And thus are introduced my least favorite element of the last few seasons of DS9, the pah-wraiths. I am not saying it would be impossible to make them interesting, but basically they just keep possessing people and causing chaos for the next few seasons crescendoing into the conclusion of the series. I get that the prophets/wormhole aliens were the original central story on the show, but honestly they could have stuck with the Dominion war from here to the end and I think most fans would have been a hell of a lot happier. And finally I have to once again point out how kinda awful it is to be an O'Brien on this show.
The episode opens when Miles freaking out about how he and Julian managed to kill all Keiko's bonsai trees and even Molly knows Miles is in trouble. Which is how you can tell how serious the trouble is when she arrives home and doesn't care about what happened to the trees at all. Instead she tells him she has taken over his wife's body and will kill her if he doesn't do exactly as she says. She starts by having him mess around with some station systems to prove his loyalty. To be an extra big jerk she insists that his surprise birthday party that night should go forward. We get a bit of a B story with Rom and Quark discussing Rom's new breakfast habits and setup that Quark thinks Rom will be stuck on the night shift forever. But things start looking up for Rom when a crewman gets sick on the swing shift and he gets the job for a few days.
The Keikowraith is satisfied with what he did so far and then gives him the real job, lots of tiny changes around the station and only 13 hours to get them all done. Miles thinks about telling the captain but Keiko sees him walking towards the captain from the upper level of the promenade and jumps to prove how serious he is. Miles isn't going to be able to get it all done so he recruits Rom to help. But before long Dax figures out something is wrong and starts investigating. Eventually they decide Rom is the one responsible and drag him into a holding cell but he won't talk. Miles manages to have a private talk with Rom and learns Rom has figured out what is going on, the station is being modified to kill the wormhole aliens. Rom even knows why, the pah-wraiths were expelled from the wormhole long ago and need to kill the prophets to get back in.
Miles is cutting it close and as he finishes up the modifications Odo stops by. Being a good investigator Odo has figured out Miles is the one behind the changes, not Rom, but before he can stop Miles he gets a punch in the face. Miles and Keiko meet in a runabout and fly to the wormhole, but instead of blasting the wormhole Miles blasts the runabout killing the pah-wraith saving Keiko. She thanks him for saving her and he thanks Rom for both his help and his loyalty by promoting him to the day shift.
Review: Not the strongest episode in the show, but they did at least choose well to have this one be all about Miles. My dislike of the pah-wraiths from later in the show makes it hard to judge well, but I think the following score is pretty fair:
5 out of 10
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