Phil and I watched this together using Amazon Prime’s new Watch Party feature, and chatting via a separate audio connection.
Spoiler Warning: this is not spoiler free! While I have not taken any precautions to avoid any spoilers so far, this episode in particular has some good plot twists that will be spoiled here. So if you have not seen this episode yet, and would like to, please do not read this review.
We start with a shot of what looks like a generic freighter docked to the station.
Cut to Odo in Quark’s ordering his usual, which is nothing. Some Miradorns[1] have arrived from the Gamma quadrant, and Quark claims to have had no interaction with them, due to their quarrelsome nature. There is another alien, Crodin, that the Klingons brought from the Gamma quadrant who appears to be avoidant of Odo, yet Quark says Crodin was friendly with him. Twin Miradorns come in, and nod to Quark, catsing some doubt on his previous claim to have had nothing to do with them.
Soon we see a meeting between Quark and the Miradorns, trying to unload their “Fabergé egg” though Quark, but the buyer has apparently backed out due to suspicion that the Miradorns stole it. Crodin shows up looking rather drunk, and attacks them to get the egg, Odo shows up to break up the scene but one twin gets killed. They are symbiotic twins, so the remaining twin is hell bent on killing Crodin to avenge the death.
Crodin is from Rakar, and is in Odo’s jail for the attempted robbery and the murder. Crodin discusses thier similarities, that they are both from the Gamma quadrant and are the only ones of their kind here. I believe this was my first learning of the word “dissemble.”
Odo is researching Quark’s knowledge of Crodin, who says he has information on Odo’s species. Odo was a foundling and has no knowledge of where he came from.
The prisoner gives a changeling artifact to Odo, which looks looks like something out of Myst.
Rakar wants Crodin back as a traitor. Crodin tries to make a deal with Odo to show Odo a place where he found a colony of Changelings.
Under Sisko’s orders, Odo sneaks Crodin off the station to return him to Rakar. The Miradorns eventually find out and go after Odo and Crodin.
I think the Miradon ship is reused, but it looks pretty cool.
They are forced to land on a planet in this Vortex of where Crodin says he found a changeling colony, but in reality he was lying about the whole thing, and they are really there to rescue Crodin’s daughter. Being that Crodin was declared an enemy of the state, his family’s lives were in danger, and he was only able to save his daughter and hide her in this remote location.
They are able to outwit and destroy the Miradorns, leaving Crodin and his daughter free to escape on a Vulcan ship. This leaves a small loose end in that they never really explain satisfactorily to Rakar what happened. Presumably they would have said that Crodin was killed by the Miradorns, who also conveniently blew themselves up.
Final grade: B+
This was a great episode, our first really good character development and over arching plot point that will carry over into other episodes. There is a lot of good character developing dialogue, well acted by Quark, Odo, Crodin and the Miradorn. There are some very funny elements, one of which involving Morn, which will be some a running gag in the show. There’s even a bit with Rom acting stupid. It’s a lot of character development stuff that is not easily summed up and the plot is pretty straightforward, but exciting and having a twist. Even if you have been spoiled by my review, it is still worth watching. Overall, this episode is probably better than Babel, which I rated higher, but I have a special nostalgia for that one. It really establishes Odo’s character that he will do what is right, regardless of the law.
I would also like to note one plot irregularity. It is never explained why Crodin wants to steal the Fabrigé egg-like thing. It serves the plot in getting him to talk to Odo, and allowing him to save his daughter, but it is not satisfactorily explained how that was intended to work by the characters.
This was really fun watching the episode together with Phil.
1. I didn’t bother checking spelling of any of these alien names. Most of the time I don’t plan on bothering to do so, especially for one-off characters.