The Gratitude Festival is in full swing in spite of the ongoing war, and spirits are high. With the Romulans as allies, the Federation is looking to take a more aggressive posture, with Sisko as the lead strategist. Admiral Ross, Sisko and Martok discuss the importance of getting the Romulans to commit. The Romulans are cautious but eventually bow to the pressure from both their allies to plan an invasion of the weakly defended Chin'toka system. Little do they realize that Damar is planning to bring some new automated weapons platforms online to defend the planet. In addition, the outcast Gul Dukat arrives to claim that he's figured out how to win the war and needs only an old Bajoran artifact to accomplish it.
Meanwhile, Dax and Worf announce that they intend to have a baby. This seriously bums out Bashir and Quark, who still hold a candle for the Trill. They go to a holosuite and get a pep talk from Vic Fontaine, who tells them there are plenty more women out there. Odo has his own love problems when an irate Kira castigates him for arresting a Vedek over a trivial infraction.
Sisko gets a message from the prophets telling him not to accompany the allied assault on Chin'toka, but Ross forces Sisko to finally make a choice: is he a Starfleet officer or the Emissary? Sisko decides to join the mission. He learns of the weapons platforms and decides to strike immediately before they can come online. Everyone going on the mission say their goodbyes. Kira explains to clueless Odo that they only had a fight, and their relationship isn't over. Worf and Dax kiss goodbye, and Worf tells her that she is always in his heart. Jake also joins the attack as a war reporter.
A huge allied invasion force fights the Dominion defenses of Chin'toka, receiving heavy losses from suicidal Jem'Hadar attacks stalling for time. The allies manage to destroy a number of offline weapons platforms before they suddenly activate and start shredding the allied ships. Sisko's ship identifies a central power source for all the platforms and attacks it.
Dukat has discovered that the wormhole is the domain of the Bajoran prophets and plans to ally with the Pah-wraiths to attack the Bajorans' gods. He breaks a Bajoran artifact and is possessed by a Pah-wraith. In the midst of the battle, he teleports to Deep Space Nine and makes his way to the Orb of Contemplation. Dax, who has just received good news about the possibility of a pregnancy, is praying at the orb to give thanks to the prophets. The Pah-wraith in Dukat shoots her with a red energy beam, knocking her unconscious, and transfers itself into the orb, turning it black. The wormhole instantly seals shut.
Sisko feels a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of Prophets suddenly cried out in terror, then were suddenly silenced; he goes faint, leaving Kira to take command of the assault. The allies trick the weapons platform to fire on their own power source, knocking them out of commission and winning the battle. Weyoun is furious that the battle is lost and that the wormhole is closed to future Dominion reinforcements, but Dukat assures him that sealing away the Prophets has benefited the Dominion.
Back on the station, the crew of the Defiant rushes to the infirmary, where Bashir informs them that the Dax symbiont can be saved, but Jadzia is mortally wounded. Jadzia tells Worf that their children would have been beautiful before she dies. Worf howls in anguish and begins singing a Klingon mourning song. The crew plan a funeral for Jadzia, and Sisko confides to her casket that he blames himself for her death because he did not heed the Prophets' warning. He resolves to take some time to get his head straight. He leaves the station, taking his baseball with him. We last see him grimly washing clams at his father's restaurant, uncertain of what to do next.
This episode contains examples of:
- Affably Evil: Weyoun is as affable as always while planning the battle. When Damar unveils his weapons platforms, Weyoun immediately gushes, "I like them!" After Damar manages to get the weapons platforms activated, Weyoun heartily apologizes for doubting him.
- Apologetic Attacker: Dukat after the Pah-wraith possessing him mortally wounds Jadzia.Dukat: I know this is small comfort, but I never intended you any harm.
- Call-Back: Sisko's baseball once again serves the Rule of Symbolism. At the end of the previous season, he left it on his desk, as a message to the Dominion that he would be back. Here, he takes it with him, not sure if he is coming back.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Jadzia, when Bashir and Quark wonder what she and Worf were talking about in the holosuite:Worf: It is a private matter.
Jadzia: We're thinking about having a baby!
