Indiscretion

While they are a VERY unlikely duo, Major Kira and Gul Dukat are both sent on a mission together to try to locate a long lost shuttle. The planet on which it crashed turns out to be pretty awful but they find evidence that SOME of the folks who had been on the shuttle are still alive. However, Dukat hides a secret--he wants to find the shuttle survivors because one could be his illegitimate daughter--one he fathered with a Bajoran! The Major, on the other hand, worries that Dukat might try to kill the girl in order to hide evidence of his indiscretions.

This was a decent episode and establishing Dukat's predilection towards Bajorans will turn out to be very important later in the series. However, my problem with the show is that it was just too darn easy to infiltrate the complex in which the survivors were being held prisoner--way, way too easy. Otherwise it's watchable and worth your time.

Most of the reviews are focused on the A plot, so I just want to discuss the B plot because it is relevant to our lead character in the show, Sisko. Introducing a new love interest is a great idea in a series like this but then you also have to develop their relationship and their chemistry, which is absolutely absent here. In just a few episodes they went from talking, to dating, to her possibly settling into the station permanently living near him. All of this happens in the background, by reference or exposition. Worse than that, Kasidy Yates never had any time to develop a personality in the series so far. All we know of her is her first meeting, where she's pretty much just the protagonist's mirror image and she likes baseball. Very lazy and her being 'opinionated' as Sisko calls it is no more a mirror of him as well or just any bland character archetype. After their first meeting they're already in love. We don't have anything to invest in their relationship besides their common interest in an extinct sport. The chemistry between the actors is lacking, Sisko's actor is doing his best as usual but the actress just comes off as bland. Especially disappointing because previous love interests, his wife Jennifer, and even a short-term love Fenna from Season 2 Episode 9. Fenna was a telekinetic projection yet still had more chemistry with Sisko. Even in the short scenes with Jennifer and Sisko their love is obvious. What makes it worse that in this episode Kasidy comes off as whiny and quite childish. I guess it's not atypical for a soap series to have the girlfriend or wife overreact and get angry over nothing, it is a pretty common trope. But that Kasidy Yates can't even imagine that Sisko might be scared about commitment seems pretty selfish and arrogant. If you want the audience to engage with the relationships in the show, you have to try to at least make them sympathetic towards the love interest or establish that they are right for Sisko. Neither seems true at this point. It just makes the scenes with them dull and sometimes irritating. The 7 is for the rest of the episode, this was just to highlight the B plot which the other reviews skim over.

This is another episode focused on the aftermath of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, in this case the personal ramifications for Major Kira and Gul Dukat (mostly for Gul Dukat). In my opinion episodes in this vein were what made DS9 great; rather than moving on to new problems every week like the crew of a starship, the characters and their cultures actually had to live with consequences of the past. This episode in particular does a great job of complicating Gul Dukat (and helps makes it especially annoying for the viewer when they turn him into a cartoon villain in the 6th season); by the end any viewer's opinion of him will drastically have changed. The episode is entirely driven by character development; there's no action and only one moment of real suspense (another reviewer criticized how easily they infiltrate the compound, but I'd argue this is actually a strength of the episode - with only so much airtime to work with they decided to focus exclusively on the characters rather than show a pointless "gotta fool the bad guys" sequence). Not to mention this is another Major Kira-centric episode, which at this point in the series is always a good thing.

The B-plot has some minor character development for Sisko and is pleasant enough but doesn't really add much (but it doesn't get in the way of the A-plot either).

Good episode. Just ignore the boring Penny Johnson (the useless Kasidy Yates). I skipped rapidly all scenes with her.

Gul Dukat and Kira go on a mission to locate a crashed Bajoran ship

This is a strong episode with good character moments.

The best aspects of this story are the exchanges between Dukat and Kira. One that takes place in the runabout is for me the highlight. I also like the revelation about Dukat's backstory that is carried over to later episodes and sets the foundation for a series long arc. The dramatic conclusion here feels a little bit clichéd, but is nevertheless enjoyable and a great tribute to 'The Searchers'.

The sub plot involving Sisko and Yates is okay but feels very much like it's in romantic comedy territory to me. It's not a negative if you like that type of story.

For me only scene that doesn't work is where the writers use slapstick for the purpose of two characters bonding. It feels too out of sync with the general dynamic between them. This is not the fault of Marc Alaimo and Nana Visitor, who are on great form throughout the episode. The director should have seen it did not work and either reshot it or just cut it out, but that's just my opinion.

For me it's a 7.5/10 but I round upwards.