S2E24 - The Collaborator

[dnaphil]

I selected this episode because it establishes Kai Winn.

This episode is another example of the great writing of this series. The episode looks at rooting out a Bajoran Collaborator who caused the Kendric Valley Massacre, where a group of rebels were killed when a Bajoran gave away their position.

Kira gets roped into the investigation and soon things start to point to her lover, and the man poised to be the next Kai Bareil. Things look bad, so bad that Bareil drops out of consideration for Kai, allowing Winn to become the next Kai.

But Kira convinced that Bareil could not have done it, keeps digging and finds out a worse truth. The twist is another example of the excellent writing of the show. It shows how ugly the occupation was; the hard decisions that were required.

In the end Kira and Bareil's relationship is restored, but now Kai Winn is the spiritual leader of Bajor.

It was not until re-watching that I realized that the first two seasons have a lot of stories about how hard the occupation was on a number of people. In those seasons we find out what affects it had on Kira, Odo, Bareil, Li Nalas, Garak, and Aamin Maritza. The writing for all of these are some of the best episodes of these first two seasons.

For seasons 1 and 2 this is a strong theme. This will shift a bit as we move into Season 3, and the new Showrunner and Writers move in, but its never lost from the show.