Line #3 Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E12Vortex


1	Odo is parked in his usual spot at Quark's, grilling the crooked Ferengi over his supposed connection to a ship of Miradorn raiders who have docked at [=DS9=].
2
3	Quark insists he's not affiliated with them (and that they aren't raiders). Odo asks about a suspicious customer at the end of the bar. Before they can discuss him at length, the Miradorn twins Ah-Kel and Ro-Kel enter the bar and offer a nod Quark's way. Though he says it's just common courtesy to the bartender, he and Rom quickly shuffle off to the back with five glasses.
4
5	The twins are trying to pawn off some sort of space Fabergé egg. Quark asks if it was stolen, but the party is crashed before they can make a deal. The quiet customer, an alien from the Gamma Quadrant named Croden, enters the room with a phaser, demanding the item. A phaserfight breaks out, and Ro-Kel is killed in the scuffle. The fight is interrupted by Odo, who was disguised as one of the glasses Rom took into the room.
6
7	Ah-Kel is out for blood. Miradorn twins share a deep connection, and he's not going anywhere until he has Croden's head. Odo orders him back to his ship and drags Croden off to the brig.
8
9	In the brig, Croden manages to snag Odo's attention when he refers to him as a Changeling. He explains that Changelings come from the Gamma Quadrant but have gone into hiding, and only he can lead Odo to their secret lair. He corroborates his story by showing Odo a pendant with a strange morphing material in it. The material is revealed to be similar to Odo's DNA, a "distant cousin" as Bashir puts it.
10
11	Meanwhile, Sisko and Dax head through the wormhole for Croden's home planet. The very cross Exarch demands Croden be returned immediately for numerous crimes on his home world. He implies that Croden is set to be executed on his planet, so the Federation's charges are moot. After a short back and forth, Sisko reluctantly complies.
12
13	Odo is ordered to return him. Though sorely tempted to take Croden up on his offer, Odo agrees. Ah-Kel is waiting in the wings to shoot down any ship with Croden on it, so the crew make up a ruse to mask Odo's departure by flying alongside a Rigelian freighter. It works, and the ship leaves through the wormhole.
14
15	While traveling, Croden reveals why he's wanted: Back on his home world, he was unfairly declared an enemy of the state, a crime which is punished by the execution of one's family. Seeing his two wives murdered, Croden murdered the security officers with a knife. Odo is naturally skeptical.
16
17	Back at [=DS9=], Ah-Kel finds out Croden is gone by threatening Quark for the info. Despite several attempts to stall him, he leaves in hot pursuit of revenge. Ah-Kel quickly catches up to Odo's runabout and opens fire. Odo allows Croden to take the controls and pilot them into a dangerously explosive nebula, the very one where his people are hiding. Ah-Kel follows them into the nebula, and Croden insists that landing on a planet is their only escape.
18
19	He sets down on the very planet where he claims the Changelings are at and runs off to find them. The shapeshifter realizes that Croden is pulling his leg and confronts him. Croden admits that Changelings are just a myth to his people, and his key is just something he found. However, there is something precious to Croden on this planet: his reason for existence. Odo allows him to find it.
20
21	Croden finds a stasis pod and uses his morphing key to open it. Inside is Croden's daughter, Yareth, his only surviving family. Yareth immediately confirms everything Croden said about his supposed crimes. But their reunion is short-lived, as Ah-Kel has tracked them down on the planetoid and opens fire from orbit. Odo is knocked out by a collapsing rock. Croden considers leaving Odo behind but changes his mind and saves him.
22
23	Odo awakens on the shuttle, again under attack by Ah-Kel. He comes up with a plan. Steering the ship into a volatile pocket of nebula gas called a toh-maire, he goads Ah-Kel into opening fire. Just as Ah-Kel fires and ignites the gas, Odo pilots out of it, while Ah-Kel's ship is caught in the explosion and destroyed.
24
25	Croden, realizing he's still going to be returned to his home planet for execution, asks Odo to watch over Yareth at [=DS9=]. Before Odo can accept or decline, a passing Vulcan science ship hails the runabout. Odo seizes the opportunity and requests the Vulcans give Croden and Yareth a lift to Vulcan. After all, it was a big explosion. He could just say Croden perished in it. Croden thanks him for this second chance and leaves him the pendant.
