Deep Space Nine 605 "Favor the Bold"

"There's an old saying... 'fortune favors the bold'.  Well, I guess we're about to find out."
-Benjamin Sisko

OK, kids.  Dust off your ablative armor, charge up your phasers, and get a clean set of underwear on.  It's about to get real up in here.  We are about to charge into battle to the unmistakable ring of Captain Benjamin Sisko's enormous balls clanging together.  Forward!

We start with a shark attack.  The Defiant playing possum while the Rotarran pounces.  And the troops are restless.  This gives way to a pointer scene, wherein Sisko unveils his plans to retake DS9.  We pause for drama while the admirals do... I don't know, a cost benefit analysis, I guess.

Cut to the station, and Kira's decision making skills have not gotten any better.  Will simply asking Odo to release Rom work?  No.  No it will not.  It will not even get you in the door, to be frank.  This mainly be due to the fact that on the other side of that door Odo and the Founder are screwing each other.  Yeah.  Try unseeing that mental image for the rest of your life.  They're shown in the aftermath of the act, awkwardly facing away from each other on the bed, with all the shame and guilt associated with a drunken hookup (from Odo, anyway), and the Founder lets it slip that Odo has let three whole days go by without even noticing.  The brainwashing references are obvious.  I should say for a side note, that every time I picture what these two are doing, I picture them doing it wrong.  The wrong amount of genitalia, or doing it in the ear or something.  Silly, yes, but Odo clearly knows nothing about women, and would be too proud to ask if he was doing it right.  Picturing Odo in ridiculous situations makes it possible to cope with watching him.  It's difficult.

Rom sits in jail, and Quark comes to plan to get him out of this.  Now I'm about to express a really unpopular opinion... I like Quark.  He's like a hideously ugly Han Solo.  He never wants you to think he cares about anything but money, but in truth, he's a big hearted guy, who will ALWAYS have your back when the going gets rough, and can usually, through dumb luck, pull off something daring.  He's a gambler, he's a scoundrel.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, fellow nerds.  Quark and Han Solo.  So very similar.  You're welcome.

Kira continues her tradition of great ideas by recruiting Ziyal to go talk to Gul Dukat about freeing Rom.  Yeah, that didn't work out so well.  So why not get a drink?  Sure.  It brings us to the bar, and Quark, using subtlety, and a bit of chicanery (and free booze, alcoholics love free booze) loosens Damar's tongue enough to divulge that the minefield is coming down.

Back at starbase Not-The-One-From-Star-Trek-II-We-Swear, we see Sisko making his case to Martok and Worf to take it to Gowron to commit some ships to the operation.  They say they're gonna try, but no promises.  Hey, not for spoilers or nuthin', but when do you figure the Klingons will later show up?  If it's any other time than the nick, I want to tell you about an exciting business opportunity selling herbal supplements to friends and family.

With the deactivation of the minefield imminent, Dukat reveals that he's as bad at people skills as Kira is, by actually sending Damar (himself lacking in people skills almost completely) to drag Ziyal back to Dukat's quarters to share his great victory, but... yeah Kira is there.  She sucks at making logical or thoughtful decisions, but she sure can beat the crap out of someone.  Sorry, Damar, you had it coming, man.

Did someone at this table order a can of whoop-ass?
OK, how about 300 of them?

This leads us back to the starbase where there's this quiet little conversation between Ben Sisko and Admiral Ross.  Sisko starts talking reverently about his love and appreciation for Bajor.  He has this quiet serenity about him, talking about his plans to build a house there and "when (he) goes home, going home to Bajor."  This is such a turnaround in his character from the pilot of the series, the guy who didn't want to be there in the first place.   Now THAT is the guy I want leading a full-frontal assault on a fortified position.  A man that loves the land his objective is on.  The Fleet sets out, and we are committed.  There will be blood.

We are left with the imminent clash of the fleets, and things inexorably sliding towards this arc's end.  I don't mind this much setup when the payoff next episode is so great.

NEXT UP:  Things come to a heroic head in Sacrifice of Angels!  But at what cost?!?

Episode character-candy:  I really did enjoy Weyoun asking Kira about what it's like to have a sense of aesthetics.  It was a cute little bit of texture.