Sacrifice of Angels

DVD, DS9 S6 (Sacrifice of Angels)

What stays with me most are not the epic space battles, nor many of the developments such as the retaking of DS9, the Prophets' intervention, the revelation that Sisko is of Bajor but will find no rest there, or any of the other myriad turns. What stays with me most is The Execution of Tora Ziyal by The Coward Gul Damar. His mass had been growing through the course of his appearances ever since Season 4 when he was introduced, but the rate reached critical by the end of this six-parter, and indeed, had been approaching this at an exponential rate in these last few episodes. That wasn't to be an end to it, his rise would continue, this time in the service of those he hated, the Dominion, but now he would no longer have his revered leader to guide him and provide an outlet for his thoughts. He would appear to be subjugated, but would secretly rise even higher by the end of the series… But that's all to come, at this stage we're looking at the Damar of the war arc, the Damar who could never imagine becoming the new leader of the Cardassians, the man who was just enjoying the riches of success, having been made a Gul for his plan to remove the minefield, the single greatest stumbling block to the Dominion's takeover of the Alpha Quadrant. And yet, despite all this, he and Dukat continue to speak candidly to each other about how they plan to stab the Dominion in the back as soon as the war is over! How do they think they can do this, one race against an entire occupying force?

It would have been as bad for the Cardassians had the 2800-strong fleet been able to enter the Alpha Quadrant, as for anyone else in the long run, but that great pride in their own success and belief in their race's future of conquest is only one of many deluded ideals propagated by Dukat. Without Dukat by his side, Damar is a much less forthright person, less sure of which way to go. He would still have to find himself in the coming months, so it's a strange irony that he begun his journey by murdering an innocent. Ziyal, of course, was not innocent in Damar's eyes, admitting to joining the prison break of the resistance cell (in which Quark proved his worth, much to his own surprise!), joining with the enemy to bring about the downfall of occupying forces - if she hadn't helped in the escape Rom would never have been able to take out the station's weapons systems, and if that had happened, it would have destroyed the Defiant, and then the Prophets wouldn't have evaporated the 2800, which would likely have led to a victory. So, probably, did Damar's thoughts run. He must have been standing just down the intersection behind Dukat when Ziyal admits her collaboration, allowing him to walk out into the centre of the corridor and shoot past Dukat. It was a turning point for the series, as so many events of this episode were.

For Dukat, it spells the end of the rational (comparatively), and the complete descent into insanity, initially expressed as great sorrow, grief and forgiveness - he even forgives Sisko at the end, handing back the baseball that was a symbol of power on DS9, (it had a starring role in this episode as if Dukat held it to prove to himself he'd won, though it was a false triumph only in his mind), before being led away. We'd only see the old Dukat one last time, and that only because it was a Dukat in another time ('Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night'), so it's a sad change for those who've always enjoyed his mix of deluded charm and incredible ego, yet with the occasional twist of kindness or good nature that allows him to believe (as he expresses here), that he was Bajor's protector during the Occupation, practically its saviour! You can't buy that kind of self-delusion, it has to be seen to be believed. So we'll miss that many-headed hydra as it became a single-headed monster, intent only on darkness, a pawn of evil, far from the rich, complex character we came to know over the first five years. Not that we wouldn't see great drama from this changed man, particularly in his very next appearance ('Waltz').

At this stage we see a broken man, who, on losing all the goodies he'd heaped up for himself, and had allowed himself to win in his own mind, realises that the only thing left, all that matters, is his own daughter. And then the reveal that she helped his enemies to take all from him, but still that doesn't matter to him - or does it? We didn't really get time to see how he was reacting to the news, beyond shock and surprise, before Ziyal's phasered to death, but I think the shock would have turned into disappointment that would have eventually changed to forgiveness, the death a catalyst for these thoughts. He's angry at Damar's interference, snarling him away when he tries to get his master to leave. By taking out Ziyal he did the old Damar a disservice because Dukat would probably have left with him, had Ziyal been allowed to go on her way. But once she was dead, all was meaningless to her Father - I was always confused about why he doesn't ever seem angry at Damar for the execution, but he probably knows the man was just doing his duty, and none of that matters to Dukat, his daughter fills his mind, and even the great villain elicits sympathy as he cradles her form in a dark corridor of the station, whimpering over her, unable to let her go.

