For The Cause

DVD, DS9 S4 (For The Cause)

I always thought Commander Eddington was in a lot more episodes than he is, and only on this run through the series did I realise just how few appearances he actually made. The legacy he left of the ending of the Maquis storyline in Season 5 and the high-powered episodes that covered that ground may have been responsible for his character looming larger in the memory than might otherwise have been the case, but this episode must also take the credit for cementing him as one of the best personal villains Sisko had to face. It's a toss up as to which undercover operative is the most surprising, but Kasidy's secret deliveries for the Maquis are a much more personal injury to Sisko than Eddington's defection, though that makes Sisko's fury turn onto his former security chief that much more - he represents the face of an organisation that has caused Sisko so much trouble and now personal pain due to Kasidy. I wanted so much for the episode to end with Sisko standing alone in the empty cargo bay after Kasidy's been taken off by security, and I wasn't disappointed.

I'm actually far more familiar with the soundtrack to the episode than the visuals as it was one of very few I recorded onto audio tape on original transmission so my imagination of how things looked has given me two different visual perspectives and it's good to get back to the actual episode and see it again through my eyes again. I think, though the impact of the episode is still strongly felt, it could have been stronger if we'd seen Eddington a few more times, particularly this season. If his character had been in the consciousness a bit more, seeing him socialise a little with someone like O'Brien or Bashir, might have made the deception sou much harsher, but because of his position it would have been difficult to delve too deeply into him, his double life may have been more obvious. It's only later, and thanks to Kasidy's connection, that Sisko makes it his personal mission of vengeance to catch him.

As it is, up until this point he remained an enigma, with the gift of hindsight - he seems like a straight arrow that has no thought for anything but duty to Starfleet, so much so that he never caused any kind of ructions with anyone, not least Odo who you'd have expected to take badly a Starfleet security man on his patch, but, unlike George Primmin from Season 1, Eddington kept to himself, respected Odo's boundaries and never gave anyone cause for complaint, mercurially hanging back in the shadows of the series' unfolding story until the curtain came up and he stepped forward. That's not quite true as he did sabotage the Defiant on Starfleet orders in Season 3, but apart from that incident no one had cause for complaint. I'm not sure we ever heard how the Maquis used the industrial replicators he stole, but they must have been a great help for a small rebel group like that, as did the Cardassian's and Federation's preoccupation with the Klingons. O'Brien's the only one that gives positive voice to the cause of the Maquis, mentioning that they're fighting for their homes and families, so that you can imagine if he was in the same situation he'd do the same thing - shame he wasn't aboard the Enterprise-E during 'Insurrection'!

The episode is such a personal one for Sisko, so naturally his heavy mood permeates every scene he's in. As soon as the facts are spoken (reluctantly by Odo and Eddington, one of the few times we see them working together), the element of doubt creeps in and there's nothing he can do to stop it. In a way both he and Kasidy are spying on each other, and as far back as the season opener she was getting far too interested in station operations so it's likely she started working for the Maquis back then. Of course she could have been a plant from the off, way back when Jake first meets her and arranges for her to meet his Dad it could have been arranged by the Maquis which would make her position so much worse. It seems more likely that that was a natural meeting and it was due to her connection to Sisko that she was approached to work for the Maquis. As Dax points out, at least she was only delivering medical supplies, but Sisko cuts right through her attempt at softening the blow, just as he cuts through Kasidy's attempt at a bluff when he beams aboard the Xhosa.

As soon as Sisko begins running things through his mind (in one of my favourite sequences of the episode as the tension builds and Sisko's reasoning escalates until his mind returns to the station), and suggests an attack on DS9 might be imminent, Kasidy shows her true loyalty is to him and Jake, immediately telling him all she knows. He in turn gives her an opportunity to escape to see if she really does care about what has almost become a family. Jake makes the situation worse through the episode with his enthusiasm for anything related to Kasidy, confused when, in a great moment between he and his Dad, Sisko talks about how the bond between the two of them is the most important thing, and will always be there. Then he retires into himself, citing a bad day, though I'm surprised Jake didn't rejoin with the observation that he only just got up, so how can he be having a bad day!

It's not just Sisko that had a bad day: Kira gets blasted by a phaser, which was a good stunt since what I guess must be a stunt woman really hits the deck and her head seems to impact the floor! It's a bad day for Jake because his family is broken up (to cap a rough season in which Nog left and Jennifer died again), though he's always quick to forgive others, so Kasidy had nothing to worry about there (it's that forgiving nature that Sisko told Mirror Jennifer about), and Odo must also feel betrayed. Worf, too, must bear some of the blame, as one thing I don't understand about the episode is why Sisko didn't send the Klingon to command the mission since he's already taken on such duties before. Eddington's excuse that he needs to coordinate the replicators coming to DS9 is much more plausible than not wanting to be responsible for anything happening to Kasidy when the Defiant follows her - as a Starfleet officer and one that's so committed, it's not in character for him to balk at responsibility. I can understand Sisko deciding to take on the mission given the circumstances, but Worf was available - unless he was on probation following the happening of 'Rules of Engagement.' And why was Kira's whereabouts never questioned by Lieutenant Reese?

