UNCUT - Cardassians (DS9 S2E5) | Star Trek Journey 287

DS9 sex scoreboard catch up version No scores that I saw (remember I am only catching up with the short versions) The sex score board Chief 1 Keiko 1 Quark 1 Odo 1 Kira 1

Latinum can't be replicated. It's a liquid like mercury that has to be held in something, typically bars of gold.

I have a feeling that this is the kind of episode that would make much more sense on a rewatch after getting several more seasons worth of experience with Cardassians, how they think, etc.

Was James Cromwell too busy to be in this episode? Looks like the Temu version

Why did the kid get sent back with his Cardassian dad? Because he was never an orphan, nor abandoned by his father. He was kidnapped, presumed dead by his family. Once the kidnapping plot was revealed, the whole arbitration became irrelevant. Sending the kidnapping victim back to Bajor would've made no damn sense at all, and would've been unthinkable nonsense when this episode aired, from a legal standpoint. Facts don't care about your feelings in 2025, much less back in '93. Lol. It was a nice touch to have O'Brien tell Rugal that any time he wanted to visit his Bajoran "parents" he'd make sure it happened.

"I'm afraid not, child." That line ruins me.

10 million seems very low for occupying *an entire planet* for decades.

Solid B for me as well. Didn't like how the Cardassian kid was sent back to Cardassia. Makes more sense to have some kind of shared custody arrangement between his biological father and his Bajoran family. Maybe on the station? Also, I love the sass from Sisko this episode, and damn can he be intimidating. Don't. Do. It. Again.

This one is pretty straightforward and simple if you keep in mind that long game political maneuvering is like breathing for the Cardassians at the highest level of government. Deception and manipulation is what they do and has been a consistent theme for their species since introduced in TNG. Even in the episode conclusion with Dukat's cousin and Captain Picard, Picard calls out his bull shit for how the Cardassians were basically bating the Federation into starting a war. Dukat having irons in the fire burning for a decade is easy to get behind. As far as the ending goes the conclusion is the only one that made sense. The kid was basically kidnapped. He was sent home to his original family.. Rugal and both families were all victims of Dukat's maneuvering. It was messy but that is a typical DS9 story. It isn't Picard saying engage and we warp off with a happy ending. I feel the main problem with this episode is it is a 60 minute story with a 45 minute run time.

It feels like a real clumsy ruse. Dukat left this not-orphan with a Bajoran orphanage on the off-chance that the kid might turn up at some point and could be used against his rival, I guess? Seems like a lot of effort to go to with little chance of it actually paying off. If he hadn't bitten Garak, would any of this ever have come to pass? How would Dukat have explained his interest in the genetic records of a Cardassian orphan boy? How would he have obtained them from a Bajoran government that is not particularly interested in working with the Cardassians? It's a conspiracy that only exists because the writers wanted an episode like this. I have no problem with the conspiracy existing... it just feels like Dukat should have had some way of making sure he could bring it off. As it is, it seems like random chance.

The novel "The Never-Ending Sacrifice" is about Rugal. It begins just after this episode ends and continues for eight years. I usually don't enjoy Trek novels that don't feature the main cast, but I remember enjoying this one.

I totally agree with your assessment of this episode, it’s got some great character moments but the story is a bit convoluted. I think you missed the bit where Sisko says he ruled in the biological dad’s favour but that definitely should have been fleshed out. From a legal point it makes sense but it seems brutal for the kid to be ripped away from the only home he remembers.

