History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E19HardTime

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 [[SurvivalistStash 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 Ee'char had divided the food in such a way that it's clear he meant to share it with O'Brien. Compounding his guilt, the guards began feeding him again the next day. He had killed his friend for nothing.

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 [[SurvivalistStash secret stash of food]] from O'Brien. In a rage, O'Brien attacks him - and ends up killing him in the ensuing fight. Compounding his guilt, not only had Ee'char been saving enough food for the both of them, but the guards began feeding him again the next day. He had killed him for nothing.

* ButtMonkey: It is an O'Brien episode after all.

* DrivenToSuicide: To the brink, anyway, before Bashir arrives in time to talk O'Brien down.

[[caption-width-right:350:He already tried [[Film/TheShawshankRedemption tunneling through the sewage pipe]].]]

O'Brien, enraged at what he nearly did to his daughter, wrecks the contents of a cargo bay before opening a weapons locker and points a phaser at his neck. 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 [[SurvivalistStash secret stash of food]] from O'Brien. In a rage, O'Brien kills him. Compounding his guilt, not only had Ee'char been saving enough food for the both of them, but the guards began feeding him again the next day. He had killed him for nothing.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: This episode was originally written as a follow-up to the TNG episode "Lower Decks", which ended with the Bajoran ensign Sito Jaxa missing in action. After being presumed dead, she was found to have been held in a Cardassian prison since the events of "Lower Decks". This episode would have detailed her struggle to reintegrate into normal life. However, there was no motivating factor for why Sito was suffering from this condition, so writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe had decided that she had killed her cellmate, to whom she had become very close. Eventually, the focus got shifted from Sito to O'Brien, so as far as anyone's concerned, Sito is dead.

* RealityEnsues: This episode has a similar idea as in the ''Next Generation'' episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight The Inner Light]]'', but here we actually see how difficult it would be to adjust to your former life after having spent decades inside a simulation. Though like Picard in ''The Inner Light'', O'Brien's still back to his normal self [[StatusQuoIsGod by the next episode]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: This episode was originally written as a follow-up to the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] episode "Lower Decks", which ended with the Bajoran ensign Sito Jaxa missing in action. After being presumed dead, she was found to have been held in a Cardassian prison since the events of "Lower Decks". This episode would have detailed her struggle to reintegrate into normal life. However, there was no motivating factor for why Sito was suffering from this condition, so writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe had decided that she had killed her cellmate, to whom she had become very close. Eventually, the focus got shifted from Sito to O'Brien, so as far as anyone's concerned, Sito is dead.

* WholePlotReference: O'Brien's wrongful imprisonment is quite similar to that of Edmond Dantes in ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''.

* RealityEnsues: This episode has a similar idea as in the ''Next Generation'' episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E25TheInnerLight The Inner Light]]'', but here we actually see how difficult it would be to adjust to your former life after having spent decades inside a simulation. Though like Picard in ''The Inner Light'', O'Brien's still back to his normal self [[[[StatusQuoIsGod by the next episode]].

---

* YearInsideHourOutside: O'Brien is put through 20 years of imprisonment in just a few hours.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: This episode was originally written as a follow-up to the [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] episode "Lower Decks", which ended with the Bajoran Ensign Sito Jaxa missing in action. After being presumed dead, she was found to have been held in a Cardassian prison since the events of "Lower Decks". This episode would have detailed her struggle to reintegrate into normal life. However, there was no motivating factor for why Sito was suffering from this condition, so writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe had decided that she had killed her cellmate, to whom she had become very close. Eventually, the focus got shifted from Sito to O'Brien, so as far as anyone's concerned, Sito is dead.

--> "Let me guess. Sedition?"

Bashir manages to get the phaser away from O'Brien as Ee'char fades away.

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 kills him. Compounding his guilt, not only had Ee'char been saving enough food for the both of them, but the guards began feeding him again the next day. He had killed him for nothing.

The scene opens with a haggard man with long gray hair with his back to the camera, 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. "It's real to me."

Captain Sisko explains the situation to O'Brien's wife, Keiko: O'Brien had asked too many questions about Argrathi technology, and so they charged him with Espionage and subjected him to the treatment. Keiko asks if the memories are removable, and while Sisko reports that the Argrathi say it's impossible, Sisko reassures her that Dr. Bashir will try. Bashir interviews O'Brien on what he remembers. O'Brien had a cellmate, a man named Ee'char who had already been in the prison for six cycles prior to O'Brien's arrival, but he tells Bashir he was alone. After finishing his assessment, Bashir explains to Keiko that the memories O'Brien received aren't implanted false memories, but that O'Brien actually experienced everything that happened at an accelerated rate and so there isn't anything he can do without wiping everything else from his memory entirely. For a brief moment as he's being reunited with Keiko, he sees her as Ee'char.