“Necessary Evil”

What I liked most was Odo's commentary on blind justice -- except that in the end he realizes (or we realize) that politics affect everything. He chose not to tell Gul Dukat that Kira was a rebel; will he choose to ignore that she murdered collaborating Bejorans during the Occupation? We are left with that question. Odo's quest for justice seems compromised, but he also seems to choose the greater good -- which is respect for Bejoran independence. And this murder cannot be separated from that political goal. Odo's quest to separate justice from politics is a difficult one, in light of the fact that telling the entire truth in all circumstances could compromise justice.

Jammer, I appreciate this blog. I have benefited greatly from your commentary, though I don't agree with your reviews 100%. I agree probably 95% however, and they have helped me avoid the duds of ST history and watch the gems. Thank you!

Some of Odo's investigation feels a bit too cliche. When he's interviewing the femme fatale on the stormy night for example.

But otherwise this is an outstanding episode. Engrossing and thought provoking, it has to be among the season's best.

"Some of Odo's investigation feels a bit too cliche. When he's interviewing the femme fatale on the stormy night for example."

The *dark and stormy night* is the setting for Quark receiving his nefarious assignment. Later Odo, seeking truth, interviews her in bright sunlight. This is not so much "cliche" as overt genre homage--film noir, as Jammer said.

And it is masterfully done. The best episode in the series to this point.

Fair point. Though there is often a fine line between homage and cliche and for me those scenes lacked some subtlety.

Either way I acknowledge that it's a fairly minor point in an episode that is clearly a classic.

interesting twist making Kira the murderer.

A very good episode with some nice background and character development for Kira and Odo.

8/10

I agree this was an excellent episode but I did have one problem -- why would Dukat subsequently make Odo chief of security on the station when he fails on his first assignment? Would have hardly inspired confidence.

That being said, love all episodes that flash back to the occupation, always wanted a 2-hour (i.e. 2-parter) of straight up occupation-era storyline, would have been great.

Excellent episode. Definitely a Top 10 entry for me.

When I was younger, the revelation of Kira being the murderer totally floored me. Now I'm older, having just watched the episode again, it should perhaps be obvious that a former Bajoran terrorist murdered someone. It's still a wonderfully constructed episode though, and does so much to establish character backstory.

I always wondered how Odo became security chief on Terok Nor. Thanks to this great episode, now I know. I didn't see Kira as the murderer coming at all, and it reinforced the fact that she was a terrorist and an extremely dangerous person before the occupation ended, and there will always be some of that lurking under the beautiful exterior. But that's part of what makes her such a great character.

So Dukat was the reason Odo got into security. That's interesting. Dukat was the person who saw in Odo his ability to handle investigations. Can someone tell me what Odo was doing on the station before he helped dukat in this episode? He just a decided to leave bajor and live on ds9 which was basically a prison camp??

At the end Kira says she's tried to tell Odo. I call BS. She could have told him multiple times in the episode but didn't.

Rom says he would never kill quark but he just tried to throw quark out an airlock in the Nagus episode. And for some reason Odo never charged rom with attempted murder.

Other than these nitpicks this was a good episode.

Wow!! What an incredible episode!!

The Odo/Kira relationship just levitates this episode!!

My only minor knock on this one is I'm not sure I agree with Odo here:

"ODO: I haven't been for more than a year. You've had all that time to tell me the truth.
KIRA: I tried to tell you the truth a hundred times. What you think of me matters a lot. I was afraid.
ODO: That might affect our friendship? Maybe it doesn't have to.
KIRA: Will you ever be able to trust me the same way again?"

He expected her to inform him? What difference would it make?

Easy 4 stars regardless. Wonderful story telling here.

"Can someone tell me what Odo was doing on the station before he helped dukat in this episode? He just a decided to leave bajor and live on ds9 which was basically a prison camp??"

I assume he was on Bajor, and Ducat had him brought to the station for this assignment. Quark had never met him before, which wouldn't have been likely if Odo had been on the station previously.

"At the end Kira says she's tried to tell Odo. I call BS. She could have told him multiple times in the episode but didn't."

I thought she explained very well why she hadn't told him. "Tried" as in wanted to but couldn't bring herself to go through with it, not "tried" as in kept getting interrupted or something.

So Kira is a murderer... Well, that's settled that then.

V. Good episode though.

Better than Duet.

This was one of the things that make Odo unlikeable. He is one of my favorites but , there were times when I could have slapped him. Why would he take this so personally, she was afraid for her life. Just like the time Kira and co. had the new resistance against the Dominion, Odo told Kira that they acted behind his back. He was so afraid Ducat would find out. None of the terrorist would tell on themselves. This one-dimensional attitude of his caused the death of the 3 Bajorans on Terok Nor, he did not think he could make a mistake. One other time he got on my nerves was when Ens. Aquino was killed and Obrien ask "what was Aquino doing in runabout C" and Odo said, "Getting murdered". that was not the reason Aquino was in runabout c. He thought someone was trying to steal a runabout. Ok that is my Odo rant. The character was one of my favorites, but he was not always likeable.

"Necessary Evil" is a great episode, and one of my personal favourites. The portrayal of Terek Nor beats anything in the Mirror Universe episodes, and the mystery is true to life and handled fantastically by the writers and actors. I love the otherworldly sense of danger, of untamed characters that we thought we knew so well. And I love the dark humour in Odo's line "getting murdered!"

A great episode and one of the series' highlights. I'm not exactly sure where to start, so I'll start at the episode's beginning: Pallra basically opens this episode by telling Quark that Odo always suspected her of her husband's murder, but she really hadn't done it. So the episode opens with the untrustworthy femme fatale telling us the absolute truth, and ends with Odo's discovery that the trustworthy freedom fighter was a killer who had lied to him all those years ago. That Pallra continues to insist, even to the episode's penultimate scene, that Odo suspected her and that he can never prove that she murdered Vaatrik suggests to me that after he released Kira from suspicion, he focused his attention on Pallra in a fruitless, dead-end effort to prove her the murderer. This answers a few questions for me: while Odo could never quite figure out *why* Pallra would kill him, he must have recognized that she neither particularly cared about him nor did she seem the most scrupulous or empathetic of people. Meanwhile, this also explains how Dukat would have come to the conclusion that he should keep Odo on even though Odo's first investigation (apparently) ended in failure. If Pallra killed Vaatrik, as Odo suspected, it would be in Dukat's interests to shield her, so as not to endanger the network of collaborators, and so it seems to me that Dukat may well have simply shut down the investigation at this stage, for reasons that Odo could never quite identify, but kept him around to continue investigating for him.*