The Alien guy who offered the Bajoran dad a job was an op for Dukat. He said he knew that family for a while, and was doing so to keep tabs on the boy for Dukat. That's how Dukat learned of the incident so fast, and the op is the one who told Bashir that the boy was mistreated thus started the entire situation. Sisko tells Dukat (in phone call 2 iirc) that they can't find the man who made the accusation. Cardassians are like Romulans in that they are schemers, but what makes them different is that they will totally play and plan these crazy long shot multi-year plans. This guy crossed Dukat and either Dukat had his place bombed or more likely took advantage when it was and had an opportunity to kidnap his kid. He was in overall control of Bajor and easily placed him in an orphanage and kept tabs on the boy (for the last few years through the "friendship" of that alien op and the Bajoran dad). Now years later the Cardassian dad and Dukat are in a pollical squabble so Dukat had the alien op offer the father a job and bring the boy to DS9. What was probably the plan was for the Alien op to make the abuse allegation to the Federation and the goody-two-shoes Federation would send the boy home to Cardassia no questions asked and Cardassian dad would have been forced to resign solving Dukat's problem. Unfortunatly for Dukat, Garak happend to run into the family first and the boy attacked him. Garak found out that Dukat was personally involved in a rather minor incident so Garak now has QUESTIONS. Garak then foils Dukat's multi-year kidnapping scheme. That's why the Alien op dissapears; he lit the fuse on this custody battle but it went tits up when the kid attacked Garak. So after he gives Bashir the needed lore dump he runs.

Commander Sisko gave somewhat of an explanation to the resolution of the hearing in his station log but you guys were talking and missed it

I think they missed the voiceover where sisko described his decision on custody right? Interesting because it emphasized how that story was treated like an afterthought. Miss a few seconds and it doesn’t make sense.

Where it might be frustrating, and no doubt someone else has already pointed this out, is that the relationship between Rugal and his father(s) is actually the B-plot. If it was the A-plot, plain and simple Garrak would not have featured in the episode. The title is, after all, "Cardassians," not "Rugal." (Oh, and you guys talked over the closing log where they stated that there were lengthy additional deliberations 😉 -- which appear to have ultimately bowed to the Cardassian legal precedent that custody defaults to the biological claimant. Even in human custody hearings, the preference of the child is only one of many factors taken into consideration.)

Regarding replicators, in "Data's Day" we saw Data and Worf discussing wedding gifts for the O'briens at a replicator kiosk while a kid gets a teddy bear replicated behind them. Latinum is one of the few things that can't be replicated, hence its worth. The only thing that gets in the way of replication is the energy to do it. Replicators are WHY Earth is post-scarcity in Trek. If you can create anything in seconds, you don't need to pay for it. Now, my own headcanon is that replicators are relatively new in the history of Trek. Perhaps starting to come into use during the mid-to-late movie era - just in time to render money useless. Prior to this in TOS they had "Food Synthesizers" which required recipe tapes and functioned more like rapid delivery automats. Given the name difference I view these as seperate technologies. While the Replicator can create anything out of any matter converted to energy, then reconsitituted down to the molecule as something else, I think food synthesizes function as mini transpoters, taking bulk food stored aboard ship, beaming pieces of it away, then following the recipie on the tapes to create and assemble a dish, basically using the transporter as an automatic chef. During periods where the stores are low, the Food Synthesizers are only capable of creating those food cubes. Also, going off of your discussion last TNG episode staining the carpet with spilled Bloodwine - they have transpoerters, they can target the molecules of the wine and beam it out of the carpet fibers. Same with how the holodecks are cleaned. Heck, people might even use transporters to empty their bowels and bladders.

Gil Dukat’s involvement did not determine the outcome of Sisko’s decision about who should get custody. Sisko just decided based on other reasons that this was the best decision.

Latinum is used as money because it's molecular structure is too complex for replicators to make. Basically made up star Trek physics says it's physically impossible for a replicator to make Latinum. (For the record, I am okay with made up star Trek physics)

O'Brien even told the child he would have a substantial say in where he wanted to go, but in the end it seems Sisko just straight up decided against his will.

It was complicated but not as complicated as you guys seem to be making it out. Bashier was just pointing out how full of shit Dukat was and preventing him from getting his way But yeah either way it seems Sisko was going to give the kid back to his bio dad.

