The station's main staff assemble in dress uniforms to receive the Bajoran First Minister Shakaar for a conference. Kira is an old friend of his from during the resistance days and says he used to be so shy that he'd mumble his way through briefings. Shakaar arrives, clearly uncomfortable with his new role of authority. As he walks through the Promenade greeting Bajorans, Odo announces that he's received a credible threat to assassinate Shakaar from the True Way, a group of Cardassian extremists.
Sisko orders an increase in security. Since Commander Eddington is on leave, Worf will assist Odo. Working together, Worf expresses respect for the difficult job Odo has, and they bond over a shared appreciation of order and privacy. Odo sticks close to Shakaar, who attends a reception. The minister finds Kira and suggests getting out of there and going for a stroll. Odo follows behind and begins to show signs of jealousy, something Quark doesn't fail to notice.
Later, Shakaar confides in Odo that he's got feelings for Kira and asks if Kira has ever talked about him as something other than a friend. Odo can't help but see his own situation mirrored in Shakaar's and says she has not. Kira herself skips out on her meeting with Odo, disappointing him greatly, and meets Shakaar again, who starts to open up about his feelings, but Odo's presence puts an awkward halt to a kiss. The threesome go to a turbolift, which starts to go into freefall. Odo saves the day by transforming his arms and halting the turbolift.
It turns out that the malfunction was a deliberate assassination attempt that Odo's distracted negligence allowed to happen. Odo gets lectured by both Sisko and Worf. He goes to meet Kira to make his feelings known to her but finds to his dismay that she's been shacked up with Skakaar for several hours, having consummated their new relationship. Odo can't bring himself to express his feelings for her and runs back to his quarters to smash his carefully arranged possessions in a fury.
Quark arrives to complain about the noise and lets himself in, finding Odo in a funk amid the wreckage. He admits that whenever there's a mystery on the station, he runs a betting pool on how long it will take Odo to solve it because everyone knows that he will. To return to form, the constable must make a final choice: either tell Kira about his feelings or forget her, because doing neither is destroying him. Odo says that it almost seems like Quark is giving advice to a friend. Quark considers it and states, "Nah!"
Odo tells Kira that he's canceling their weekly meetings but says it's only to make more efficient use of his time, and Kira doesn't press the issue. Stopping by Quark's, the barkeep notes that rumor has it that Shakaar's negotiations with the Federation have been successful. He also thanks Odo for soundproofing the floor of his quarters, but Odo denies doing it for Quark's benefit. Odo spots Kira and Shakaar on a holosuite date but does not comment on it and proceeds with his regular rounds.
Tropes
- Blatant Lies: Odo finds a bug that Quark set up to listen in on Shakaar. Quark claims that he lost it and that he uses it to monitor Rom when he's sleeping (supposedly because of something similar to sleep apnea). Odo obviously doesn't buy it, dunking the bug in a bowl of punch.
- Bittersweet Ending: Odo doesn't get the girl but has made peace with his unrequited affection for Kira and gets a little close to his nemesis Quark.
- Brick Joke: Before Shakaar arrives, Kira hopes that he's gotten better at public speaking; according to her, he used to mumble his way through mission briefings and the rest of the resistance cell had to learn to read lips. Just before Shakaar gives his speech, his aide pointedly reminds him to enunciate.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit" - Quark accuses Odo of shapeshifting into a Takaran wildebeest and a Rafalian mouse. He later also mentions a Trellan crocodile.
- Call-Back: The True Way is causing trouble again.
- Character Development: Worf and Odo had grated on each other in most of their previous scenes together, with Worf disapproving of Odo's methods. In this episode, Worf concedes that Odo's job is more difficult than his was and shows appreciation for the professionalism of his staff. They even bond over their rather exacting and antisocial personalities.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kira asks Odo why he doesn't wear a belt anymore. He wore one for the first six episodes of Season 3.