Worf: It was a private matter. - The Cassandra: The Prophets warn Sisko not to join the battle, but he ignores them, and everyone suffers.
- Chekhov's Gun: Odo points out the Orb of Contemplation in an early scene when trying to change the subject. It gets attacked by the Pah-wraith in the end.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Zigzagged. When the allied ships reach Chin'toka before the weapon platforms are online, they easily destroy the platforms. Then the platforms activate and begin tearing into the allied ships—until O'Brien tricks them into destroying their power source, at which point they go dead. The Alliance then easily takes Chin'toka.
- Da Chief: Admiral Ross gives Sisko quite the dressing down for being indecisive following the Prophet's warnings. It's not cruel and Ross notes he's bent over backwards for Sisko before regarding his status as Emissary, but that's at an end. He forces Ben to choose: is he the Emissary of the Prophets or a Starfleet captain? Sisko chooses his captaincy... and pays the price.
- Death Wail: The return of the Klingon Death Roar, under particularly horrible circumstances.
- Downer Ending: Sisko doesn't heed the warning of the Prophets and Jadzia is killed by the Pah-wraith possessed Dukat, and the wormhole is sealed shut, cutting Sisko off from the Prophets. Even the Federation's major victory doesn't nudge the episode into bittersweet territory due to Dukat's confident assurance that the Federation is worse off than when they started. A distraught Sisko departs Deep Space Nine, heading back to Earth to return to his father's restaurant, and doesn't leave his baseball behind on the station to indicate he will return.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Jadzia dies rather casually and arbitrarily, with it not even being clear until her actual death scene that Dukat did anything other than just render her unconscious.note This becomes a plot point in the next two episodes, as Worf grouses about Jadzia not getting an honorable death and tries to ensure a great victory is accomplished in her name.
- Easily Forgiven: Dukat bears Damar no ill will for what happened to Ziyal, insisting that it was instead Sisko's fault.
- Fantastic Racism: The mutual loathing between Romulans and Klingons is on full display between General Martok and Senator Letant. Both deliberately antagonize each other over their perceived racial failures, stupidity and foolhardiness for the Klingons, being sneaky cowards for the Romulans.
- Fictional Holiday: It's Bajoran Gratitude Festival season again!
- Heroic BSoD: Sisko goes into one after Jadzia dies and the Prophets disappear. Bashir also looks like his world just ended. Next season will reveal Worf's struggle with Jadzia's death.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Cardassian weapon platforms are nearly impervious to attack, but are being fed power from a central source. O'Brien uses some sensor trickery to make them fire on it, turning them into little more than floating metal once their power source is gone.
- Humans are Leaders: In reference to the Federation's alliance with the Klingons and Romulans, Sisko describes the three powers as "Klingons, Romulans and humans." This is one of many times that the Federation is cast as a human institution rather than a, well, federation of many species.
- Hypocritical Humor:Weyoun: Pah-wraiths and Prophets...all this talk of gods strikes me as nothing more than superstitious nonsense.
Damar: You believe that the Founders are gods.
Weyoun: That's different.
Damar: In what way?
Weyoun: The Founders are gods. - Keystone Army: Taking out the defense grid's power generator shuts down all the weapons platforms at once.
- Kill Sat: The Cardassian orbital weapon platforms.
- Killed Off for Real: Fan-favorite Jadzia Dax is murdered in cold blood by a Pah-wraith-infested Dukat.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Sisko nearly collapses when the Pah-wraith invades the wormhole.
- No-Sell:
- As long as the weapon platforms and their power source have their Deflector Shields up, the allied ships can't even scratch them.
- The Defiant takes several hits from the platforms while the ships around her are being torn apart.
- Also the Galaxy-class Took a Level in Badass after being used for The Worf Effect back in "The Jem'Hadar": two GCSs in the task force, the Galaxy and the Venture, are able to take everything the platforms throw at them even though their allies' asses are getting kicked.