Regarding replicators: They can make pretty much anything, up to and including complicated technological components (Industrial Replicators vs Food Replicators), however it is a matter of economics. The amount of energy required to produce a bar of gold pressed latinum in a replicator far exceed the value of that bar, so there's no point. While the Federation has no 'money', 'economics' exists and plays a role whether you want to pay attention to it or not. The utility of being able to 'replicate' whatever you need on a starship is huge given how frequently they will be light years away from supply lines. Particularly because of how comparatively costly traditional supply lines are to maintain - requiring the devotion of fleets of vessels, each with warp drives that run on finite supplies of dilithium crystals. In many cases replicators have clear economic utility both for civilian and technical use cases, but what they make is more expensive than what could otherwise be had more conventionally. 'Post scarcity' does not mean post economics. It does not mean 'free' everything and it does not mean 'infinite' everything. (I love talking about the economics of Star Trek)

Reading between the lines.... The bajoran father was looking for work, Dukat sent the weird headed guy to offer work and spread lies about the relationship between the boy and the bajoran father and take him to DS9. Dukat was monitoring, waiting for any incident to jump to the rescue for war orphans.... But really it was always about destroying the career of his long time political enemy. Dukat had set that up 8 years earlier, and his plan was coming together. The mediation mattered to Dukat, because he wanted the boy to go home with his real father. Dukat would then make sure it all became public, destroying the man. It ending with Dukat exposed means Dukat will keep it secret - plan failed.

Technically (maybe pedantically?), I think the word you want is "prejudiced" not "racist" in the context of the world of Star Trek. These are different species or even lifeforms, not races of the same species. That said, it's clearly a metaphor for racism from the point of view of the writers and audience. So, I get why you would put it that way.

I really like Garak's line: "I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day. But I don't *trust* coincidences". And to the discussion question, "why don't they replicate gold pressed latinum?" I assume that latinum is unique in some way that makes it incompatible with replicator technology, and that very fact is part of makes it viable as currency.

What happened: 8 years ago Dukat kidnapped the son of a powerful government official and put him in an orphanage, knowing someday he’d likely need leverage on him. It may have been coincidence that the kid arrived on the station while Dukat’s agent (weird head dabo player) was ready to accuse Bajoran dad, but I wouldn’t trust it. At the end, Sisko said he decided in Biodad’s favor because he was entirely a victim in this

the dad arrived on the space station because dukat told him about rugel it wasnt coincidence

I'm not going into whether or not the kid should have been returned to the his biological father, that is probably going to be traumatic for him. But I think he already has so much trauma, by his adoptive parents. And I'm not referring to the claim by that alien that he was abused, that is almost certainly a lie. I think his adoptive parents loved him, but I found uneasy when the father said he doesn't see him as a Cardassian but as a Bajoran. And it is okay to feel Bajoran societally as he lives among them. But he should be okay with being a Cardassian, he was born as one and there is nothing wrong with that. If he had gone on hating the entire Cardassian species, he would have spend his whole life hating himself. I believe his parents should have told him what the Cardassian government did to Bajor, he should be aware of that, in order to develop critical thinking. And that he is a Cardassian, not Bajoran, and that it is okay because a Cardassian can be as good (or bad) as a Bajoran. I might be wrong, but it felt like they generalized Cardassians for him, which on one hand I can understand as they lived through the occupation and have their own trauma, but it doesn't make it right, or good parenting.

I always assumed the kid was returned to his Cardassian father because he'd effectively been kidnapped by a subordinate of Dukat's.

The reval of Dukat's scheme was not relevant to the decision to send him with his biorth father

I don't think chief was lying to Rugal when he told him about not hating other races. Chief is a great example of how well-intentioned people can harbor prejudice that they don't even realize is there. I think he does believe that all the races can and should get along, that's part of starfleet ethos. But that is an easier concept to accept in the abstract, when it's there in your home playing with your daughter, all those feelings from the Cardassian war can slip out.

This story with the many layers and reveals would have been a fantastic DS9 novel . Still a good episode. I think the mediation at the end was only for the decision where the kid belongs. Dukat invited himself to it. Bashirs reveal helpt with the political stuff, but I'm quite sure that it was a key point for Siskos decision: He sent the kid to his biological father because the kid has been abducted for a political game and nothing more.

Also forgot to say yesterday, I like that we're starting to see a bit more of Sisko's personality emerge here. He's not quite as wooden as he was in a lot of S1.

I know you asked for negative feedback so I'm going to have to be the asshole and say the new TA-DS9 set design looks damn cool.

