S4E4 - Indiscretion
Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2020 1:54 pm
I selected this episode because it introduces Zlyal and to a lesser extent it is the first time we see the Breen.
One of the things I enjoy in DS9 is when some part of Kira's past re-emerges. This story opens with rumors of the location of the Ravinok a prisoner transport that carried a member of Kira's resistance cell.
Quickly, the stakes jump when the Cardassians want to be part of the recovery effort and then Gul Dukat arrives. Anytime Gul Dukat is on the screen is a treat, but paired up with Kira who loathes him, makes for amazing tension. But from the time Dukat appears, we know something is up.
What we learn is not what we expected. Dukat's Bajoran mistress was on the transport and died. We see a touching moment of him mourning her loss, and for a brief moment, we feel for him, right up until we find out that his half-Cardassian daughter lived and he is going to kill her. Then we are back to the Dukat we all loathe.
In the end, he does not kill her and she is rescued. Dukat takes Zlyal home to Cardassia.
We will see her again in future episodes.
One of the things I enjoy in DS9 is when some part of Kira's past re-emerges. This story opens with rumors of the location of the Ravinok a prisoner transport that carried a member of Kira's resistance cell.
Quickly, the stakes jump when the Cardassians want to be part of the recovery effort and then Gul Dukat arrives. Anytime Gul Dukat is on the screen is a treat, but paired up with Kira who loathes him, makes for amazing tension. But from the time Dukat appears, we know something is up.
What we learn is not what we expected. Dukat's Bajoran mistress was on the transport and died. We see a touching moment of him mourning her loss, and for a brief moment, we feel for him, right up until we find out that his half-Cardassian daughter lived and he is going to kill her. Then we are back to the Dukat we all loathe.
In the end, he does not kill her and she is rescued. Dukat takes Zlyal home to Cardassia.
We will see her again in future episodes.
It is an important foundation for future storylines and such...that's about the good I can say about it. The rest...yikes. As much as I get Dukat as a kind of "you love to hate him" kind of character, there was just so much problematic stuff here that I was honestly made uncomfortable by the episode, and then the fact that there's the comedy break scene for yuks where he sits on the sand spike...it just seemed extra gross to try and "humanize" Dukat under these circumstances. Besides the "slavery is good for you" angle that Jerry mentioned, there's also just the existence of his relationship with his "mistress" to absorb, not even including his attitude about his child. In a broad sense, Cardassians represent all the shittiness of military conquerors and occupiers, and then somehow we also have Dukat to personally embody a distillation of the same. I'm just not here for Kira sharing a laugh with him over some slapstick nonsense. Like...I get the humor of the scene? I even laugh at it. And then I feel gross about laughing at it.