History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E06TheAbandoned

* JustAMachine: A bio-engineering example. There is much discussion at first on whether the Jem'Hadar are really 'people' or just organic killing machines created by the founders, with Odo directly stating his desire to find out. While they are thinking beings, they are incapable of going against their programming and lack free will and Odo agrees to send the Jem'Hadar off to protect everyone else.

* TheUnSmile: Odo attempts to teach the Jem'Hadar to smile. [[http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/3x06/theabandoned_166.jpg The result]] is...not pleasant.

* MsFanservice: Mardah low-cut outfit proves that all species value [[BuxomIsBetter the same attributes]] in a Dabo girl. The fact that Jake could even [[MyEyesAreUpHere look her in the eye]] shows Cirroc Lofton's a pretty good actor.

* AbsoluteCleavage: Mardah's outfit proves that all species value the same attributes in a Dabo girl.

* MsFanservice: Mardah. The fact that Jake could even [[MyEyesAreUpHere look her in the eye]] shows Cirroc Lofton's a pretty good actor.

* OrcRaisedByElves: It's tried with the Jem Hadar baby, but the Founders had genetically engineered them to hate all non-Founders, and the attempt to raise him like Worf fails.

Odo continues trying to help the Jem'Hadar break out of his genetic conditioning for simple violence, to little success. Sisko summons Odo and announces that Starfleet is coming for the man after all, but the Jem'Hadar has been listening in. He appears and holds Sikso at phaserpoint, saying that he won't be taken prisoner. He demands access to a runabout. The crew comply. Odo tries to talk the Jem'Hadar out of it, but to no avail. Odo convinces Sisko to allow him and the Jem'Hadar to leave peacefully, assuring him that he's at no risk from his captor.

With peace restored, Sisko decides not to end Jake's relationship with Mardah after getting to know his son better. When Odo returns, he stops by Kira and admits that she was right about the Jem'Hadar all along.

The baby is growing at an amazing rate. By the next day, he looks nine years old, and Bashir says that the only explanation is genetic engineering. O'Brien notes that the baby was held in stasis, apparently to prevent it from maturing during the journey. Meanwhile, Kira visits Odo at his new quarters. The constable is reluctant to invite her in, but once he does, he reveals that he's building furniture to inspire his shapeshifting abilities. No longer in need of his old bucket, he uses it as a pot for Kira's gifted houseplant, to her approval.

Bashir discusses the alien child with Dax, noting that he lacks a critical enzyme to survive. As they wonder at the purpose of such an obvious flaw, they're called away when the boy, now a man, breaks out of the infirmary. His mature appearance answers all the mystery: he's a Jem'Hadar. He only stops rampaging with Odo arrives, and he instinctively submits to the "changeling."

Sisko tells his staff that the Jem'Hadar will be taken to a research base for study, and Kira is happy to be rid of him. Odo and Bashir, however, argue that he has rights as a sentient being. Odo knows all too well how it feels to be raised in a laboratory. He convinces Sisko to delay the Jem'Hadar's departure. In that time, Odo forces his charge to submit to Bashir's tests to replicate the missing enzyme.

Odo tries to take the Jem'Hadar under his wing, teaching him that changelings are no better than anyone else and that he must think for himself. The Jem'Hadar states that he wants to find his people, which Odo understands. He tells him that his people are brutal warriors, but he doesn't need to be. To slake the man's thirst for violence, Odo introduces him to a training program in the holosuites, telling him that he must control himself while outside. Kira is less than impressed by this tactic. Soon afterward, Bashir manages to replicate the missing enzyme, which the crew now hypothesize was invented as a means to control the Jem'Hadar.

Odo continues trying to help the Jem'Hadare break out of his genetic conditioning for simple violence, to little effect. Sisko summons Odo and announces that Starfleet is coming for the man after all, but the Jem'Hadar has been listening in. He appears and holds Sikso at phaserpoint, saying that he won't be taken prisoner. He demands access to a runabout. The crew comply. Odo tries to talk the Jem'Hadar out of it, but to no avail. Odo convinces Sisko to allow him and the Jem'Hadar to leave peacefully, assuring him that he's at no risk from his captor.

With peace restored, Sisko decides not to end Jake's relationship with Mardah after getting to know his son better. When Odo returns, he stops by Kira and admits that she was correct in her assessment of the Jem'Hadar being unable to change.

* NoNameGiven: The Jem'Hadar. He even says "[[TheNameless I don't have a name]]" at one point.

* OutOfFocus: Quark really only appears at the beginning.

* VillainHasAPoint: Just before leaving the station, the Jem'Hadar accuses Odo of having been brainwashed by the ideals of the humanoids around him. Odo and the viewers realize pretty much simultaneously that this is an accurate description of Odo's upbringing.

Jake is hanging out at Quark's while his girlfriend Mardah works the Dabo table. After bilking a gambler out of his stake, she sits with Jake and tells him that his father has invited her to dinner. Jake is surprised but optimistic. Meanwhile, a shady trader named Rionoj seduces Quark into purchases some salvage sight unseen. When Quark investigates his recent purchase, he discovers to his shock that it includes an alien infant.

The whole station crew jumps into investigating the incident. Bashir says that the infant is of an unknown species with an incredible metabolic rate. Sisko is taken with the child, reminded of Jake as a child. Speaking of Jake, Sisko plans on ending his son's relationship with Mardah after their dinner, but he wants to at least meet her first.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a lunch with Dax, Bashir notes how the child seems to be missing a key enzyme and is baffled why someone would "engineer a child with such an obvious defect." This turns out to be a key clue to the boy being a Jem'Hadar as the Founders put in their addiction.

Quark purchases some salvage from the Gamma Quadrant, and only later realizes that among the wreckage is an infant alien. Given over to Dr. Bashir, the infant grows rapidly, and quite unexpectedly, into an adult Jem'Hadar. It is extremely violent, and the only one who appears able to control it is Odo. Meanwhile, Sisko finally meets Jake's girlfriend Mardah, a Dabo girl from Quark's bar.