Headscratchers / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 02 E 14 Whispers

• It's a good torture O'Brien episode, but doesn't really make sense. Like, why would everybody sneak around his back? Why not just tell him they think he might be a skinjob? The real O'Brien wouldn't object to being closely monitored and kept away from his wife and daughter under the circumstances.
  • Because the SKINJOB O'Brien has unknown capabilities. While we don't see the full explanation, it's likely some variation of "As far as we know, if told he's a replicant, he'll go berserk. Or explode..."
  • They didn't know what they were dealing with (hence Bashir giving him a checkup), and they don't know what will "activate" the assassin programming, so they are walking on eggshells. They also didn't know what he knew and didn't know. Also, there is no way to 100% tell the replicant from the real O'Brien, until the real one is rescued. Also, if he is tipped off that he's a replicant, it would let those who created him know that his cover was blown, and they might just activate him then and there. Taking any action, or letting him get wind they knew what was up was too risky.
  • Another point boils down to, we know (after watching the episode) that the O'Brien replicant thought he was the real O'Brien, but the command crew didn't know that—they had reason to believe that the replicant did know they weren't real, but simply concealed it very well. The truth was something the command crew could only learn in hindsight.