407. Blaze of GloryFORMULA: For the Uniform + The Maquis
WHY WE LIKE IT: Canadians finally get their due.
WHY WE DON'T: Sluggish, overlong scenes.
REVIEW: Eddington returns to great acclaim, still the deluded romantic hero, and in addition intimating that he's Canadian. Between his look and accent, he sells it (Ken Marshall is actually from New York). He seems unassuming enough (the image we Canadians apparently project) which hides a bitterness for the States/Federation. A French Canadian mother might be at the root of the whole Misérables thing too. All this to say that Eddington suddenly becomes a favorite of many on this side of the border because yes, we're patriots too.
Trying to stave off the war that - spoiler - is coming in only three more episodes' time, Sisko hauls Eddington out of jail, brings him to the Badlands to push the off button on some cloaked missiles heading for Cardassia. Except it's all a hoax just so Eddington can escape and get back to his wife, one of only very few Maquis survivors now that the Dominion's taken an interest. Sisko and Eddington have some good scenes trying to out-manipulate each other (the complexity of which sometimes strains credulity), and some fairly exciting action stuff against Jem'Hadar on the Maquis planetoid, and Eddington, true to his self-image, is killed in the title "blaze of glory", fulfilling his no-longer-feigned fatalism.
Unfortunately, while the character arc is good, I find the episode to be incredibly padded. Scenes go on way too long and supply information we either don't really care about (Eddington on gardening) or have heard before (the old Maquis vs. Federation arguments). The coda, or eulogy I guess, is tacked on to redeem Eddington, but the story could have been better served by surrendering the lucky looney to Eddington's wife, putting an end to the tragic love story this tries to become. I'm used to small scenes that include cast members not central to the story, but the story of Morn hitting Quark over the head in panic is too long and completely irrelevant. More padding.
The subplot is actually tighter and more satisfying than the main story as Nog comically learns to get the Klingons' respect (in particular, Martok's). It's well handled, never too long, and Nog is turning out to be quite a delight despite his roots in the comic relief Ferengi family.
LESSON: The Canadian dollar will keep going up until 1$ becomes an actual treasure. I wonder how much a twoney will be worth?
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Between its drama, comedy, wit and action, this could have been a great final episode for Eddington and the Maquis, but its pace is much too slow, and a lot of the information it imparts never pays off.
Comments
To my mind, he needed no redemption, because he was never wrong- and here, he dies the hero that Sisko never will be. A second episode had a chance to redeem HIM from his loathsome actions in For the Uniform, but instead he remains unrepentant, smug, and annoying. Every shot Eddington takes at him in that runabout is right on the money- Sisko is a very small, pathetic man in the Eddington episodes (and I am *trying,* perhaps unsuccessfully, to let it affect my opinion of him overall)- and this episode nails that characterization down, with Sisko being smarmy and annoying, acting superior when he doesn't have a moral leg to stand on.
Eddington telling him to bugger off in the brig is perfectly appropriate- Sisko repeatedly called him a traitor and a betrayer of his uniform last time, and is now trying to appeal to his Starfleet pride; hes trying to cajole and threaten despite having absolutely nothing Eddington wants. Of course, the episode goes on to prove this is all an act- but Eddington's disinterested contempt would have been perfectly appropriate even if everything had been as it appeared at face value.
Eddingotn may see himself as the hero of his own story, and Sisko as the villain- but once again, the events of the script unequivocally prove both of these images completely correct- Eddington IS a hero, and dies as one saving both his family, and the villain of the story- a Starfleet captain who just can't admit how pitiful and personal his ongoing vendetta became, or how wrongly the Federation treated the people who- according to Starfleet, at least- were still their citizens, and are now dead... slaughtered trying to fight the enemy that will threaten the Federation as a whole in just a few episodes' time, which the Federation has wasted the last half-decade trying to appease.