The way Sisko's final decision occurs off-screen ends up making Rugal himself an afterthought in the story, which is inevitably off-putting, even though as others have pointed out once we get the reveal that Rugal was actually kidnapped on Dukat's orders, not accidently abandoned, Sisko's decision makes sense. But we should have had a final goodbye scene with Rugal and his Bajoran foster father, and without that the story feels frustratingly incomplete. Nevertheless, the episode has so many good character moments and so much provocative world building that it's still a solid B even with that major shortcoming.

Sadly the theme is timeless. Now for example with thousands of ukrainian children kidnapped by the Russians. Centuries ago for example with the Janissaries who were christian children raised by the Ottoman Empire to supress and kill christians on behalf of the Turks. Children will always be pawns in deadly games of power.

I love this episode, for me it's a solid A. Of course i love all of the Chief moments, but the parts i love most are Garak and Julian's investigation leading upto the confrontation with Dukat at the end.

Uncovering the conspiracy didn't settle where the kid would go. What it did was stop Dukat's plan to destroy the politician's career because it would destroy his career if it came out how he manipulated a child for political purposes. If it did help the final decision, it was by ensuring that the kid would go back as the son of a respected political leader rather than as the son of a disgraced man, so the life he'd live on Cardassia would be much better than if Dukat's plan succeeded. The decision was rushed, but it seems to have been a compromise that would allow the kid to see both fathers, which would be more difficult if he would have stayed on Bajor. And it seems that Sisko thought staying with a family who hated Cardassians was not healthy, even if they treated him well, hence why he said sending him with his biological father was necessary for "healing."

You might have wanted more of Rugal’s experience, etc, but that wasn’t the point of the episode. This was about political maneuvering at a child’s expense—anything else is a distraction from the chess game being played. The end meeting was a custody hearing. If Pa’Dar abandoned Rugal, he’d stay with the Bajorans. If Dukat was behind it, the boy was taken for political gain—specifically to discredit rival Pa’Dar. Because Cardassians prize family bonds, Dukat ideally wanted Rugal to remain with the Bajorans to make Pa’Dar look even worse. Still, Pa’Dar winning custody was good enough—the damage to his reputation was done. The female Cardassian dropping Rugal off is deliberate—if a male soldier, possibly Dukat himself, had done it, it might have raised suspicion. A woman, with assumed maternal instincts, draws less scrutiny. This both hides Dukat’s role and plants subtle hints, for the viewers benefit, that something is amiss. And Dukat’s presence on DS9? Pure showmanship—projecting to the Cardassian people that he values family, playing the role of “man of the people.” Meanwhile, Garak’s sharp stare-down with Dukat suggests he’s onto the scheme—spy or not, he’s playing his own game.

I remember this episode being really hard to follow the first time I watched it. It's still a little hard to follow now even though I've seen this show 10 times over by now. I love Cardassian episodes, but this one is the worst written of them I think since it's hard to follow, and kind of has a lot in it that they don't have time to flesh out. The worst thing you can do to a Cardassian is embarrass them. It's kind of like the "saving face" thing that you find in a lot of Eastern cultures, particularly China. Cardassian culture has a lot of propaganda in it that's supposed to never be challenged or questioned. High up officials and military officers have an inage they have to maintain. The worst thing you can do is expose that propaganda or image. That was actually Maritza's plan in Duet. To embarrass Cardassia. He knew eveyone on Cardassia knew that Gul Darheel was dead, and that they all celebrated him as someone who did amazing service to the state. Cardassian propaganda was also adamant that absolutely no atrocities happened during the occupation of Bajor, and that everything they did was necessary and justified. By Maritza testifying as Gul Darheel, and acting cartoonishly evil, Cardassia would have no explanation for why one of its own people would be willing to do that if all of it's propaganda was supposedly true. It would expose that either a Cardassian was lying about who he was, Gul Darheel wasn't really that great, atrocities actually did happen, or Cardassians do make mistakes sometimes. They wouldn't be able to save face everywhere, and it would embarrass them because it exposed their propaganda was propaganda and not truth. Gul Dukat even realized this when Odo told him that Maritza was claiming to be Gul Darheel. He said "this is obviously some plot to try and embarrass the Cardassian government." Which makes it all the more poetic in Homecoming were Li Nalas said the last look upon the naked Cardassian's face was embarrassement. That whole scuffle of theirs was probably the worst thing that could have ever happened to him. If he hadn't had died and word ever got out, that incident would have ended his military career because Cardassians aren't allowed to have "human" moments like that. They're supposed to always show this image of strength. So here, Dukat saw an opportunity when they withdrew from Bajor to set up ammo that he could use later on if needed against one of his enemies should he need to in the future. Dukat knew who the kid was, and arranged to have him taken to a Bajoran orphanage in the chaos. Part of Cardassian propaganda is how strong their family ties are. So for it to be exposed that someone higher up abandoned their child on Bajor as a Cardassian war orphan, again, that would instantly end their career. Dukat arranged for the Bajoran family to come on the station, probably even knowing that they would run into Garak, because I think the guy was getting elected or something.?It was a politically strategic moment that Dukat saw he could use as an excellent time to ruin this guy. Of course at the end, Dukat get embarrassed for not only having his plot exposed, but having his whole "won't somebody think of the children" propaganda exposed too, when it was clear Dukat was using a child as a political pawn.

