S07.E21: When It Rains...

[John Potts]

Quote

Sisko commissions Kira to aid Cardassian rebels; Odo has symptoms of a deadly disease that is ravaging the Founders; Gowron arrives at DS9 to assume control of the Klingon forces.

I do like the way this episode shows that, while almost every race in the Alpha Quadrant has now joined the fight against the Dominion, they don't suddenly forget their old prejudices: the Romulans can't help snarking that they have to rely on the Klingons and the Cardassians can't help resenting the fact that they're forced not just to rely on the Federation for help, but are supplied with a "Starfleet" Bajoran adviser and her Changeling "colleague". Gul Rusot (another of the actors to have done the DS9/Babylon 5 double - he played Neroon on B5) was both a complete idiot and utterly believable in resenting the pair of them and it shows great character development that Damar (who probably harbours similar prejudices) quickly realises that however distasteful to his Cardassian pride, Kira was right and rapidly overrules Rusot. I'm sure that won't have long term consequences...

And on the subject of long term consequences, we get Gowron. As [minor Spoiler] Ezri will observe next episode, the trouble with installing a politician to run an Empire supposedly run by honourable warriors is they can't afford to have prominent Generals gathering real honourable victories... even if that means endangering the Empire (and the whole Quadrant) as a result. Less self destructive, we get the return of Section 31 shenanigans - for an Agency supposedly that nobody knows about, they seem to be capable of mobilising remarkable resources. They may be evil, but by the Prophets, are they industrious!

[iMonrey]

This episode made Sisko look like the biggest asshole in the quadrant. Ordering Kira to train the guy who killed Ziyal was beyond thoughtless and cruel. I realize the show was going for dramatic tension here but this was completely unrealistic. It's like telling a Holocaust survivor to go help train ex-Nazis. Even if the Federation did need to help the Cardassian resistance, there were other former Bajoran freedom fighters who could have served as a liaison with Damar - someone who didn't have personal history with him. I can't think of any realistic reason Sisko would have insisted it be Kira aside from plot and it made him look like this war-driven, unfeeling, unsympathetic jerk who doesn't care about anyone. 

[blueray]

I think that Sisko had to make a decision quickly and Kira is right there available. He couldn't risk sending messages to Bajor to find someone else when the channel could be compromised plus I think he wanted to keep it quite. But I agree it was jerky of him to make her go.