S01.E19: Duet

[BizBuzz]

A visiting Cardassian may in fact be a notorious war criminal, and Kira is determined to bring him down.

 

Description via TheTVDB.com

[Bill C.]

This, for lack of a better phrase, was and continues to be my episode--the episode that truly sold me on DS9, let alone on Nana Visitor and Kira Nerys.  (Let alone Harris Yulin.  The man owned it.)  I never dreamed that this show, in its first season, would go all in on a story about war criminals and blind vengeance--and, maybe minus a little rushing at the very end, stick the landing as well as it did.

[Ailianna]

This is also an amazing show about trying to recover a society after horrific war crimes.  The false Gul is trying to make himself a symbol for both Bejorans and Cardassians about how there were wrongs done during the Occupation, and try to make his own culture realize they were wrong, so that they could overcome the stain. This is just as or more powerful to me than Kira's story.  He is trying to do what he can to right a wrong he recognized at the time, but he was too afraid to do anything about.  And realizing that he bore responsibility for what happened in his name, and at the same time, he could still be a good person trying to correct the mistake.

 

I don't think I'm expressing this very well, but especially if you look at it behind the obvious comparison to Nazi Germany, and look at things thatwere going on in the 90s, including the Balkans and Rwanda, it speaks to the people there, who may not have directly participated in atrocities, but did nothing to try to stop them either, and how do they live with that now.

[ShadowDenizen]

This episode reminds me a bit of the first season Babylon5 episode "Deathwalker" in some respects.

Though I think DS9 pulled off the superior version.

 

Nana Visitor totally owned it. She is really the singular character that becomes the glue of the show over hte seasons, even more than Sisko.

[Bryce Lynch]

One of the best episodes in the series. Both Kira and the Cardassian were amazing. I remember the first time I watched, I almost refused to believe that Marritza wasn't really Gul Darhe'el, after his true identity was revealed. The character went from being utterly despicable to sympathetic in an instant.

[John Potts]

I love this episode (probably the best DS9 until it was surpassed by In The Pale Moonlight, IMO) but you do have to wonder just how his plan was meant to go. Presumably he wanted to be "exposed" as Gul Darheel at some point so he could be taken for trial on Bajor to expose the Cardassian atrocities of Galotep, but its actually pretty unlikely it would ever get that far. Darheel wasn't some nobody, he had a public funeral on Cardassia (even if "Half of Cardassia saw his funeral" was an exaggeration, it was presumably a big affair) so it seems he was taking a huge gamble on not having that deception pretty much instantly exposed. It would actually be more plausible to suppose that hey might think he was a decoy double (or even, Darheel posing as one of his doubles). We learn that Odo still has contacts on Cardassia and (you'd have to imagine) that it's where all Bajor's intelligence network is focused, so the Bajorans ought to know right from the start that he couldn't be Moritza.

 

Like I said, I like the episode, but these things just bug me!

[Bill C.]

That goes back to the blind vengeance aspect, I imagine: if Marritza's plan had worked, by the time the Bajorans found out what had happened--probably from the Cardassians--he'd already be dead and the media circus would have already happened because they were hardcore about going after who they thought was the infamous Gul Darhe'el.  He never even got to the media circus.

[Meushell]

Great episode. I still tear up when Marritza starts breaking down. I like that, aside from doing it out of the guilt, he is doing it for Cardassia. He knows exactly where they are headed if they do not learn.

[iMonrey]

A very strong episode, for sure - probably the strongest since the pilot. Was this the first episode to feature Gul Dukat? I can't remember. I'm surprised Garak has only been on - what, one episode so far this season? Anyway, the show seems like its finally finding it's footing as its winding down it's first season.

[John Potts]

16 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Was this the first episode to feature Gul Dukat? I can't remember.

Dukat was in the Pilot, but (per IMDB) hadn't appeared since, so it's not surprising you don't recall him. Garak has only one appearance in Season 1 (Past Prologue), somewhat surprisingly.