3x02 The Search (2)

[7.7/10] The hardest thing in life can be getting what you always wanted. That sounds odd, but it’s true. When you want something badly, and for a long time, it’s hard for the reality of the thing to live up to your expectations. Odo wanted to know where he came from, to meet his family and his people. Sisko wanted to establish peace with the Dominion to avert a conflict that the Federation couldn't win. Both seem to achieve those dreams here, but what they get isn’t what they wanted, and it puts both of the main characters of “The Search” in a fraught position.

The part that hits the hardest is Odo’s story. He learns so much so quickly, with both he and us learning tantalizing details about the changelings from whom he emerged. But he struggles. He’s lived a solitary life for a long time. He handles meeting his forebears like it’s police interrogation (despite some kind greasing of the social wheels by Kira). He turns into every object in the shape-shifters’ arboretum, but doesn’t feel what it’s like to be any of them in the way his changeling guide seems to suggest.

That’s to be expected, in some ways. Odo has been away for a long time. After feeling so different for so long, he envisioned a place and a people that would instantly feel like home. But meeting the rest of his kind, learning about the Great Link and the customs of the shape-shifters, is an adjustment like any other. There’s an awkwardness there, a discomfort, the sense that he’s still an outsider despite everything.

He does learn a few answers to his big questions. The changelings resent and distrust solids after their own attempts to explore the galaxy that turned into prejudice and hatred outward them. Odo was part of a project to learn more about this galaxy while avoiding such a fate, with he and a hundred other infants being spread throughout the galaxy. And he was able to find this place because they w ere all genetically coded with an urge to return there and share what they’ve learned.

Even if the fit isn’t perfect yet, Odo learns his purpose, his origins, his history and possibilities. The elevation is a tough one in some ways, especially when it means maybe saying goodbye to his friend Kira. But it also represents a certain hope in all of this, a new horizon for him to explore. When he combines with his changeling guide, it’s represented as a sort of intimacy with their demeanor and body language, and instant connection and belonging that Odo has searched for his whole life. The transition may be a rocky one, but there appears to be something transcendent and fulfilling waiting for him on the other side.

What’s waiting for Sisko on the other side (of the wormhole, naturally) isn’t as peachy. He seems to get what he wants too: a rescue by his colleagues, a return trip to DS9, and the revelation that his crew risking their lives for peace moved the Dominion into accepting a treaty with the Federation. This was a dangerous mission, one that nearly killed them all, but it achieved its goals. The Dominion, represented by Borath, an alien of the same variety who hoodwinked him in the season 2 finale, is ready to call of its dogs and become a partner to Starfleet, not an enemy.

Only there’s catches. I love how this quickly becomes a “be careful what you wish for” story for him too. At first, this seems like great news. But the Dominion is led by a representative from a people who deceived him. The Jem’Hadar are allowed to run roughshod on the ship. The treaty may put the Federation in bed with the Cardassians. The Romulans are excluded from the negotiations and may team up with the Bajorans to oppose it. The Dominion may be arming or allying with Starfleet to take out the Romulans and other enemies. They’re certainly taking over the station, forcing all of our heroes to be reassigned. In achieving what he thought he wanted, Sisko ended up losing all that he had. There is great power and poingance in that idea as well.

Of course, it turns out to be all a dream. I have mixed feelings about that idea. It’s a plot device I’ve never cared for, because it relies on pulling the rug out from under the audience and erases the consequences and validity of that viewers have seen. But framing it as a test by the Dominion of how far Sisko and company would go to protect their interests takes some of the sting out of it. And even if I don’t love the narrative excuse, it is nice to see a “What If?” of how things would go down if there were a real threat to the station or the people and principles Sisko holds dear.

That said, I maybe should have caught on sooner. (Even as someone who watched DS9 as a kid, I didn’t remember this twist.) It leans into the audience’s expectations and fears as much as the characters’. Admiral Nechayev returning to engage in some realpolitik that ignores the moral principles at stake? Check. New security chief Eddington being a smug pretender to Odo’s throne who lets the bad guys run roughshod? Check. Borath the Dominion representative being an untrustworthy operator while Garak the quick-witted ally on the side of the angels? Check. The show’s serving up exactly what we’d expect in this situation, even if it goes to extremes, which maybe should have been a sign.

Still, it’s cool to see SIsko making a stand, even if it’s instantly erased, and to give us a preview of Dominion/Federation conflicts before the show’s willing to pull the trigger on them in earnest. Watching them choose to destroy the wormhole and end their careers rather than capitulate is cool, and the reveal that all our heroes are actually trapped and being put in a simulation by Borath and the Dominion is a suitable shock.

But it also ties neatly into Odo’s situation. He’s ready to make peace with his new surroundings, commune with his people, and leave his old life behind. As awkward a fit as this reunion has been, it also has more answers, people who can guide him with centuries of history, and the opportunity for something approaching enlightenment via the Great Link.

While it’s a little rushed, I appreciate that what punctures that dream for Odo is two things: a realize that these people, whatever their connection to him, do not share his deepest value of justice, and that whatever his connection to them may be, he has a deeper connection to Kira, Sisko, and the rest of the makeshift family he’s built over the last two years. Yes, it’s a big deal that it turns out the Changelings are the Founders and the head of the Dominion, tying the two parts of our story together. But it’s a bigger deal what they choose to do and why, given how sharply it cuts against what Odo believes.

The Founders are admittedly a little sympathetic here. Yes, they seek to dominate and impose order on a chaotic universe. It’s the dark obverse side of Odo’s own bent towards justice, one that his guide highlights. But they were also treated with prejudice when they explored before. Their current fascist endeavors are a reflection of their own history of being mistreated and mistrusted by the world, something they respond to in kind.

Odo cannot cotton to it though. He demands the release of his friends. They are as important to him as any personal journeys. The question from the beginning of “The Search” has been whether Odo is a team player, whether he’s truly connected to these other people or if he’s off on his own frolic in perpetuity. The end of the duology affirms that however focused on his own principles and projects Odo may be, he cares deeply about these people, and could never sacrifice their happiness or satisfaction for his. Those connections run as deep as any he has at a homecoming that is at first sweet, but quickly turns bitter, when it’s not what he’d hoped for all those years of waiting and wondering.

And yet, thehre remains sweetness. Before Odo beams back to the ship to return to DS9 with his real family, Kira grasps his hand, much as the changeling guide did earlier. This too is a sign of intimacy, a sign that Odo is loved, wanted, accepted where he is despite his differences. There is transcendence in that too, a quiet affirmation of Odo as he is, someone loved by his colleagues and friends, however bumpy the relationship may be at times. Getting what you want can be surprisingly hard, but recognizing the beauty of what you already have can be unexpectedly wonderful.