a minor point, i dont get it whats going to happen to the other cardassian kids the doc and garak found on bajor? unlike rugal they seemed to want to go back to cardassia. so they dont get to go but the kid who had no interest at all is forced back?

I do love this one (B for me) but It does kinda feel that this episode is a bit rushed at the end and runs out of time.

Probably discussed but - I think the missing detail is the Cardassian involvement in the Circle. There is a line where it’s referenced there is an inquiry about to take place on Cardassia. Dukat always hated this man so took advantage and kept the boy hidden on Bajor so that he could bring him out ruin his rival at the right time. Which implies that either Dukat had involvement in the Circle or wanted to discredit him as a power grab.

I think Chief O'Brien meant what he said to Rugal, but he's carrying this cognitive dissonance with him regarding his general view of races or species (that you can't lump them all together) versus his prejudices against the Cardassians. Hopefully, this episode helped him to realize it.

Replicator technology is essentially the same as transporter technology. The transporter is able to materialize people and objects by reconstructing their molecular pattern. The Replicator is just a scaled down version of this technology which can only materialize simple objects from a pattern saved in a computer library. Gold is worthless in the 24th century - partly because it can be replicated. Latinum on the other hand cannot be replicated for "reasons" thus making it highly valuable - the gold pressing serves only to contain the Latinum.

Garek isn't as "magical" as Guinan?!!!!! You know, I was going to tell you both that I was just interested in how you would react to DS9, regardless of what overall opinion you had about it. Even though you haven't seen Garek at his best yet, that crack by Alex means it's no holds-barred outright war from now on. You'll regret the day you made a reasonable assessment based on the little you've seen of him so far.

Rugal biting Garak was just a thing that happened. But it happening gave Dukat an opening to execute some bullshit he'd been brewing up for 8 years at an incredibly opportune time. The hearing was to determine whether he should stay with his Bajoran parent or go with Padar. Sisko was mediating that, not trying to figure out whether or not he was the father.

The amount of people in here doing the “Look at me, look at me!! Look at how much Star Trek tech stuff I know!!” is cringy AF. People need to learn to STFU and just let them discover everything as they go, like how it’s supposed to be. So much of that shit is little spoilers that you’re taking away from their experience. Even little spoilers take away the mystery. No one is impressed by your “tech knowledge”. Give it a rest.

The oval Ops center screen is cool but it doesn’t reach the peak of set design until it has a giant fist coming out of the wall next to it.

Going on memory alone....A formal hearing was due to take place shortly in Cardassia. Dukat saw an opportunity to undermine this hearing and the father of Rugal, before Dukat himself suffered the consequences. Rugal was an ace up Dukat's sleeve for just this kind of opportunity. Dukat was playing the long game. Rugal would embarrass his Cardassian father, who would lose prestige and authority. Dukat would move in to exploit the power vacuum.

Certain elements like Latinum and Dilithium cannot be replicated, hence they have scarcity and value.

