Bajor would be in real trouble if Kai Winn was actually an experienced politician, fortunately she seems to be still learning the ropes. Any time she sees an opportunity she rushes in rather than carefully planning how to best take advantage. I know this isn't the last we will hear from Winn, but it is at least nice to see her suffer a few setbacks on her path to really messing things up for the Bajorans. The B story tonight focuses in O'Brien and Bashir's growing friendship plus a nice comic bit about Quark letting is greed getting the best of him.
We open with the B story about O'Brien being in the zone when it comes to darts. Sisko is pretty happy to get out of the game when he gets a call about an urgent message from Bajor. After getting the message Sisko heads straight to Kira's quarters and finds her praying. The news isn't good, the First Minister has died and Kai Winn is running unopposed to replace him. After the intro Kira is praying again and is interrupted once more, this time it is Kai Winn herself. The Bajorans have a limited number of soil reclamation machines and since she has already taken over power before the election she has decided to use the machines to make some quick cash by producing cash crops. Kira is confused why this concerns her until Winn tells her a group led by Kira's old resistance leader Shakaar have refused to give up their soil reclamation machines and she wants Kira to negotiate their return. Kira of course resists doing anything for Winn, but eventually agrees.
Kira beams down but Shakaar doesn't want to talk about the reclamation machines, instead he wants to hang out with Kira and talk about old times. He also doesn't care if the government wants to make a quick buck, they agreed to let him have the machines for a year and it has been less than half that long. He does agree to meet with Kai Winn though as a favor to Kira. On the station Quark has noticed O'Brien's hot streak and has started taking bets. Kira contacts Winn and she agrees to negotiate, but when Kira returns to Shakaar soldiers arrive to arrest him. He and Kira fight back and along with their fellow resistance fighters flee into the hills like old times.
On the station things are going well for Quark until O'Brien throws his shoulder out during a match against a Vulcan and is forced to forfeit. Winn talks to Sisko about the situation and he tells her how bad an idea he thinks it is to send the military in against Shakaar, but her only response is to request Federation troops instead but he wisely refuses. Kira and Shakaar have outsmarted the soldiers pursuing them but rather than massacre their own people the come down to negotiate. Things are tense but they eventually come to a compromise with the colonel in charge of the operation, Shakaar will run for first minister. They show up in Winn's office with the news and she is pissed, but they point out if she runs against Shakaar they will tell everybody she tried to start a civil war over some farming equipment.
Review: Bajoran political episodes aren't really my favorite, but at least Kai Winn didn't succeed this time. A little weak by DS9 standards, but pretty decent compared to most of the rest of Trek.
5 out of 10
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