty and alone. As Mareel attempts to reach him, he just stares off into nothing.
Tropes
- Affably Evil: Verad is meek and genuinely regretful about what he is doing. Once he has the confidence of Dax, he continues to be polite and friendly, but he's even more committed to doing whatever it takes to have his way, including killing anyone who stands in his way. It's also suggested that his whole romance with Mareel is just a sham to keep her loyal.
- Apologetic Attacker: The meek Verad apologizes for seizing control of the station and murdering Jadzia, but he still goes through with it.
- Bad "Bad Acting": Quark's injury acting. Best described as a shrieking bird combined with a fire alarm... which served its purpose, as Quark's reaction to his injury was so annoying that the terrorists send him to the medical bay instead of just treating him on site like they did O'Brien.
- Bash Brothers: Kira and Odo double-team a Klingon and win quite handily.
- Big Damn Heroes: This is Quark's most heroic role, by far, in the series to date. Spurred by the guilt of letting the villains onto the station, he takes the initiative to save Jadzia by letting himself get beat on by one Klingon merc and then goading Bashir into incapacitating the other one. He then cracks Odo's prison-box, bringing the overall odds into the heroes' favor.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jadzia's happy restoration is tinged with bitterness, as the last image we hold on is Verad's thousand-yard stare as his lover mournfully looks on.
- Blatant Lies: When caught loitering in an airlock, Quark claims that he was "meditating" about the departure of his dear brother Rom. Odo doesn't believe it for a second, but they don't figure out what he was really doing.
- Bond One-Liner: "Don't call me Benjamin."
- Bottle Episode: The station has been evacuated because of a plasma storm and is run by a skeleton crew, which happens to be the core cast, less Jake. Only about a dozen actors feature in total.
- Canon Discontinuity: Possibly, given that Verad is never brought up again when Dax's hosts are listed off in future episodes. Perhaps he wasn't joined long enough to 'count', since the symbiont was only implanted in him for a few hours at most and removing it didn't kill him; or alternatively because he essentially stole the symbiont at phaser point rather than being officially assigned it. Or perhaps Jadzia, despite her sympathy for him, preferred not to remember the man who almost caused her death.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Major Kira doesn't even get a hit in against Mareel, who dishes out a six-strike combo that puts the former freedom fighter on her ass.
- Dark Action Girl: Mareel, who kicks two shits out of fellow Action Girl Kira when they go toe-to-toe. Guess she isn't kidding about that rough upbringing!
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This is by far Quark's most treacherous behavior toward the crew of the station and nearly results in Jadzia's death.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Yeto is shamed into helping Bashir's medical procedures twice.
- Quark realizes that his actions really were beyond the pale this time, so he does some very out-of-character heroics to help amend the situation.
- Failed a Spot Check: Odo finds Quark "meditating" in an airlock and orders him out—but fails to check inside to see if he left anything.
- First-Name Basis / They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Verad Dax, as per usual for the Dax symbiont, calls Sisko "Benjamin." Sisko plays along for a little while, but when it becomes clear that Verad's willing to leave Jadzia to die, Sisko tells him quite bluntly that he's not allowed to use Sisko's first name anymore. (And then shoots him.)
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: In sharing her backstory, Mareel strongly implies she was working as a prostitute when she met Verad. He took her with him when he left the planet, pulling her out of her hopeless situation, so she now loves him with Undying Loyalty.
- Instant Sedation: Bashir takes out Yeto with hypospray.
- Ironic Echo: When Sisko tells Verad Dax that he's killed Jadzia, he replies that Jadzia will "always be with me." At the end of the episode when Dax is rejoined with Jadzia, she makes the same comment about Verad, as she now has all his memories.
- Karma Houdini: The episode ends before we find out whether Quark received any punishment for his role in the affair, but no following episodes make any reference to it. The fact that he atones by recklessly attacking T'Kar and then helping Bashir take out Keto is apparently what earns him back into everyone's good graces.
- Love Makes You Stupid: Mareel repeatedly insists that Verad won't change after he's joined with Dax and the two of them will continue to be together. As Sisko lampshades, she obviously has no understanding of how Trills work. While she starts to develop doubts after actually seeing Verad Dax, she still remains loyal to him. It takes realizing Verad was lying to her and never intended to run away with her, and a lengthy speech from Sisko, to finally get her to turn on him.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: Mareel, who is part love-slave and part enforcer for Verad, fully supports his desires no matter what they are.
- Noodle Incident: This episode has the first mention of Sisko and Curzon's visit to Pelios Station, which will become a Running Gag for the remainder of the series.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Quark uses Obfuscating Annoyance to his advantage several times throughout the episode. First when he meets Odo coming out of the airlock, he acts so smarmy and obviously plotting of something that all of Odo's attention stays on him rather than checking the airlock. Later on, after his gambit in Ops, he wails so shrilly and agonizingly that Verad is willing to send him over to Bashir just so he won't have to listen to him. Once there, Quark continues to be a huge annoying distraction, allowing Bashir to get the drop on Yeto.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When several people tell Quark that he's gone way over the line this time, it spurs him to perform a self-sacrificial attack on T'Kar as part of a Wounded Gazelle Gambit that ultimately frees Bashir, Jadzia and Odo.
- Pet the Dog: Mareel gives O'Brien some broth to "keep his strength up" after Verad shoots him. O'Brien doesn't want it, but once he realizes that it's an olive branch from Mareel, he accepts it.
- Private Military Contractors: Keto and T'Kar turn out to be mercenaries hired by Verad. They call him "little man" but follow his orders.
- Rescue Romance: Subverted. Mareel has Undying Loyalty and love for Verad for plucking her from her life of squalor and desperation. However, it's fairly clear that she was just a prostitute he dragged along because it was expedient for him. Once he becomes Verad Dax, it's suggested that he's going to ditch her at the first opportunity.
- Riddle for the Ages: It's left ambiguous about whether Verad was going to ditch Mareel. And if so, did he ever really care for her, or did the Dax symbiont cause him to outgrow their relationship?
- Smart Ball: While the rest of the crew spends the episode twiddling their thumbs, Quark is the one to come up with a plan to start to free themselves.
- Tuckerization: While testing Dax's memories in Verad, Sisko brings up the "Cliffs of Bole," named for frequent Trek director Cliff Bole (who actually directed the following episode).
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The scene in Quark's bar is important because it establishes that Quark had no idea of the villains' real goal when he conspired to get them on the station. He thought he was setting up an illegal trade, not launching a scheme that would lead to Jadzia's death.
- The Worf Effect: Action Girl Kira is issued a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Mareel. Our heroes will have to do something a bit more clever than just start punching their captors.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: As a matter of fact Verad, he would. And does.