*sigh* how many times have I told you, daddy used to *fight* the cardassians, not *bite* them.

I love Garak. The best part of the episode is him and Bashir. His smile is great. Dukat is a great bad guy but Garak is my favorite Cardassian. Mysterious.

The real question is... have you condemned Shaakar?

To return to a recent hot topic, this might be a story that could have benefitted from being more fleshed out as a two-parter.

Can you imagine how annoying it is for guys like O'brien who as soon as they voice them, have their memories of what they went through in war shamed and shouted down by everyone who wasn't there, even by his own wife?

For the replicator discussion, I would add the TOS ep Catspaw, where Kirk dismissed the bribe of jewels and coins as worthless by saying that they can fabricate "a million of them" on the Enterprise. So, they had basic replicator tech as early as TOS, and they've only gotten better since.

Regarding the inconsistent things O'Brien says about Cardassians - I actually think this is a great and realistic bit of characterization. People are complicated. I think O'Brien doesn't THINK he's prejudiced against Cardassians; he's willing to say truisms about not being prejudiced and not hating all Cardassians (and really believe them, or THINK he believes them), while still having that hatred come out at times. That kind of cognitive dissonance seems very realistic to me.

I'm glad you guys picked up on how weird the ending of this episode is. For the record, in America at least, we have a concept called "parentage by estoppel" which basically just means that you can't legally claim to be a kid's parent if they already have an established parent, regardless of genetics or circumstances. But, even today, it's an often misunderstood belief that bio-parents always automatically get custody of a child.

So a few others have offered their explanations, and I'll add to the pile. Dukat and Pa'Dar have been political rivals for a long time. When the bajoran resistance blew up Pa'Dar's home(possibly Dukat even had something to do with that, either directly or leaking intel on where Pa'Dar lived to the resistance), Dukat seemingly had his people take Rugal from the rubble and put him up for adoption, leaving his father to think he was dead. Given the importance Cardassians place on family, Rugal was always Dukat's ace in the hole. So why did all this happen now? Basically Pa'Dar was looking into the Cardassian involvement in the whole Circle coup, and Dukat was implicated. The guy who said Rugal was being abused was working for Dukat and arranged for Rugal and his adopted father to be on the station, and the incident with Garak just sped things along. The whole point was to ruin Pa'Dar's political career before he could expose Dukat's role in the coup. In the end they reached a stalemate. As for Sisko deciding Rugal should return to his biological father, I imagine Sisko was thinking how he would feel if Jake was basically kidnapped and declared dead, only for him to find he'd been raised to hate humans. Legally Pa'Dar has every right to take him home. Though I suppose in a few years when he's an adult he could return if he wished. As for replicators there are some things they can't replicate. My head canon is there are stores of various base materials that are used to create various things. They are an extension of transporter tech and storing enough pure energy to replicate even a few kilos would be incredibly dangerous. There are some things which can't be replicated though.

I think gold press latinum is so valuable because it is one of the rare substances in the universe that can't be replicated.

I totally get what you mean, but the boy was kidnapped and used as a political bargaining chip. At that point Sisko would have had no choice but to return him to his biological father. I do think though that it ended far too quickly. It feels like scenes were cut. I think it would have been an A, but the ending's disjointed-ness brings it down to a SOLID B

They have replicated non-food things before. Alex, you probably recalled Word and Data replicating a wedding gift on TNG. Replicators come in different types. There are industrial replicators but they are huge and require a lot of power. Also while Gold could be, Latinum can't be replicated. (And no, I do not think any of this is story-critical spoiler material)

Miles' uniform has 1 pip because his rank is Chief Petty Officer (CPO), a naval rank similar to a Sergeant 1st Class in the army. They had to retcon the fact that O'Brien was a lieutenant initially in TNG but was actually a CPO. They called him chief in TNG because he was the Transporter Chief, his position, not the same thing as rank. The pip on O'Brien's collar signifies his CPO rank.

The boy wasnt an orphan and he was used as a political pawn and seen as the victim so sent back to the real parent.

