PATRON TIER LIST - DS9 S3E6 - The Abandoned

Pay attention to the lore. It might come back and make something make sense some future day.

This is my first B of the Season, obviously still a good grade, but i give the previous 5 episodes A.

Didn’t really garb me. It did move the overall ds9 story forward. It was more”important” than good. I give it a low B.

Arrives as an adorable adoptee. Admires appalling ancestry as an adolescent. Abandons astonished adopter as an angry, aggressive adult. Alas, any attempts at attitude adjustment as an antidote against artificial addiction are absurd.

Solid A. Important episode where the plot is part of the character development. Moves Odo forward. Finally shows us exactly who the Jem'Hadar are. I'm fine with waiting this long, if they immediately showed us this characterization in their introduction episode, it would disarm them a bit.

Look, it's good for an exposition dump. It's great for the way it decides to use the need for a "Jem'da'har" exposition dump to build Odo. The Jake and Sisko stuff is lovely. But I actually don't like the direction. Especially the clunky POV bit. Also, when we know the future and can't help comparing to other stuff it's a B. Take that as a positive though. Lots of the work done in this one is foundational and appreciated. But this is baking the cake not eating it.

A solid episode. Nice Jem'Hadar lore. Nice insight into Odo's willingness to spare his "ward" from becoming a lab rat just like he had been. To see him as something other than a genetically programmed killing machine, only to later realize he was wrong. This effectively proved that this new enemy will never be swayed from serving the Founders, no matter what logical argument is presented. Squarely a B for me Also, is it weird that I remember Jake's first girlfriend better than I remember my own?