Much of what is so appealing about this episode is the way it plays Odo against the background of the station as both Dukat-run Terok Nor and Sisko-run DS9, and the way Odo's essential Outsider nature play very differently against the two. Odo does change between his initial arrival on Terok Nor and the very end of the episode, but his methods and motivations are fundamentally similar -- he is suspicious, cynical, and sympathetic by turns, deeply observant, and focused on justice and order. However, these same traits play very differently against the two eras. In the Sisko/Odo pairing talking to Rom early in the episode, Odo is unequivocally the bad cop to Sisko's good cop, whose cynicism about motives for murder overwhelms Sisko's natural (though also somewhat played up for effect) desire to see the best in people he has social connections with. In the Odo/Dukat scenes in the flashbacks, Odo is the good cop interested in actually finding the killer to Dukat's bad cop ready to mete out punishment and swing the axe at the first head that comes nearby, and in particular in the scene with Quark, Odo threatens to give Quark over to Dukat if Quark does not agree quickly. Odo finds Cardassian rule too oppressive and Federation freedoms too lax, but he does not quite adapt to either system, more or less attempting to be the exact same person in both systems. In fact, Odo and Quark are the only people who stay more or less the same in both eras; Kira is morally the same person internally, but her external presentation swings radically from put-upon, quiet Bajoran girl to striding Major. Children run across the brightly-lit Promenade while they stare gauntly through the holes in the fence, waiting for their parents to be corralled back into the dour community living quarters.

This quality represents Odo's strength and weakness. That Odo is "incorruptible," that "no one had to teach [him] the justice trick," and that he can genuinely claim to be on no one's side, is part and parcel of his maintaining a single identity across eras. And this is what allows Bajorans to trust him even while he's working for/with the Cardassians. It is also what renders him oddly naive in spite of his close observation of humanoid nature. He believes in absolute ethics, and attributes these to the great justice provided by his people, though as we eventually see this is a rather rosy take on what is actually something of a "racial"/innate desire for order, however it comes. The reason that Odo fundamentally cannot see that Kira is the killer rather than Pallra, I think, comes down to Odo's observations of overall humanoid nature clashing with the more complex reality of the overall environment in which these humanoids exist. Despite her lies, Odo can recognize Kira's integrity and dignity (partly, I suspect, from her reaction to his come-on, partly because she eventually shares her role in the underground), and he immediately sees through Pallra's pretence of mourning. He is not ignorant of evidence, but he is drawn to theories that suggest that Pallra is a murderess and Kira is not because murder is wrong, and so it seems more likely that a selfish and immoral person would commit such a crime than a moral person. But this falls apart when the background situation is a great injustice. When the injustice of the background situation is removed, Pallra becomes the criminal. The killing of one chemist, who happened to be a collaborator, is certainly significant -- and I don't think we need believe that the episode thinks Kira did nothing wrong (more on that in a bit). But the context of the Occupation is so manifestly unjust that the particular crime cannot be separated from it; Pallra is innocent of the particular crime because as a collaborator she is benefiting (or at least, not suffering as much) from the far greater systemic crime of the Occupation, just as Kira's guilt of the local crime of killing Vaatrik comes down to her intent to address and resolve the large-scale injustice of the Occupation. Odo *acknowledges* the injustice of the Cardassian Occupation, even to Dukat's face. ("Don't push me, Changeling.") But that is far outside Odo's power, and his responsibilities are to individual crimes. And so he builds up clues on a small scale, in particular as an outgrowth from his careful *physical* observation of humanoids, encouraged by Mora (for the Cardassian neck trick) and referred to when he points out that he observes people's physical features in pointing out that Pallra has not cried.

I like how this focus on individual crime rather than systemic crime, which Kira tries to get through to Odo, is particularly underlined by Dukat entirely *dismissing* systemic deaths as irrelevant; people who die in Cardassian mines are "casualties," but we can't have Bajorans going around murdering each other! Check out, also, the casually dismissive cruelty with which Dukat indicates that he has seen Odo dealing with "petty" disputes between Bajorans over "food, blankets"; because these disputes focus on things that Dukat has access to in abundance, they become petty -- Dukat would never be caught in a dispute over food and blankets! -- never mind that these disputes are most likely life-and-death, and are *caused* by Dukat (directly or indirectly)!

I like that the reason it's so hard for Odo to recognize that he had been wrong about Kira comes down to his belief that he is able to see through people's lies. He saw that Kira was lying, but was unable to make the greater step that she was lying about her lie, in order to lead him further off the track. More than that, though, his observation of the lies that people tell themselves, his recognition of the ability of solids to hurt and kill each other, and even his general cynicism about the various races he encounters (demonstrated, for example, in his hard-boiled rant about the ridiculousness of recording everything in his first security log in the episode) convince him that he is beyond being fooled. The unraveling of the mystery in the present leads him to recognize first that Kira deceived him all those years ago, and second that perhaps his ability to stand fully outside his larger sociopolitical context and act as fully impartial judge is not so possible overall. It's a tricky kind of naivete, wherein Odo's belief that he is beyond naivete, and beyond listening to the rationalizations people create for their criminal acts, makes him somewhat unable to see reality before him.

Odo's "objectivity" is not just the result of Odo standing outside the social and political context of the Occupation (or of whatever the current situation on the station is), but also the related fact of his general alone-ness, which is emphasized throughout in different ways. His embarrassment at Kira's believing that he was propositioning her and Quark's laughing attempt to suggest ways in which Quark might be able to entertain him are the two big indications in the past about Odo's social inexperience and his related shame; so I like that the present has Odo's relationships with both Kira and Quark highlighted. Odo can acknowledge his friendship with Kira, but cannot truly recognize it with Quark; I like how Quark laughing in the past cuts to an alien laughing with a crowd of people at the bar, and Odo walking in alone to talk to Sisko and Dax, all business (even if Sisko points out that Odo looks like he's lost a friend). Ode's formation of connections represents his growth in empathy over the years -- which helps him as an investigator in recognizing the lengths otherwise good people will go to, but hurts his previous view of himself.

