"Remember your hippopotamus oath!" Yup, I started this one with a Simpsons quote. But really this is actually a rather good episode. The ethical dilemma faced by Bashir and O'Brien really tests their friendship, but I am glad it survived. When I first watched this episode I could only really see Bashir's perspective that he had to save these Jem'Hadar from their horrible drug addicted lives. But looking back I can see O'Brien's perspective too, they have been kidnapped and are constantly being faced with death. And to be honest he may well have been right that if Bashir did come up with a cure for the addiction they would likely still be killed. These are exactly the kinds of ethical dilemmas that make Trek interesting.
The episode opens with the B story, Worf is moping in Quark's watching a known smuggler conspire with Quark. Kira tries to reassure him that Odo is on top of things but Worf isn't buying it. Cut to the A story and Bashir is doing a survey in the gamma quadrant with O'Brien. This actually makes basically no sense since the Dominion is clearly keeping an eye on the wormhole and doing surveys like this in a runabout seems like it is asking for trouble. After some bromance time they crash on a planet and are quickly apprehended by the Jem'Hadar. But something is strange, they aren't killed and are both taken prisoner. Their leader takes Julian out of the holding area and explains that he is trying to cure his men of their addiction to ketracel white, the drug the founders engineered them to require to live. He is not addicted any believes it is because of something that happened when he was marooned on this planet sometime in the past. Julian agrees to help but tells the leader that he will require O'Briens help.
On the station Worf can't stop poking into the Quark smuggling thing. He confronts Odo about it but gets told that Odo doesn't report to him and to mind his own business. O'Brien meanwhile is determined not to help and begins constructing rudimentary weapons to try and escape. His plan is discovered and he cripples one of the soldiers, but the leader insists that Miles' life be spared along with the crippled soldier which shocks his men. O'Brien eventually escapes using the transporter and the Jem'Hadar start fighting each other over whether to kill him. Only the leader wants to save him and Julian convinces him that he won't try to escape if he saves Miles. Back on DS9 Worf barges into the smuggling deal and tries to arrest the smuggler, but is surprised when the payment changes into Odo, he was going to sneak onto the guys ship and break up the whole ring.
Miles gets to Bashir before the Jem'Hadar and destroys his work before starting to escape. But the leader shows up and sees what happened. He takes both of them to the runabout and tells them to get out of there. He tells Julian he is going to kill all his men since they are going to die from withdrawal anyway. Bashir is horrified both at what has happened and at O'Brien for causing it. Back on the station Worf has a long converstationw with Sisko about how ashamed he is to have messed up Odo's investigation. He agrees it will take some time to adjust to not living and working on a starship.
Review: The A story is a solid and interesting, but the B story felt both more bland and more like something they felt they just had to do. It does have a good conclusion though. The Bashir/O'Brien relationship is starting to enter a new phase and it keeps getting more interesting just like the show.
8 out of 10
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