Star Trek 454: 'Til Death Do Us Part

454. 'Til Death Do Us Part

FORMULA: The Enterprise Incident + Destiny + By Inferno's Light

WHY WE LIKE IT: Winn's seduction. The Breen.

WHY WE DON'T: Sleep-talking melodrama.

REVIEW: The appropriately-named episode indeed features four new alliances in the wake of Penumbra's events. The first of these is between Sisko and Kasidy, but he has second thoughts about the wedding. Wouldn't you know it? It's Quark, possibly the most romantic of all DS9 characters, who makes the scale tip in marriage's favor. To make sure he doesn't change his mind again, Sisko has a quickie wedding with Admiral Ross (using Kirk's immortal words from Balance of Terror) under Kira's disapproving eye. Hey, Prophets be damned on this one. They were meant for each other.

Then there's the truly creepy Dukat/Winn relationship. She's just had a vision from the pah-wraiths which she misattributes to the Prophets. Winn is as clueless as ever, once again doing the opposite of the Prophets' wishes and not dealing with the vision in any dignified way. She's in fact being played by the pah-wraiths who are sending her their own emissary, Dukat disguised as the Bajoran farmer Anjol. And Dukat knows exactly how to manipulate her, not only using keywords supplied by the wraiths, but spouting her opinions as his own, using flattery and eventually getting into her bed. Such a Dukat thing to do too! All under the disapproving eye of Solbor, marking the first appearance of the ranjen with a stick up his butt.

Ezri and Worf may have gotten together again for one night in Penumbra, but Worf means to take it much farther. Before Ezri can slow things down, they both must suffer mind-shuffling torture/interrogation, which makes her babble in her sleep that she's in love with Bashir (under Worf's disapproving eye). Is she? It's all a scramble, but Worf certainly puts the idea in her head, so a couple is indeed born here. The whole sleep-talking thing is outright melodrama, but the only real let down of the episode.

Finally, there's a new alliance between the Dominion and the Breen, which means we'll see a lot more of this mystery race. It seemed like the two sides in the war have been pretty evenly matched since the Romulans joined the Federation and Klingons, so the inclusion of the Breen, here sold to us as being tougher than the Klingons, should make the good guys more desperate than ever. Speaking of desperate, Damar's avoiding mirrors in this one since he can't bear to look at the pawn he's become. Refuge inside a bottle is no longer enough, and the charismatic Dukat leaves him with some words of encouragement. Already, you begin to see a change in attitude, but he's still being shut down or placated at every turn. He'll soon snap.

LESSON: Be careful who you sleep with.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium-High: Where Penumbra was all set-up, this episode develops the various threads a great deal. I could do without the soap opera elements, but the odds are slowly stacked against our heroes in a most satisfying way.