Recap / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 05 E 14 In Purgatorys Shadow

Wait a second...

Odo, now his old self again, is reorganizing his quarters with his shapechanging furniture. Kira spots a PADD about relationships and suggests that Odo continue to pursue romance, given that he's still solid most of the day. Odo gets called away to ponder a Cardassian coded transmission, and he suggests having Garak take a look. When Garak returns to his lunch with Bashir and Tora Ziyal, however, he says the message was unimportant. But once alone, the Cardassian spy sneaks aboard a runabout prepared for a voyage, only to find a phaser-toting Bashir waiting for him.

Bashir forces Garak to come clean to Sisko, and Garak admits that the message was a distress call from Enabran Tain, his former mentor. Garak convinces Sisko that Federation refugees could also be in need, so Sisko agrees to send him with Worf to investigate. Dax chides Worf for taking such a dangerous mission but kisses him passionately before he leaves. Ziyal expresses similar worry for Garak. The tailor tries to resist the girl's obvious interest in him, but his will falters before a furious Gul Dukat storms in and threatens to kill Garak for seducing his daughter. Quark talks him down.

Worf and Garak depart and quickly get on each other's nerves. They discover that the signal is coming from deep inside Dominion space, but Garak suggests using the cover of a nebula to creep closer. Inside the nebula, they're ambushed by a whole fleet of Dominion ships. Just as they get off a warning to the station of an incoming invasion, they're boarded and taken prisoner by Jem'Hadar. They're brought to a Dominion prison on an asteroid. Meanwhile, the station receives their message and prepares for an invasion. Dukat insists that Ziyal return with him to safety on Cardassia, to her dismay.

The prisoners Garak and Worf acclimate to prison life and quickly meet General Martok, who has had a rough two years since being replaced by a Changeling. He leads them to Tain, who is on his death bed. Garak reunites with his mentor, but Tain only criticizes him for getting caught. Then they're shocked to discover that Bashir is also a prisoner, having been replaced by a Changeling a month ago. Garak has one final meeting with Tain in which he reveals that he is actually Tain's son and begs his father to admit as much. Tain admits that he always saw Garak as a weakness, but he does recall Garak once refusing to give up on a task as a child and feeling pride in the boy. When Tain dies, Garak reverts to his chipper personality and announces that he's ready to start planning their escape.

On the station, Ziyal finally refuses to leave with Dukat, and he storms away telling her to stay and be damned. Sisko announces that the only way to survive a Dominion invasion is to seal off the wormhole, which mortifies Kira. However, the Changeling masquerading as Bashir is lingering around O'Brien and Dax as they prepare the station. When the time comes to shut the wormhole, the station's systems have been sabotaged, and a massive Dominion war fleet successfully pours through.

