I often see this derided as one of the worst DS9 episodes, and while it's definitely not going to win any awards I found myself seeing the good in it. It's certainly got a lot of issues and major story problems, but the episode has a heart and emotional punch which affected me. It also manages to be a very generic and unambitious Trek story.
Yeah, big parts of this don't make sense. Once Molly comes back as an 18 year old, the possibility is discussed of trying again to grab her through the time portal and bring her back as an 8 year old instead. This entire idea is dismissed by both the O'Briens and Dr. Bashir immediately. Why? Because they don't want to deny her the years she's had on the planet. Completely alone, separated from her parents, forced to learn to survive, scared out of her mind. OF COURSE YOU SHOULD TRY TO PREVENT THAT FROM HAPPENING. So, that's moronic.
Once back on the station, no real attempt is made to rehabilitate Molly. There are no child psychiatrists or doctors (bar Julian, who doesn't do all that much) assigned to help her. Miles and Keiko attempt to do everything alone, and it's insane how little patience they have. Miles is getting annoyed when Molly won't pass the ball back to him - based on the amount of balls she collects, they've been trying for all of 5 minutes. They put her in situations among crowds and seem surprised that she lashes out; why didn't they just beam to and from the holosuite to avoid problems?
Their final solution is to just send Molly back. Alone, to remain alone for the rest of her life until she dies alone. There is no feasible way that this is a good idea. For some reason the O'Briens completely reject the notion of Molly getting professional help and being rehabilitated properly.
As for the good stuff, I thought that Keiko especially brought a lot of emotion to the episode. Seeing a child separated from distraught parents is quite upsetting to watch. It's a shame that Molly isn't really a fully formed character, despite appearing on both this show and TNG for so many years (impressively, played by the same actress all this time too!). O'Brien's family in general seem to be a background thing that he doesn't need to deal with unless the story calls for it. Something of a missed opportunity there.
The actress for 18 year old Molly was fantastic, and easily the highlight of the episode.
They are going on a big mission. They may not return. Why not waste the first 15 minutes or so centered around that fact? I mean, can you be sure that we - the audience - otherwise understand what's at stake? No, 'cause we're stupid. Everyone needs to say goodbye, must explain why not coming along (or like in case of the two presidents why they come along), must confess their love to each other, deliver another sub-complex motivational speech over com (that screams Hollywood BS pathos) and so forth. Even after jumping to the galactic barrier Saru and the Good Doctor steal my time by discussing the universal concept of love in the most shallow and uninspired way you could ever imagine.
The barrier is strange and stupid as ever. Both from a visual and a cosmological point of view. Classic Star Trek. Brings back some memories.Discovery isn't to blame here!
The two engineers befriending each other is actually the better sub plot (it's easy to beat the actual main plot aboard the Discovery). Reminds me of the incarcerated Miles O'Brien. It makes his motives clear for the first time. This doesn't save this season but it's a piece that was always missing.
I nearly rated this a 7 because it was a fun watch if you didn't pay too much attention to the detail. The best parts were definitely with Saru et al on the planet; the other parts felt shallow and drawn out with a lot of fairly vacuous action. A bit of a disappointing end to the season but on the plus side, at least we don't need to keep pretending that Michael isn't Discovery's leader. I just hope this doesn't mark the end of Saru's involvement, especially since we already lost Georgiou this season.
I do hope next season they focus on distinguishing the assorted crew members more because at the moment, outside of the more obviously senior officers, these assorted faces keep cropping up that all seem to have the same "happy NPC" personality.
As for all the people rating every episode 1s and 2s out of 10, bitching and moaning about alleged "bumming" and forced "diversity", you're 3 seasons in now and know what you're getting. Either accept this is what this particular Trek show is about and try and enjoy it by growing as a person, or find something else to do or watch - life is far too short. You'll feel better, I'm sure.
The flashbacks was the best addition to this season, getting to see the Donovan’s siblings lives back then made this season interesting. We finally saw Ray’s emotions and the backstory!
I don’t know why Ray lied to Molly, he always knew his sister was pregnant when she committed suicide. It was sad to see his realization who the father was and that he forced her to go to work at his house. Ray will need many more therapy sessions after this. But how come Mickey didn’t know his daughter was pregnant? I guess he really doesn’t care about his children, that’s the only way to explain this plot hole.
I wish Ray didn’t kill Sullivan so quickly, I would have loved to hear more than, “Back then...”
I’m glad Smitty is dead. He was so annoying.
“Every one of your children, Mick ... left alone to be preyed on by wild fucking animals.” Devastating. Mickey Donovan is one of worst tv father of all time. I don’t get why he is still alive. I understand that it’s great to have John Voight on your show but it’s just so ridiculous how Mickey keeps getting away.
I'm happy Daryll got his revenge but he shouldn’t just blame Mickey, it’s his fault that he believed him.
Wonder how long they can keep the show going without the Donovans going to prison. So many dead bodies.
