Meanwhile, Garak has been tasked with translating Cardassian war messages, and he's under a lot of stress. Discussing his predicament, he becomes uncomfortable with the press of the bar's crowd and returns to his shop, where he has a panic attack and faints. In the infirmary, Garak admits that his claustrophobia has become much worse, to the point that even large rooms are uncomfortable. Bashir approaches Ezri and suggests that she use her counseling knowledge to get Garak back up and running. After she leaves, Quark notes that Ezri presents a rare "second chance" to woo Dax.
Ezri attempts to counsel Garak on his claustrophobia and discovers that his father used to punish him by locking him in a closet. She notes her own problems with space sickness and suggests that both problems derive from guilt. When she leaves, however, both she and Garak seem to be suffering from a new attack of their respective affliction. She bumps into Worf in the hall, who coarsely tells her that she is not his wife and he does not want to know her. Ezri meets with Sisko and tells him about the encounter, but he brushes it off and offers Ezri the chance to stay on the station as a full-fledged counselor with the rank of lieutenant. She refuses to stay, still uncomfortable with Worf.
When Ezri returns to the bar, Bashir joins her for a drink and makes a pass at her, which she promptly shuts down. However, Ezri admits that Jadzia enjoyed his attention and would have ended up with him if not for Worf. When Bashir becomes overcome with emotion, she holds his hand, and Worf spies them across the room, infuriated. But Bashir is called away to the airlock, where an anxiety-maddened Garak is trying to throw himself out the station. Ezri takes him to a holosuite to enjoy some virtual wide open spaces. Garak isn't fooled, but Ezri promises to be there for him whenever he needs her.
Worf storms into sick bay to accost Bashir and demand that the doctor stay away from Ezri so as not to dishonor Jadzia's memory. He makes the same warning to Quark. Later, O'Brien shows up to talk, and Worf expresses how he can't honor his wife's memory when another version of her is roaming around the station. O'Brien suggests that he speak to the one person who would know how Jadzia would want him to move forward: Ezri.
Ezri visits Garak, who has abandoned the holosuite and returned to his work, but he has no time for her "psycho-babble." He callously accuses her of being a useless child, causing her to flee in tears. She goes to Sisko and announces her intention to resign from Starfleet, saying that she's inadequate to the job. Based on her statements, Sisko angrily agrees that she's unworthy and suggests that she spend her life in useless solitude until she figures herself out. Ezri flees and bursts into tears.
She returns to Garak to apologize for not helping him, but as she starts to congratulate him for a recent success that aided the war effort, she realizes that he's agitated about the death toll that such victories take on his own people. Garak begins ranting about the guilt he feels for his work and collapses, but at the infirmary, he thanks her for finally uncovering the source of his anxiety. He vows to continue his work even if it means the destruction of Cardassia.
As Ezri is packing to leave, Worf arrives to finally talk to her. He admits that part of him is glad that Jadzia lives on, and yet part of him wishes she didn't, but he admits that he hasn't been treating her as Jadzia would have wanted. He urges her to stay on the station because it's what Jadzia would have wanted, though he will have to keep his distance for a while. Ezri returns to Sisko to cancel her resignation and finds that he never sent it, counting on her to change her mind. She receives her promotion and is invited to dinner by Kira and Odo. She hesitates until she spots Worf across the room lifting his cup in salute to her.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Garak tells Ezri about how his father (the late Enabran Tain) would lock him in the closet as discipline.
- Break the Cutie: Garak delivers a soul-crushing speech to Ezri that shakes her to her foundation.
- Break the Haughty: Later on, Garak's own confident persona comes crashing down.
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Ezri is assigned to counsel Garak, but she needs some counseling herself, particularly after Garak's "The Reason You Suck" Speech. It's even Lampshaded before that.Garak: Don't take this the wrong way, but it sounds to me as if you're the one who needs to see a counselor.
- Conflicting Loyalty: While he's dedicated to winning the war against the Dominion, Garak is deeply tormented by the fact that in doing so, he's also waging war against Cardassia, a war that Garak knows can't possibly end well for his people. He eventually breaks down to Ezri, admitting that he feels like a traitor.
- Continuity Nod:
- Ezri mentions that Tobin (host #2) could never discipline his children. Based on what we've seen of him, that's entirely believable.
- Garak's claustrophobia is back with a vengeance.
