We open with a haggard man with long gray hair drawing a pattern in the sand. A wave of energy passes through and erases the pattern, and he starts drawing again. The camera angle changes, and we see that it's Chief O'Brien. His drawing is interrupted by a pair of guards entering the room, telling him that he has exceeded the necessary incarceration and must be released. They throw him out of his cell...
...and the scene changes to show him strapped to a table. O'Brien is incredulous when he sees Major Kira, looking the same as she did when he entered the prison, 20 years ago. The guards explain that he's only been in custody for a few hours, that his incarceration has been all in his mind, and that none of what just happened to him was real. "It's real to me, Major," he intones gravely.
Captain Sisko explains the situation to Keiko: O'Brien was on a team that visited Argrathi, but when he asked too many questions about Argrathi technology, the paranoid local authorities arrested him for espionage, and before his fellow Starfleet officers had even realized that he had gone missing, O'Brien had been tried, convicted and sentenced. The Argrathi do not punish criminals with actual prison, however, but rather by implanting memories of being harshly incarcerated into their mind, and O'Brien was subjected to 20 years of this in the few hours it took Starfleet to negotiate his release. Sisko assures Keiko that Dr. Bashir will try everything possible to return O'Brien to his former self.
Bashir interviews O'Brien on what he remembers of his simulated punishment. O'Brien claims that he spent his entire sentence alone, but in flashbacks we see that he is lying: he had a cellmate, a friendly Argrathi named Ee'char. After finishing his assessment, Bashir explains to Keiko that the memories O'Brien received aren't implanted false memories but more of an accelerated simulation program in which O'Brien was able to react and make choices. As such, the memories are real and cannot be wiped. For a brief moment as he's being reunited with Keiko, he sees her as Ee'char.
O'Brien has a hard time readjusting: he unconsciously saves a portion of his dinner for later, a habit he picked up as a result of the rarity of the guards bringing food. Keiko finds him sleeping on the floor. He sees Ee'char walking through the station while playing darts in Quark's Bar. He's been temporarily demoted until he can get his technical faculties back. When Bashir goes to visit him, we find that he hasn't been seeing the counselor he's supposed to have been seeing three times a week. O'Brien doesn't want to talk about it, he just wants to forget what happened to him and becomes argumentative when Bashir presses the issue.
In a flashback, O'Brien gets into an argument with Ee'char, where he appears to be losing his sanity. After threatening Quark with violence when he doesn't deliver O'Brien's synthale as quickly as he'd like, he has another vision of Ee'char.
Sisko calls O'Brien into his office. Because of the argument with Bashir, the incident with Quark, and his continued refusal to see the counselor, he is relieved of duty and forced to see the counselor daily. O'Brien storms into Bashir's office. As Ee'char appears again, Bashir urges O'Brien to listen to him and accept his help. O'Brien doesn't want Bashir's help; he just wants to be left alone. As he walks through the promenade, the vision of Ee'char says, "You know, sooner or later you'll have to tell someone about me." When he gets back to his quarters, Keiko tries to reason with him. His daughter Molly keeps trying to show O'Brien the drawing she made, which sets O'Brien off and makes him nearly hit her before he's stopped by Keiko. O'Brien is deeply shocked at what he nearly did to his daughter and rushes out of the apartment.
O'Brien hides in the cargo bay, where he is overcome with rage and smashes a container before opening a weapons locker and pointing a phaser under his chin. Bashir comes in and begins talking O'Brien down. O'Brien rationalizes that he's about to kill himself to protect Keiko and Molly and everyone else on the station from the man that he's become after 20 years of prison. Bashir reassures him that O'Brien is still a good, decent man, and O'Brien begins to open up to Bashir about Ee'char.
They were cellmates up until a week before O'Brien was released. The guards had gone longer without giving them food than they ever had before, and Ee'char mused that the guards might have forgotten about them. Later that night, O'Brien wakes to discover that Ee'char had been keeping a secret stash of food from O'Brien. In a rage, O'Brien attacks him and ends up killing him in the ensuing fight — only to find that the food has been divided into two portions, clearly indicating that Ee'char had meant for it to be for both of them. Compounding his guilt, the guards began feeding him again the next day. He had killed his friend for nothing.
O'Brien laments discovering that, in spite of the Federation's high ideals, when it came down to it, he was no better than an animal. Bashir counters that O'Brien's guilt is proof that the Argrathi failed to strip him completely of his humanity. He tells the chief not to let one moment define him and destroy a good man. Moved, O'Brien hands over the phaser. Ee'char fades away after gently smiling and telling O'Brien to "be well."
