On their way to the badlands, where Razka is holed up, Dukat probes Kira's interest in the Ravinok. She reveals that Lorit Akrem, the man who recruited her to her resistance cell, was one of the ship's passengers. At Razka's ship, the old smuggler is displeased to see Dukat and notes that there's still a Maquis bounty on his head, just as the Cardassians still have a price on Razka's own. But they call a truce long enough for Dukat to confirm that Raska's salvage comes from the Ravinok. The pair head off to the salvage's point of origin, Dozaria, to continue the investigation.
On the station, Sisko learns that Kasidy Yates has applied for a position with the Bajoran government. That would keep her in the nearby sector full-time. Dax not-so-subtly pushes Sisko into offering her quarters right on the station, but Sisko seems lukewarm about the idea. Later, over dinner, Yates continues considering the opportunity, and Sisko's only comment is, "It's a big step." Yates calls him out for being against the whole thing and accuses him of being afraid of commitment.
On Dozaria, Dukat and Kira discover the wreckage of the Ravinok, with a burial site beside it. Dukat insists on investigating the graves alone, claiming that Cardassian burial customs require it. When Kira points out that the grave occupants could be Bajorans, Dukat deftly quotes Bajoran scripture to quell her concerns. After digging up a few graves, Dukat finds a Bajoran betrothal bracelet and becomes despondent. Seeing his behavior, Kira deduces the reason for his interest in Ravinok: He had a Bajoran mistress on the ship. Dukat insists that he loved his mistress, Tora Naprem, but doesn't want to speak about her.
At camp, Dukat accidentally sits on something sharp, causing him to hop around comically until Kira can help him, and the two ultimately share a laugh at the absurdity of the incident. You could almost forget that they were once deadly enemies. But then Kira up and ruins it by mentioning that she's been studying the Ravinok's manifest and discovered that Tora Naprem's daughter, Tora Ziyal, survived the crash. But Dukat is not pleased. Instead, he announces his intention to find and kill her, since her existence is a threat to his Cardassian family. Kira is shocked and vows to stop him if he tries.
Kira's battle buddy Lorit was not among the slain, so she wants to continue searching. She searches for evidence of the tracking device he was wearing and finds a trail. The pair track it to a Breen mining operation being manned by Bajoran prisoners. Among them is a young, female and curiously Cardassian-looking Bajoran. It's Ziyal!
Back on the station, Sisko gets an earful from Bashir and Dax, who suggest that he apologize to Yates and mend things. When he returns home, Jake dourly informs him that Yates has chosen not to take the position after all. He tells his father to let Yates take the job and not push her away out of a fear of things going bad.
Kira and Dukat stage a commando raid of the Breen mine and liberate the prisoners. Kira is too late to rescue Lorit, however, as he recently died in a mining accident. Meanwhile, Dukat finds Ziyal. She's overjoyed to see her father but is shocked when he holds her at gunpoint. Kira arrives and points a gun on Dukat, reiterating that she'll kill him if he tries to kill his daughter. Ziyal says that the Cardassians had warned her that her father would kill her, but she never believed them. She tearfully declares her desire to die rather than live apart from her father. Moved, Dukat puts down his gun and embraces his daughter.
On the station, Sisko apologizes to Yates for his cold feet. Things aren't perfectly square between them, but Yates admits that she'll be seeing him around a lot more. Meanwhile, Dukat tells Kira that he's chosen to bring Ziyal back to Cardassia. Kira wonders how that's going to work out, and Dukat smirks, telling her that he'll let her know.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: While hopping around in pain and rubbing a nonfunctional dermal regenerator against his ass, Dukat has to stop and admit that it is pretty funny.
- Batman Gambit: Kira guesses that Dukat told her about his daughter and his intent to kill her because he was counting on Kira refusing to let him do it.
- Dead All Along: Kira's friend, though she and Dukat are able to rescue the other prisoners.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Kira and Dukat steal two Breen uniforms to infiltrate the mine and rescue the prisoners.
- Due to the Dead: According to Dukat, Cardassian funeral rites don't permit non-Cardassians to watch. Kira actually goes with it.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Dukat cannot bring himself to kill his daughter, even though the knowledge that he had a child with a Bajoran could hurt his reputation on Cardassia (which is currently very unstable).
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Dukat loves his family and doesn't want to disrupt it. But he also loved Naprem and finds that he cannot bring himself to sacrifice her for his Cardassian family or his reputation.
- Face Death with Dignity: Ziyal decides that if she can't be with her father after waiting for him half her life, she would rather die.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Dukat mentions that half-Cardassian children have never exactly been welcomed on Bajor. Ziyal obviously has a rough road ahead of her on Cardassia as well.
- Moral Myopia:
- Dukat briefly makes a case that the Occupation actually helped strengthen Bajor. Kira, unsurprisingly, doesn't take kindly to the notion.
- Cardassian honor would apparently demand that Dukat kill Ziyal to avoid shame falling on his legitimate family. Not only is this Dukat's initial plan, but other Cardassian prisoners weren't shy about telling Ziyal herself as much when she used to hope for her father to rescue her. Kira notes the contradiction, pointing out that Cardassians constantly claim that family is the most important thing, but the definition of "family" turns out to be a lot more flexible than they'd admit.
- Motive Misidentification: When Kira finds out about Ziyal, she assumes Dukat is trying to rescue the girl. Dukat clarifies his true purpose is to kill Ziyal to keep the affair a secret.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Bajoran-Cardassian children apparently weren't uncommon during the occupation. Even Dukat had one.
- Offing the Offspring: Dukat's intended purpose on the mission. In the end, he can't go through with it.
- Pain-Powered Leap: Dukat, when he gets a sharp spine right in the ass. Both he and Kira find it Actually Pretty Funny.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Dukat is actually impressed at the Breen's ingenuity in using slave labor to mine on a planet that's less than hospitable for them. At Kira's objection, he's quick to point out that he's not actually in favor of what they're doing.
- Rank Up: Judging by his uniform, Dukat has been promoted to Legate since we last saw him.
- Shout-Out: Near the beginning of the episode, Kira tells Dukat “That’ll be the day,” a reference to The Searchers. Dukat’s relationship to Ziyal resembles that of Ethan and Debbie from that film.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kira is not happy to have to take Dukat along with her on the search mission. Dukat is a lot more pleased about it.
- The Un-Reveal: This is the first appearance of the Breen on camera (although they had been mentioned several times before), but we never see what they actually look like. Presumably Kira and Dukat got to find out when they stole two of their uniforms, but this isn't shown.
