Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Indiscretion"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 4x05 "Indiscretion"!

Episode synopsis: When Kira finds a lead on a Cardassian prison ship that went missing six years ago, she is forced to work with Dukat to investigate, and finds out that someone important to him was also on that missing ship. Meanwhile, Kasidy Yates is thinking about taking a new job from the Bajoran government and moving onto the station, and Sisko needs to decide if a serious relationship is what he's looking for.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Not much -- Odo has one scene toward the beginning where he notices Kira is distracted during her weekly meetings, finds out about the Ravinok, and wishes her luck on whatever she finds. Quark's one scene involves him giving unsolicited advice to Sisko on how to deal with women seeking commitment in relationships.

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/477.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: None, but there's a great Ben Sisko AITA post for this ep (https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Episode%3A+s04e05+Indiscretion&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Star+Trek%3A+Deep+Space+Nine)

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Do you know of any other fics set in or that build off this episode that weren't linked above?
- What do you see as the Quodo potential for this episode?

Anonymous comments are on, so feel free to chime in even if you don't have a Dreamwidth account! If you prefer, we are also available on Discord:
https://discord.gg/VaCnMYvKu6 (18+ proship Quodo Discord - there is a dedicated channel for this event)
https://discord.gg/Htz4crCdCt (general Quodo Discord)

Comments

[chacusha]

Random thoughts:

- I like seeing the scrappy, sketchy occupation-era connections Kira has.

- This episode has one of those meetings Odo and Kira have where they review criminal incidents aboard the station. I like how Odo knows Kira well here. This scene kind of feels like the one very early on, in "Past Prologue," where Kira sometimes goes to Odo when she's feeling uncertain, and Odo just kind of has to remind her of the type of person she is, and then she knows what to do.

- Lol at Dax being a bit of a chaos person here. XD

- Kira's face at finding out Dukat is the representative from the Cardassian government XD

- Love Dax, Bashir, and Quark all giving Sisko love advice here. It's soo funny. "Women are the enemy and we treat them accordingly. The key is to never let them get the upper hand." -- I feel like this ties into what I was talking about in "Profit and Lace," about the difference between Nilva's sexism and Brunt and Quark's sexism, which has a more rivalrous/resentful/zero-sum-game sort of attitude toward women. I find the different styles of advice here interesting -- Dax's is "go all in and commit"; Bashir's is more equivocal -- people-pleasing and designed to not make anyone annoyed while also not committing; Quark's is resolute bachelorism so opposite of Sisko's style that it almost functions as reverse psychology. XD

- Omg, I love this Kira-removes-a-thorn scene. It just keeps on getting better and better. I like how Kira kind of softens a bit toward Dukat when she thinks he's motivated by concern for his family/people he loved, but then reverses when she realizes he intends to kill Ziyal.

- Omg, add Nog and Jake to the list of people giving Sisko love advice. I forgot about this. XD I like how confident and mature Jake and Nog are about this situation in a way that reverses how things usually are between Ben and Jake.

- Kasidy and Ben's relationship is always a very wholesome part of DS9. They have a lot of chemistry, and Kasidy I feel has a really good temperament to hold her own with Sisko, which makes their relationship fun.

Overall, this is a really good Dukat episode -- he's a mess of contradictions here. He's got this romantic, sentimental side, as well as a cold-blooded, calculating side while also being quite self-absorbed and narcissistic. Kira sees him as a villain but Ziyal sees him as a hero, and that kind of summarizes Dukat's complicated character. Also, I think it's clear to Dukat that Kira will only ever see him as a villain no matter what he does, but that he still has a chance to ruin Ziyal's opinion of him with his actions (including by, y'know, killing her). You get to see a lot of different sides to him in this episode -- vulnerable, selfish, dangerous, loving/devoted; at one point, he even becomes the literal butt of a joke...


Thoughts on Quodo potential:

- Since Quark and Odo both have a lot of downtime here, I feel it's easy to add a Quodo scene to this episode -- you could have Odo there reacting to Quark's relationship advice, or have the two of them talking and speculating about how Kira's mission with Dukat is going or something.

[firebatvillain]

I think the start of the show in terms of quodo ship material here is definitely the plot about Sisko. If I wanted to write a little shippy fic here, I might roll Odo into scenes about giving Sisko love advice. Odo specifically giving advice on love might not make sense, but it could be a good jumping off point for some interaction with Quark - like Odo snorting or disagreeing with something Quark says.

[chacusha]

Yeah, Odo reacting to Quark's love advice definitely has comedy potential. XD