Meanwhile, Worf has arrived back at the station after captaining the Defiant on a mission into the Gamma Quadrant. Dax teases him that he's in love with the ship. Later, when returning from a sparring session, they catch a thief who has just robbed Worf's quarters. Worf hauls the thief to Odo's office and castigates the constable for such a lapse in security, but Odo counters that Worf's own security history on the Enterprise is not without incident either. Worf will just have to get used to living on a space station.
Rom gathers the bar employees together and drums up interest in unionizing. The Ferengi are aghast, noting that unionizing is a high crime on Ferenginar, but Rom persuasively rallies them aboard. They present a list of demands to Quark, who refuses outright, prompting the workers to strike. They demonstrate outside of Quark's and give slips of latinum to passersby for boycotting the bar.
O'Brien and Bashir watch the events unfold, supporting Rom's union. When Worf crosses the picket line to patronize Quark's, O'Brien and Bashir rush after him to explain the situation, resulting in all three men getting thrown in the brig for brawling. Sisko chews them out and wants this strike ended. He calls Quark to his office and demands that he end the strike, threatening to call in all the outstanding debts that Quark owes the Federation. Quark is in a tight spot, because caving to union demands is itself a crime on Ferenginar. He tries to bribe Rom into ending the strike, but Rom refuses.
Liquidator Brunt from the Ferengi Commerce Authority arrives with two Nausicaan thugs to break the strike. He threatens the Ferengi with financial ruin for them and their families unless they return to work tomorrow. One worker breaks, but the rest resolve to continue the strike regardless. Brunt decides that someone Rom cares about must be beaten to deliver a message. He notes how close Rom is growing with the dabo girl Leeta but decides that he Wouldn't Hit a Girl, so he settles for the next best victim: Quark himself.
O'Brien and Worf reconcile after their brawl and talk about Worf's unease in the station. The commander announces that he's found a solution: He will move his quarters onto the Defiant, where he can keep to himself. He settles in, and Dax arrives to give him some Klingon operas to play over the speaker system. Dax advises Worf that he'll have to get used to the station at some point, but the Klingon suggests that perhaps the station will get used to him instead.
Rom meets Quark in the infirmary. He still refuses to end the strike without getting his demands, so the brothers hatch a plan: Quark will cave to the union's demands to end the strike, but they'll make it look like Quark won to get the FCA off their backs. The bar reopens just as the Bajoran Cleansing Festival ends, so business is once again booming. Rom arrives in a Bajoran uniform announcing his resignation, saying he is now working as a station engineer. He assures his brother that he'll still keep the bar operating and visit him often, only now as a customer. Quark jumps to take his order.
This episode contains examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The moment Brunt shows up at the bar, one of the union Ferengi falls to his knees and begs for mercy.Frool: It's not my fault! They made me do it! It was all his idea! Forgive me!
Brunt: If this was Ferenginar, I'd have you all taken to the spire of the Tower of Commerce, displayed to the crowds in the Great Marketplace below, then shoved off! One! By! One! Small children would bet on where you would land, and your spattered remains would be sold as feed mulch for gree-worms!
Frool: Spare me! I'm old! I'm fragile! I'll push the rest of them off myself!
Grimp: I thought you said you weren't afraid of the FCA.
Frool: I lied. - Artistic License – History: O'Brien's description of the Battle of Clontarf
as the Irish fighting off Viking invaders is an oversimplification, as the Vikings had already established a kingdom in Ireland, and there were Gaelic Irish on their side as well. - Battle Discretion Shot: Twice.
- The first time, we see O'Brien and Bashir chasing Worf into Quark's bar to convince Worf not to eat there during the strike. Next we know, all three of them are in a holding cell with visible signs of a minor brawl.
- Later, Brunt and his henchmen threatening Quark cuts, after an act break, to Quark recuperating from numerous injuries in the infirmary.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Per Quark's injuries, Ferengi apparently have "ascending ribs" and a "lower lung."
- Blackmail: Sisko takes a page out of Odo's book by using extortion to force Quark's hand. This time, it's threatening to call in all of Quark's debts that the Federation has been letting slide for several years.
- Cargo Ship: In-Universe. Dax jokes that Worf is falling in love with the Defiant. Considering this is the first Federation-designed warship, has a cloaking device, and sits in roughly the same weight class as a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, it's a perfect fit for him.
- Continuity Nod:
- The thief dropping from the ceiling has just stolen Worf's stuff, including the Ferengi tooth sharpener he bought from Nog in "Little Green Men."
- When Worf complains about the fact that security was lax enough to allow someone to break into his quarters and that "nothing like this ever happened on the Enterprise," Odo says, "Oh, realllly?" and relates the plots of Next Gen episodes "Rascals" and "A Matter of Time". Judging by the big grin on his face and the quickness of pulling up the info on a padd, Odo was just waiting for Worf to start complaining about his methods again.
