Oh, for gods’ sake, you’re all a bunch of squeams.
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SPOILER SPACE
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You asked a question, and you’re going to get an answer. I don’t care if it’s four-fifty at night. I loved DS9 and I will treat it with the seriousness it deserves. Pull up a chair.
When last we left our heroes at the end of Season Six (“Tears of the Prophets”), Sisko had led a fleet to attack the Cardassian fortifications in the Chintoka system, against the warnings of the Prophets. Gul Dukat, possessed by a pagh wraith (the evil counterparts of the Prophets), infiltrates the station and desecrates an orb in the Bajoran temple, in the process killing Jadzia, darkening all the orbs, and collapsing the wormhole. Sisko takes Jadzia’s death as a sign that he has failed as the Emissary, and retires to Earth, specifically to his father’s restaurant.
Onward to season seven. In “Image in the Sand,” Sisko has a vision of a woman’s face. He reconstructs her image, and his father tells him that it is his ex-wife and Ben’s mother, who left him when Ben was a baby. He gives Ben a locket that was once hers; it has inscriptions on it in ancient Bajoran that hint at another orb. Sisko decides to look for it on the desert planet Tyree. After being stabbed by a member of a Bajoran doomsday cult and meeting Dax’s new host Ezri, he departs for Tyree with Jake, Joseph, and Ezri in tow.
In the next episode, “Shadows and Symbols,” he finds the Orb, which provides him with a vision explaining that his mother Sarah was actually possessed by a Prophet when she conceived and gave birth to him. The energy from the Orb also expels the Paghwraiths from the wormhole, causing it to reopen, and repairs the darkened orbs.
We will now skip ahead to the final ten-episode finale. (This is why I loved DS9. No other Trek would ever get away with a continuous ten-episode arc. Or even a six-episode one.)
“Penumbra”: Sisko, who is planning his wedding to his lady-love Kasidy Yates, is interrupted by the Sarah-prophet, who warns him not to marry her or his greatest trial will come at hand. Meanwhile, Ezri and Worf are captured by the Breen, and Dukat is surgically altered to resemble a Bajoran. Note too that the Founders are dying of a degenerative disease.
“'Til Death Do Us Part”: Sisko first breaks off his engagement to Kasidy, then changes his mind and marries her despite Sarah’s warning that they will know nothing but sorrow. Meanwhile, Kai Winn, on the station for the wedding, meets Dukat, posing as a Bajoran farmer named Anjohl. They begin a relationship as Winn believes that he is a guide sent by the Prophets, from whom she recently received her first vision. The imprisoned Ezri and Worf learn of an alliance between the Dominion and the Breen.
“Strange Bedfellows”: Kai Winn is convinced by Dukat to abandon the Prophets and embrace the Paghwraiths, believing that the former have abandoned her. Damar, the acting head of Cardassia, is prevailed upon to sign the Breen-Dominion treaty, but his concern blossoms into rebellion, and he helps Ezri and Worf to escape, asking them to tell the Federation that they have a Cardassian ally.
“The Changing Face of Evil”: The Breen attack Earth, levelling San Francisco; they also destroy the Defiant in a battle at Chintoka. The crew escape. However, they later find out that Damar and a rebellion he is organizing have staged attacks at Dominion installations in Cardassian space. On Bajor, Kai Winn and Dukat take steps to release the imprisoned Paghwraiths using a sacred text called the Kosst Amojan.
“When it Rains…”: Sisko dispatches Kira, Odo, and Garak to Cardassia to train Damar’s rebels in resistance tactics. Bashir discovers that Odo is infected with the Founders’ degenerative disease, and is aghast to discover that the secret Starfleet Section 31 is trying to stop him from finding a cure, in a genocidal plot to kill all the Founders. Dukat pries into the Kosst Amojan, and goes blind and is turned out into the streets by Kai Winn for his troubles.
“Tacking Into the Wind”: The resistance cell captures a crucial piece of anti-Dominion technology. Worf kills a monomaniacal Gowron, and the honourable General Martok is installed as the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire.
“Extreme Measures”: Bashir discovers that Section 31 did indeed genetically alter the virus that is killing the Founders, and moreover infected Odo with it so that he would bring death to his people. Enraged, he lures a Section 31 operative to the station, and then mind-probes him, discovers the cure, and cures Odo. (O’Brien and Bashir also share the slashiest lines to date. “I love Ezri. But I …like… you …more.”)
“The Dogs of War”: A broad-based resistance movement begins on Cardassia; Kasidy finds out she’s pregnant; and Rom is named the next Grand Nagus of Ferenginar.
“What You Leave Behind”: Pay attention. Uprisings begin on Cardassia. When the Dominion promise to level one Cardassian city in exchange for each act of insurgency, Kira, Damar, and their team decide they must attack Dominion headquarters on Cardassia. However, as Starfleet and the Klingons suffer heavy losses in an attack on Cardassia Prime, the Jem’Hadar capture the insurgents. Cardassian soldiers revolt, however, and free them; at the same time, the Cardassian ships turn on their allies in support of the Federation. In retaliation, the female Shapeshifter orders the complete extermination of the Cardassian race. The insurgents overrun the command post, with the death of Damar; Garak kills the notoriously slimy Vorta Weyoun. Odo, however, beams down and links with the now very ill female Shapeshifter, curing her of the disease. The experience transforms her, and she agrees to surrender. The war ends and everyone packs up and goes home, except for the Cardassians, whose planet has been thoroughly desolated.
Back on Bajor, Dukat and Kai Winn go to the Fire Caves, where the Paghwraiths are imprisoned. Winn chants from the Kosst Amojan and releases the Paghwraith. She poisons Dukat with a glass of wine and presents his body as a sacrifice to the Wraiths. But he comes back to life, reanimated by the Wraiths. The Prophets summon Sisko, who arrives on Bajor and confronts Dukat. Winn goes up in smoke, and after a pitched battle, Sisko, Dukat, and the Kosst Amojan fall into the fire pit. Sisko awakes in the realm of the Prophets, who assure him that he has completed his task by destroying Dukat and the Kosst Amojan. But as for Sisko, he will stay with the Prophets.
Kasidy receives a vision from Sisko telling her this, which she relays to Jake. Kira assumes command of the station. Odo returns to the Founders’ homeworld to cure them of the disease. Worf leaves to become the Federation ambassador to the Klingons. O’Brien heads off to teach at Starfleet Academy or something; Ezri and Bashir move in together. And everyone lives happily ever after, the end.
For more information, check out http://www.startrek.com/library/episodes_ds9.asp.