So in the past, Kira convinces Odo to look the other way when she tells him that she sabotaged a mining apparatus, trusting in his ability to see that her "crime," while certainly breaking Cardassian laws, is actually a necessary act to protect and help Bajoran lives. Odo equivocates in order to avoid committing fully to Kira's side, despite his instant recognition that this act, which does not actually kill anyone, is morally if not legally justified; he tells Dukat that he is certain she is innocent of Vaatrik's murder, rather than that he is certain that she is *innocent* generally. Baby steps. But in the present, he realizes that she did kill Vaatrik, and even believes that she was sent to execute him. Kira indicates that she just went to get the list of collaborators, and that she "had no choice" but to kill him, which is true and untrue; Kira is only fully innocent if you accept that she was within her rights to break into Vaatrik's shop looking for the list, which is by no means clear. And further, I think it's worth noting that I don't think Kira had any illusions that Vaatrik showing up to his own shop was impossible, and so she had to have at least considered what the plan was if he arrived. Was there truly no other way but to kill him? And I think here we get into the deep, disheartening dark: I think Kira hoped that she would not have to kill Vaatrik, organizing her entrance into his store around his probable absence, but probably knew she would kill him, anyway, if it came down to him catching her or her killing him. He was a collaborator, and he was protected by the Cardassians, and that list of names, if she found it, could do much for the Bajoran underground! And so there is a tragedy, here, in that in addition to killing a man, lying to Odo, and having her relationship with Odo blemished by the discovery that she never told him the truth, it was also all done for naught, since she never even found the list.

The episode's tragedy, then, really has to do with the way consequences of the Occupation continue to spill out over time; Kira became a killer in her intense search for anything that could weaken the Cardassian hold on Bajor, and the huge number of deaths as a result of the Occupation certainly make an attempt to find collaborators to stop them a goal that is worth taking risks for -- though whether those risks reasonably include killing said collaborators to avoid one's own death is a difficult question to answer. I don't really hold this death against Kira too strongly, particularly when I know I cannot really imagine the toll the Occupation would take -- though I think it's important that Kira recognizes that Vaatrik did not actually "deserve" to die for collaborating, which was itself a reaction to the horrors of the Occupation and the dearth of options that existed for security in life. Further, in addition to Vaatrik's losing his life and Kira losing a piece of her soul, the consequences still continue years later, with collaborators still being haunted and hounded by blackmailers and even being killed, years later -- not to mention people like Quark who have taken advantage of their neutrality for years and may still die for it. No one who is hurt or dies is completely innocent, but they also all pale in comparison to the deep horror of the Occupation which stays behind all this.

Other details: I like the idea of Dukat picking Odo out as investigator, and that Kira is the one who first calls him Constable. Something about Odo's line "I don't use chemicals" just kills me. The noir atmosphere is very well used, and it's worth remembering that film noir started in the 40's and is usually thought as a way of dealing with the anxieties associated with WW2 and its aftermath -- and so this episode somewhat makes the subtext of those films text, by highlighting the true horror lying behind the personalized cast of femme fatales and hard-boiled investigators. The use of Rom borders on annoying, and I can see some people saying that it is, but I more or less like it here, particularly as Quark's shock that Rom has these stores of hidden skills is a comic counterpoint to Odo's sad discovery of Kira's duplicity.

I am up to "The Maquis" in my rewatch, and this and "Duet" are the only episodes in its particular class ("Whispers" is a somewhat distant third), as well as two episodes which best demonstrate the types of stories that represent the best of DS9 as a distinct work from TOS or TNG (which are, of course, excellent in their own right). 4 stars.

*I learn from Memory Alpha that there was a deleted scene where it's revealed that Dukat and Pallra were having an affair, which would further support the idea that Dukat might well have spared Pallra after the fact even if Odo identified her as the killer. This would also be the first instance of the stories about Dukat and his attraction to Bajoran women and give further support to Pallra as the deadliest and "worst" of femmes fatales, and introduce Dukat as a plausible suspect. It might also have complicated the episode too much, so I'm not sure whether it being cut was a good or bad idea.

Teaser : ****, 5%

I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried - "La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

“I didn't him, you know.”

Since this episode is so popular, I'm going to try and focus on those things which have not been mentioned or explored in detail (although I'm bound to retread a little bit). I think the operative word here is “semblance.” William B noted the strength of juxtaposing Odo (a seeming constant) against the highly contrasting landscapes of Terrak Nor and DS9. I think the whole episode is a standout example of what DS9 as a series attempted (and too often failed) to do with the Trek Universe in general—question assumptions. Let's begin with the initial setting: as Jammer points out, we are clearly troping the noire genre, with the blackout, thunderstorm and eventual copper monologue. The genre-play is fun, mysterious, anachronistic, whimsical and dark. It plays directly against the inner life of the story however, one of deep personal and cultural tragedy. Likewise, Pallra herself, in this opening scene, is dressed to the nines, even sporting a huge, gaudy Bajoran earring (a symbol of their religion) in her own home which doesn't even have electricity at the moment. Her veneer is a lie, just like the noire genre is a lie.

Into this remarkably focused and thematic teaser is sat ol' Quark, accenting the ostentatiousness perfectly. Pallra offers to pay him to recover a box her husband had hidden away on DS9 “a long time ago.”

Act 1 : ***.5, 17%

You've got to love the insight into Odo's way of thinking. Basically it's, “I'm right. Everyone else is stupid.” But he has a patented (and it will turn out, racially borne out) fashion of diplomacy to mitigate this attitude: he makes a log entry, the majority of which is his explanation as to why it's unnecessary and superfluous and the final sentence of which carries the substantive information, “everything is under control.” The (usually captain's) log is traditionally an expository device, meant to give the audience the necessary background information for the episode to get underway. While it would still be used as such all the way through to Star Trek X, on DS9 and Voyager, they began to mix it up a bit. Here, the background information is precisely what we're going to end up figuring out as the episode gets underway. The purpose of the log is to bridge the genre gap between Trek and noire. Trek characters don't have inner monologues, but they do make log entries (mono-logs?). It's kind of like repurposed furniture. The beauty of its odd contours comes from the fact that it was meant to be something else entirely (like Odo missing the point of making the log in the first place).

We take a moment to cement the Rom 2.0 (lisping savant) idea, having him break into the vault more quickly than Quark would be able to and generally being a genius-idiot. Again, although it's more subdued, we see the theme of semblance emerging. Quark recovers Pallra's box and opens it (of course), only to discover a list of names. Pallra's shadowy companion emerges and steals the paper away from poor Quark, who gets shot in the chest (and killed?) for his trouble. Faced with imminent death, we get another entry into the theme: Quark, the thieving, lying, misogynistic misanthrope, faces his own execution with gall and calm, revealing a more honest portrait of his inner self.

Act 2 : ****, 17%

Someday, some nerd is going to write a thesis on how Trek weaponry works. You'll recall that Quark was shot in the chest resulting in thoracic cavity rupture. Which of course causes neural trauma (?). Because we all know the brain is located on the thorax...of humanoids...

Side note : Bashir calls for an anti-gravity stretcher, but didn't we just have an episode about how Cardassian technology inhibits the use of anti-gravity equipment (“Melora”)? Oh No! Continuity Error!!!!!!

