History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E11Waltz

* SpiritualAntithesis: The episode is a flip of first season's "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E19Duet Duet]]", as hinted in the title. Both shows have a member of the core cast confront a Cardassian about their past, but while Duet was about a man who first presented himself as a cartoonishly evil maniac before revealing himself to be a deeply conflicted individual desperate to atone for his people's crimes, Waltz has Dukat initially trying to convince himself he is a good and reasonable man (while shifting the blame for his terrible actions to [[NeverMyFault the people he oppressed]]), only to embrace genocidal insanity. Futhermore, while "Duet" had Kira learn that not all Cardassians are unrepentant fascists, Sisko's epiphany here is that some people really ''are'' rotten at their core.

[[caption-width-right:350:The camping trip from Hell]]

* YouFool: Seeing how things are escalating, Sisko opts to humor Dukat and agree with his assorted claims. After a bit of this, the hallucination of Kira shouts this at Dukat, all the while laughing at him being patronized by Sisko.

* GrayAndGreyMorality: Discussed; Sisko tells Jadzia that he usually believes that the universe consists of shades of gray, with no one being entirely good or evil. [[SubvertedTrope Then he meets someone like Dukat]], and he realises that there is indeed such a thing as pure evil -- one ''hell'' of a statement coming from someone who fought the Borg at Wolf 359.

Sisko is on the ''Honshu'', escorting Gul Dukat to his war crimes trial. When the captain finally visits his captive, Dukat seems to have broken out of his stupor, and they commiserate over the death of Ziyal. Just as Sisko leaves, the ship is attacked and goes down. Sisko wakes up on a desolate planet accompanied by Dukat, who carried him to a shuttle and crash landed them. Dukat has put Sisko's broken arm in a cast, set up a camp, and activated a general distress beacon. The pair agree that whoever rescues them will find one comrade and one prisoner.

* GrayAndGreyMorality: Discussed; Sisko tells Jadzia that he usually believes that the universe consists of shades of gray, with no one being entirely good or evil. [[SubvertedTrope Then he meets someone like Dukat]], and he realises that there is indeed such a thing as pure evil.

* SpiritualAntithesis: The episode is a flip of first season's "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E19Duet Duet]]", as hinted in the title. Both shows have a member of the core cast confront a Cardassian about their past, but while Duet was about a man who first presented himself as a cartoonishly evil maniac before revealing himself to be a deeply conflicted individual desperate to atone for his people's crimes, Waltz has Dukat intially trying to convince himself he is a good and reasonable man (while shifting the blame for his terrible actions to [[NeverMyFault the people he oppressed]]), only to embrace genocidal insanity. Futhermore, while "Duet" had Kira learn that not all Cardassians are unrepentant fascists, Sisko's epiphany here is that some people really ''are'' rotten at their core.

* HopeSpot: The ''Defiant'' beamed aboard two people. Instead of Sisko and Dukat, it's two women from the ''Honshu''.

* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: This is the advice Dukat's hallucination of Damar gives him, pointing out that returning to Bajor carrying the corpse of the Bajorans' Emissary to the Prophets would surely crush the Bajorans' resistance to his rule once and for all. As with Weyoun, Dukat refuses to follow this advice, as his ego demands that his enemies acknowledge his greatness.

* ShutUpHannibal: After Dukat's rant about how he's been way too nice to the Bajorans and he really should just have killed them all, Sisko knocks him out, sarcastically retorting "...and ''that's'' why you're not an evil man!"

'''Weyoun:''' I doubt held still have the same respect for you if he'd heard you screaming and screaming and ''screaming'' like a madman till the nurses came and the doctors had to sedate you! ''(laughs)''\\

* CallBack: The ending of the "trial' of Dukat is one to "The Maquis, Part 2". Dukat told Sisko in that episode that there were those in the Central Command who felt he should have killed every last Bajoran before pulling out during the Withdrawal. Turns out Dukat felt the same way deep down; he just didn't want to admit it.