Another good thing about this episode...Garak's watermelon suit. :)

This story answers a question that crossed my mind when I first started watching the series. From the start the station was called Deep Space Nine. Since it originally belonged to the Cardassians I had wondered what they had called it. I thought the dramatic way that it was revealed to be Terok Nor was cool. Since it implicated Gul Dukat in his scandal.

The reason Rugal went back with his dad was that he was effectively kidnapped. I feel that gives the dad more right to him back. I just kinda assume they continued the hearing offscreen and that was the determination. It would have been nice if it were a little more definitive or had a line explaining the reasoning a bit better.

I'm glad you like Garak and his actor, Andrew Robinson. By all accounts he's a really sweet person and has really embraced the character in Trekdom, he even wrote a Star Trek novel and after 20+ years since the novel's release, finally released the audiobook version which he narrated!

The big issue for the mediation was that Rugal wasn’t orphaned as much as “kidnapped” by Dukat to use for blackmail. The dots you have to connect is Rugal was rescued from the attack but instead of reunited with his Cardassian family Dukat put him in the orphanage to use later. Since he was kidnapped Sisko had to let his Cardassian dad take him instead of going back with his Bajoran dad. The writers did to the audience what Garakwas doing to Bashir making us take the clues and figure it out. Not sure I would have got it if I watched this live. This was an episode I missed and saw on my rewatch after the end of the series.

it was in Datas Day where they went to a replicator to make presents for the wedding. replicators also make all their clothes. they basically can make anything they need food, clothes. tools. I believe they are limited to simple basic items and they cannot be raw elements. Also to talk about Why they sent the kid with his dad was because he was kidnapped. Imagine as a parent your kid gets taken .. you find him and luckily someone was taking care of him. Thats really a best case scenario but it does not make the kid any less your kid and you love them any less. Sure it sucks for the family who adopted him but he really should be with his biological family.

I always assumed that the "female Cardassian attached to Terok Nor" WAS Gul Dukat dressed up as a woman.

Was Rugal half Bajoran? I was noticing in his close ups that his Cardy makeup is less pronounced and he seemingly has nose ridges? Guys if you see this.. there’s a fan theory that Cardies and Bajorans have a common ancestor? not unlike Vulcans and Romulans. They seemingly can mate! If you remember Kehlar said that her parents needed medical assistance to conceive her. CardJorans seem to need no such assistance? 🤷‍♂️

Me again, they have replicated ship parts too.

This episode benefits from a rewatch. What sets the wheels in motion is the alien guy who likes Dabo. He hired Rugal's adopted father and brought them on the station, and he even motioned for them to conveniently sit right next to where Garak was seated. He alone told Bashir the kid was being mistreated. Later, Sisko mentions that the guy had completely disappeared when talking to Dukat in his quarters overnight. So, he was clearly paid by Dukat or someone connected to him to set the wheels in motion. Which would explain how Dukat immediately "found out" about it and let the investigation begin. I don't think Dukat cared whether the orphan was returned or not, I think just the fact that P'Dar had left his kid there and that he hated Cardassians was enough to ruin him. The fathers of Rugal cared about the outcome. But Dukat was only interested in trying to shed light on the whole thing. The plot is a bit too complicated for a one-time viewing. I get feeling it is half-baked for sure, but (Rugal actor aside), I think the story is pretty good.

Never saw this one the first time around, but seeing it now, the concept seems an awful lot like the TNG episode "Suddenly Human"...

I’ve always felt the dinner scene makes Keiko look like an idiot. The kid wouldn’t like Cardassian food because he’s been raised Bajoran. If she wanted to make him feel at home, she should’ve made Bajoran cuisine.

They sent a DNA sample to Cardassia to locate a possible relative. That's when Dukat contacted them about the father. The point is there was no "right" decision on where to place the kid, and all parties except Gul Dukat are innocent victims of his political scheming.

Funny you remembered Garak's name, who we've not seen since the 2nd ever episode, but not the Trill guy from the last episode? Verad, by the way. I only remember that because the first time I saw that episode (early '96), I thought "Verad, don't call me Benjamin" was a kick-ass "pre-mortem one-liner"

Thanks for posting just in time before my UK Bedtime 🙌 Was hoping. You came through! 🥳