- When O'Brien shows up at Worf's quarters with bloodwine, Worf moans, "Not again!" This calls back to "Image in the Sand," where O'Brien did the same.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Sisko gives Ezri a second tongue-lashing after Garak's to help her get her head on straight.
- Easily Forgiven: There's no implication that Worf will face any disciplinary issues for violently accosting Bashir or threatening Quark. He even slashes his bat'leth dangerously close to O'Brien, who is obviously not happy about it.
- Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Ezri's very presence causes Worf no end of grief, as he feels that he can't truly let go of Jadzia as long as a part of her survives in Ezri. As a result, he treats Ezri quite coldly, and lashes out at Bashir when he thinks the doctor is treating Ezri like Jadzia (thus dishonoring the departed Jadzia, as Worf sees it). A talk with O'Brien makes Worf realise that the way he's treated Ezri is more disrespectful to Jadzia than anything else, and, while their relationship remains understandably awkward, he starts treating her better by the end of the episode.
- Foreshadowing: Garak fears, and ultimately is forced to accept, that defeating Dominion will require the destruction of Cardassia.
- Freudian Excuse: Ezri deduces Garak's: his father would lock him in a closet if he misbehaved, for which Garak blamed himself, causing him to develop claustrophobia and associate it with a sense of guilt. Therefore, the claustrophobia picks up again here because of his deep inner conflict about helping the Federation win a war against Cardassia.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- All those people at Quark's were positively sitting on Garak's shoulder. Combined with his reemerging claustrophobia, it's no wonder he yelled at them.
- Garak wasn't entirely wrong about Ezri's qualifications to counsel him — as is repeatedly brought up, not only was she still in training before Sisko pulled strings to get her promoted, she is still in the midst of processing the eight prior lives of Dax, occasionally acting like prior hosts rather than herself and confusing her identity. He might have been saying it to Break the Cutie, but at multiple points, even she acknowledges that she's not in a good position to be counseling anyone.
- Mandatory Line: Jake doesn't appear until the last scene at the party for Ezri's promotion. He only says, "She's cute."
- My God, What Have I Done?: Garak knows that because of his codebreaking, millions of his people will die in the war.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Worf's reaction to O'Brien showing up with another bottle of bloodwine. O'Brien offers to skip the drinking and gets straight to the important stuff.
- Pronoun Trouble: Another effect of Ezri's unplanned joining—she can't decide whether to refer to Jadzia and Worf as "we" or "they.""These pronouns are going to drive me crazy!"
- Rank Up: Ezri gets promoted at the end.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Garak tears into Ezri with quite a venomous talking to.Garak: Spare me your insipid psychobabble. I'm not some quivering neurotic who feels sorry for himself because his daddy wasn't nice. You couldn't begin to understand me!
Ezri: I'd like to try.
Garak: Oh, I'm sure you would. You'd like nothing more than to pry into my personal affairs. Well, I'm not interested in dissecting my childhood. I only want to save my people from the Dominion. I don't need someone to walk in here and hold my hand. I want someone to help me get back to work. And you, my dear, are not up to this task. I mean, look at you. You're pathetic – a confused child trying to live up to a legacy left by her predecessors. You're not worthy of the name "Dax." I knew Jadzia. She was vital, alive. She owned herself, and you... you don't even know who you are. How dare you presume to help me? You can't even help yourself. Now, get out of here before I say something unkind. - Series Continuity Error:
- Ezri states that Jadzia died in the Bajoran temple. While she did get mortally wounded there and collapse, she actually died later in the infirmary, after regaining consciousness.
- Also, when she tells Bashir that Jadzia actually enjoyed his flirting, he acts surprised even though Jadzia herself told him this in "Starship Down."
- Testosterone Poisoning: Sisko can't help roaring with laughter when Ezri lets slip that he intimidates Worf. He then tries to cover his reaction, but Ezri points out that she's been a man and so knows why Sisko is getting off on this.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Downplayed. It's in the middle of their conversation when Sisko asks Ezri why she's standing on her head, even though he's crouching on the floor to talk to her face-to-face. It seems he just decided to roll with things when he walked in.
- Unprocessed Resignation: Ezri's having trouble dealing with the new emotions that she has post-joining. She resigns from Starfleet, but Captain Sisko never files the paperwork because he knows that she just needs time to adjust.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Once again, Worf gets called out for acting like a jerk, this time by O'Brien.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Bashir doesn't want to know what a "tympanic tickle" is while treating Quark.