26
27	Beaming them to the Vulcan ship, Odo is left alone to return home. He considers his morphing pendant and muses, "Home? Where is it? Some day we'll know... cousin."
28
29	!This episode provides examples of:
30
31	* AllCrimesAreEqual: As Croden tells Odo, on Rakhar there are no minor crimes.
32	* CrapsackWorld: Croden's homeworld Rakhar, from what we see and hear of it, is an apparently authoritarian nightmare that would make Cardassia blush; Croden's not even sure ''why'' he was declared an enemy of the state, since the security agents who showed up to kill him and his family never bothered to tell him. The Exarch angrily informs Sisko that Rakhar has no interest in establishing any diplomatic relations with the Federation. Further, Croden has been tried in absentia and will be executed upon his return.
33	* DeathFakedForYou: Odo chooses to report Croden as having died in the explosion that also destroyed the Miradorn ship, allowing Croden and his daughter Yareth to escape punishment for Croden's supposed crimes (and even his actual crimes, performed out of self-defense and desperation).
34	* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Rakhar is an isolationist and authoritarian planet. They also practice polygamy.
35	* ExpospeakGag: When Odo's runabout starts shaking in the nebula.
36	--> '''Odo:''' Computer, what was that?\
37	'''Computer:''' A temporary loss of stability resulting from the impact of a concentrated plasma charge.\
38	'''Odo:''' [[LaymansTerms We're being attacked?]]\
39	'''Computer:''' Affirmative.
40	* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder:
41	--> '''Odo:''' I'm a security chief, not a combat pilot!
42	* InsistentTerminology: Croden doesn't lie. He "Dissembles".
43	* KarmaHoudini:
44	** Sympathetic backstory aside, Croden still gets away with the murder of Ro-Kel.
45	** Quark is involved in shady dealings that leave several people dead in the original theft of the egg and Ro-Kel dead directly due to Quark's ploy. Although put in a very sticky situation, he ultimately suffers no repercussions.
46	* ManipulativeBastard: Quark wants to buy a stolen artifact, but plans a ploy to steal the artifact from the thieves so he doesn't have to pay for it.
47	* SingleMindedTwins: Apparently what all "twinned Miradorn" are. Ah-Kel explicitly says he and Ro-Kel were two halves of a single being and seems to be in actual pain while Odo is interrogating him following Ro-Kel's death, saying he is now "incomplete" and lives only to avenge his brother by killing Croden.
48	* StockFootage: The Chamra Vortex is the Mutara Nebula from ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', printed upside down and slightly re-colored.
49	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Odo rattles off details about the egg's two thefts, obviously suspecting that Quark was involved in both. Rom says the quiet part out loud by denying that Quark was behind both thefts, which makes Odo reply, "What an interesting idea!" A furious Quark immediately chastises Rom for his blunder.
50	* SympatheticMurderer: Croden. He apparently killed a number of security guards on his home planet [[CrimeOfSelfDefense when they came to kill his family]], only managing to save his daughter Yareth in the process. He also kills Ro-Kel (who, along with his brother, is pretty heavily implied to be [[AssholeVictim a thief and murderer himself]]) during a robbery, but he committed this crime out of desperation, as he needed money for a ship to extract Yareth from her hiding place. Once he's achieved this, he's willing to go home to be executed, so long as her safety is assured. Even Odo, who up until now has had a pretty rigid view of crime and punishment, ultimately decides to let him go free, promising to tell the Rakhari authorities that he was killed in the Miradorn attack.
51	* UndyingLoyalty: Ah-Kel's crew stick with him for his mission of vengeance and ultimately die with him.
52	* YouKilledMyFather: Ah-Kel's motivation for pursuing Croden is the murder of his twin, who was his other half. He explicitly states that vengeance is his only reason for existing.
53	* YouTalkTooMuch:
54	-->'''Odo''': I think I finally figured out what crime you were found guilty of on your world.
55	-->'''Croden''': What's that?

Context Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E12Vortex