Fitting in with the idea of semblance is this notion that while Quark is being hauled off, in mortal peril, we get this hilarious interrogation of Rom :

ODO : I've had my eye on you for a long time, Rom. You're not as stupid as you look.
ROM : I am too!

Pressured by Odo and good-copped (credit, William B) by Sisko, Rom quickly reveals the nature of the “robbery.”

Much has been made (rightly) of the lighting job during the flashbacks, but equally impressive is the way the station is being lit during the present. Cutting shadows and penetrating angles create an uneasiness, a hallmark of the fatalistic genre.

We take our first plunge into the tragic depths of this tale's inner life, as I'm calling it, with the jump flashback into the shoppe where Pallra hid her list. There sits Gul Dukat, sipping tea. What's interesting is how much Dukat seems to know about Odo (“you've become quite the student of humanoid nature, haven't you?”). Semblance requires study.

As William B pointed out, it's very telling that Odo was equally critical of Cardassian “justice” as he has been of Federation “justice” (see “A Man Alone”).

A couple things are of note here :

1. Dukat's complicated relationship with the Bajorans is already established: in once scene he is angrily defensive of his own “tempered” treatment of the conquered slaves outside his door, while casually telling Odo he should be “grateful” not to be a Bajoran himself, what with their petty disputes over things like food, while he sips tea over the body of a murdered man.

2. Odo owes much of his affected identity (there's that semblance again) to Dukat. Dukat offers him not only the job which permits him emotional detachment from others (investigator), but also the monicker of “neutral observer.”

The only witness at Odo's disposal is...Pallra, who still manages to reek of 1%ish arrogance as a member of a slave caste—semblance to a tee. I love the way Odo begins his task visibly uncomfortable with the idea of questioning a grief-stricken widow (as of 2 hours ago). When he begins to investigate (noticing she has *not* been grieving or crying), he immediately straightens up and becomes the gruff skeptic we saw earlier with Rom. Pallra offers to point out the girl her husband had allegedly been having an affair with. And it turns out to be Kira.

Cue flashforward, and there's Kira. They have both made the connection to Vatrik (Pallra's deceased husband).

Act 3 : ****, 17%

One other great touch is the fleshed out use of the log entry. I've already explained it's structural significance, but notice here that Odo uses the log to dump his feelings onto the audience, under the guise of giving a security report about Quark's attempted murder (have I mentioned semblance, yet?).

In another comedic detour, Odo guides Rom into remembering names written on the list (with plenty of zinging one-liners thrown in from both parties).

Note : they've chosen to have Odo (a Changeling) and Rom (a Ferengi) refer to Bajoran names in Bajoran script with Roman letters and diacritics ('c', 'o' and apostrophe). Huh? I suppose it's one of those don't-think-to-hard-about-it contrivances we have to accept in science fiction, but it's so technical and yet familiar that it stuck out to me.

KIRA : I would have been executed.
ODO : You were innocent of the crime I was investigating.
KIRA : That wouldn't have mattered to the Cardassians!
ODO : It mattered to me.

And jump flashback. Playing children replaced with near-starving miserable ones. In an interesting meta-twist, Odo attempts to play noire genre by saying to Kira “Pretty girl like you shouldn't be eating alone.” Just need to throw in a “toots,” and we can call it clichéd. Of course, he's totally uncomfortable with this farce and as soon as Kira rejects this play, he immediately reverts to his strong persona. Kira gives Odo her alibi and plants another complication in this mess, namely why Dukat would want Odo investigating this crime. Regardless of that motivation, the reason Odo accepted is because of what Dukat and the investigation gives him, his persona, which protects him from emotional vulnerability.

ODO : I don't choose sides.
KIRA : Everyone has to choose sides, Constable.

Nice touch.

Odo questions Pallra in the present. To further cement the semblance from the teaser, it turns out Pallra's displays of wealth are even more in denial than it had seemed, since her power was out for lack of payment, not inferior Bajoran utilities services.

Act 4 : ***.5, 17%

Quark clings to life and Kira hands Odo a photograph of Stanley Kubrick. Actually it's supposed to be the “Che'sso” Rom saw on the list (actual name: Che'saro). And he's dead as of last night. Oops. Poor Argentian.

Flashback to the first meeting of Odo and Quark. Of note here: Quark heavily implies that Kira slept with him in an attempt to gain employment. Might explain her attitude towards the “troll” these days. Turns out it was the other way around—she paid HIM for her alibi. Cue the reentry of Dukat. “You're not afraid of anyone, are you Shapeshifter? Not even me.”

Flashforward. Odo has reassembled the list from Pellra's communications records. She has blackmailed those listed (collaborators) for large sums of cash.

Act 5 : ***.5, 17%

“There's no room in justice for loyalty, or friendship, or love. Justice...is blind. I used to believe that. I'm not sure I can anymore.”

Odo confronts Kira in the past about her broken alibi. Odo maintains his stance that he won't choose sides. Kira informs him that she didn't kill Vatrik...because she is a terrorist who was sabotaging the Cardassians. Another timely entry from Dukat. Odo stays true to his word. Having deduced that she did not commit the murder he's investigating (even though she is still a guilty party in Cardassian jurisprudence), he releases her from Dukat's custody.

In the present, Pallra's henchman breaks into the infirmary and murder's Quark's security guard with a knife. He then takes the knife out and stabs Qua...no, he leaves the weapon behind and tries to smother Quark with a pillow. Okay...

The Rom alarm sounds and ends up saving Quark's life. It's a little cheesy, but Quark's semi-conscious grin is a worthy payoff.

Odo arrests Pallra (a satisfying end to her story is seeing her smug ass tossed in a cell). Odo has pieced together the mystery. Kira was lying. She did kill Vatrik because he was a collaborator. All the loose ends are neatly tied up. All but one.

For all of Odo's talk about distance, neutrality and justice, he compromised his ethical rigidity for one person, Kira.

Episode as Functionary : ****, 10%

I know people have mixed feelings about the eventual romance between Odo and Kira, but really there was no better option based on the seeds planted here: Kira is Odo's femme fatale. She seduces him to his own destruction (or at least the destruction of his persona). Thus the invocation of the noire genre is elevated beyond homage to deep thematic irony.

This is a story about a man discovering he has humanoid feelings and vulnerabilities only through the knife-twist that the object of his feelings betrayed his trust and preyed on his nature to do so.

