History Recap / StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E15HonorAmongThieves

** Part of O'Brien's cover is as a guy who has suffered so much in life that he's convinced the galaxy has given him perpetual bad luck. This dovetails rather well with O'Brien's ButtMonkey / ChewToy status, something that he's rather infamous for among the fans (there's a reason "O'Brien must suffer episode" is a meme). O'Brien states that he hopes getting to know Bilby will improve his luck, which causes Bilby to counter that it's his luck he hopes will improve thanks to their relationship. Sure enough, while O'Brien doesn't die, he does end up having to betray Bilby, who does die by episode's end.

* FamilyValuesVillain: Not only does Bilby have a family he loves dearly, and who at least seem to be part of why he's in a life of crime (to earn money to support them), when O'Brien is reluctant to make use of the Farian call girl and claims to have a girlfriend, Bilby completely understands (even wanting to meet said girlfriend) but urges O'Brien not to hurt the call girl's feelings, leading O'Brien to [[PlatonicProstitution let the call girl down easily, politely paying her and claiming he'll contact her at a future date]].

* AffablyEvil: He may be a murderous gangster working for the Dominion, but Bilby is a very friendly and sociable person who takes a shine to O'Brien, sends his earnings to support his family, and takes very good care of his cat Chester. This is why O'Brien can't bring himself to betray him.

* HeroicSacrifice: Well, not "heroic", but this is why Bilby ends up doing. Knowing that he'll be killed if he gives up O'Brien to the Orion syndicate since he witnessed for him, and if he goes into protection under Starfleet they'll just go after his family instead, he decides to go along on the mission and get killed walking into the trap he knows is coming, because it's the only way that both O'Brien and Bilby's family will be spared reprisal from the syndicate.

* DeepCoverAgent: O'Brien is undercover and has a fake personality created for him by Starfleet.

* {{Irony}}: Bilby reflects that he's going to lose his operation and life because of a Starfleet operation that wasn't even targeting him directly.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: Almost as soon as Bilby brings O'Brien back to his apartment, he shows him a large framed picture of his wife and children while telling him "family is the most important thing." Despite the mission just being about finding out who the Starfleet spy for the syndicate is, this practically guarantees Bilby will be dead by episode's end (even though we never get to actually see it happen).

O'Brien is [[DeepCoverAgent undercover]] in a BadGuyBar on Farius Prime eavesdropping on three members of the [[TheSyndicate Orion Syndicate]]: Flith, Krole, and their human boss Bilby. When trying to hack a food terminal, Krole gets "spiked," and O'Brien rushes to save him. Impressed, Brilby orders O'Brien to fix Krole's dataport to prove himself. The chief leaves and meets with his Federation contact, Chadwick, who assures him that as soon as he can infiltrate the syndicate enough to find out who their mole is in Starfleet Intelligence, he can go home.

O'Brien returns with the fixed dataport. Brilby has researched O'Brien's cover identity, a down-on-his-luck fix-it man named "Connelly," and shares a little about himself. It turns out he's a rather affable guy who lives with a cat and sends all his money back to his family. "[[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes Family is the most important thing]]," he states. Brilby has another job for Connelly: fix some faulty Klingon disruptors. O'Brien does so and accompanies his men to confront the gun runner who sold them to him. The chief is quietly horrified when Brilby guns down the gun runner with a repaired disruptor. Later, the gangster offers to bring O'Brien into the syndicate and reveals that the syndicate's mole used to operate the weather controls on Risa about a year ago. Mission accomplished!

But Brilby's capo demands an immediate meeting to pick up the guns, so O'Brien has to tag along. Shockingly, a Vorta accompanies Raimus. Brilby officially vouches for O'Brien to Raimus during the handover. When Chadwick learns that the Dominion is working with the syndicate, he tells O'Brien that the new priority of the mission is to figure out what they're up to. O'Brien gets in good with Brilby and his goons, hacking a bank in the process. Brilby and O'Brien take to each other, and the gangster even buys a floozy for him, which O'Brien politely declines. The chief grows increasingly uncomfortable with the knowledge that betraying Brilby will cost him his life for vouching for a spy.

Raimus and the Vorta arrive unexpectedly to announce that there's a spy among Brilby's crew. The Vorta guesses that O'Brien is the traitor, but it's Flith who's executed for lying about a side hustle. With that out of the way, the remaining crew receive their mission: use the Klingon disruptors to assassinate a Klingon diplomat. O'Brien realizes that they need the Klingon guns to implicate someone else, and the Vorta confirms that the blame will fall on Gowron so that a wedge is driven between the Klingon Empire and the Federation. O'Brien reports all this to Chadwick and laments that Brilby will get killed by the syndicate once the gig is up. Chadwick tells O'Brien not to worry about it, but O'Brien knocks him out with a punch and rushes off to warn his gangster buddy.

Upon hearing O'Brien's confession, Brilby says he should have known that "Connelly" was too good to be true. O'Brien suggests that he hand himself over to the Federation to save his life, but Brilby knows that the syndicate would go after his family. Their only hope is if it looks like he died before ever knowing about Connelly's duplicity. Brilby asks that O'Brien take care of his cat. Before leaving to meet his fate, Brilby learns that O'Brien really does have a family after all and says approvingly that family is the most important thing.

Back on the station, O'Brien is still wracked with a giant guilt trip. Bashir tries to ease his mind but fails. After the doctor leaves, O'Brien sits down to brood while stroking Brilby's cat.

* LethalChef: Brilby's wife's cake is apparently so bad that O'Brien risks pissing off a gangster and maybe even blowing his undercover operation to avoid having to eat it.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Brilby insists on his men eating his wife's cake, [[LethalChef which is disgusting]], and enjoys watching them pretend to love it. He's impressed when O'Brien actually tells him the truth.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Chadwick doesn't report O'Brien assaulting him to warn Bilby.

* InformedAbility: The Syndicate's skill at sniffing out infiltrators is what's supposed to justify O'Brien's involvement. They then let a number of ridiculous tells go past without asking any questions like "how does this guy nobody's ever heard of the only person in the underworld with ready access to obscure Klingon weapon parts", and the explanations he does give them are so obviously made up on the spot that he would have been found out if they'd looked into them at all.

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Seriously, why does Starfleet Intelligence recruit an engineer and family man from a space station that's critical to the defense of the Federation for a dangerous spy mission? Especially since the episode clearly shows that without his constant tinkering, [[{{VetinariJobSecurity}} the station immediately starts falling apart]].

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: O'Brien, a space station engineer with a war record, is sent on an undercover mission. This is justified by the fact that Starfleet Intelligence has been infiltrated, so they need someone outside the agency, and as an engineer, his skills will make him highly prized to his targets.

O'Brien returns with the fixed dataport. Brilby has researched O'Brien's cover identity, a down-on-his-luck fix-it man named "Connelly," and shares a little about himself. It turns out he's a rather affable guy who lives with a cat and sends all his money back to his family. "Family is the most important thing," he states. Brilby has another job for Connelly: fix some faulty Klingon disruptors. O'Brien does so and accompanies his men to confront the gun runner who sold them to him. The chief is quietly horrified when Brilby guns down the gun runner with a repaired disruptor. Later, the gangster offers to bring O'Brien into the syndicate and reveals that the syndicate's mole used to operate the weather controls on Risa about a year ago. Mission accomplished!

* ILied: Chadwick (O'Brien's Federation contact) never had any intent of building a legal case against Bilby. Chadwick lied because he could tell O'Brien was GoingNative.