This also did a great service to the new Damar, leaving him alone to become the lackey of the Dominion and though it took his realisation about what's important, almost two years, rather than the two seconds for Dukat, he does eventually arrive at the realisation that his people's freedom is more important than their power. But these are all events in the future. The immediate concern is the loss of Ziyal, played out so tragically because more than just Dukat mourn her: Kira, her best friend, and the one who convinced Dukat to spare her life originally, couldn't save her and must blame herself, and Garak too, while off on his missions, wasn't there to help her. You'd think both of these people would blame Damar more highly than anyone for being the man to pull the trigger, but I don't remember having the sense that he was the target of their wrath - Garak doesn't go all-out on a revenge mission to take out the man, and nor does Kira. Was Kira the one really to blame? If she hadn't been such a friend to Ziyal, the girl wouldn't have gotten mixed up in the resistance, and if Kira hadn't riled up Damar with the beating, he might not have been so quick to carry out summary justice, taking into consideration his leader.

The reason he didn't trust Ziyal, admitting to distrust in this very episode, is because of the company she kept. Ultimately, regardless of who provoked him or not, Damar took his own actions, and it comes as more of a surprise because of the high regard he has for Dukat. It's his loyalty to him that made him go after the man when he should have been evacuating - he wanted to make sure Dukat escaped, and if that meant severing all ties by killing Ziyal, even with good reason, then so be it. As usual, his soldier brain never understood how important Ziyal was to Dukat and he ends up fleeing without the great leader. I would have liked to have seen more with Garak, whose brief scene with the dead Ziyal is very restrained. Such a dangerous man would be interesting to watch at a time such as that, but he's also a pragmatic man, and seemingly can turn his emotions off when it serves him, like a Vulcan. He's experienced enough in life to know and expect terrible things, and his connection to Ziyal was always a difficult thing for him to fathom, as he wonders here why she ever loved him, and says that he'll never know.

At least Ziyal's death had a reasoning behind it - the death that grew out of it thanks to Dukat's dabbling in the dark side would be unreasonable. He would almost take out Sisko himself in his next appearance, except 'the game' must go on, in the words of the Prophets. It had been a while since that side of the series had been explored, all the way back to 'Rapture,' really, where Sisko's visions had made it possible for Bajor to have a harmonious relationship with the Dominion, (and, as usual in the Prophets' use, it's enjoyable to see familiar characters in unfamiliar settings, such as Dukat sitting in the Defiant's command chair, Damar at the helm and Weyoun on the bridge). There was talk that the 2800 ships the Prophets vanish away, could have turned up in 'Voyager,' flung into the distant Delta Quadrant, and had the writing staffs of the two series' been closer and less competitive, it might have happened, and how I wish it had. We could have finally had that Jem'Hadar versus Borg battle that we all wanted to see, but now never will. Still, you can't have everything, and Sisko couldn't have his brave, but futile death. I'm not sure if his plan was to invoke the Prophets assistance when he flew into the Wormhole, but I tend to think he had no plan and was simply reacting to events in the only way he could. There are a couple of points about this time in the episode I need to mention: the simplest way to stop the invading fleet would have been to self-destruct the Defiant when it was inside the Wormhole, thus collapsing it and taking the fleet with them, but instead he chooses to be ready to engage with maximum, but useless, firepower! I suppose it was still unthinkable to collapse the Wormhole and possibly wipe out the Celestial Temple.

