@lefthandedguitarist I always enjoy looking at the comments after an episode, but it would be nice if you would put a spoiler tag on a part of your 4th paragraph, specifically "Things change with the arrival of Eris (who we will later learn is a Vorta)". I'm pretty sure that Trakt didn't have the spoiler tag back in 2017, and so instead of using the general spoiler warning for the whole comment, you just left it as is. But for us new Trekkies, it sucks to have those kind of things spoiled ;)
@riotaero Good point. I guess I didn't even consider it being a spoiler as it's such an integral part of the show.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2017-09-03T10:51:32Z— updated 2020-02-23T09:11:21Z
A fantastic end to season 2 gives us a deceptively small episode that grows bigger as it continues and ends with events that will shape the course of the entire series to come. This has a little bit of everything, starting with some lovely father/son bonding between Jake and Commander Sisko, juxtaposed by the funnier relationship between Nog and his uncle Quark.
In many ways, Quark is the real star of this one. His arguments with Sikso culminate in quite a beautiful speech about the nature of Ferengi vs. humans, and it serves to demonstrate the casual racism that everyone, noble Starfleet officers included, show towards Quark and the rest of his species. It seems like Quark's words are strong enough to actually register with Sisko.
The camping trip is a really enjoyable part of the episode, both Quark and Nog providing some really good humour. More so, though, is the continuing and very genuine love between Jake and his father. Any time they end up reminiscing about Jennifer always results in some quite heartbreaking stuff, and both Cirroc Lofton and Avery Brooks always hit the right notes.
Things change with the arrival of Eris (who we will later learn is a Vorta) followed by our first look at the Jem'Hadar. These guys are just great, and at this point it's all about displaying how intimidating they are. They have personal cloaking devices, great strength and a highly aggressive attitude. One of the most powerful moments of the episode is the way that the soldier on the station just casually walks through the force field the crew think they have him contained in; it's done in such a nonchalant way and shot so well that it becomes kind of unsettling.
If we needed a less subtle demonstration, they destroy a Galaxy-class starship. That could easily have been the Enterprise, as it was thoroughly overwhelmed and had no defence. There's a few moments here which don't track with later developments - Eris has telepathic abilities that will never be seen again, and she doesn't recognise what Odo is - but they're small enough things that it's easy to forget.