The Collaborator

DVD, DS9 S2 (The Collaborator)

'I win!' says Kai Winn. Of all the strands running through this season (and also the series), the outcome of the back-stabbing, power-hungry Winn becoming Kai was a surprise, to say the least. Even the writers admitted they'd expected Bareil to take that noble post, but it was the Vedek's nobility that led him to sacrifice all for the reputation of another respected prominent figure. He was better than any of them thought, especially Kira, whose estimation in him would surely have greatly increased, even if she isn't happy about the result. Indeed, the new Kai was so pleased with herself she seemed to have no ulterior meaning in her words of friendship. Whether that feeling would last is another matter.

As always we see Winn as the ambitious and cunning adversary she proved from her first appearance, to be, but her dealings with Sisko don't flow as easily for her. He's not going to be over-awed or fooled by her honey-poison words, and himself uses a bit of manoeuvring to test her in asking her to speak for the alliance with the Federation. Shrewd, but she wasn't going to be taken in either. A draw this time, then, though Winn wins a personal battle by gaining the position of Kai. I'm always impressed and excited by Orb visions, and trying to interpret them is like working out the clues in a detective show. Actually I'm never very good at deduction, but I enjoy the metaphors and striking imagery. Bareil's visions lead to interesting questions - do they mean that the Prophets wanted Winn to be Kai? Bareil seems to believe so. The snake in the basket made me think of Captain Janeway's test in 'Sacred Ground'.

This is also the first time we see Winn with her hair down, a very rare occurrence, but one for pop quizzes: who is the first person she kisses on screen? Why Bareil of course! Loooong before the simple Bajoran farmer Anjohl Tenan... Any connection that we later find out Bareil's first name also begins with A, as in Antos? No, that's just staggering drunkenly in circles of trivia. Back to more sensible matters: Odo shows his first sign of... what? Certainly not love, but it was more than embarrassment in his reaction to Kira's admittance of love for Bareil. With hindsight, his look of surprise says a lot more. The tragic future's of all four of those characters; Kira, Odo, Winn and Bareil, were a long way off (in most cases anyway), but knowing the future adds layers of meaning to 'current' events.

It was clever to lead the audience to the early conclusion that the collaborator of the title was Kubus Oak (another character effectively utilised in the Terok Nor books, in which the Kendra Valley Massacre also features), then to pull out the rug and appear to be Bareil, only for us to lose footing again at the revelation of Kai Opaka. It was a bit like that famous story of the railwayman whose son stumbled into the machinery and he had to make a choice between rescuing the boy or activating the bridge which will crush him so that the people in the approaching train will survive. Like him, Opaka made the difficult choice to save lives in exchange for the death of her son and other resistance fighters. Sad and difficult.

The religious and political tapestry is well spun in this series, and it was satisfying to have a resolution in the form of the Kai's election, although as usual, we are left with more questions to be answered. That's what keeps an audience watching (unless they missed some important episodes, which is why consistent viewing is rewarded, and how the series has come to be regarded in much better light with the DVDs available).

I recognised the Kubus actor as a guy who'd been in the only 'Starsky & Hutch' three-parter. He used a cane in that one too, so I wonder if he really had a bad leg and needed it? Kai Opaka's presence in Bareil's Orb experiences was very welcome, but it doesn't signify the reappearance she promised, as that was made to Sisko, so her role in the series hasn't quite finished. I like the last words Bareil says to Kira in answer to her question about where the Kai will lead them: down paths that even Winn doesn't know, and though she doesn't realise it, she'll need their help. How true that was to be.

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