The other thing, and this is all Rom's fault, is that he should have been able to take out the station's weapons in time. The only reason he's a second too late is because he stops to tell Major Kira that he's not going to make it. If he hadn't done that he would have finished just in time! It just goes to show that you should never give up, and every second is precious in a life and death struggle - isn't there some kind of Rule of Acquisition for that? It rings true for Rom's character, that he'd show lack of confidence at a key moment, but if he hadn't still managed to take down the weapons of DS9, the Defiant might not have made it to the Wormhole, which meant no intervention from the Prophets, so even though he wasn't on time, and didn't do the job perfectly, he still finished the job, and good came from it - another life lesson there: never give up, because you don't know the good that will come out of doing what you can, even if it seems to make no difference. I never saw the intervention of the Prophets as a cop-out, it was a clever series of events that led to the precise moment in which they could help the Emissary, though with a penance as a clause. What was the penance? The death of his closest friend? Not being able to stay with his family at the end? Or some future denial of his choice to settle on beautiful Bajor? 'The Sisko is of Bajor' (how that could be would be revealed in Season 7), a statement that could mean various things - he's Bajoran, or has Bajoran roots; his destiny is tied up with the planet; even just his desire to be there. It was left suitably vague so they could fill in the details later.

That's what I like about this series: they never painted themselves into corners, they strapped brushes to their feet and skated across the middle of the floor, to take a metaphor above and beyond! They would leave so many threads dangling, waiting for the new threads to join, and altogether weaving a great tapestry into the future. The shifting of allegiances is something else felt in the threads of this episode, such as the Klingons, and the belated task force permitted by Gowron. It would have been good to see Martok and Worf convince him of the need, but then it would have been good to have seen anything from Martok and Worf's perspective as the Klingons were largely left out, except for their Gandalf-like charge into battle at the critical moment, just as the old wizard leapt down the mountainside, so too did the Klingons come screaming down from above to turn the tide. We want more of that battle, the amazing sight of Galaxy-class wings down to tiny fighters (wonder how many crew them?), huge ships torn apart in the first major CGI battle of Trek. But the Defiant eventually punches through with the momentum of the Klingons behind them - for the first time I felt it had been left up in the air whether Worf had survived as you see Klingon vessels being broken so the Defiant can get through, then nothing is heard of them again, and Dax doesn't look happy - all she can do is set course for the station and not look back. It's not in my nature to really criticise the great episodes, but again, it feels like a scene was necessary for her to express concern for the Klingons, Sisko reassuring her. But there was so much happening that these things didn't necessarily have the space to exist.

Another shifting allegiance is from the shifty 'shifter himself, Odo finally coming to his senses, that Kira and the solids (sounds like a band), were right. There's no real moment of understanding where you see he's come back to us, but this isn't a flaw in writing, it's a more realistic portrayal of a mind working through - the Female Changeling knows, possibly before Odo, that he's not going to be coming onside, when he refuses the Link and opts to stay in his quarters rather than retreat to the safety of Ops with her. It's something that began after he'd had time for the guilt about not helping Kira to build up, and the Founder reminded him of the true nature of his people, threatening the solids, and specifically sentencing Kira to death, Odo unready to embrace such a life even for the ecstasy of The Great Link. His heart (if he had one - let's say his inner gloop), belongs with what he knows, for the moment, but just as there were prophetic words about Sisko's final destination, or lack of it (they are Prophets after all, so it was about time they started prophesying!), so too does the Female Changeling say he'll join them eventually. She knows the homing instinct is too strong to resist, but what she doesn't know is that, like many of the characters on this series who represent a race, he'd be one to make changes to that race at the end of the series. She could envision Odo's return, but not the manner of it. Funny that both Sisko and Odo's fates were spoken of in this episode, and that previously paradise has been spoken of by Sisko (talking of Earth), and in this one Odo says he's not quite ready for paradise yet. A little further connection there.

If Kira and Odo were way beyond sorry, what was the best way for Odo to redeem himself, if not to save her life? Again, in an episode which I consider among the best of the best, I have another surprising little criticism, which is that the chase of Kira and Rom by Jem'Hadar and Cardassians might have been more dramatic. But that's only an aside, because what I really do like about it is how they reintroduce the Odo we knew, striding through the smoke of weapons fire, and over the bodies of the fallen: he's back, and his Bajoran security force, put in place thanks to his position on the ruling council, served him well in the end. I assume it was their loyalty to the Constable that ensured they helped fight against an enemy which, technically, isn't their enemy, since Bajor is at peace with the Dominion, not that that peace was ever truly genuine, and only a way to keep Bajor out of the fighting, something they'd learned to be good at, so I expect once they had the opportunity to do their bit, they grasped it gratefully rather than having second thoughts, despite Odo's recent strange behaviour. Odo's welcoming of Sisko back to the station in the triumphal return on the Promenade almost felt like he was getting in first, like meeting your Father from work so you can tell him your side of the story, before Kira could relate what a naughty 'shifter he'd been!

