Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most.Today though I want to try something different. There are lots of DS9 episodes I never saw, as I’ve said was never a loyal fan, so for fun I thought I’d watch one of those episodes and give my thoughts on it. This is…
I’m actually a fan if O’Brien episodes, for the most part, and I am not sure how I missed this one. Did I miss a gem, or was it a good episode to skip? Let’s discuss it
Plot Summary:
Keiko returns to DS9 and reveals to O’Brien she has been possessed by the Pah-Wraith’s. Sort of the evil prophets. She wants him to modify DS9’s systems so that chronitron radiation can be fired at the wormhole, destroying it.
O’Brien recruits Rom to help him while Dax gets off readings and worries there is a saboteur on board. To divert suspicion O’Brien sends Odo in Rom’s direction and Rom is arrested.
Odo confronts O’Brien on a runabout but O’Brien knocks Odo out and summons Keiko saying he has done the modifications. However he instead uses the radiation to strike Keiko, driving the Pah-Wraith out and killing it.
Guest Star:
Rosilind Chao of course plays Keiko and she is fantastic here playing the sinister Keiko. She really set the tone and every scene she was in was creepy, especially the more nice she played it.
Episode Pro’s:
A lot of people think the subtext in this episode has to do with abusive relationships. And, yeah I can see that. With Keiko being all sweet and smiles when everyone is around and then mean and even cruel when it’s just her and O’Brien. The worst is when Keiko starts using Molly against O’Brien, and there are lots of people who use their kids like that in real life, sadly. The best scene is the birthday party scene where they have pretend everything is fine around their friends. You can really feel O’Brien’s frustration.
I raved about Rosalind Chao’s acting but Colm Meaney does a great job playing the tortured O’Brien. You know he doesn’t want to do what he is ordered to do but loves his wife to much to refuse. It’s well done. I always love Odo as the investigator and this episode is no exception. I also love that there is no Defiant in this one. When that ship was introduced it seemed like the creators forgot the idea was that things were supposed to happen on DS9. Always nice to see a station episode.
I’ve seem some criticize how O’Brien finally solves the problem as being to easy but I liked it. In fact that while last half is pretty well done with the whole ticking clock and all. With one exception I’ll get to in the next section.
Kira doesn’t appear. Why? Nana Visitor was giving birth at the time! In fact she went into labor when the episode was being produced and had to be written out.
Episode Con’s:
I never got why the series needed the Pah-Wraith’s. They are creatures who have been exiled to the fire caves on Bajor but wish to overthrow the prophets so they can return to the Celestial Temple. Were they really needed? Weren’t the Founders and Jem’Haddar and the Domimion and the Cardassians and the Maquis and the Klingons all enough????
This episode suffers from the typical DS9 syndrome of rushing the ending, I would have liked to see the others reaction to what happened with Keiko. Also, in Voyager when Kess is possessed they make a big deal about how the experience was something that would change Kess and she had to live with it somehow. This isn’t mentioned here, Keiko just seems like everything is fine at the end.
I’m not a huge fan of Rom, no offense to Max Grodenchik, so his scenes don’t do much for me. They take away from O’Brien’s dilemma which isn’t good. And the fact that he is the one who explains the motive for what the Pah Wraith is doing is a little silly. Yeah ok O’Brien is preoccupied but still. And the fact that the crew weren’t more suspicious, especially after that silly scene where Keiko falls off the ledge, is also pushing it a bit. I was hoping to find out that the others were on to the fact something was wrong but waited for more conclusive evidence. Toward the end I thought Dax was hinting that she knew when she asks O’Brien how his birthday was out of the blue, but it never amounted to anything.
Yes possession has been done to death in Trek but at least this one had a point and wasn’t just random. Why was there no mention that the same thing happened to O’Brien in TNG?
Fast Forward Moment:
Why was Worf ever brought on the show? So he can appear for a second to say a few lines and have nothing to do with the plot? That’s his role here anyway. Ok Word is friends with O’Brien and Keiko and would be concerned for them so it makes sense- but still that’s all he does in the whole episode!!!!
Final Thoughts:A great episode (though not perfect) and it was nice to finally get the backstory for the Pah Wraith’s. DS9 was serialized so if you missed a few episode you would end up lost and confused later on…like I always was. There are plenty of other’s I’ve never seen so maybe I’ll be back with another. Did you guys like this one? Comment and let me know.
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