As Bashir and his nurses do everything they can to save Bareil, Kai Winn explains to Sisko that she's here to conduct a secret meeting with a member of the Cardassian Central Command. Bareil has been communicating with them for months on a peace treaty, since the government is still provisional and the Kai is the only true authority on Bajor. With the Vedek on the brink of death, it's likely these talks will never resume. Despite all they can do, Bareil dies. But just before the autopsy, Dr. Bashir sees brain activity, and using extreme treatment, he's able to successfully revive Bareil. Since the Kai is a very crappy negotiator, she's elated at this development, as is Major Kira due to her romantic relationship with the Vedek.
Meanwhile, Jake tells Nog about his date, which causes the Ferengi to invite himself along and turn this into a double date. Naturally, this double date goes as well as you'd expect with a member of a species that practices government-sanctioned misogyny, as Nog is incredibly rude to his date. Both girls storm off, causing Jake and Nog to start yelling at each other. In the more serious plot, the Cardassians are able to exploit Kai Winn's uncertainty and indecisiveness to gain an advantage in the negotiations. Unfortunately, her constant meetings with Bareil from his hospital bed are putting a severe strain on his body. Bashir begs Winn to take responsibility for the negotiations and convince Bareil to stop sacrificing himself in the name of peace. Winn refuses, and Bashir realizes that she needs a scapegoat in case the negotiations fail. Same old Winn.
Sisko convinces Jake to make amends with Nog, so Jake has Odo make up a pretext to lock them both in a cell so that they can talk. Nog quickly figures out that that something fishy is afoot, causing Jake to come clean. The two boys still manage to settle their dispute and resolve to not go on any more double dates.
Bareil forces Bashir to use an experimental drug which has been known to result in organ failure to keep the negotiations alive. As predicted, the damage spreads to the Vedek's brain. Bashir replaces parts of it with a positronic matrix, but now, Bareil is merely a shell of what he once was. With Kai Winn still keeping Bareil awake, they are able to conclude the talks and a final peace settlement is signed. Now that he's outlived his usefulness (literally), Kai Winn tells Bashir and Major Kira that it's time to pull the plug, as she goes off to accept her laurels. Despite Kira begging Bashir to keep going, he insists it's better this way, in that Bareil can die like a man rather than live as a machine. He permits Kira to stay by Bareil's side as his brain slowly shuts down, whispering all the things she never had the opportunity to tell him.
Tropes:
- Awesome by Analysis: Nog gets a moment of this when he's arrested by Odo and celled with Jake for stealing from an ambassador. Nog remembers his father has warned about getting into trouble again, and he's late for work, but neither Rom nor Quark have come to see him. And Odo wouldn't lock up the station commander's son and accuse him of a crime without solid evidence. He quickly pieces together that the "arrest" is a farce that Jake set up with Odo in order to isolate them so they could talk things out.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kai Winn, as is par for the course for her. She pushes for more and more extreme measures to be taken to ensure Bareil's survival so that she can claim credit for finalizing the treaty after he dies. Once the treaty is signed, she has no qualms about requesting that the plug be pulled.
- Bittersweet Ending: Bajor has their peace treaty, but Bareil is dead.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Bashir warns Bareil that the drugs which can keep him alive will probably damage his organs, including his brain. Bareil insists on the drugs anyway, and the damage increases throughout the episode.
- Continuity Nod:
- The positronic matrix is of course a reference to Data and the other Soong-type androids. Appropriately enough, the positronic matrix that half of Bareil's brain gets replaced with looks quite similar to Data's brain.
- Dr. Bashir tries to initially save Bareil with two CC's of cordrazine.
- Jake recalls when Sisko told him that Ferengi and humans are too different to be friends, which happened in "A Man Alone." Sisko admits that he was wrong.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Justified, as Bashir is replacing pieces of Bareil's increasingly damaged brain.
- Deadpan Snarker: When Jake admits that he kinda forgot that Nog is a Ferengi, Nog quips, "You forgot? To most people, the lobes are a dead giveaway!"
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Nog claims that he did his best to accommodate Jake's sensibilities by not asking his date to chew his food for him.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jake didn't take a minute to consider that maybe a Double Date with a Ferengi isn't such a good idea.