We then see Bashir discussing the medicine he's prescribed O'Brien. It'll combat the hallucinations and the depression, but not the guilt. That will only take time. He returns to his quarters where he is warmly greeted by Molly, proclaiming, "Daddy's home."
Tropes:
- Anger Montage: O'Brien knocks cargo containers off of their stacks as he descends into a rage.
- Continuity Nod: Bashir recalls several instances where O'Brien has suffered hardship and pulled through, such as the Setlik III massacre, his capture by the Paradans and his trial on Cardassia.
- Double-Meaning Title: O'Brien served 20 years of simulated "hard time" and is now having a "hard time" readjusting to his real life.
- Driven to Suicide: To the brink, anyway, before Bashir arrives in time to talk O'Brien down.
- The Ghost: Counselor Telnorri, who is apparently Deep Space 9's resident psychologist, never appears.
- Helpful Hallucination: Rather than blaming Miles for "killing" him, the apparition of Ee'char that keeps appearing to O'Brien is trying to persuade him to let go of his guilt, seek out professional help, and move on with his life.
- He's Back!: In the end, when Molly rejoices at her father's return home, O'Brien states, "Daddy's home," indicating that he's become his old self again.
- Hollywood Density: Once again, those big cargo containers are revealed to be as light as empty plastic boxes.
- Kangaroo Court: While O'Brien's trial isn't seen on-screen, it's a safe bet that it was not in any way remotely fair, seeing how Argrathi is ruled by a clearly authoritarian and paranoid regime. In fact, he was found guilty and had been sentenced before his fellow officers even noticed he had gone missing.
- Karma Houdini: The Argrathi aren't mentioned to have faced any consequences for wrongfully convicting O'Brien, or for the psychological damage they inflicted on him. Considering they arrested and sentenced what is essentially a foreign national who was a part of an official envoy, without making any attempt to contact his group, his commanding officer, nor his government beforehand, and subjected him to a horrifying and traumatic experience, there should have been major consequences for them from the Federation.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: In spite of O'Brien being assigned a counselor, it's Bashir who takes an active role in O'Brien's recovery: following up looking after him, and giving him some much-needed pep talks. In contrast, this is the sort of thing that main character Counselor Troi would do outside of office hours.
- Mauve Shirt: Muniz appears during Miles' first day back at work.
- Mind Prison: The crux of O'Brien's punishment, being forced to spend years on end in a virtual world that existed only for a few hours.
- Misapplied Phlebotinum: The Argrathi have technology that can add decades of experiences to your natural life span, coded to their exact specifications. The potential for positive aspects of this technology, be it education or simple pleasure, are considerable, yet they use it to cut down on the costs of prisons.
- My God, What Have I Done?: O'Brien after killing Ee'char, as well as yelling at Molly later on.
- Neck Snap: How O'Brien kills Ee'char.
- Nerves of Steel: Bashir shows his yet again, remaining totally calm and soothing while talking O'Brien down.
- The Old Convict: In the simulation, Ee'char has already been in prison six cycles when O'Brien becomes his cellmate, and his coping mechanisms ease O'Brien's suffering somewhat before everything falls apart.
- Please Wake Up: O'Brien doesn't realize that he's killed Ee'Char at first. After realizing that the man had saved food for both of them, he tries to awaken the dead man.
- Posthumous Character: A bizarre example in that technically, Ee'char never existed at all.
- Prison Changes People: The crux of O'Brien's problems after getting out; the prison time technically didn't happen, but all the survival strategies and accumulated traumas are still weighing down on his life.
- Status Quo Is God: Unlike "The Inner Light," this episode focuses on the after-effects of a simulated life experience. However, O'Brien is still back to normal by the next episode, and it's easy to forget that he's got 20 extra years of memories floating in his head.
- Talking Down the Suicidal: Bashir manages to talk O'Brien out of killing himself by reminding his friend that, no matter what he thinks, O'Brien is a good man, and what the Argrathi did to him can't change that.
- [Verb] This!: At his wits end in frustration over being unfairly imprisoned, O'Brien starts pounding on the door of his cell. The PA system chimes in to warn that he will be disciplined if he doesn't stop doing that. O'Brien is having none of it:O'Brien: DISCIPLINE THIS! (kicks the door)
- What Are You in For?: Ee'char asks. "Let me guess. Sedition?"
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Ee'char notes that O'Brien is calmer when describing Keiko's eyes.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: O'Brien is put through 20 years of imprisonment in just a few hours.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: O'Brien admits to Bashir that he thinks killing Ee'char proves he's just become a monster, but Bashir consoles him by affirming that a true monster wouldn't feel the guilt he's feeling now.