- O'Brien and Bashir reference their previous holosuite adventure fighting in the Battle of Britain in "Homefront."
- Brunt and Quark acknowledge their previous meeting in "Family Business" but don't discuss the circumstances.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: For Ferengi, workers' unions are illegal, and so is giving into their demands.
- Don't Create a Martyr: Even though Rom is the leader of the union, Brunt doesn't want him hurt for fear of turning him into a martyr.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Brunt gawks at Leeta when he first sees her, which foreshadows his reluctance to use her against Rom.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Bajoran Cleansing Ritual is essentially the Bajoran version of Lent or Ramadan.
- Funny Background Event: The Nausicaans amusing themselves in Quark's bar by throwing darts back and forth into each other's chests.
- Gilligan Cut: O'Brien and Bashir see Worf going into Quark's while the union are picketing it. An annoyed Miles goes to "talk some sense" into Worf. Cut to all three in a holding cell, Bashir sporting a nasty cut on his head, after the confrontation got physical.
- Grew a Spine: After standing up for his mom and standing up for his son, Rom finally stands up for himself by forming the union, and later quitting Quark's and becoming an engineering technician for the station.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: Brunt and the FCA return, and they show exactly why they're so feared when he has Nausicaans make an example of Quark.
- Jerkass Ball: Quark is always a jerk, but usually has a heart of latinum; in this episode he's downright cruel, particularly when he tells Rom that he'd be better off if Rom was never born. It ends up wearing off before the episode concludes.
- Kick the Dog:
- Quark says to Rom's face that he wishes he were an only child.
- Brunt has his thugs put Quark in the hospital, just to send a message to Rom. When Brunt returns in "Body Parts", it's clear his actions are motivated purely by petty dislike of Quark, and not by any real concern for Ferengi laws.
- Macho Masochism: Brunt's Nausicaan thugs play darts by using each other as dartboards.
- Make an Example of Them:
- Brunt remarks to the employees that if they were on Ferenginar, they would have been marched to the top of the Tower of Commerce and shoved off.
- Inverted and lampshaded when Brunt has his Nausicaan thugs make an example of Quark for maximum impact.Quark: But I'm on your side!
Brunt: Ironic, isn't it?
- Mandatory Line: Kira only appears at the end after her fasting.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Everyone seems to agree that Bashir was just trying to break up the fight between Worf and O'Brien before he was accidentally tossed over a table, yet he's thrown in the brig right along with the other two.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Rom stops being his brother's lackey and plays a much more important part of the series from here on in. On a smaller scale, Rom quits Quark's bar, becomes an engineering technician in the Bajoran Militia, and develops feelings for Leeta.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: The oft-repeated threat of being cast from the spire of the Tower of Commerce on Ferenginar runs on this.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The other Ferengi waiters instantly become fearful when Rom says the word "union".
- Rom is ecstatic when he hears stories of one of O'Brien's ancestors, a union man. He then looks mortified when O'Brien says his ancestor was later found dead in a river, his body riddled with bullets.
- Quark initially laughs off the union's demands, and stops laughing when they really do walk out.
- Pose of Supplication: Frool does this to Brunt.
- Pun-Based Title: "Bar Association" is the term for an association of lawyers, but here it could also mean the association of unionizing bar workers.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Shoved off! One! *flinch* By! *flinch* One!"
- Rousing Speech: Rom delivers two in this episode: one when he's forming the union, and one to keep them together after Brunt and the Nausicaans threaten them.
- Ship Tease: Rom and Leeta share the first spark of romance in this episode.
- Shout-Out: Rom quotes from The Communist Manifesto.
- Snap Back: Worf began the season at odds with Odo's style of security. Then in "Crossfire" they have to work together, and Worf comes to appreciate how much more difficult Odo's job is compared to Worf's job on the Enterprise. Then this episode comes around and Worf is again at odds with Odo's performance, and Odo has to again explain why securing a space station is different from a starship.
- Take a Third Option:
- While he didn't really have two options to start with, Worf does find a creative solution for his problems with adjusting to life on the station: move his quarters onto the Defiant.
- Quark and Rom work out their own private agreement — the employees go back to work in apparent defeat, but Quark secretly pays them an increase under the table.
- Thrown Out the Airlock: Quark is afraid the FCA will do this to him and Rom.
- Took a Level in Badass: Rom goes from sniveling lackey to union leader. Inspired, he decides to finally cast off Quark's yoke and become an engineer for the Bajorans.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Brunt doesn't like the idea of brutalizing Leeta, saying her lobes are too "delicate," so he has Quark beaten instead.
- Writer on Board: Hollywood is a heavily unionized industry, so the episode was always going to portray the union as the good guys. In spite of Quark's antagonistic role here, Armin Shimerman was actually on the Board of Directors of the Screen Actor's Guild.