- Dirty Coward: What Bashir sees Winn as. She doesn't care about Bareil. She just needs someone to handle the negotiations for her, as well as a scapegoat if things go badly.
- Doctor's Orders: At one point, Bashir threatens to have station security drag the Kai out of the infirmary if she doesn't stop pestering Bareil and let him rest. Kira pipes up that they won't need security.
- Extreme Doormat: Jake in this episode. He cancels his plans with Nog because he has a date... which quickly turns into Nog getting him to orchestrate a double date so that Nog can come along, without Jake ever objecting.
- Honor Before Reason: Bashir does everything he can to keep Bareil alive, but insists that he cannot take part in the negotiations since being alert is gradually killing him. Bareil refuses, wishing to fulfill the will of the Prophets even at the cost of his life.
- Hope Spot: Practically the entire episode is one. Bareil dies and is revived within the first ten minutes — but the experimental treatment necessary to enable him to finish his work ultimately kills him, this time permanently.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Nog acts like he knows more about women than Jake — and then proceeds to ruin their double-date.
- Mandatory Line: Quark only appears at the end while catering the party and presenting Kai Winn with a new dessert he's named for her. Dax also drops in for one brief scene to provide moral support to Kira.
- Mood Whiplash: An emotional episode rife with politics and quality of life discussions... mixed with Nog and Jake having girl trouble. This is also only two episodes removed from a comical plot in which Bareil tried to woo Dax and got beat up by her.
- Mythology Gag: Nog says "I don't even know what a Tholian looks like!". At this point, neither do the viewers.
- Never My Fault: Nog blames Jake for their disastrous double date, convinced that treating their "females" as equals was what caused it to fall apart. Apparently in all his years of living on the station, he's never quite cottoned on to the fact that women from other societies don't appreciate being treated like dirt.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bashir calls out Winn when she refuses to help him save Bareil's life, saying, "You're a coward. You're afraid to stand alone."
- The Scapegoat: Bashir is convinced that Winn will use Bareil as this if the negotiations fail.
- Ship Sinking: This is the end of Kira and Bareil.
- Taken Off Life Support: Vedek Bareil is seriously injured in a shuttle accident. At first he was thought to be dead after failed attempts to save him, but brain activity was found while an autopsy is about to be performed and he is saved. However, damage soon reaches Bareil's brain, and brain implants are needed to save him. After the surgery, Bareil is alive, but a different person. Things only go further downhill from there, and the only way to save him is to add more implants. It's decided that it's best to let him die, even though Kira begs Bashir to save him. In end, he dies with Kira by his side.
- Theseus' Ship Paradox: As more of Bareil's brain fails and is replaced, the less he's him.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Bareil, an honorable and good man, is reduced to a monotone shell thanks to Winn. His death is almost a relief.
- Too Much Information: Regarding Ferengi culture: Jake is sickened to learn from Nog that females traditionally pre-chew meals for males.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Subverted. At the beginning of the episode, Sisko is surprised to hear Winn heap praises on her nemesis Bareil and humbly say that she could never conduct the negotiations without him. It seems that Winn has finally turned a corner. But then it becomes clear that she's just callously using him for his diplomatic skills and is perfectly happy to let him die to prop up her accomplishments. Bashir even accuses her of positioning him as The Scapegoat if the talks should fail.
- Villain Has a Point: Winn's determination to keep Bareil alive at any cost so he can help her with the peace negotiations is framed as her being too cowardly to try and negotiate alone, and to have Bareil as a scapegoat to blame if the talks fail. However, it's made clear that Bareil feels the same way — he is comfortable dying if it means he can bring peace to Bajor, and he insists Bashir keep him alive so he can continue to aid Winn. Were he fully cognizant in his final hours, Bareil probably would have insisted on the same extreme measures to prolong his life that Winn did. It's what makes his death so tragic and her exploitation of him so heartless.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Winn only needs Bareil alive long enough to conduct the negotiations. Once the treaty is signed, she argues for pulling the plug on him. Unusually for this trope, Bareil agrees with her, accepting that his service to Bajor and the Prophets has ended.