Unlike the only other episode to reach the heights this one manages, “Duet,” the story is not played as straight tragedy, although it is extremely tragic. Rather, the story is given this noire veneer in order to accentuate the theme of semblance. Here, Odo's persona as the neutral observer, cold investigator and un-relatable alien is cracked open. As a character study it's just about perfect (and also gives me reason to object even more strongly to that throwaway bit from “Rules of Acquisition”). The story also reveals how fragile personas are. Not only Odo, but Kira, Quark, Rom, Dukat and the station itself are all revealed to have inner lives which are highly at odds with their personas. That very semblance though is the barrier which keeps the lights on. In the end, maybe that's exactly what “justice” is all about.

And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

Final Score : ****

DS9 does noir in what is a fairly blatant homage. But what a well handled one. Looks gorgeous, character depth, humour (Rom's realisation that he has saved Quark's life is a classic, as is Odo's initial log entry), what more could we want?

The Odo/Kira backstory is of course front and centre, and is a powerful one, notably that Odo's conception of justice is flawed when it comes to Kira. His acknowledgement that she was a better liar than he thought cuts to the bone of that relationship. Leaving the episode hanging is a well judged conclusion.

Not entirely perfect - the investigation drags a little in places and the ending wrap up seems perfunctory at best - but a worthy 3.5 stars.

Leaving us hanging might be the right thing for the episode, but not for the series. Upon re-watching, it seems that early DS9 does this way too much. The problem is, we see these people in later episodes, but the unresolved plot points are never brought up again.

"Necessary Evil" isn't just "one of the series' all-time best installments," it's essential DS9.

What isn't there to love about this episode? It is a wonderful film-noir homage, shows a true appreciation for all the characters involved (Odo, Kira, Quark, Dukat and even Rom) and their relationships with each other, uses the log entries beautifully to give us Odo's inner thoughts instead of just exposition dumps, uses the flashback sequences to stellar effect (they even cut back and forth seamlessly) and finally gives us a look at what the Occupation of Bajor was really like (after hearing about it so many times - vividly so in "Duet" - it's nice to finally see the conditions for ourselves). The acting, the directing, the dialogue, the lighting and even the production design are all absolutely top notch. Heck, there's even some legitimate humor (from a shrieking Rom of all places!); but then, he isn't yelling MOOOOOGIEEEEEE! yet, and that's always a plus.

But what really stands out for me was the characterization of Dukat. For all the people who say that his character arc in the final seasons of the show came out of left field, just watch this episode again! Here we have a man who is desperate for the people he's oppressing to love him. He'll gladly lie to himself about wanting to spare the Bajorans from ten pointless deaths while he calmly sips tea over the body of a dead man and tells Odo that he should feel grateful that he isn't one of "those Bajorans". Clearly this is a man who is deluding himself to a ridiculous degree, a man fully capable of snapping when his fantasies are finally laid bare, a man capable of giving in to his already present prejudice and deciding to genocidally eliminate all Bajorans.

"Necessary Evil" is, in one sense, a story about reconciliation. Can Odo forgive Kira for not only lying to him, but for willfully using his better nature to get away with a murder? The fact that it's left open as to whether Odo does, in fact, forgive her is beautiful. Because, spoiler alert, forgiveness isn't supposed to be easy. If it were, everyone would do it and there would be no virtue in it. But, the fact that Odo does ultimately forgive her not only proves that their bond of trust hasn't been broken, but that he is, at heart, a truly decent person.

But it's also about making amends. Terrorism is a very dirty, very ugly, business. Kira has indeed done a lot of things she's now ashamed of. And, in a lot of cases, rightly so. Amends need to be made if she's going to move on from her violent past. "Battle Lines" from Season One showed us that Kira does want to move on from that past and "Necessary Evil" shows how hard a path that is going to be.

So, what we ultimately have is a story about contrition and forgiveness wrapped up in film-noir trappings. I have to give them credit for telling such a, dare I say it, spiritual story.

WTF HAIR - 8 (+2)

10/10

Also noteworthy is that this is the episode that gives Rom some uses other than comic relief.

As others have mentioned, really well done with the flashbacks. Great episode for sure. What works for me is how logically everything fits together - why Gul-Dukat wants Odo to investigate (as opposed to himself), the list of Bajorans secretly supporting the Cardassians, and the part about the femme fatale.
The part about Kira being the killer and Odo trying to figure out what to do at the end is a thought-provoking way of ending it.
A very good insight into Odo - really like his logs and his adherence to justice. I would also call BS on Kira for trying to tell him many times before of her crimes. It's excellent how it works out when Kira tells him (in the flashback) that he has to pick a side to know the truth.
"Necessary Evil" is an example of how to wrap up an episode with an ending the fits the suspense created by the earlier scenes.
Like "Duet" -- very strong performances from the key characters.
For me a strong 3.5/4 stars - could be 4/4 stars if I had a greater appreciation of DS9 as I'm quite new to the series.

I enjoyed this, just not quite as much as others. This is partly my own bias--I DESPISE the arrogant "femme fatale" sorts of characters. They always seem so cardboard to me.

I also suspected it was going to be Kira from the moment we saw her in the flashback, so i felt they were pushing a bit too hard to give her a checkered past.

But it was enjoyable--solid 3 for me.

3 stars. Pretty entertaining hour

What stood out and was a major plus in the episode's favor was the mood and atmosphere throughout. From the teaser that takes place in a home with no power with storm in background and only candles to Quark and Rom skulking about the Promenade after it shut down for the day to the flashbacks of a darker station with steam and dimmed lighting along with a clearly more oppressive atmosphere

Rom was a highlight too. From his surprising Quark with all of his tricks he pulled from his sleeve to Quark learning what Rom had been up to when Quark not around was great fun. Or Rom having the luck to walk out before Quark's attack. To his dawning realization that quark's condition could be to his benefit to thwarting the final attempt on Quark's life leading to his howl

The murder mystery was effective in holding my attention and being suspenseful although the murderer turning out to be Kira wasn't the most inspired. And the names in the box being collaborators didn't generate the biggest Whoa! From me. But decent enough.

Odo and Kira's story was also involving

About the only bad thing in hour was siddig's awful barking when trying to triage Quark

Great episode. Just wanted to say that the guest actress portraying the femme fatale was really good. Her vocal presence especially.

"Necessary Evil" is a rich and rewarding outing that dives deep into the history of Terok Nor. It's also a beautifully directed and acted piece of work. Rene Auberjonois is fantastic as usual, and he relishes the chance to play a classic noir hero straight out of 40s and 50s Hollywood-a detective with a chip on his shoulder and a stained soul. Nana Visitor is also excellent. She works better when asked to turn in a more subtle performance, as opposed to huge, bombastic speeches like in "Duet". Though presented as a film noir (which it works beautifully as), it's also a tragic story at heart, as revealed in the astounding ending. The tragedy is how the Cardassian Occupation, even though it ended years ago, is still causing irreparable damage to Bajor and the inhabitants of Terok Nor. Odo and Kira's relationship was based on a lie-even though he does forgive her, he'll never quite look at her the same way again.

