User Reviews

When Odo and Commander Eddington inform Captain Sisko that his girlfriend Kasidy Yates is suspected of smuggling supplies to the Marquis he is disbelieving. However there is enough circumstantial evidence so he agrees to let all departing ships be searched. When Odo goes to search her ship Kasidy tells the Captain that she must be allowed to go as she is transporting medical supplies to a race who insist on punctuality. The captains lets her go but without telling her he dispatches the Defiant to follow her. As feared she deviates from her course and transports her cargo to a Marquis raider in the badlands. Sisko decides to personally follow her on her next run to catch her in the act and establish what she is giving to the Marquis. While doing this he leaves Commander Eddington in charge of the station so he can supervise the shipment of some industrial transporters to the Cardassians. Once again Kasidy goes into the Badlands but no Marquis come to meet her; after waiting to see what will happen the Captain realises it has all been a distraction to keep him away from the station. When he gets back he discovers that Eddington was working for the Marquis and the transporters have been stolen. In a secondary story Garak is getting closer to Dukat's daughter Ziyal even though he suspects her interest in him might be so she can do him harm and Major Kira has warned him to keep clear of her.

This was a pretty good episode with a couple of surprises, I didn't expect Kasidy would have been smuggling to the Marquis nor did I expect semi-regular character Eddington to turn out to be a traitor. The secondary story was enjoyable, Andrew Robinson's Garak is always fun, especially when he is being paranoid and Tracy Middendorf put in a good performance as Ziyal, making her a likable character.

When the show begins, you learn that some replicators are being secretly sent to the Cardassians by the Federation. Commander Eddington and Odo also approach Captain Sisko with a problem. They think that there's a good chance that Sisko's girlfriend, Kasidy Yates, is working with the Maquis*. But Sisko isn't about to just accuse her and he and his folks keep tabs on her and her space voyages. However, it turns out that this is all a ruse--and Eddington has ulterior motives. But what exactly is he up to?!

In addition to this plot, Mr. Garak has taken time away from his bromance with Dr. Bashir to may a lot of attention to Dukat's daughter, Ziyal. But this relationship, if there is one, is obviously fraught with problems since Dukat and Garak are sworn enemies.

Overall, this is a pretty exciting episode--mostly because it isn't stuck on DS9. Unfortunately, Eddington's behaviors were telegraphed in many ways, so none of this came as a huge shock--he obviously was never intended as a regular or one of the 'good guys'--a serious weakness of the show.

*Oddly, near the beginning of the show when Worf talks about the Maquis, he refers to them as the 'Marquis'.

Commander Eddington makes some interesting observations in this episode but the federation has rules in place to let members have autonomy over their own government ---- It's seems like it is a interstellar united nations with starfleet being the peace force of the federation to me.

It is a great twist and made even better by the fact that Eddington is not a supervillain --- he's just a man with differing views from star fleet.

The garak/ziyal subplot doesn't work well for me. He's like 50 years old and she's 17? Come on now. I suppose they want to give Garak some material but this is straining my believability. Didn't Garak torture Ziyal's grandfather to death?! All in the name of dramatic tension I suppose.

We get a nice Sisko moment ----- He has a unique command method and he provides Kassidy with the ability to escape capture or return to the DS9. It shows respect on Sisko's part to provide the choice and respect on Kassidy to come back to the station despite facing prosecution for her aiding of the Maquis.

Any romantic relationship between Sisko and...anyone...is not believable.

Honestly, there was more chemistry between him and his son than between him and Kasidy Yates.

I did enjoy the tension between the Captain and Eddington especially since it has been established that the Captain has expressed previously that there are issues with the Federation. Call it "big government". They think they know what is best for everyone and Eddington interestingly called it when he said it was as bad as the Borg.