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Tropes

• Armor-Piercing Response: Worf is reluctant to continue searching, due to the increasing chance of encountering Dominion ships. When making the case to press on, Garak brings up missing Starfleet vessels and peppers it with talk of honor. He ends up convincing Worf with a simple statement.
  Worf: You use that word, but you have no idea what it means.
  Garak: Maybe not, but you do.
  Worf: [beat] Setting course for the nebula.
• Back for the Dead: Tain is brought back after having apparently died only to die for real.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Garak is nearly tossed off the second level of Quark's when Dukat catches him and Ziyal having lunch.
• Callback:
  • Bashir attempts blood screenings on each of the prisoners to make sure they're not Changelings, but he admits they could very well be useless. The Changeling that replaced Martok successfully beat a blood screening in "The Way of the Warrior". He also points out he can't test the Breen, because the Breen do not have blood.
  • The Changelings being able to fool the Blood Tests are also a subtle callback to ''Homefront'', when Joseph Sisko cast doubt on their accuracy and hypothesized how a clever Changeling could get around them.
  • Among the reasons for investigating the signal, Garak cites the Jem'Hadar attacking the New Bajor colony and the possibility of the survivors being detained. No Bajorans being seen at the prison, though, suggesting no survivors were taken.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Garak blithely asks a Jem'Hadar soldier for directions back to the wormhole. The Jem'Hadar answers by slamming the butt of his rifle into Garak's face.
• The Comically Serious:
  Garak: Mr. Worf, you're no fun at all!
  Worf: Good!
• Continuity Nod:
  • Attempted. Sisko mentions "the recent Borg attack," no doubt a reference to Star Trek: First Contact. However, the stardate of this episode is actually before the film.
  • The plan to close the wormhole is based on a technique developed by Lenara Kahn, Jadzia's ex (and the wife/widow of one of her past hosts) from "Rejoined."
• Continuity Overlap: Enough time had passed since the release of First Contact to formally sync up DS9 with the events of the film. The aftermath of the Borg attack's finally acknowledged (even if the Stardates got mixed up) and is used as a plot point; with the losses they sustained during the running battle with the Cube, Starfleet is spread thin in the face of a potential Dominion invasion. The uniform changeover is also used as another plot point to enhance the twist of when Bashir was replaced by his Changeling doppelganger.
• Darkest Hour: The Federation is still picking up the pieces from the recent Borg attack, the Klingons and Cardassians are both depleted from fighting with each other, and the Romulans aren't in much better shape.
  Sisko: The Dominion picked a perfect time to invade.
• The Darkness Before Death: Tain has gone blind in his final scene, minutes before he dies.
• Description Cut: Bashir wonders what dastardly scheme the Founder impersonating him is up to on the station. Turns out he's delivering a snack to the late-working Dax and O'Brien.
• Distress Call: Before the runabout gets captured, Worf sends out a message to the station to warn everyone else of the armada. Garak worries the nebula will prevent it from transmitting, but enough of it gets through to give the others a good idea of what Worf's trying to say.
• Enemy Mine: A human, two Klingons, two Cardassians, at least two Romulans, and a Breen working together to escape. It doesn't get much more "enemy mine" than that.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Dukat, for all his problems and his disdain for Bajorans in particular, has no problem with Ziyal being exposed to Bajoran beliefs. Even if he derides it as a "backwards superstition" he still acknowledges it as part of her culture as a half-Bajoran.
• Foreshadowing: Dukat's insistence that Ziyal evacuate to Cardassia, and emphatic certainty that Garak is probably dead and definitely not coming back from the Gamma Quadrant, initially just seem like paternal worry and a coldly rational assessment of survival chances, respectively. In retrospect though, it's because Dukat is working with the Dominion, knows about their plan to wipe out the entire Bajor system by supernova, and has personally requested that the Dominion not release Garak from the prison camp he's being held in (and later asks for his execution).
• God Help Us All: Sisko's reaction to an impending Dominion invasion.
• Godzilla Threshold: Collapsing the wormhole. Nobody wants to do it (especially with Worf and Garak still in the Gamma Quadrant), but it's the best way to stop a Dominion invasion.
• Hand Wave: We last saw Tain ranting insanely on the bridge of his ship as it was blown up by Jem'Hadar. When our heroes ponder how he could have survived, they decide that a former leader of the Obsidian Order could have found some way to stay alive.
• Have We Met?: Martok's reaction to Worf knowing his name. As explained under Wham Line, this means Worf never once encountered the real Martok until now.
• Hope Spot: Using the main deflector to collapse the wormhole. It would've worked, if not for a certain Changeling infiltrator.
• I Have No Son!: Even on the brink of death, Tain initially refuses to acknowledge Garak as his son, though he relents. It differs from the usual use of the trope in that Tain isn't disowning Garak but, Consummate Liar that he is, is simply denying the fact that Garak even is his son, and Garak is only able to make him relent by pointing out that, being mere minutes from death, there's no need to keep up the lie any longer.
• It's All About Me: Dukat concludes that Kira has allowed Ziyal's friendship with Garak because she knows it will anger him. (He also refers to caring for his daughter as a favor to him, and doesn't register Kira's correction that it's about Ziyal.)
• Killed Off for Real: After having been believed KIA since late Season Three, Enabran Tain finally, truly dies.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: When Garak invites Bashir to accompany him to the Gamma Quadrant and BS an excuse to Sisko on why they need a runabout.