4 stars.

Very good. Great performances from all.

Really nice to get some backstory on the station, Dukat, Quark, Odo, and Kira.

Well done all around.

Comments on the comments:

--ODO AND KIRA have a thing, eventually? I'm going to pretend I didn't read that, and cross my fingers that we get there in some convincing way. It is hard to imagine it, right now. Odo is so . . . measured, and not exactly asexual - he clearly has longings for relationship in general, and has exhibited some kind of repressed sexuality. But Odo comes off as androgynous. Kira, in the other hand, is a passionate woman who had directed all her fire to the Resistance. Once she's feeling secure enough to redirect them, she's going to choose the literally liquidy Odo? This is going to take some selling, but I can be bought, so we'll see.

--DUET - this is better than Duet. More subtle, more focus on our main characters, better production, superior all around. Best ep so far.

--DS9: I am struck by the gushier wording for great DS9 eps, than other ST series gems. This ep came at the right time for me, as I was considering giving up on the series. The uncompelling Sisko, and the focus on Bajor and the (still-fuzzy and mostly uninteresting) Bajorans, were getting to me. But: onward!

Springy’s post got me thinking of a couple of things since I re-watched both “Necessary Evil” and “Duet” in the last couple of weeks. I think they are the 2 best episodes of the first 2 seasons of DS9. But if I were to split hairs, I’d rate “Duet” higher. To be a geek: Duet (4*, 10/10, 98/100) vs. NE (3.5*, 9.5/10, 93/100). A couple of minor things bugged me about NE: the cliche that is the femme fatale and the idiot that is Rom.

IMHO “Duet” is a masterpiece and I’m prepared to call it the 2nd best DS9 episode. NE does have overall better production with the excellent flashbacks in black and white, but “Duet” doesn’t require that and Harris Yulin’s performance is probably the best guest actor performance I can think of on DS9. He is a TOS-style guest actor.

I’ve been critical of guest actors from the later Treks but Yulin’s command performance in “Duet” is the type that would welcomed on TOS. How he goes through the range of emotions, his various postures, etc. -- it’s riveting. I don’t know if he appeared in any other Treks as a guest actor. He should have if he didn’t. “Duet” elicited more of an emotional response from me than did NE.

One other opinion I have relating to Springy’s comment is that (not to give any spoilers) the arc that really takes shape in Season 3 and beyond is a lot more interesting/compelling than the Bajor/Cardassia/Federation largely political arc in Seasons 1-2 for me. I also have to concur that Sisko is pretty “uncompelling” at this point in the series. He’s overshadowed by Kira mostly but also by Odo who have had the best episodes focusing on them like “Duet” and “Necessary Evil”.

@Rahul

Interesting comments. Duet is great, and Yulin is truly excellent in a very complicated role. A lesser actor could have sunk the whole thing. I tend to prefer eps that focus on the regulars.

Your Rom comment made me LOL.

Also, your comments made me think about these episodes titles. Duet. Who's performing a duet? Marizza, doing both parts? Kira and Marizza? I have to give that more thought. Does it refer to the fact that it takes two to tango, so to speak? Marizza may have been only a file clerk, but Darheel couldn't have successfully sung his song, alone? Does it refer to his anger at the Bajorans, for not resisting harder, for being so vulnerable, implying the Cardassians and the Bajorans performed a hideous duet? I'm sure there are clues all over the ep, but I'd have to rewatch.

Necessary Evil: Indeed. I think this is the question we're meant to ask ourselves? Is Evil ever necessary? Can ends justify means? Did the collaborators have to collaborate, to survive? Kira had no choice? How much choice did any of our players really have? Etc. Meaty stuff.

Thanks for the non-spoilery, hopeful hints about the future. I've watched (what I think of as) all the main ST series, except this one. And I hate to leave that gap.

@Springy-

Is this your first time watching the series? If so, enjoy.

@Iceman

Way back when DS9 was first on, I watched a few of the first eps, didn't like it, and stopped. I would occasionally watch a DS9 ep if I tripped over it, but I'd be surprised if I watched more than 6 or 7 eps total, over the years.

I remembered only one ep when I started this rewatch: One that I watched randomly and hated, where Jadzia falls so deeply in love, with a man she's known about 3 seconds, that she's willing to give up all her friends and her career for him. I don't know what Season it was, I only remember it because I disliked it sooo much and argued with a friend about it.

So that's the long answer. The short answer is: Yes, it's my first time watching, and thank you, yes, I'll enjoy.

@Springy

It sounds like you're describing "Meridian" and it's definitely a series low. Though I'll go ahead and point out that "Rejoined" is thematically similar although better executed.

I don't think it's a major spoiler to say that Meridian is coming up soon, and it's absolutely not surprising that Meridian would turn a potential viewer off bigtime.

After the first flashback, when Kira casually asks Odo about the investigation, you can read the guilt on her face... almost. Nice acting.

@William B-

Do you not love tree-climbing???

@Springy-Cool! Please post more of your thoughts. Always interesting to here from a newcomer. Just keep soldiering on. I am still largely indifferent to the first two seasons of DS9, but now I love it to bits. I'll address some of your other points. 1)-I prefer "Necessary Evil" to "Duet" as well. It's subtler storytelling, which I definitely prefer. "Duet" is still a masterpiece and one of the best episodes in the entire franchise though. 2)-No, I wouldn't say the way they get Odo and Kira together is entirely believable, but once they get together, the relationship is handled very well, I'd say.

@Iceman, I not only like tree climbing, I kind of like Brigadoon. And yet....

I prefer Necessary Evil to Duet too. It's a much more natural story, whereas Duet is highly contrived and certain elements of it are written and executed in a very stagy way.

@wolfstar-

Blasphemy!

Although your points are fair enough, I think the story is so strong it renders the contrivances basically obsolete.

Loved it! What a great episode. Hooks you from the opening teaser and never lets go!

William B,

I just wanted to let you know that your 2450 word comment was such a profound character analysis that I copied it into word so I can find it again later. If you have a blog I'd love to read it. Bravo.

@Michael, thank you!

I don't have an active blog. I'll let people know here if I get one.

No one's going to mention the full on "Columbo" moment where Odo does the "just one other thing" move after his first interview with Pallra? :D

This was fantastic. Best episode of DS9 yet IMO.