* SanitySlippage: Dukat undergoes a serious case of this during his isolation with Sisko, and this after he'd begun to improve in the care of the Federation's psychiatric facilities. He gets into spirited arguments with hallucinations of Kira, Damar, and Weyoun, and even fires at them with his phaser several times. It's during one of these attacks that Sisko realizes he's dealing with a madman, as he sees that while one of these assaults came dangerously close to hitting him, he wasn't where Dukat was ''aiming''. (He was aiming at Kira, who seemed to be standing just over Sisko's shoulder as she mocked him.)

* MasterRace: Dukat's justifications for the occupation of Bajor amounted to he Cardassians being superior to Bajorans in every conceivable way, with the Cardassians attempting to uplift those beneath them.

Sisko is on the ''Honshu'', escorting Gul Dukat to his war crimes trial. When the captain finally visits his captive, Dukat seems to have broken out of his stupor. They commiserate over the death of Ziyal. Just as Sisko leaves, the ship is attacked and goes down. Sisko wakes up on a desolate planet having been carried to an escape pod by Dukat. It's just the two of them. Dukat has put Sisko's broken arm in a cast, set up a camp, and activated a general distress beacon. The pair agree that whoever rescues them will find one comrade and one prisoner.

Dukat makes conversation with Sisko and wonders why he never got credit from the station residents for being so generous, but Sisko tactfully avoids commenting. When Dukat leaves to forage for supplies, it becomes clear that he's having hallucinations of Weyoun, Damar and Kira. He angrily argues with them as they question and challenge his recent actions. While he's gone, Sisko discovers that the distress beacon is not actually sending out a signal even though it's been made to look operational. When Dukat returns, Sisko asks him to inspect it, and he claims that it's functioning normally.

While this is going on, Kira sends two ships to search from survivors of the ''Honshu'': the ''Constellation'' and the ''Defiant''. Before Worf leaves on his mission, Kira warns him that the ''Defiant'' is needed for an escort mission in 52 hours, so he must end his search not one second later. As the deadline approaches, Bashir and O'Brien insist on ignoring their time limit, but Worf is honor-bound to follow his orders. He relieves Bashir from duty and prepares to leave at the appropriate time.

Back on the planet, Dukat continues to press Sisko on what he feels is the man's unfair assessment of him, but Sisko won't back down. When Dukat discovers that Sisko has repaired the distress beacon behind his back, he destroys it and attacks the wounded captain. When Sisko wakes up, Dukat begins describing the history of his rule over Bajor, how he inherited a brutal regime and made many reforms to save lives, but continuing resistance from the Bajorans required harsh responses. During his diatribe, Weyoun, Damar and Kira appear and begin affirming his assertions. He concludes by spitefully laying on the blame on the Bajorans and lamenting that he didn't kill them all. Sisko uses the Gul's distraction to knock him out and escape.

Sisko flees through a blistering sandstorm to the escape shuttle and finds that it's operational, but Dukat catches up and forces Sisko back out. He proclaims that Bajor is dead before lifting off, his hallucinations accompanying him. But he also sends Sisko's location to the ''Defiant'' just before it can leave for its escort duty. Sisko is rescued. When discussing his ordeal with Dax, he notes that while life is usually shades of gray, there is still pure evil in the world, and that's what Dukat is. He vows that the next time they meet, "It's him or me."

* BigNo: Dukat's response to Illusion!Weyoun's taunting. A clear sign of his impending SanitySlippage.

* CallBack: The ending of the 'Trial' of Dukat is one to "The Maquis, Part 2". Dukat told Sisko in that episode that there were those in the Central Command who felt he should have killed every last Bajoran before pulling out during the Withdrawal. Turns out Dukat felt the same way deep down; he just didn't want to admit it.
* CluelessAesop: "Waltz" was written as an attempt at putting a stop to the MisaimedFandom surrounding Gul Dukat, ending with Captain Sisko telling Jadzia that even when you live in a world full of shades of grey, true evil (such as Gul Dukat) can still exist. Even so, partially ''because'' of Gul Dukat's awfully persuasive delivery of [[VillainHasAPoint considerable testimony on his own behalf]] in this episode, his fandom was not so easily dissuaded.

