YMMV / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S07E25 E26 "What You Leave Behind"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Winn wanted to be the Emissary of the Pah-wraiths, but they chose Dukat instead. Given that, when she tells Sisko how to stop Dukat, is it out of genuine penitence or a desire to spite her hated enemy one last time? Either way, she is not a Karma Houdini, so it ultimately matters little.
• Moment of Awesome: The Cardassian Heel–Face Turn during the climactic battle, when their entire fleet suddenly comes over to the Federation Alliance en masse. It's announced by an off-screen phaser shot blasting a Dominion warship off Defiant's tail, and then the Galor-class warship that fired it roars into view. The sudden and unexpected flood of reinforcements decisively turns the tide of the battle, and the Alliance is able to drive the Dominion forces into a retreat for Cardassia Prime.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Odo's homecoming and his attempts to reform the Founders. The final Season of Star Trek: Picard reveals Odo's actions instead triggered a schism within the Great Link. His homecoming also brought with him the knowledge that the Federation had developed the Morphogenic Plague (and withheld the cure from the Founders). This galvanized the most extremist elements of Changeling society (and PO Ws like Vadic who were experimented upon), who split off from their brothers and sisters to pursue a decades-long revenge against the Federation. If anything, they became so consumed with hatred that they would go so far as to ally with the remnants of the Borg Collective just to burn the UFP and its Starfleet to the ground.
• Narm: Damar, Kira, and Garak laughing over how they cannot blast their way into Dominion Headquarters, especially with Garak giving a long-winded metaphor about "slaying the Dominion dragon in its lair."
• Special Effects Failure:
  • During the scene where Weyoun tries to comfort the Founder, his right contact lens is off-center.
  • Because so much of the final battle was Stock Footage from earlier fights, the Defiant is marked with its original registry number (NX-74205) instead of the second one (NCC-75633).
• Tear Jerker:
  • Goodbye, Odo. Especially after the passing of René Auberjonois.
  • Of course, you'll probably be a weepy mess by the time you get to that scene anyway: Worf, O'Brien, Quark, and Jake each all have a montage of memories as they move on with their lives.

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