Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Extreme Measures"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 7x23 "Extreme Measures"!

Episode synopsis: The seventh episode in DS9's 9-part finale. Having discovered that the Changeling virus was developed by Section 31, Bashir lures Sloan to the station in a desperate bid to find a cure. When Sloan commits suicide in order to protect his secrets, Bashir and O'Brien enter his dying mind to recover the cure before it's gone for good.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Odo is sick with the Changeling virus. He appears in two scenes: in the first, he asks Bashir for the prognosis and then asks Kira to leave him behind on the station so that she doesn't have to watch him slowly die. Later, Bashir administers the cure to Odo and he recovers. Quark doesn't appear in this episode. :'D

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/573.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: I found this fic in the tag: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10927677
But based on the summary/tags, I think this one might actually be for 7x21 "When It Rains..."?

Tell us:
- What did you think about this episode?
- Have you written a fic set during/after this episode?
- Have you read any of the fics linked above? Let us know if they fit! 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 gotta say I'm not particularly a fan of episodes like this that are basically one big dream sequence (like this one, the second part of "The Search", the episode about Julian's birthday, etc.). I just don't find them very interesting. :/ The pacing at some points in this episode (like when Bashir suggests a way to go inside Sloan's mind and he and O'Brien build it) felt really bizarre too.

- The O'Brien/Bashir "I love my wife" scene is great, though. Love it.

- I'm also not a big fan of Sloan but the speech he gets in the wardroom is an interesting bit of characterization for him -- ambiguous between sincerely noble for his own values at least, and just totally fake and all artifice.


Quodo potential:

- Okay, apparently I was wrong and this episode *is* the one that has the deleted Quodo scene:

Odo is still in his cylinder bed when QUARK ENTERS.

QUARK: I just wanted to... come by to see how you're doing...

Odo barely stirs as Quark pulls up a stool.

QUARK: I hear the prognosis is... well...

Silence.

QUARK: There's something you might like to know, before... (beat) Something we've never talked about... even though I'm sure it's always been... in the back of our minds... (beat) It has to do with the... Tilavan art theft. I think I know who stole the holo-sculptures.

That gets Odo's attention for the first time.

ODO: (weakly) Tell me.
QUARK: On second thought... why bother?
ODO: What?
QUARK: It's not like you're in any shape to do something about it. Forget I brought it up.
ODO: I've spent nine years working on that case
QUARK: I know. That's why it's such a shame that you won't have time to close it before you...

Odo physically rallies... lifts himself up on an elbow and there's a glimmer of the old Odo again.

ODO: You're going to tell me exactly what you know and you're going to do it right now.

Quark was hoping for just that reaction.

QUARK: Oh. Suddenly you're not so sick after all. You want to crack the case? Then stop malingering and get back to work. When you do, you know where to find me.

With that, Quark EXITS. Odo stares after him for a beat, astonished... then realizes what Quark was trying to do and that it actually worked. He's sitting up for the first time in a long time. Odo smiles and eases himself back down in the bed.

So yeah, basically, the writers themselves already wrote a whole little Quodo fic for this episode. XD The fic above is an extension of the above scene, so I've added it to the masterlist. People might also appreciate this comic illustrating the deleted scene from this episode.

For some reason, I always thought this scene was an extension of a Quodo scene in another episode (7x21 "When It Rains..."). I didn't realize that it was the (only!) appearance planned for Quark in this episode, where Odo is on his deathbed! I am going a bit insane at the moment that this episode originally juxtaposed a heartfelt farewell between Odo and Kira (near the beginning of this episode, some time before the opening credits) and Odo and Quark doing the same (originally intended to be the first scene after the credits). What!!

God, you just know that if they had filmed this scene, it would have been yet another of those insanely tender farewells that Quark and Odo keep on having with each other throughout the series -- comic relief-y but also, like, weird ways of showing affection, and also, saying "I love you" and "you're important to me" without saying it out loud, and Quark once again using the power of antagonism in order to improve Odo's mood... Even a bit of flirtatiousness at the end! It kind of supports the QPR read of Quodo where Quark and Odo aren't dating but they sure are... something to each other. My brain is just kind of exploding that they wrote Odo saying goodbye to TWO of his favorite people in the same episode, where one is his frenemy/emotional support criminal...

- Anyway, I guess if you want to do something different, you could have Quark actually confess here. Or just sitting by Odo's side for a bit. Or Kira telling Quark to take care of Odo, make sure he's comfortable, etc. while she's gone lol.