I don't think we ever found out the motivation of Kasidy Yates, but her nature is a strong-willed, independent person and the manipulation of her, shown by the Maquis, doesn't put them in a good light - they tricked her into being bait after she'd risked everything to help deliver medical supplies, and though, as O'Brien says, the Maquis' cause was just in some ways, in that they were defending their livelihoods, such organisations generally have a way of attracting bad elements to them, as we saw on 'Voyager' with some of the Maquis there (Suder for example, and Tom Paris - people that just wanted to fight). When such people get too much influence, then others, and ultimately the cause itself, suffers, and while it wasn't internal division that led to their downfall, but a greater, deadlier enemy that saw extermination as of no consequence, it didn't help their cause.

Sisko does something most out of character for a Starfleet officer when he rushes to Kasidy before she leaves on the final journey and offers her a way out, a third way that is neither compromising his orders or coming down hard on her. This is in character for Sisko who isn't 100% rules-focused, instead willing to bend them for the greater good (most memorably in Season 6). Kasidy's principles and ideals are as strong as his own and she feels she's doing the right thing, so she doesn't take him up on his offer of a last minute, drop everything trip to Risa, and seals her fate. But though she is given a choice again, to escape and never return, she cares deeply enough about Sisko and Jake that she comes back, but still shows an honourable streak to her crew by not bringing them with her to face the music - like the best captain's she goes down alone with her ship.

How early Eddington was a part of the Maquis we never knew, but all the time he served on DS9 he was probably a member. With the loss of Tom Riker it may have been the catalyst that brought him to the top of the pile as by the time he's captured in Season 5 he seems to be the leader and they discuss this self-image he seems to have of being a great hero, very far from the humble security officer that kept to himself. Whenever it was that he turned to the Maquis, he wholeheartedly believes in it to the extent that he's disillusioned enough with Starfleet to say it's worse than the Borg. It's an interesting statement to make and it's not the only words spoken against the Federation in Trek, though it was mainly 'DS9' which featured such sentiments (there are exceptions, such as Professor Galen in 'TNG'), pointing out that the perfect future that was so long unquestioned, is far from perfect. I like the questioning of what is the Roddenberry heart of Trek, though in truth it only came in with 'TNG.' But any paradise people want to leave is no paradise at all.

I haven't even mentioned the other storyline of the episode, so deep was the main plot! It involves Garak finally meeting Tora Ziyal, Dukat's daughter who had been left on the station under Kira's charge while her Father went out battling Klingons. Dukat must have realised leaving his daughter on DS9 would bring her into contact with Garak, but he's always managed to delude himself so he probably thought Kira would never allow it, and he was kind of right. The way she stomps into Garak's shop and shoves him up against a wall brought her back to the style she used to have before she became a much more diplomatic person, mainly this season. It must have been the clothes and hairstyle that did it, or maybe it was walking in the Emissary and First Minister's circles for so long, but we haven't seen her threatening and angry for a long time. It also shows she takes her responsibilities with Ziyal very seriously.

She's still got her great energy, but she channels it into playing springball in this episode, marking the first (and possibly only) time we see the sport, which is a fast-paced, more violent version of racquetball. It's been around for a while, at least as early as Season 2, as she and Bareil used to play, though we don't get to see who her opponent is in this game. The effect of the ball bouncing off forcefields sold the reality of a game in the future, and the conversation between Bashir and Garak was a delight, as ever, the wily Cardassian turning around Bashir's scolding just at the right time! The best scene is when he's talking to a grumpy Quark as a customer in his shop, and features one of my favourite ironic lines of the entire series: "Just… make it look good." "Oh, make it look good, and all this time I thought you wanted me to make it look bad. It's so much easier when the customer knows what he wants!" It makes you wish the two had more scenes together, what with this and the root beer scene this season.

As usual with the impetuosity of youth, Ziyal's the one that chooses her friends (like Harry Kim in the first episode of 'Voyager'), and even though she knows how dangerous Garak is and that he tortured her Grandfather (was this common knowledge before the episode?), and perhaps because of the danger and warning against Garak she wants to meet him even more. But as she says, they're both Cardassian outcasts and life might be a bit better if they spend time together rather than ignoring each other. The way they first speak is also so much fun, alone in the turbolift, one looks, then the other looks, then they both look and quickly look away. Garak shows he does have a genuine pleasant side in the way he pretends to be worried she's going to kill him, which he turns into a reassurance that she has nothing to fear from him either. I don't believe he really does fear her or think her capable of killing him, but the moment where Quark puts the seed of doubt in his mind is both hilarious and true to the characters. At last Garak has someone of his own kind with whom he can relax.

There's not much different about the second actress to play Ziyal and I wonder if it was really that they didn't like Cyia Batten's portrayal (which was very quiet and restrained, even when she was trying to be a pirate), or whether it was down to scheduling difficulties. The same goes for Tracy Middendorf who only played the role this one time - I was happy with her as Ziyal, but third time pays for all (as Sam Gamgee's Gaffer used to say), so I don't regret the recasting to Melanie Smith who brought the best mix of puppy-like devotion and sympathetic traits, while still holding her own when she needed to. To top off such a good episode with two enjoyable, twisting plots, there's also a great deal of continuity: we get mentions of Nog, the Borg, the Tholians and Kasidy's first mate is a Bolian, another of her crew is one of those fish-faced aliens. Sisko's back to his old cooking tricks again, Jake his old baseball tricks, the Badlands make another appearance and even the Vulcans join the fun, the IDIC symbol clear on the bulkhead behind Eddington when he jumps station leaving his combadge behind, but not his troubles.

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