Agreed with Jammer on the excellent direction; the same sets seem so different and so hostile in the flashback scenes. And I love how those scenes are used -- both to give us some backstory on Odo and his first meetings with various prominent characters, and to draw together threads of the ongoing mystery.

A thought: given that he let Kira run free, how *did* Odo "conclude" his investigation for Dukat? It's made clear that he's generally thought the wife did it, up to this point -- at least, that's what she tells us at the beginning. Maybe she's one of the few possible perpetrators that doesn't have to fear execution: while her husband's the main collaborator, she definitely seems to have her own involvement. Perhaps her purpose was more important than her punishment.

Brave move to have the resolution weaken Odo and Kira's friendship. Can't imagine TNG ever pulling something like that.

Addendum: I've just read William B's excellent analysis, and I particularly like the observation regarding film noir's origins in the emotional impact of WW2 given all the subtext to the Cardassian occupation.

I'm also intrigued to hear about the deleted scene confirming Pallra to have had an affair with Dukat. I do think the episode can stand without it; one can fill in the gaps after what we're shown of Odo's investigation regardless, after all.

Quark's dialog during the cold open has a nice 1940's style pacing and delivery.

1. Why would anyone keep a name list that incriminates oneself, and in that way?
2. How did the wife know about the list? And why didn’t she retrieve it earlier?
3. Why Dukat didn’t investigate the murder himself since he could cover things up easily? Or just arrest Kira whether she was guilty or not, as long as the wife’s accusation was maintained.
4. Did Dukat not know who the collaborators are on that list? So he wanted to protect these collaborators by distancing himself from the investigation?? Seems counterintuitive to me.

This, to me, feels like "The Origin of Star Trek: Deep Space 9."

Up until now, the show has traded in twists and turns on themes originally present in Star Trek: The Next Generation, whilst throwing in a lot of Casablanca-esque character intrigue.

But with this episode, Deep Space 9 began to show its true colors a bit more. It's right there in the first word of the title: depth.

Odo is not just "Mr. Constable" or "Security Chief Worf: The Sequel." We find out that he was reluctantly thrust into this position on account of being more or less unassailable by either the Cardassians or the Bajorans, during the Occupation. Dukat used him (as he uses everyone), but it is what puts him into the role we find him in when Sisko arrives in Emissary: Part 1.

Similarly, we get the backstory of Kira The Resistance Fighter, which up until now has just been so much talk. Here, we get to see it for the first time. It elevates her above "Tasha Yar 2.0 (or, if you like, Ro Laren 2.0)" and into the realm of her own character.

We even get to see the day that Odo met Quark, and how that went, and it's hilarious, in addition to getting a classic exchange between Odo and Rom right at the top of the episode after the teaser:

Odo: "I've had my eye on you for a long time, Rom! You're not as stupid as you look!!"
Rom: "I am TOO!!"

xD

Why did Vaatrik keep a list of names of the Bajoran Collaborators? There were only 8 names on the list - he couldn't memorize them then destroy the list? A chemist should be smarter than that.

How did Kira KNOW Vaatrik had a list of names of the Collaborators?

Why would Pallra need the list if she KNOWS exactly where it's hidden? That means she's SEEN the list and should already KNOW who the 8 collaborators are to blackmail them. Also, couldn't they blackmail her too - she was married to a collaborator.

If she knew where it was, why couldn't she just pay the "middleman" (who tried to kill Quark twice) to get it? He did a good job lurking in the shadows while Quark and his brother broke in to get it. Then she wouldn't risk getting charged with attempted/ murder-for-hire.

Otherwise, I enjoyed this episode and agree with the 4/4 star rating. Great directing, acting and writing (except for the issues I commented on above).

How could Rom (a Ferengi) be able to read a list of names written in Bajoran & why did they have English letters?

Love this episode. The ending forces Odo to face a truth he struggles to understand, justice isn't always straightforward. One of my favorites of any trek.

I love this episode. I agree with a lot of people that it was the best episode in the series at this point and even after the series concluded, this episode still stands out as one of the top 5.

However, like any episode, it has a few flaws. But it's a very short list of flaws. These are the only two logistical flaws that bug me about this episode, and they don't really bug me that much.

1. Why hire Quark to get the list if she was gonna get that other guy to follow him anyway? That guy seemed more competent and reliable. Why not just have him break into the shop and get the list directly? And they could have easily bypassed this if they just made it seem like he followed Quark on his own volition. Like maybe he could be some devotedly loyal assistant who she would have never asked to take on this dangerous task, but he wanted to make sure it was done correctly.

2. I never quite understood why Gul Dukat had to keep his distance from the investigation. It was clearly just a plot device to put Odo in the roll of investigating the crime so that they could make a nice episode about how Odo became the station's chief of security under Dukat. But from Dukat's point of view, if he (or one of his underlings) investigated the crime he would have had more control over the what was uncovered. He could cover up things if he needed to. He could outright frame people. Selecting Odo made it MORE likely for the list of collaborators to be discovered.

These are my only two gripes with this episode, and in both cases they don't bug me enough to ruin the episode. The episode is still amazing.

Very good episode on a character, performance and dialog level, but one of a number in early DS9 where the writing is too neat and the writer's hand too evident on a plot level. The entire plot rests on the MacGuffin of a list of 8 names written on a piece of paper hidden in a wall by a collaborator, and the other characters' actions are driven by trying to get this list of names - Kira so that the resistance can track down and kill the collaborators listed, and Pallra so she can blackmail them for money now that she's fallen on hard times. But why would Vaatrik even need to write down a list of just 8 names instead of simply memorizing them, let alone on a piece of paper? So I completely agree with everything that Sony writes above: "How did Kira know Vaatrik had a list of names of the collaborators? Why would Pallra need the list if she knows exactly where it's hidden? Also, couldn't they blackmail her too - she was married to a collaborator. If she knew where it was, why couldn't she just pay the "middleman" (who tried to kill Quark twice) to get it? He did a good job lurking in the shadows while Quark and his brother broke in to get it. Then she wouldn't risk getting charged with attempted/ murder-for-hire."

The direction and set design are great, but the episode is a little too much of a stylistic exercise - the 40s-inspired noir homage complete with femme fatale and Odo as hard-boiled private detective actually overshadows the nuts-and-bolts reality of the situation. Kira lying to Odo on their first meeting also shouldn't be the big deal the episode thinks it is because it was the only thing she could do in order to survive - it was lie or be executed, and Odo was working directly for Dukat. Present-day Odo already knows Kira was a resistance member so should already know that she had to make moral compromises and get her hands dirty in the fight to free her people. It's not like she was living in a free society and chose to lie about something bad she did - she was a soldier operating under great constraints (the threat of discovery and death).