- The first thing Odo smashes in his quarters is the houseplant that Kira gave him as a housewarming present.
- Domestic Abuse: One of the criminal reports Odo and Kira read is about a man whose wife beats him. Kira wonders why they stay together, but Odo simply points to a different criminal report about the couple's public lewdness; apparently their marriage is kept together by an active sex life.
- Dramatic Irony: Kira and Shakaar both discuss their romance with Odo, unaware of his deep feelings for Kira.
- Elevator Failure: Engineered as part of an assassination attempt on Shakaar.
- Friendship Moment: While Quark denies that the two of them are friends, and neither of them outwardly admit to it, his concern for Odo's emotional state shows just how close the two constant antagonists really are.
- The Gadfly: Odo chose quarters directly above Quark's room and practices shapeshifting loudly in order to annoy him.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The episode starts out focusing around The True Way's threat to assassinate Shakaar. This soon ends up being forgotten in favor of focusing on Kira's and Shakaar's budding romance, and Odo's resultant Heroic BSoD. The assassination thread comes back into the plot briefly late on, when Shakaar nearly gets dropped to his death (along with Kira and Odo) in a runaway turbolift, but the perpetrator is soon apprehended off-screen by Worf.
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Shakaar admits to Odo that this is why he hasn't made a Love Confession to Kira. Implied this is why Odo hasn't done the same.
- I Feel Angry: Well, lovestruck and jealous. Two things Odo isn't accustomed to.
- Love Triangle: Kira and Shakaar have feelings for each other, with Odo is head-over-heels for Kira, who is Oblivious to Love. Most of the episode's drama comes from Odo's angst and insecurity over his feelings and his inability to express them while Kira and Shakaar grow closer.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: One of the items on Odo's criminal activities report involves a married couple... ahem... behind an information kiosk.
- Mandatory Line: Bashir, Dax and O'Brien all get a line or two in the cold open and then vanish.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Eddington is conveniently on leave so that Odo can work with Worf instead. This is after it was made explicitly clear in previous episodes that security is no longer Worf's job.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Odo gets so distracted by his jealousy that he fails to authenticate a (faked) message from Worf, which nearly gets Shakaar killed. Afterwards, Sisko says it's completely unlike the Constable to make such a mistake.Sisko: They say to err is human, but you're not human, Odo. You're not even humanoid.
- Two episodes ago, Odo was up in arms over his furniture being moved a few centimeters out of place. The sight of him smashing up his own quarters in a fit of anger shows just how badly the whole situation is affecting him.
- Odo gets so distracted by his jealousy that he fails to authenticate a (faked) message from Worf, which nearly gets Shakaar killed. Afterwards, Sisko says it's completely unlike the Constable to make such a mistake.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Only a very small one — it's Odo, after all — but it's certainly significant. Early on, Kira asks him why he stopped including a belt as part of his not-actual-uniform and comments that she thought he looked good with it, so he promptly remorphs it. At the end, when he's accepted that she will never see him as more than a friend (and decides to put some space between them), it's gone again.
- Stalker with a Crush: Odo spends most of the episode shadowing Shakaar and Kira. He insists it's for security, but it's painfully obvious he's there as a deliberate Third Wheel.
- Tantrum Throwing: Odo smashes his quarters after Worf catches the assassin. Of note, he throws his old bucket, which has the flowers Kira gave him as a housewarming present.
- Technically Naked Shapeshifter: Odo instantly makes a change to his uniform, since it's all just a part of his body anyway. He notes that the belt is purely aesthetic and doesn't "hold his pants up."
- Tsundere: Of a non-romantic variety. Quark checks on Odo only because his mood is interfering with his business. And Odo isn't getting his floor soundproofed for Quark. He's having it reinforced, and that just happens to include soundproofing.
- Wisdom from the Gutter: Quark of all people gives Odo exactly the advice he needs in order to move past his depressive state and resume his duties.
