This is the first episode of DS9 with flashbacks to what the station was like under the Cardassians and it goes a long way to explaining why Odo served both under them and now under the Bajorans. It also manages to be a rather good murder mystery at the same time. Odo is such an interesting character being so much more alien than any long running character other than maybe Data it is really cool to start to see how he sees the world. Also Rom is finally starting to turn into more of a character. He was in a few scenes first season but I don't remember if he even had a name.
The episode opens with Quark talking to a beautiful Bajoran woman on the planets surface during a power outage. She is trying to seduce/hire him to retrieve a box hidden behind a panel on the station from the time of the occupation. Back on the station Rom and Quark break into the closed shop containing the box. There are some fun moments with Rom showing he is more competent at breaking into things than Quark realized and suddenly he is worried Rom is robbing him as well. They manage to get the box without getting caught but when they take it back to the bar they can't resist opening it. The box contains only a list with eight Bajoran names. Rom is sent for an imager and as soon as Quark is along a Bajoran man walks in and shoots him, and takes the list.
Rom call for help when he finds Quarks lifeless body and Bashir arrives along with Odo and manages to get Quark at least somewhat alive again. Odo begins to investigate and follows Rom back to the bar where he learns about the list and that it had been there for five years. It then cuts to a flashback to five years earlier where Dukat is convincing Odo to investigate a murder. A Bajoran man has been killed and despite some hesitation Odo agrees to investigate. The mans wife is convinced he was having an affair and that must be the reason but Odo isn't buying it. In the present Odo manages to get one of the names from Rom and we cut to a flashback of Odo questioning Kira about the murder. She claims to have been and Quarks but he quickly discovers that is a lie. On Bajor he interviews the woman from the opening and she denies all knowledge. He gives her the name he had and the next day that man turns up dead.
In the past Odo is interrogating Kira and she admits to being in the resistance and that her sabotage was the reason she lied to get an alibi. Odo believes her but then has to decide if he is going to turn her over to Dukat but decides since she wasn't the murderer to release her. In the present Odo has tracked down the rest of the names of the list by monitoring the woman from the openings communications and bank transactions and figured out that the list was a list of collaborators with the Cardassians. He also figures out that the reason Dukat assigned him that job so many years ago was because the victim was his contact with the collaborators. This leads him to realize Kira was the once who did it all those years ago and he confronts her. She is broken up, but not for the murder but because he won't trust her any more. It ends without resolving if he does trust her again.
Review: An interesting mystery with lots of back story on the main character that also managed to make me feel for both Kira and Odo. Rom is starting to turn into a fun character and Bashir totally not the worst any more!
8 out of 10
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