- Nothing Personal: How Dukat views killing Jadzia. He was only targeting the orb, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Poor Communication Kills: After Sisko is ordered to lead the assault on the Chin'toka system, the Prophets appear to him to warn him not to leave. Naturally, though, they don't actually give him a concrete reason, only a vague warning of danger, which unsurprisingly isn't enough for Admiral Ross. Sisko goes off to Chin'toka and, sure enough, disaster strikes once his back is turned. Whether he'd have been able to stop Dukat isn't certain, but Sisko is left blaming himself.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Cardassian territory has been breached by the joint Federation-Romulan-Klingon forces. But they've lost many ships in the attempt, Jadzia is dead, the wormhole is gone and Sisko leaves the station.
- Ramming Always Works: The Jem'Hadar fighters ram Martok's ships to buy time for the defense grid to activate.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Weyoun gives one to an unimpressed Dukat, who doesn't seem to care.Weyoun: We're in the middle of a life-and-death struggle for the control of the entire Alpha Quadrant and all you care about is quenching your petty thirst for revenge. You haven't changed a bit, have you?
Dukat: On the contrary. I'm a new man. I no longer have a need for conquest or power. I'm far beyond all that. I exist in a state of complete clarity, a clarity I intend to share with the universe.
Weyoun: You're right, Dukat, you have changed. You've gone from being a self-important egoist to a self-deluded madman. I hardly call that an improvement. - Red Eyes, Take Warning: When Dukat is possessed by the Pah-wraith, his eyes turn red.
- Redshirt Army: Any allied ship not named Defiant, Galaxy, Venture, Hood or Rotarran generally gets this treatment in the battle to take the Chin'toka system.
- An Excelsior-class ship gets a heavy dose of The Worf Effect by getting a nacelle hit by a disabled vessel, then taking several more disruptor hits as it lies adrift in orbit.
- An Akira-class ship has a nacelle destroyed, followed by most of its primary hull, as it gets sent pinwheeling end over end past an orbital defence platform.
- A Miranda-class ship blunders in front of an entire row of orbital defence platforms, which unleash enough Beam Spam on it that its primary hull basically disintegrates in seconds.
- Talking to the Dead: Sisko speaks to Jadzia's coffin near the end of the episode.Sisko: The funeral service is due to begin in a few minutes, Jadzia but I need to talk to you one last time. When I first met you, you told me that my relationship with Jadzia Dax wouldn't be any different than the one I had with Curzon Dax. Things didn't work out that way. I had a hell of a lot of fun with both of you, but Curzon was my mentor. You, you were my friend and I am going to miss you. I should have listened to the Prophets and not gone to Cardassia. Then maybe you'd still be alive. Dammit! Why aren't you still here, Jadzia? I need you to help me sort things out. Something's happened to the Prophets, something that's made them turn their backs on Bajor and I'm responsible. And I don't know what to do about it, how to make it right again. I've failed as the Emissary, and for the first time in my life I've failed in my duty as a Starfleet officer. I need time to think, clear my head, but I can't do it here. Not on the station, not now. I need to get away and find a way to figure out how to make things right again. I have to make things right again, Jadzia. I have to.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The strategy meetings show how tenuous The Alliance is, with Sisko playing referee between General Martok and the Romulans.
- Unfriendly Fire: O'Brien tricks the weapon platforms into firing on their own power generator.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Kira saying a prayer for the success of Dax and Worf's fertility treatments leads to Dax being in the temple of the Prophets to thank them when Dukat, possessed by a Pah-wraith, appears, resulting in Jadzia's death.
- Voice of the Legion: Dukat gets a second voice layered over his normal one when initially possessed by the Pah-wraith.
- Wham Shot: Sisko takes his baseball with him when he leaves the station. note
- You Are in Command Now:
- Major Kira takes over command of the Defiant when Sisko cannot continue in the wake of the Prophets' disappearance. It doesn't make a lot of sense as Worf, the nominal first officer of the ship, should really be the one taking command — but he was busy at the tactical station and Kira may have been assigned as the Number Two specifically for the battle.
- Not long thereafter, the Defiant gets a message from DS9, but it's from Dr. Bashir, who would presumably be the next-ranking Starfleet officer on the station with Jadzia having been incapacitated (and mortally wounded).
