I am going to admit that I made a mistake a few episodes ago and clicked on Garak's entry on Memory Alpha. I stopped myself before I got too far but I did get read almost this entire episode before I caught it, but I didn't realize the episode was coming so soon. On the upside it made me pay extra attention to the scenes where Garak describes his so called back story already aware that he was Elim and was also clearly lying every single time. But I guess through his lies we still did learn a lot about Garak. Meeting the former head of the Obsidian Order (who I also read is secretly Garak's father, stupid me for reading ahead) confirmed at least a lot of Julian's suspicions about just how deeply involved with spycraft Garak must have been.
The episode opens with Garak and Julian stuck in a long line at the replimat. Garak is telling Julian he must be biased for not enjoying the greatest work of Cardassian literature of all time when Julian notices something is wrong. Garak holds his head and claims to be fine, but Julian has noticed his pupils contracting and his skin signs going to hell. Garak refuses to go to the infirmary or tell Dr. Bashir anything about his condition and storms off. After talking with Dax about Garak Julian decides to spy on spy and sees Garak trying to work out a business deal with Quark. When Julian asks Quark what it was about Quark obviously lies and refuses to give any helpful information.
Julian keeps trying to find out what might be wrong with his friend but the computers can't help. Finally he runs into Garak in Quarks out of control drunk. Julian tricks the bottle away from him and then Garak collapses and gets beamed to the infirmary after all. Julian discovers that there is an implant deeply buried in Garak's brain. He goes to Odo and tells him about Garak's conversation with Quark. Odo and Julian then spy on a conversation between Quark and a Cardassian contact. Quark gives the Cardassian the part number Garak asked him for and we see a red light go on. It turns out even the part number is a secret and Quark may have just ruined the Cardassians career. The Cardassian mentions the Obsidian Order and Julian asks Odo about it. Odo explains the order is the intelligence gathering apparatus of the Cardassian state. Julian returns to the infirmary but Garak is gone. Julian tracks him down to his quarters and overrides the door. He finds Garak taking huge doses of pleasurable drugs, dangerous doses in fact.
Julian asks him about the implant and Garak explains it was installed to make him impervious to torture. When he experience pain it would flood him with endorphins, but during his exile he figured out how to turn it on manually and eventually left it on all the time. Julian convinces Garak to be helped by Julian through the withdrawal from the implant despite Garak telling him terrible stories about his deeds under the occupation. It seems to have partly worked and Garak awakens, but he collapses again. Something is wrong with his immune system and Julian can't save him without help from the Cardassians so he flies to Cardassia and gets Tain, the former head of the Obsidian Order to help him. It is clear Tain both loves and hates Garak but we never really learn why. In the end Tain save Garak so he can keep suffering. But after it all Garak shows up for lunch with Julian and even brought him some more Cardassian literature.
Review: Unreliable characters can be a real pain sometimes, but Garak feels like such a rich character that it really isn't a problem for him. If I recall (I did stop ready his entry before it was too late) we never really learn his complete story, but that is fine. Better to leave something to the imagination that to just tell all the parts and have it be less interesting.
7 out of 10
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