4x26 Redemption (1)

[7.7/10] The definitive Worf scene may be the moment he shares with Guinan in “Redemption”, at least for me. Guinan has a way of cutting through pretense, of getting to the unspoken heart of what’s bothering the people she talks to. She has Worf’s number from the jump here. He doesn’t laugh. He declares that Klingons don’t laugh. But Guinan correct him. She tells him they do. What’s more, Alexander laughs. But Alexander is being raised by humans, just as Worf was. And it creates an insecurity, about letting yourself become too soft, too jovial, for fear that it’s antithetical to your Klingon heart. Worf doesn’t feel like other Klingons, and that has put a chip on his shoulder from the time he was a boy.

“Redemption” (or the first half of this two parter, at least) is about Worf trying to remove that chip once and for all. The episode focuses on his chance to restore his family’s honor after his discommendation. It hinges on his decision of whether to continue carrying out his duties and upholding the principles of Starfleet, or finally listening to the “call of the warrior” and embracing his Klingon heritage in a more direct and all-encompassing way. From the beginning, Worf has been a child of two worlds, and this season finale sees him taking a foot out of one and planting it firmly in the other.

It also sees plenty of tense diplomatic relations, jockeying for power, and cloak and dagger plots to attain it! Star Trek: The Next Generation preceded Game of Thrones (and its literary predecessor) by some time, but “Redemption” plays like a proto-version of the HBO series’s plotting and backstabbing mixed with personal reflection. Two opposing houses are jostling to install their champion as Klingon Chancellor. Both are reaching out to forces outside of their people to help strengthen their position and cement their claim. And this power struggle forces Worf, Captain Picard, and familiar allies and foes to resolve the conflicts between their loyalties and their duties.

In brief, Gowron, the candidate who opposed Duras in “Reunion”, asks Captain Picard to intercede on his behalf in his role as Arbiter of Succession. The help is necessary because Duras’s surviving sisters, Lursa and B’Etor, are plotting to establish Duras’s previously unknown son in his father’s place and rule Klingon with him as their puppet. As their father did, the Duras sisters are conspiring with the Romulans, creating another conflict between traditional Klingon honor and law versus the “might makes right” methods of powerful families that may lead to civil war.

The setup is a good one. Gowron is the rightful ascendant to the throne, having met the requirements of Klingon law. He must nevertheless rally support for his cause as an upstart and agitator. And he must appeal to the Federation out of both a duty to their alliance and the practical consequences of the Duras family rising to power. The Duras sisters and the shrimpy but pugnacious Toral lack legitimacy in their claim, but have more on-the-ground support from the Klingon fleet commanders. More than that, they have a hidden alliance with the Romulans that plays like the culmination of rumblings we’ve seen since the show’s first season finale.

More than the power struggle though, I like the mixture of honor-bound strictures and realpolitik at play here. There’s horse-trading, subterfuge, questions of jurisdiction that abound, and create all sorts of interesting knots and tangles to the question of who will be recognized as the leader of the Klingons. The Duras sisters don’t want to make Starfleet an enemy if they can avoid it, half trying to seduce him and half trying to warn him of the practical consequences to the Federation if he doesn’t rule their way, even as he sees through their schemes. Worf holds off his brother Kurn from supporting the Duras Sisters, not just out of resentment for their brothers, but so he can use Kurn’s support as leverage to convince Gowron to restore their family honor in a time of need. When the time comes, Gowron agrees, but only if Worf can convince Starfleet to support his claim, politically and militarily.

That, however, is a line Worf won’t cross. Much of the intrigue and philosophy of “Redemption” comes down to conflicts between Worf and Picard’s sympathies for Gowron and his cause, versus their loyalty and duty to Starfleet. It’s a familiar conflict -- what these characters wish they could do in their heart of hearts versus what Starfleet protocols require of them -- but it’s a venerable dilemma for a reason. It’s hard to resolve setting aside your deeply-held beliefs about what’s right and necessary versus following broader rules on process and jurisdiction that are meant to keep the peace.

For Worf, that means refusing to use his position as a Starfleet officer to try to gain support for Gowron, but still fighting as a tactical officer in a battle against the Duras family’s forces. For Picard, it means fulfilling his duty according to Klingon law and installing Gowron as chancellor since Toral has no pelts of his own, but refusing to participate in the same battle or enlist Starfleet’s aid in the Civil War in deference to the Federation’s standard of non-interference.

Though I’ll be honest, Picard seems a little out of character here. His little pep talk to Worf on needing to fight for the truth, and then later in the episode censuring him for trying to use Federation records to prove his father’s innocence, all plays as somewhat odd. Both exchanges speak to the themes of the episode, but feel contradictory (How did he expect Worf to prove his father’s innocence exactly?) and seem contrary to Picard’s “Don’t rock the boat” doctrinaire diplomacy.

