PATRON TIER LIST - DS9 S2E5 - Cardassians

I know you TA guys weren't overly keen on this one, but personally i love the Garak and Bashir stuff, and the twist involving DuKat. I don't agree with Sisko's decision going against the kids wishes, but i still love this episode. For me it's a high A.

Garak should keep his hands out of people’s personal space

IMO this episode shows the biases of not only the characters but of the viewers. Think about it: Why do some people completely disregard the possibility that Rugal is being mistreated by his Bajoran father, even if they accept that he faced bullying from other Bajorans and is so hateful of Cardassians that he takes a bite out of Garak? Because the Bajorans are the 'good guys' and the Caradassians are the 'bad guys'? At bear minimum Rugal is being taught to hate his own species, which means if he stays on Bajor he has to deny his heritage at best or hate himself at worst. Saying that he should choose where he stays ignores the fact that it wasn't his choice to stay on Bajor in the first place. He's the victim of a kidnap plot and his real father lost 8 years of his son's lifetime because of it. He's going to be taken from a father figure and thrown into a difficult life no matter where he is sent. The law says that he belongs with his biological father. At the very least he should see Cardassia for himself so he knows just who he has been taught to hate. But if it doesn't work out, he should bounce back to Bajor or anywhere else as soon as he hits the Cadassian equivalent of legal adulthood.

It blows my mind that people are saying the kids should stay with the Bajoran parents. As much as they loved him, the kid was still a kidnapping victim and should be returned to his biological parents.

The scenes with Garak are so good, this should be a B. But I can't forget that stupid ending. Sisko just ignores the kid's wishes. Unforgivable, it nearly ruins the entire episode: C. Crappy, Careless Commander Closes Child Custody Case, Callously Concluding Cardassian Children Cannot Choose.

This a a world-building episode. As Garak is my favorite DS9 character, I'm always glad when he's more on the foreground. This is the first one where's got something other to do than talk to the doctor over dinner. He'll get so good at playing his character, that you'll be wanting to see him in every episode, as I have.

DS9 will get better at telling this kind of story.....and every other kind of story. Season 2 is the teenage years. Growing pains, but season 3 benefits a great deal from the learning process.