UNCUT - The Assignment (DS9 S5E5) | Star Trek Journey 431

I love the chief/rom dynamic. And rom is just so damn endearing. I know this episode is about a pah-wraith or whatever, but I'm here for Rom's development of a self esteem 🤙🍻

Kinda makes sense if the beam killed the wormkole aliens it wouls kill the evil work hole aliens all chief had to do was redirect it.

Miles is not my favorite character but I actually like this episode a lot, maybe because Rom gets his due here. Rom really is a genius.

Its strange they never talked on when this happened with them in reverse when they were on the Enterprise. Star Trek was always keen on those moments, so the comparison slipping their mind was always disappointing to me.

Hana Hatae (Molly) has always been credited, but in the end credits. They promoted her to the opening guest credits starting in S4E17: "Accession"

As always O'Brien Must Suffer

Just wanted to bring up that the Bajorian "soul" is called their "pah" (remember the Kai grabbing people's ears and saying their pah is strong). Helps it make sense why the evil wormhole alien outcasts are called pah wraiths

well the pak told chief that the wormhole aliens wouldnt even recognize what happens and be dead in a second, i think its clear to assume that the same goes for it as they are the same species

Alex is a pineapple on pizza enjoyer, based

Happy birthday Chief!

Every time Josh so confidently says, "oh, {this} won't be coming back," all I can do is laugh at this point. Hasn't precedent proved him wrong over a dozen times already? Granted, not *everything* important in any one given episodes "comes back," but enough stuff has that you'd think Josh would put that assumption to bed. I especially enjoy when Josh gives credit to an episode that brings something back, then in the same episode claims something else will never be referenced again. Good times.

A Filler Episode. But a good one. B for me. Nice to see, Keiko can have some fun to act in this one.

Even when possessed by any ancient demon, she’s less evil here than in Data’s day.

Why so shocked about alcohol as a bday present? It's my standing request 20 years running!

I love the implication about their love life of how it takes like 4 hints before O'Brien realizes Keiko isn't doing some kind of sexytime role play with her whole "I am not Keiko, you must do everything I say."

This one is always a fun watch for me. Wouldn't say it's an iconic episode or anything, but it's a solid B+. Rosalind must have had a ton of fun doing this one. Who doesn't like being the baddie once in a while? In regards to the Keiko "hate", I'm honestly convinced that 80-90% of it is just a meme. Of course any character will have legit haters. Even Neelix isn't genuinely hated by everyone who shits on the character, though it's probably 40-50% in his case that really do hate the character. For Keiko though I think most people are just playing into a trope. And of course we can't forget Rom's story continuing to progress. Even though he still can be a bit of an idiot(refusing to admit his own name), more and more we see he's honestly pretty smart, just very socially awkward. The fact he was able to piece together what the pah wraith wanted from hundreds of little modifications is pretty impressive. As to the pah wraith acting differently from the prophets, I wonder if their imprisonment in the fire caves traps them in the same linear flow of time we experience? The wraith said it had waited centuries to destroy the prophets. To a prophet, centuries in the past or centuries in the future is all the same. Lastly, I like how in the scene where Odo catches Chief, he's not asking "why" in regards to the reason he's doing all this, but rather why he was so careless in covering up his tracks. He respects the chief's abilities so much he's almost more concerned that he was sloppy than that he possibly committed treason.

Having Pah-wraiths be real makes sense. Learning about the wormhole aliens basically proved that the Prophets are real. So any parts of mythology surrounding them could be based on real things. I think the series has already up to Season 5 shown us that the Prophets/Bajorans' religion is both sort of real and sort of not real.

Hana Hatae first appeared and was credited in “Rascals” in TNG.

Voyage Home is when I started watching with you guys. I love seeing these great shows again.

Keiko appreciation love! She's the best secondary character in Trek

Another bad day for Miles O'Brien. I'd be surprised if he isn't on some 24th century antidepressants considering the life he's led.

"This isn't because she's possessed; this is a normal marriage." I laughed a little too loud at that one, Josh. My wife was in the room, too.

I think of this episode as a re-hash of "Power Play" from TNG. Both are episodes about people being possesed by evil aliens who are seeking to escape from imprisonment. I didn't really like it when TNG did it and I don't like it much here either.

"Wraith" is just another word for a ghost or spirit without a physical body.

Do you think Chief could have gotten away with texting or e-mailing his situation to Captain Sisko? Or would anyone knowing and having to put on a poker face tip Keiko off.

What would happen if Keiko was done with ? well Chief will still have Kira an their baby. Just kidding, I enjoyed seeing Keiko stretched with this possession.

Thank you for the insight into the O'Brien's sex life I never thought about or want to think about again.

Age, these reactions, and the comments here have completely flipped me on Rom. He used to bother me as much as Neelix.

