It has been 3 months since the Federation withdrew from Deep Space Nine. The Dominion War is now in full swing and the Federation and the Klingons are clearly on the losing side: we find the Defiant in full retreat from a battle in which several disabled ships are being towed. To make matters worse, they receive news of the failure of a counter-attack against the Dominion: out of 112 ships deployed against them, only 14 returned. If these losses keep happening, the Dominion will win the war in very short order.
Meanwhile on Terok Nor (formerly Deep Space Nine), Dukat is enjoying his return to command in spite of his failure to take down the minefield. As Dukat eyes both Bajor and Kira for conquest, Weyoun struggles to keep him on a tight leash and focused on the objectives at hand. Though Dukat refuses Kira's official request to return the station to join Bajoran control, Odo manages to leverage his status as a Founder to appeal to Weyoun. The Vorta eagerly agrees to his request and even offers him a spot on the station's ruling council, infuriating Dukat. Weyoun is not as generous to the would-be journalist Jake, refusing to broadcast his news reports until he takes a friendlier tone on the Dominion. Still, most legacy station residents must admit that things could be worse.
When the Defiant reaches Starbase 375, Sisko receives new orders. It turns out that Dominion ship he salvaged last year has been repaired. Sisko will use it to sneak deep into Dominion space and destroy their main ketracel-white facility. Without ketracel-white, the Dominion's Jem'Hadar will quickly die. The crew chafes under the ship's strange designs. It lacks seating, there's no sick bay, and the view screen is replaced by weird headsets that only Garak can use without discomfort.
As the crew settles in, they discover a bigger problem with piloting a Dominion ship on a secret mission. As soon as a Federation ship, the U.S.S. Centaur, spots them, it opens fire. Because of an issue with the communications system, Sisko has no way to alert the Centaur that they are firing on a friendly, so the crew targets the Centaur's weapons array to at least disarm them. This does work in shaking them, although the arrival of a wing of Jem'Hadar fighters may also have helped.
Finally, the crew reach their intended target. O'Brien has concealed explosives within the empty ketracel-white containers that the crew intend to exchange for fresh ones. Everything seems to be going well until the the shields go up around the facility, trapping the crew's ship. It gets worse when the bombs concealed within the containers go off prematurely in the facility, triggering a massive explosion that destroys the depot. Sisko's crew manage to Outrun the Fireball, but the effort appears to have left them in a worse situation: their warp drive has been completely destroyed and they have no means to return to Federation space.
Tropes
- Abhorrent Admirer: Dukat to Kira, as usual. She (once again) makes it clear it will never happen.
- Affably Evil: Weyoun's affability is back on full force after the previous episode, trying with all his might to make everyone play nice on the Dominion's newest station.
- As You Know: Dukat reminds Weyoun how the mines work.
- Attack Pattern Alpha: Sisko orders "attack pattern omega" against the Centaur.
- Call-Back:
- It's explicitly noted that this ship is the one Sisko salvaged about a year ago.
- Garak notes that Dukat was wearing one of those headsets during the battle in which the Cardassians and Dominion took over Deep Space 9. His deduction is that Cardassians would be able to wear the headgear. He's correct.
- Captain's Log: Or the dark counterpart thereof—the scenes on the station open with Dukat's "Permanent Documentation File."
- Continuity Nod: In Worf’s absence, Bashir is serving as the Defiant’s intelligence officer.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Seventh Fleet was carrying out a counterattack against the Dominion in the Tyra System. Out of 112 ships, only fourteen make it back to Federation-held territory.
- Cutting the Knot: Kira unsuccessfully presses Dukat to reinstate the Bajoran security forces, then she realizes she's dealing with the wrong person and suggests that Odo asks Weyoun. Given a command from one of his gods, Weyoun instantly agrees.
- Deadpan Snarker: Old Man Sisko has a pretty dry response to his son's Brutal Honesty about how badly the war is going.Joe Sisko: You certainly know how to comfort a frightened old man.
Ben Sisko: You didn't raise me to be a liar.
Joe Sisko: I raised you to be a chef, for all the good it did me. - Destructo-Nookie: Subtly Lampshaded by Sisko when Worf and Jadzia head off for some alone time: "Try not to break any bones."
- Didn't Think This Through: Jake stayed on the station to report on the occupation, but didn't think that a theocratic autocracy might not take kindly to him reporting that they are a theocratic autocracy, especially since he's a citizen of an enemy state. Weyoun won't harm him, but he doesn't have to let Jake publish anything, either.
- Easy Logistics: Averted. While Dukat boasts that the war is going well, Weyoun is deeply concerned with resupply and reinforcement, which are heavily dependent on the wormhole. The Jem'Hadar depend on drugs which, if not regularly provided, forces them into homicidal rampages, and Cardassia's infrastructure hasn't fully adapted to support the Dominion war machine.
