4. A Man Alone

Summary

Odo is upset to find Ibudan, a man he sent to jail for murdering a Cardassian, free and back on the station. The situation worsens when Ibudan is found murdered in a holosuite and all the evidence points to Odo. Anger, fueled by prejudice, sweeps the DS9 citizens who trash Odo's office and form an angry mob to trap him in his office. Sisko reluctantly relieves Odo of duty while Kira, Dax and Bashir investigate the murder. When Bashir finds biological matter in Ibudan's quarters they deduce that he was doing some kind of cloning experiment...Ibudan murdered his own clone in order to frame Odo.

Meanwhile, Keiko and O'Brien quarrel because she feels useless on DS9. When she observed Jake and Nog getting into mischief, she decides to open a school.

Analysis

Fair to middling. Mysteries are difficult to pull off in a sci-fi format but this one works fairly well, actually...we know Odo is innocent (he must be, his name's in the opening credits) but it's hard to guess how the murder was committed until Bashir reveals the truth. The angry-mob stuff is pretty contrived and cliched and at times the episode all but hits us over the head with interpersonal stuff, which is still being established. After this episode, one can have no doubt whatsoever that Julian has a huge crush on Jadzia, Sisko and Dax are old friends, Odo and Quark have kind of a love/hate thing going and Kira and Odo are buddies. All of these dynamics, which have already been more effectively established in the previous two episodes, are dealt with in a heavy-handed manner here just to make sure we all get the point. We get the point, let's move on. The Keiko B plot serves its purpose, no more no less. It's strange to see her talk to Rom, who viewed with hindsight seems almost unrecognizable from the lovably buffoonish Ferengi we've come to know. Another note...as a viewer who's seen a lot of DS9, it's very clear that Rene Auberjonois was still settling into his role at this point. During several scenes, most notably in the holosuite when the officers have just discovered Ibudan's body, he doesn't *sound* like Odo, he hasn't got the voice quite down yet.

Rating: 5.5

Memorable Quote:

"Commander, rules change depending on who's making them. Cardassians one day, Federation the next...but justice is justice." --Odo

Classic Scene:

I'm going with the opening scene, in which Julian interrupts Dax in the midst of practicing an Altonian brain-teaser. The enthusiastic doctor, still trying to get in good with Jadzia, attempts the puzzle and fails most spectacularly.

Sexually Slanted Line 'O the Episode:

"My son cannot learn anything from a human female teacher!" --Rom

The O/K Status Report

The friendship hinted at in Past Prologue is further established here. Kira is very vocal in her insistence that Odo could not possibly be guilty and defends him to anyone who hints otherwise. The fact that Odo actually manages to ask her for help in proving his own innocence is alone an indicator that he trusts her.

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