DS9: "The Search, Part II"

After Dominion forces board the Defiant, Constable Odo and Major Kira escape to the Omarion Nebula, where they find Odo's long-lost homeworld. Meanwhile, Commander Sisko returns to Deep Space Nine and finds the Founders of the Dominion have already talked the Federation into a very one-sided peace treaty. Or so it seems...

Normally I don't bother hiding spoilers under a cut with these things, because a) I can write around it or b) I figure it's not a big deal after 20-30 years. But frankly, there's nothing in this episode worth talking about except in the context of the twist at the end, which is as close as Star Trek gets to having an "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father" moment. If that kind of thing matters to you, this is your last chance to go watch the show yourself and come back here later.

OK, now that the kids are in bed: The entire Sisko storyline is an elaborate Dominion simulation in a secret lab on the same planet where Odo meets his people. Because Odo's people are the Founders--they created the Dominion to protect themselves from generations of prejudice against Changelings.

In retrospect that all seems obvious, but in 1994 I didn't see it coming. It seemed like more than enough misdirection that the simulation's Borath "reveals" his species are the Founders after Eris denied it in "The Jem'Hadar." (We still haven't established that Borath and Eris's species is the "Vorta" briefly mentioned in "The Search, Part I.") Moreover, the Changelings' philosophy and the simulation's political intrigue were so baffling that I was just focused on understanding what was going on. It somehow didn't occur to me that the two plots had nothing to do with one another, and needed to link up at the end.

I still don't quite understand the simulation. The real Borath says the idea is to test how much appeasement Sisko will tolerate to prevent a war, and the answer is "not much." But test is skewed by the uncanny details of the simulation. Admiral Necheyev and Lt. Commander Eddington act like they're under mind control or something. The Dominion antagonize the Romulans for no apparent reason. Even if Sisko trusted the Dominion, he'd probably still try to collapse the wormhole just because he suspects someone is messing with him.

The pacing of the story and its climax doesn't give us time to wrap things up very well. Once Odo secures the release of his friends, we're told the Defiant has been in orbit all along and it's apparently ready to leave, just like that. We also get no time to deal with the ramifications of revealing the Dominion's greatest secret to their greatest enemy. Up to this point the disputed existence of the Founders was a key feature of the Dominion, so you'd think dropping it would be a big deal for their society. But if there are any ramifications, we never see them.