140. Change of Heart

Summary

When a Starfleet intelligence agent working on Cardassia requests an emergency rendez-vous, Worf and Dax are sent on the mission. Arriving at the coordinates, they receive a transmission from the agent, a Cardassian named Lasaran, telling them that he has some very vital information about Changeling infiltrators but he needs to be evacuated ASAP. It will be a dangerous pickup but they agree and he sends them the coordinates and the information. They arrive and land the runabout 20 km from their rendezvous point, then start off through the jungle. The first night they run into a Jem'Hadar patrol and Dax is seriously wounded, but continues. They must make the rendezvous with Lasaran, but it soon becomes clear that Dax cannot go on. She urges Worf to go without her and he does, but they are both aware that by the time he returns in two days she'll likely be dead. He doesn't get far before he realizes that he can't do it, so he returns and takes her back to the runabout. Back on DS9 as Jadzia is in surgery, Sisko informs Worf that Lasaran is dead but he won't be court-martialed due to the secrecy of this mission...but that he'll likely never get his own command because of his actions. However, Sisko does admit that if it were him, he'd do the same thing.

Meanwhile O'Brien, relishing the challenge of breaking Quark's 207 game winning streak at tongo, gets the genetically-enhanced Julian to learn the game and challenge Quark. He's doing quite well until Quark psychs him out with a lot of wistful talk about Dax.

Analysis

When I saw the previews for this episode I wasn't too enthusiastic. Although I have no problem with the Worf/Dax pairing I've never been a huge proponent of it and I've never seen too much chemistry between them. Therefore I was surprised how much I liked it. For the first time I really did see a good relationship between them and I felt that they had chemistry together as a couple. Although the plot was contrived to force this choice upon Worf, the way it was done was a departure for Trek and yet another illustration of why I like DS9. Previously on Trek, relationships have always been seen as a sort of impediment to duty, something best avoided, something that should be cast away in favor of loyalty to Starfleet, etc...so to have Worf sabotage his career to save the woman he loves was something I didn't expect but thought had a good deal of emotional resonance. We as fans tend to hold these characters to different standards than to which we hold ourselves. What do most people find most important and rewarding about life? Feelings, family, love, relationships...yet we tend to disdain characters who display the same priorities. I felt very refreshed to hear Worf say that Dax comes first in his life, before career or duty. Relationships are something DS9 is not afraid to emphasize. After all, though Trek is science fiction, it's fundamentally about the human (or humanoid) condition...and I'm a firm believer that being human (used in the generic sense, not the homo sapiens sense) isn't about duty or career, it's about emotions and self-awareness. Nice to finally have a Trek series that agrees with me. The episode is genuinely affecting, and I always like to be pleasantly surprised. The B plot is pretty extraneous, but sets up Quark and Julian's feelings about Dax as shown in Tears of the Prophets.

Rating: 8.0

Memorable Quote:

"You were at my wedding. You heard the story of the first two Klingon hearts and how nothing could stand against them, and how they even destroyed the gods that created them. I've heard that story since I was a boy, but I never understood it, I mean really understood it, until I was standing there in the jungle with my heart pounding in my chest and realized that even I could not stand against my own heart. I had to go back, and it did not matter what Starfleet thought or what the consequences were, she was my wife...and I could not leave her." --Worf

Classic Scene:

The scene that finds Worf and Dax in the runabout discussing honeymoon options is a great scene of genuine familiarity between them, and was the first time I got a real sense of them as a married couple.

Sexually Slanted Line 'O the Episode:

"You don't expect me to show you all my cards, do you?" --Quark, closet exhibitionist

The O/K Status Report

El zippo.

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