Great reaction & episode. I wasn't aware of Keiko haters until I saw the same meme that Alex did. I love that the guys thought Keiko might have been written out of the show. Along with Nog and along with Rom, just like you said. Heck, I'm sure you never thought you'd see Grilka again either and you just did! You guys guess many things correctly, but also guess many things wrong. Keep doing it, though!! We all get to sit home and laugh when you either guess right or wrong, so I'm sure we all like those kinds of predictions. :D

The problems with season 5 is all the kid episodes

Missionary Miles? You know Kira would be on top. 😆

Rosalind Chao deserves more credit for her performance as Keiko. She plays the Pah-Wraith really well here. There’s just something so gleefully malicious about her performance. Despite what she says about being focused on the endgame her actions and demeanor show how much she relishes playing headgames and tormenting the Chief. She plays a good wormhole demon is all I’m saying. As for Meaney what else can you say? There’s a reason the writers keep turning to him for the traumatic and emotionally grueling episodes. There’s that moment where she brings him the cake and tells him to make a wish. That silent stare down that passes between the two before O’Brien slowly leans forward and blows out the candle without breaking eye contact. I’m glad we are never explicitly told what he wishes for because it could not possibly be as unpleasant as what we imagine is going through his head.

How is a Ferengi bartenders recurring brother one of my favorite characters in Star Trek?

They understood The Assignment.

Poor O'Brien.

The primary reason they sent Keiko and Molly to Bajor was so that they would have a reason for Miles to start spending more time with Julian. Ira’s plan since the beginning of the series was always to have them start to become stronger and stronger friends. That’s why you see Miles be so annoyed and disinterested in Bashir right from the start of the series, setting up the gradual growth of their relationship. It’s one of the few times in Trek they actually knew where they were going.

I think this is arguably the third worst episode of the season. Such a strong season.

"Keiko, you're possessed? I could hardly tell the difference!"

Chief: "YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, KEIKO!"

Seeing you guys laugh so much during this did me think of how ironic it is that, even as DS9 has always had the rep of being the "dark and gritty" Trek, it is, IMO, consistently the funniest series in the franchise.

Ironically, I saw this episode *before* knowing about Odo's change, and was totally confused how he got knocked out by a single back-hander from The Chief.

Evil Keiko is my dream date

One thing we can agree on is first sin of The Bonding is the one word title, it all goes downhill from that first sin.

Tommy Wiseau and Neil Breen thought they were making art. I think most of the people working on those films with them knew otherwise. We know that's pretty much true for The Room. I'd love to work on a Neil Breen movie. Wiseau is in on the joke now but Breen somehow isn't. As for spoof movies, I think you're muddling some things together. You have movies like Sharknado where they're trying to be a movie that Rifftrax would tackle while also being in on the joke. But spoof movies are different. That goes back to Airplane which originated a spoof form a lot of later movies used and was genuinely excellent then Naked Gun and Hot Shots which were also spoofs. The later Zucker and Abraham's movies declined some in quality but you had Scary Movie and Not Another Teen movie that were good. Spyhard and Wrongfully Accused were when Naked Gun started feeling like your Dad's sense of humor. Then we get to Seltzer and Friedberg who buried the genre. Thankfully Naked Gun 2025 and Weird: The Al Yankovic story show it can still be done. Hopefully Spaceballs 2 will be good. But yeah, even the Seltzer Friedberg ones that were genuinely awful were going for a different lane than Sharknado. But the real ones for good bad movies are The Room, Neil Breen, Miami Connection, Samurai Cop, Space Mutiny, Time Chasers (actually, hot take, Time Chasers isn't even that bad. It almost works for a low budget movie)

I don't think *Facebook DS9 fans* are a fair cross section of DS9 fans in general. :)

I love Keiko. I'll never understand the hate.

"All I could think of when I looked at her was: this was not my Keiko." I really like how continuity is benefitting this episode. Rom is in place because of his Union thing. And Chief is able to knock out Odo because he's a humanoid now. That wouldn't have been possible when he was a changeling. EDIT: and you pointed that out yourselves. I'll just be standing over there then.

We are so lucky that a story about "angels & devils" has been handled by competent writer focusing on O'Brien and Rom instead of some stuff like a bajoran Vedek reading a prophecy and no one believed him etc :D Btw, I love Keiko since her first day at TNG :D

If you want to have the Marquis back just oversleep in the morning. They will be looming over you in no time.

This was a fun reaction guys!

Yes, not everyone has been on this whole journey, and won't get your channel memes. You guys should put a recap in reactions to help new viewers catch on.

You guys ask questions we cannot answer for you. You want us to ask questions when 90% are answered by watching your reactions and discussion

Rosalind Chao would’ve made an excellent Trek villain.

Alex says: "I'm going to be mad if Rom goes back to the bar." My thought was: "Oh, he's going to be back at the bar at the end, all right. But you will be pleased as punch!"

The Chief got possessed in "Power Play" and threatened his family Keiko gets possessed in "The Assignment" and threatened her family Okay, Molly... it's your turn

Friday is my birthday will watch this then. Miles could have told when she was in sickbay. I think Keiko threw herself off trying to get free. He should have said the name of the power play moon to Worf, Worf would have thought about it, maybe thats why they barely had Worf

"I had a similar experience with a barrel" took me out. Worf's deadliest enemy. It was almost as good as Alex's pop when it looked like the wormhole might be destroyed. I forgot how tense this episode was. I really enjoyed it. Max G. is so damn good as Rom.

That was the best take of stopping her heart?

Let's go!!!!

LETS GO! 1 more episode to go!