  Bashir: So let me get this straight. You want me to lie to my commanding officer, violate Starfleet regulations, and go with you on a mission into the Gamma Quadrant which will probably get us both killed?
  Garak: I'm ready when you are.
  Bashir: In that case, let's go. (aims his phaser at Garak) To Captain's Sisko's office.
• Limited Wardrobe: Starfleet officers take their uniforms off so infrequently that it probably doesn't even register to most viewers when Bashir says he was abducted in his sleep as he's wearing his uniform. We've seen officers go to bed in their uniforms before. It's also a clue about just when he was taken, based on the recent change in Starfleet uniforms; see the first Wham Shot point.
• Lost in Transmission: Played with. A great deal is lost in the last message sent by Garak and Worf, but there's enough there (including the final word "imminent"), combined with the loss of their various sensor probes in the Gamma Quadrant, for the crew to realize the Dominion is coming.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The entire crew realises that the Dominion is coming, and coming in force.
• The Mole: The Bashir on the station is actually a Founder.
• Not Quite Dead: Enabran Tain is revealed to have survived the disastrous attack on the Founders' homeworld. General Martok is also revealed to be alive after his Changeling replacement was discovered and killed in the season premiere.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When advocating pressing on to find the source of the transmission, Garak says Worf (as a Starfleet officer) would also have a personal reason to continue the search, due to the number of ships previously lost in the Gamma Quadrant and the possibility of their crews being detained. Worf concedes that's a good point.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Garak and Worf try to sneak through Dominion territory by flying through a nebula, only to find a massive fleet moving out.
    Garak: [eyes widen in genuine fear] Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
  • Worf, upon seeing that the one getting manhandled in the ring is Martok.
  • Worf and Garak over seeing Bashir in the prison and him them.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Garak's usual penchant for wit and slyness is completely absent as he solemnly says his final goodbyes to the dying Tain.
• P.O.V. Cam: The camera cuts to Garak's point of view just as a Jem'Hadar soldier slams a rifle into his face.
• Serious Business: Jadzia decides to borrow Worf's favorite operas before he leaves and threatens to lose them if he doesn't return quickly.
• Shout-Out: Kira Title Drops a Star Trek: The Original Series episode when she refers to Dukat's "private little war."
• So Proud of You: Tain, in what is apparently the second bit of paternal affection he's ever shown Garak, admits to being proud of the way Garak refused to quit while trying to ride an animal as a child, no matter how many times he fell off.
• Take That!: Garak has some strong opinions about a certain kind of tea.
  Garak: I'd like to get my hands on that fellow Earl Grey and tell him a thing or two about... tea leaves.
• Talk to the Fist: As they're boarded by the Jem'Hadar, Garak politely asks if they could point them in the direction of the wormhole. The leader's response is to introduce the butt of his rifle to Garak's face.
• This Is Gonna Suck: After seeing an entire Dominion armada is hiding in the nebula, Garak has this reaction.
• This Is Not a Drill: When DS9 receives Worf's warning about the approaching Dominion fleet.
  Sisko: Put the station on Yellow Alert. Make sure everyone knows this is not a drill.
• Troll: Garak convinces Worf that he wants to join Starfleet, partly to practice lying (as he says, it's like any other skill) and partly just to screw around with Worf.
• Villain Decay: Invoked after Dukat confronts Kira over Ziyal's relationship with Garak.
  Dukat: Save your excuses, Major. You've betrayed me, and I promise you I won't forget it.
  Kira: If that is a threat, I'm not impressed.
  Dukat: There was a time when Bajorans took Cardassian threats seriously.
  Kira: Not anymore.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Garak laments that after spending his entire life trying to please Tain and allowing his father to mold him into a mirror image of himself, Tain remains cold, distant, and disappointed in him, even refusing, until literally minutes away from his death, to even acknowledge that Garak is his son at all.
• Wham Episode: The Dominion invades the Alpha Quadrant, Garak and Worf are taken prisoner, and Bashir is revealed to have been replaced with a Changeling spy who sabotages the crew's last chance to prevent the Dominion invasion.
• Wham Line:
  • Moments before his death, the truth about Tain and Garak comes out.
  Garak: I'll do as you ask, on one condition...That you don't ask me this favor as a mentor, or a superior officer... but as a father asking his son.
  • Martok's very first lines to Worf: "Do I know you?" And after Worf introduces himself: "Yes, I've heard of you." While it had been implied back during "Apocalypse Rising", this (and Martok's subsequent exposition) explicitly confirms that Martok's first appearance back in "The Way of the Warrior" was actually the Martok Changeling rather than the genuine article. This is thus the very first time the characters and audience alike are meeting the real Martok.
• Wham Shot:
  • Bashir being hauled into the prison barracks, revealing there's a Changeling spy on the station impersonating the good doctor. Also, note that Bashir is hauled in still wearing his old uniform. The spy has been on the station at least as far back as "Rapture"!
  • The sight of a Dominion armada emerging from the wormhole. The invasion has begun.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jadzia is pissed over Worf not only agreeing to the mission without consulting her, but that she had to hear about it second-hand from Sisko.
• You Talk Too Much!:
  Ika'tika: (to Garak) You Cardassians are all alike. You talk too much.