But I’m willing to give the episode a little leeway, despite some awkwardness in the fit, given the powerful ideas of struggling to vindicate the legitimate interests of two different peoples at play. Picard has a duty to uphold Klingon law as the Arbiter of Succession and, much more than that, he has a loyalty to his security officer. But he is a Starfleet Captain, bound by the Prime Directive (which is much broader than I remembered!), which prevents him from interceding in the internal affairs of another people. The Prime Directive’s limitations include assisting in a civil war, even if the outcome of that war would have measurable, even devastating, effects on the Federation’s interests. Even when ethics and righteousness and care for a member of his crew compels Picard to want to join the fight, he forebears, ultimately choosing his responsibilities to Starfleet, and everything that comes with them.

Worf, on the other hand, makes the opposite choice. Gowron initially turns down his transactional request to restore the Mogh family’s honor, when Worf refuses to mix his personal strife as a Klingon with his role as a Starfleet officer. But in an attack on Gowron’s ship, Worf’s tactical abilities prove invaluable in defeating one of the vessels attacking, and Kurn gets the Big Damn Heroes moment to stop the other one, pledging his loyalty in the aftermath. This show of force (and usefulness, naturally) is enough to convince Gowron to accede to Worf’s wishes, using his position as Chancellor to bring Worf in from the wilderness and restore his family’s honor.

It has meaning within the episode because Gowron rejects Worf’s entreaties twice before he does this. It’s not a fait accompli that the honor will be restored, and the episode plays nicely with the audience’s expectations on that front. But of course it has meaning because we know how much this matters to Worf. For such a recently-introduced concept as discommendation, we understand through his moment with his parents, through the way other Klingons treat him, through the sense of shame he carries about it, what powerful and enervating thing it is to smear his blood across the Chancellor’s blade and be restored as a Klingon once more.

It’s a reaffirmation of his legitimate as a member of his species, something that’s been elusive for him as a man with a Klingon heart raised by humans. Guinan seizes on it -- he’s been overcompensating to some extent because of that, more enamored with embodying a caricatured version of Klingon honor and stoicism than the one that finds purchase among his actual kin. It’s not an act, but it’s a misapprehension of what it is to be Klingon, something Worf has struggled with for years, if not his whole life. Now, finally, he receives a benediction recognizing him as a true and genuine member of his people, something he’s hungered for all that time.

The gesture is enough to make him leave Starfleet. It’s not something Worf takes lightly. He asks for an extended leave of absence. He doesn’t want to resign his commission, But having been restored like this, he cannot simply return to duty about the Enterprise, when the leader who lifted him up is still embattled and the enemies of his family are the ones moving against him.

Even with T.V.’s inherent gravity of the status quo, his departure has meaning too. He’s been a valuable member of the crew for four years. The friends he made, the people he served with, want to honor him, the best way they know how. There are not pain sticks to test him as he walks down the corridors lined with his comrades. Only respect, admiration and love, worthy of a simple “Goodbye” from the man that speaks volumes despite its lack of explicit sentimentality.

Before Worf leaves, Picard tells him he served with distinction. He’s there to wish him good luck in Klingon, recognizing that his officer needs to do this. But he gives Worf the best compliment anyone’s ever uttered on the show. Despite his strain between his Klingon heritage and his human upbringing, Worf synthesized the best of each. He is a child of two worlds, yes, and that creates some strife. But it also created a man who could show courage, stoicism, and a warrior’s instinct, but match it with kindness, consideration, and care. Worf may choose one side over the other at this tense juncture, but he is both human and Klingon, an officer and a warrior, and that’s what’s always made him great.

And we're pulled into another season finale which means a cliffhanger episode, and this was a big one. We've seen bits and pieces of the brewing Klingon Civil War in the background and the Romulans attempts to slowly get more and more involved in others' affairs and they come about in a big way here.

This was a huge episode for Worf and him leaving Starfleet to return to the Klingons would have been more impactful of a cliffhanger if I hadn't already seen Deep Space Nine and knew he returned to Starfleet. But still, there's plenty of material here for him that further cements his status as one of my favourite characters on this show. The conversation between him and Guinan is great (prediction: Worf will laugh in the next episode), and I did like the Klingon political stuff again because they're never boring in this show.

I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Season 5 and picking up where I left off. I did like the show's strong emphasis on its family and although the slog of episodes towards the end did get a bit rough at times in terms of quality there were a few standouts and the show has very much found its groove. I did like how much time the show spent dealing with the Borg and the consequences from that; you can see why they've become such an iconic Star Trek villain (although the Cybermen are the superior sci-fi monsters, fight me).