The whole episode is a countdown, and that feeling of a building tension to the climax is well handled. Yet Dukat continues to be oblivious to his coming judgement, and my overriding picture of the pre-insane Cardassian is of the man toasting himself with two glasses of Kanar, Weyoun having refused to join in with the victory custom. It's one of the best scenes between the odd couple out of their whole time together. It's a picture of all Dukat's faults, flaws and problems rolled into one. Not alcoholism, as he's a good soldier that spares himself the bottle most of the time, unlike Damar, but it's his own utter misreading of those and everything around him, and the personal greatness he feels that will always ensure he wins. It's self-satisfaction, delusion, and ugly smugness of the highest order. He's a little tipsy in the scene, which is why his inner thoughts about being Bajor's greatest hero flow, as well as his summary of true victory: making your enemy realise they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. It's a well-remembered line, but I hadn't realised it came from this episode, and is actually in response to Weyoun's suggestion that Earth and its entire population must be eradicated. It's a revealing conversation for both them and us, because it's the first real threat to Earth, named as the most likely centre of resistance, something that would be consummated the following season when the Dominion really started playing dirty.

Why did Weyoun refuse the offer of the drink with Dukat? It wasn't because he feared poisoning, for as we learned in 'Ties of Blood and Water' last season, the Vorta are immune to most poisons. It's because he has no kinship with Dukat, and the impression of events moving is on the edge of his highly tuned senses, I feel. He's disgusted with Dukat, yet enjoys the former's lack of self-knowledge, laughing outright at Dukat's levels of conceitedness, observing him, just as the Female Changeling did when they first met. Dukat, the wronged benevolent dictator, who has no statue or memorial for all the 'good' he did on Bajor. And yet, he does respect Sisko, as we've seen before, and even looks back before exiting the station, whether in concern for Odo, or in a kind of wistfulness for the freedoms he had while there, the time to experience art and meet a new culture, to spend time with those who are close to Sisko, we're not told. It's a shame that he and Jake didn't have more interaction, as the simple Federation point of view coming from Jake reacted wonderfully with the hard, but apparently fair, view of the things from Weyoun. But there are always going to be things that you wish had been explored in more detail, even when six episodes are given over to one story. And we can't complain when the majority of the six were so great. One question I could throw in is how many ships, and of what kind, were at the station for the Dominion forces (and Cardassian), to withdraw in, and why couldn't they have been used to stop the Defiant?

It's sad to see the end of Ziyal when we'd gotten the best, by far, of the three actresses to play her, but, like Worf's son Alexander, her story was, effectively, done. Could she have gone on to have a happy life with Garak? It's difficult to see, but the real tragedy of her loss is that she was willing and able to be a bridge between her two cultures, and that could have made for some fascinating stories. In the end she was sacrificed for other storylines, Dukat's madness really coming from her death more than anything else. The thing with the series is that they often didn't do that which was expected, preferring to surprise or delight, shock or confuse, but still managing to pull off a satisfying, organic legend. Just like Judi Dench's reading in 'Skyfall,' poetry is used here to set the tone by Bashir and O'Brien, in a timeless way that speaks on another level. A timeless way that speaks on another level? That about sums up the series as a whole. After such huge events it does feel like the end of a season, as short a season as it would have been, but fortunately there were many more fantastic, best-ever episodes still to be told, and as Trek often does following a weighty, toll-heavy story, a much lighter one would follow, though no less important to the characters.

[To be said in the manner of Dukat as you toast yourself with two glasses of Kanar!]
Here's to the six, those fine, fine six,
that broke the mould, and to us told,
of a new way for Trek to go,
a revitalisation, for storytelling new and old.

*****