* EvilerThanThou: Illusion!Weyoun insists that the Dominion would have been far tougher on the Bajorans than the Cardassians ever were, backing up Dukat's claim that he was a kinder, gentler despot.

* TheGadfly: Illusion!Kira really enjoys mocking Dukat, and throws in [[TheHyena more than a little hysterical laughter]] to cap it off.
--> '''Illusion!Kira:''' I'm going to enjoy watching this. He's going to beat you, Dukat. He's going to escape and go back to [=DS9=] and his friends, and we're all going to have a ''good long laugh'' at your expense.

* HonorBeforeReason:
** Disregarding the pragmatic advice from his hallucination of Damar, Dukat leaves Captain Sisko alive and even alerts the ''Defiant'' to his location after taking off in the stolen shuttle. The way Dukat sees things, he can't very well exact the ultimate revenge on his enemy if the Emissary isn't around to see it because he's died on a barren planet.
** Worf, as usual, believes it would be dishonorable to try to ignore their explicit orders in order to try to save Sisko; justified, however, in that their orders to break off the search are in order to protect the lives of some 30,000 Federation troops in an otherwise defenseless carrier convoy that the Dominion is almost certain to attack.

* MildlyMilitary: Averted when Kira's orders to halt the search come in. Bashir and O'Brien immediately start discussing whether or not they have any leeway to continue anyhow, but Dax sharply reminds them that it isn't up for discussion because the decision is Worf's.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Sisko being forced to play along with Dukat's 'Trial' in the penultimate Act. By goading Dukat and getting him to finally admit how much he ''hated'' the Bajorans deep down, Sisko is indirectly responsible for Dukat's rampage over the remainder of the show's run.

* ShutUpHannibal: After Dukat's rant about how he's been way too nice to the Bajorans and he really should just have killed them all, Sisko knocks him out, retorting "[[SarcasmMode ...and]] ''[[SarcasmMode that's]]'' [[SarcasmMode why you're not an evil man!]]"

JustForFun/TheOneWith [[VillainousBreakdown Dukat completely]] [[SanitySlippage losing it.]]

Following the destruction of the Federation starship ''Honshu'', Sisko is severely injured and trapped alone on a deserted planet with Dukat, who becomes increasingly unstable.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Dukat says he and Sisko won't be seeing each other again for a while. Indeed, they won't share a scene again until the GrandFinale.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Sisko being forced to play along with Dukat's 'Trial' in the penultimate Act. By goading Dukat and getting him to finally admit how much he ''hated'' the Bajorans deep down, Sisko is indirectly responsible for Dukat's rampage over the remainder of the show's run, [[spoiler: including Jadzia's murder.]]

* SpiritualAntithesis: The episode is a flip of first season's "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E19Duet Duet]]", as hinted in the title. Both shows have a member of the core cast confront a Cardassian about their past, but while Duet was about a man who first presented himself as a cartoonishly evil maniac before revealing himself to be a deeply conflicted individual desesperate to atone for his people's crimes, Waltz has Dukat intially trying to convince himself he is a good and reasonable man (while shifting the blame for his terrible actions to [[NeverMyFault the people he oppressed]]), only to embrace genocidal insanity. Futhermore, while "Duet" had Kira learn that not all Cardassians are unrepentant fascists, Sisko's epiphany here is that some people really ''are'' rotten at their core.

TheOneWith [[VillainousBreakdown Dukat completely]] [[SanitySlippage losing it.]]

TheOneWhere [[VillainousBreakdown Dukat completely]] [[SanitySlippage loses it.]]

* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: This is the advice Dukat's hallucination of Damar gives him, pointing out that returning to Bajor carrying the corpse of the Bajorans' Emissary to the Prophets would surely crush the Bajorans' resistance to his rule once and for all.