Vortex DS9: 1-11

Synopsis:

Two members of the crew from a newly arrived Miridorn ship with a bad reputation show up at Quark's bar and attempt to sell to him a recently-stolen sculpture.  Although it is obvious that they have a prior arrangement with Quark, he appears to stall the negotiations. A fourth person, Kroden, shows up wielding a phaser and attempts to rob them.  In the ensuing fight, one of the Miridorn is killed by the phaser and Kroden is arrested, with the other Miridorn vowing revenge against Kroden and eventually Quark.

In subsequent interrogation, he reveals that he has recently arrived from the Gamma quadrant and intimates that he has knowledge of other shape-shifters like Odo.  This includes the location of an existing colony, which he will reveal if Odo takes him there and lets him go.  Odo expresses an intense interest in locating others of his race but he dismisses Kroden's tale as a lie.  As proof, Kroden produces a small necklace that appears to have its origins with the "Changelings."

Notified of  Kroden's legal predicament, his home planet demands his immediate return to face even more grievous charges.  Sisko asks Odo to escort the prisoner back through the wormhole, avoiding the Miridorn ship who has vowed to avenge the first Miridorn's death.

Unfortunately, the Miridorns discover the prisoner's absence and track them through the wormhole.  In an effort to escape, Odo allows Kroden to pilot the runabout into the Vortex.  Kroden lands on an asteroid where he reveals a stasis chamber with his daughter inside.  He also admits that his information about Odo's race is only from folktales, and that his story of an existing colony of changelings was a lie, as Odo suspected.

The Runabout

Returning to their ship, Odo is struck by falling rocks caused by the Miridorn's attack.  Kroden is tempted to leave Odo and escape, but instead chooses to save the unconscious constable despite the implications for his future.

Back on the runabout, Odo tricks the Miridorns into destroying their own ship, but instead of returning Kroden to his home planet to face execution he puts Kroden and his daughter on a nearby Vulcan vessel to make a new start on the Vulcan homeworld.

Analysis

This probably is the best episode for DS9 since the pilot.  It gives us a complex character, Kroden, to follow, and continues to reveal things about him right up until the very end of the story.  The conversation with Odo on the Ganges regarding his persecution and the death of his family allowed us to see this lying fast talker in an entirely different light.  The reveal that the asteroid contained "the thing he values most in the universe" was itself surprising, and then to find out that his object of value was his daughter, was completely unexpected.

The sequence of redemption, once underway, was skillfully carried to its logical conclusion - rescuing Odo after the tunnel collapse - but done in a believable way with expert touches, like the fact that he was tempted to leave Odo to die until his daughter prompted him to do the right thing.  Rather than a cliched grifter and con man, we finally see Kroden as a man driven to extremes by desperation.  Faced with the prospect of permanent imprisonment or even execution, we can see that there is almost nothing he wouldn't do to rescue his daughter from permanent stasis as well, including some very underhanded deals with Quark.

Girl in a Box

Similarly, our opinion of Quark goes through a transformation as well.  Initially, we despise his cowardice in revealing Odo's destination, but our disgust is tempered by Quark's own remorse at his actions.  Quark only feels safe from reprisal because he is sure that Odo will never give up his prisoner, which he realizes will mean Odo's death.  Rom is untroubled by this eventuality, but Quark is slightly appalled by it. 

Odo is the character that experiences the most development.  First, we find how much he is motivated by stories about others of his kind, more changelings like him.  We learn that this race is known in legends from the Gamma quadrant and likely had a large presence there at one time.  Further, Kroden tells that the Changelings were distrusted and "driven out" of other societies, planting the seed of a suggestion that Odo may not like all of what he finds about his people. This gives the audience many building blocks for supporting further development.

In another way it continues to reveal the setting of the space station.  Deep Space 9, as its name implies, is not in the same situation as a starship like the Enterprise.  It cannot, at this point, project power across the wormhole, nor even defend itself adequately from passing freighters, much less armed warships like those of the Cardassians.  Commander Sisko is still placed in a tenuous diplomatic situation where he wants to avoid making enemies in the Gamma Quadrant and has limited authority to negotiate with the planets he finds there, all of which are first contact situations.  DS9 is a diplomatic outpost, not a military one.

The episode was full of storytelling flourishes.    Quark shape-shifts into the form of a glass tumbler  to give us a visual reminder of what it means to be a changeling, but it also happens to be his glass which is broken in the fight, a detail that simultaneously draws attention to the reveal when he resumes his humanoid form, and also gives us more information about his abilities.  Merely breaking the glass does not hurt him.  Similarly, the Chekov gun revealed in the first act (the changeling key) is fired in the second act when it becomes the key to open the daughter's stasis chamber.  I also loved the excellent use of the Vulcan ship as a narrative device to provide Kroden with a rescue but also to convey the sense of cosmopolitan interest that the wormhole has attracted.  It seems perfectly natural that the Gamma quadrant has attracted the interest of Vulcan exploration.

Unlike the surreal feeling of Move Along Home, and the absurd overlay of The Nagus this episode felt like it was grounded in reality.  The conflict, and the solution, were consistent in tone with where this series eventually wants to be.