Bashir and O'Brien manage to entice Sloan from Section 31 onto the station in order to obtain the cure to the Changeling disease by any means necessary. But when he attempts to commit suicide, the pair must enter Sloan's mind to obtain his secrets.
This could have been great. A final confrontation between Julian and Sloan, with the doctor just as determined to gain Sloan's secrets as Sloan is to keep them. A battle of wits and wills would have been interesting, as we could have seen the genetically modified Julian fight someone possibly as intelligent as himself, and the viewer could have learnt more about Section 31.
What actually happens though is none of the above. Sloan is dying, and Julian and Miles must wander about in his mind to find a cure. Now, these kind of shows have been done before on Star Trek, when you can't trust anything to be real, and this really isn't one of the better attempts. Every cliché is thrown in as the officers meet a good and bad Sloan, and his friends and family in an attempt to make the agent's imminent death touching that totally fails.
The other problem is that after several episodes with three or four plotlines running simultaneously, this one seems to be sorely lacking in any plot at all. In fact, the only thing that really makes it watchable is the chance to see the Miles and Julian partnership in action one more time. There are some lovely dialogue scenes between the two, especially when Julian tries to get Miles to admit he likes him a little more than he likes Keiko. Sadly, there's also a feeling from the viewer that rather than sitting about chatting, the two (who have less than 50 minutes in Sloan's mind) should be searching for a cure!
This episode obviously had to be done to provide a degree of closure to the Section 31 story (it doesn't really work), and bring in a cure for Odo before he dies. However, there's no real substance and precious little style to keep the interest, and you know what the outcome will be. Probably better skipped over.
**
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