@wolfstar,

Great to see your comments again. I think it's been a while.

While this episode, I think, is considered one of DS9's best (certainly of the pre-Dominion stuff), I think you pinpointed my feelings pretty accurately on what didn't work quite as well here. It is an artistic exercise "noir homage" and "femme fatale" etc. and it's great that Trek attempts these things -- it's a question of balance as to how successful they are. It's almost like the writers are trying too hard to fit a DS9 story into that genre.

The episode is an unquestionable success but it's good to also realize that there are a lot of plot machinations / motivations that can be questioned and such an episode should make one do so -- this is not an example of big, dumb fun.

I also think one of the letdowns here is too much Rom -- I found that my first viewing of the episode provided the best experience but when re-watching it (and knowing the Rom character from having seen the entire series), his scenes become less effective.

Wonderful. I feel so fortunate, because when rewatching Season 2 I realize now it is not a rewatch. When DS9 first came out, I watched most of Season 1 but found the series a bit offputting. I took a vacation from it and returned in Season 3. I had forgotten that i did that, so all these are new episodes to me. This one was great in and of itself, and also excellent backdrop.

Wow, I had forgotten how good this one is. It's not just the quasi-noir storyline, with gruff monologues, nearly B&W scenes, and studied textures to atmosphere. And it's not just the set dressing to Terok Nor, nor what we learn about life on the station prior to the end of the Occupation, but the directing is really inspired for a Trek episode. Maybe the submitted teleplay had all kinds of shot details included and maybe not, but James Conway really did a number on the visuals and tableaus setting up scene transitions. He always sets up a shot prior to moving to the past or back to the present, which features a character or situation, superimposing that on an equivalent shot in the next scene. These transitions don't merely work artistically, but also give us additional story content about what we're seeing. Watching a seemingly irrelevant few moments of children running around an alien on the promenade, which already would be a quite nice touch in establishing station life, switches to a shot on Terok Nor of frightened children clinging to a fence. In another scene, peering over Quark's lifeless body, Odo says "I want round the clock armed security around Quark. No visitors," and the shot quickly flashes into Quark laughing in his bar during the Occupation, at his most convivial. The contrast is again striking, and on a more technical level, the tonal switch from a funereal sick bed to boistrous laughter breaks up the pace and wakes us up in a big way to watch the story continue. We don't just get the next plot point, but we're given the energy to be excited by it. This is really suberb.

I had never given Conway much attention before, but looking at his IMDB I notice he directed a fair number of episodes for TNG (3), DS9 (7), VOY (4), ENT (5), and even one episode of the Orville. Among these that stand out are TNG's Frame of Mind, DS9's Duet, Necessary Evil, and The Way of the Warrior, and VOY's Death Wish, all of which are highlights in their respective series. He also did Little Green Men, showing that he did have a penchant for period style pieces within the DS9 world. I also notice that he directed Broken Bow, which I personally think is drearily boring, but it's hard for me to disentangle the directing from the story and script in that one. ENT has much better episodes to be sure, but that one is really hard to stay awake during.

Just rewatched this episode on the DS9 reruns on satellite. It's as good as I remember it, a definite highlight of season 2.

One thing I just noticed in the Terok Nor scene where Kira first met Odo, is that she called him 'Constable' in almost mocking his investigator role. I'm guessing that's where the Constable Odo title first stuck.

https://www.jammersreviews.com/st-ds9/s2/necessary.php#comment-64961

That was a great moment can not believe everyone else ignored or missed it

Brilliant episode, with some insight into the history of the DS9 station while under Kardassian rule, Odo’s first assignment as becoming constable, and him meeting Kira. I love the noir feel, and Odo’s sardonic attitudes on his Logs.

However, I feel like the odd choice for the ending is so out of place, it should make the entire episode non-canon.

I thought they would’ve done something like, “My friend was supposed to blow the mining shaft, and I was to target [the victim], but we had to switch responsibilities,” that way, we explain the murder as victim of the resistance movement, without having to implicate Kira.

As the episode stands, it abruptly ends on the cliffhanger that Kira was in fact the murderer this entire time, in that first case which Odo never solved. Apparently all that bluster about, “Justice is blind,” and so on was hot air, because the impartial Odo will let this slide under the rug if the killer is his BFF? Granted, Kira didn’t set out to kill him, it was just to protect her cover. Okay. So instead of first, it’s only second or third degree murder. And she’s concerned over whether or not this might affect their friendship? If this were to be taken seriously, Kira should be doing 40 to life, friends or not, but of course then we wouldn’t have a show with one of the leading characters in prison.

Which is why the whole thing doesn’t make any sense. It even negates the earlier scenes in the episode which heavily imply Odo and the authorities suspected Kira of this crime, could’ve punished her with death for it, though she was innocent. That was the insinuation she gave. Hardly consistent with, “I really tried to tell you the truth earlier.”

It’s not a big enough of a mistake to bring down what was otherwise a very enjoyable and cool episode, but I just can’t buy into the ending we got. It’s non-canon for me, otherwise the show doesn’t make any sense to continue ignoring the fact that Kira is a wanted murderer with no repercussions for her crimes, and Odo the lawman is completely slanted and corrupt as long as you’re buddies with him, which demolishes his character as well.

P.S. I see other comments chalking up the murder to, “Well it was during wartime, so it’s okay,”

to which I must offer two points:

1) They weren’t at war. They were already conquered.

and

2) She didn’t kill enemy Kardasian soldiers on a battlefield. She killed one of her own Bajorans in cold blood because his continued life would’ve been an inconvenience to her mission.

The way this episode is written leaves no sympathy or justification for Kira. She was part of an extreme movement that wanted liberation for Bajor. However noble that goal may be, there is no excusing that the vehicle she used to achieve that end was terrorism. She committed violence, even as far as murder, in the name of political change. Political violence is called terrorism. Her actions in this episode make her a murderer in a cold case, and a former terrorist who has little regard for the body count of civilians as long as their deaths serviced her personal political beliefs.

If Odo actually behaved consistently with his character, he should immediately hold Kira in custody till she gets a hearing, where she will probably be found guilty (given she admitted to it) and sentenced harshly.

It was impossible for the Bajoran's to defeat Cardassia militarily. Yes terrorism is morally questionable, but when the only other option is submission, what is the morally correct thing to do?

I don't really understand your point about the war being over. Cardassia was still occupying Bajor. They had been killing, raping, and pillaging for 50 years. Wars don't stop just because one side declares victory.

One final thing: it's been years since I watched the episode, but doesn't Kira say that she only killed the collaborator after he caught her in his home?