Quodo in Every Episode discussion: "Cardassians"

[chacusha]

This week we're discussing... episode 2x05 "Cardassians"!

Episode synopsis: When Garak is bitten by a Cardassian child who was raised by Bajorans, an investigation is opened regarding the child's circumstances and whether he should be returned to his still-living birth family on Cardassia. Cautioning Bashir that something deeper seems to be going on, Garak invites Bashir along for an investigation.

What The Boys are up to in this episode: Odo and Quark both have very minor roles in this episode. In one scene, Odo is in Ops and responds to the incident of Garak's biting before leaving to investigate the presence of a Cardassian boy aboard the station. Later, he speaks over the comm (voice only) to inform Sisko that Dukat has arrived on the station. Quark has one scene in the bar where he expresses resentment at the newcomer Zolan's winning streak.

One screencap from this episode:


Transcript: http://chakoteya.net/DS9/425.htm

Quodo fics tagged with this episode: None (https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Episode%3A+s02e05+Cardassians+%28Star+Trek%3A+Deep+Space+Nine%29&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)
Event info & rules
Fic masterlist

Comments

[chacusha]

Random thoughts:

- Oh boy, it's Garashir time! Lol.

- Omg, Quark actually IS in this episode. I just forgot about it instantly, apparently, because it's not particularly interesting.

- Kira's reaction to Sisko and Bashir's conversation about Dukat and Garak is great.

- I like this scene with Miles, Keiko, and Rugal. I guess the scene as a whole kind of baffles me (more on this below) but I like the character interactions.

- Apparently, there's a deleted scene in the script for this episode: Sisko mentions that he wants to speak to Garak, so the two of them actually have a conversation. Garak dissembles to Sisko and pretends not to know anything about Dukat, and then later chastises Bashir for escalating the information Garak provided him up the chain of command, saying the things he tells Bashir are "for your ears only." Not a very essential scene as it's just reinforcing things the viewer kinda knows already, but some interesting Garak/Bashir interaction!

- I'm not sure if this is the only episode that lists a Cardassian-occupation-of-Bajor casualty number, but this episode cites 10 million, which is a wildly small number if it's meant to be over 50ish years.

- Love Garak just showing up in Bashir's quarters while he's sleeping. Very normal behavior.

- Great Sisko bedrobe here. Bashir also gets a pajama appearance in this one.

Okay my overall thoughts on this episode are, like... I just don't really get this episode. I don't really understand why it takes everyone -- including both Miles and Keiko -- so long to acknowledge/understand that Rugal views Bajor as his home, and Dukat's incredibly cartoonish (8-year!!) political plot/scheme overshadows everything else going on in this episode, including what I think is kind of an unaddressed issue, which is: "Is it an abusive environment to raise a Cardassian orphan in a society casually hateful toward Cardassians? And if it is abusive, is it even worse to break the child's existing bonds to his current family?" While the issue is raised, the episode doesn't quite grapple with it, repeatedly calling Rugal's family life loving because Rugal doesn't experience any physical abuse and his parents consider him to be Bajoran rather than Cardassian (???), even when both Rugal and his father clearly exhibit fear and distrust of Cardassians indiscriminately and both casually make disparaging remarks of this variety. Like, when Rugal comes out making O'Brien look like somebody with a nuanced opinion of Cardassians... is this not worrying?? To anyone??

And then I get the ending is trying to be bittersweet, but it stretches plausibility to me that Sisko, with his Federation values, would ultimately choose to override Rugal's preferences in the matter / weight them so low that he ultimately decides to send Rugal back to Cardassia. Sisko making a realpolitik decision to do a big favor to a prominent member of Cardassia's civilian government over, like, a random Bajoran family -- this would make sense to me. But I don't know if that's meant to be the read of Sisko's behavior here. I don't know, I just don't really follow any of the logic in this episode. The Garashir interactions are A+, but the rest of the episode outside of those moments is like a D+, in my opinion.


Thoughts on Quodo potential:

- Eh... This one is tough. I definitely think you could add some Quark scenes and Odo scenes in this episode. It's so tightly focused on Garak and Bashir, and then on Sisko and O'Brien after that, that the viewer is actively curious what the heck Kira, Dax, Quark, and Odo are up to in this one, so there's a lot of potential to fill in the gaps here. But Quark and Odo appear so little that it doesn't really prompt many ideas either. Maybe you could have those four characters discussing the case of Rugal, or gossiping about how Bashir and Garak left the station on a runabout or something like that. Or maybe have a scene where Odo is investigating Proka's family and questioning people who witnessed the event or who talked to Zolan or something, as a way to get some Quark/Odo interaction in there. (The reason why Kira, Dax, Quark, and Odo don't really appear here is because they were going on a double date? Lol.)