- Face Palm: Sisko's reaction to the Federation's losses in the Tyra system.
- First-Name Basis: Weyoun encourages this with Jake. Gotta maintain the "affably" part of Affably Evil, after all.
- Friend or Foe?: While flying the stolen Jem'Hadar fighter, our heroes are attacked by the starship Centaur and have to repel the attack without crippling or destroying them.
- Friendship Favoritism: Garak seems to expect this of Bashir when he has a minor concussion as opposed to Bashir's more seriously injured patients. Or he was just being a Troll.
- Get Out!: Weyoun angrily dismisses Damar for bad-mouthing the Bajorans. Damar doesn't leave, however, until Dukat says so.
- Insistent Terminology: Weyoun insists to Jake that the Dominion is not occupying the station; they're merely running a Cardassian outpost.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After Kira feels Quark's only interested in profit, the Ferengi pointedly compares the current Dominion Occupation to the horrors all three of them lived through during the Bajoran Occupation. He admits things are bad... but, they could also be a lot worse too. Kira can muster no real counterargument, while Odo very grudgingly agrees with Quark's assessment.
- Ludicrous Precision: Bashir no longer needs to hide his ability to calculate a 32.7% chance of survival, or that the trip without warp will be "seventeen years, two months and three days, give or take an hour." (Siddig hated getting these lines and played them as woodenly as possible until the writers stopped giving them to him.)
- The Main Characters Do Everything: It's a bit odd that Nog, still just a Starfleet cadet, is such a fixture on the bridge.
- Mandatory Line: Worf only appears in the teaser, discussing the wedding plans with Dax before leaving to make sweet Klingon love.
- Mission Briefing: Admiral Ross gives one to Sisko and his crew for their upcoming mission to destroy the ketracel-white facility.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Dukat mentions that the war is going well for Cardassia... then adds the Dominion almost as an afterthought.
- Oh, Crap!: Garak does his best to not freak out when the Jem'Hadar raise the security net, trapping them close to the ticking bomb.
- Outrun the Fireball: The Jem'Hadar fighter ends up doing this. She survives, but she catches some of the fireball and her warp drive gets hosed.
- Percussive Therapy: Sisko takes out his frustration over the war on a tabletop, breaking the glass.
- Pragmatic Villainy:
- When Kira expresses concern about Dukat striking back against Bajor, Odo is actually grateful that Weyoun is around to keep him in check. As he says, Weyoun knows that the other powers who signed non-aggression pacts with the Dominion are watching. Those powers want proof that the deals will be honored, and the Dominion can't risk suggesting otherwise while fighting both the Federation and the Klingons.
- Weyoun is also quick to point out how the station is prospering under Dominion control, with businesses and families returning. The Dominion wants to rule over a functioning empire, after all.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The U.S.S. Centaur breaks off its pursuit of Sisko's Jem'Hadar Fighter when three more Jem'Hadar attack ships show up.
- Somebody Set Us Up The Bomb: Double Subverted. To destroy the Ketracel White Depot, O'Brien had hidden explosives inside the empty canisters that they beamed over to exchange for fresh ones. The initial subversion is when the forcefield around the depot is activated, implying that something has triggered the Dominion's sensors, likely the canisters themselves. Then subverted back when the canisters explode anyway, destroying the depot.
- Stealth Pun: The episode title. The Jem'Hadar ship doesn't come with chairs.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kira's suggestion that the Bajoran security force be reinstated is an early sign that Dukat and Weyoun are not getting along.
- The Unsmile: Bashir's "boyish smile."Garak: Not so boyish anymore.
- Villainous Crush: Dukat's Abhorrent Admirer status on Kira graduates to a villainous crush now that he's a clear bad guy.
- Wham Line:Bashir: Only fourteen ships made it back to our lines.Martok: Fourteen... out of a hundred and twelve!
- Wham Shot: The previous season ended with a joint Federation-Klingon fleet moving out, ready to fight the Dominion. This season, we open with that same fleet... and it's battered and scarred, a sign that the war is not going well at all for the Federation. An Excelsior-class ship, the workhorse of the fleet, is even being towed.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Jake finds out the Dominion is preventing his articles reporting on their oppressive policies from being delivered to his publisher, and actually tries to invoke freedom of the press.Weyoun: Please tell me you're not that naive.
- Yes-Man: Weyoun fully demonstrates this when Odo comes to see him. To his credit, however, Weyoun is willing to ask a favor of Odo in turn, showing he recognizes that Odo is taking advantage of his status and is at least willing to ask for a concession.Odo: I want my Bajoran security officers reinstated.Weyoun: Consider it done.Odo: From now on, they'll be responsible for security on the Promenade.Weyoun: I don't see any problem with that.
