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RBDS9 018 – Duet (S1E18)
Rebinging Star Trek DS9: Duet
Welcome to S1E18 Duet. In this episode of DS9, an unknown Cardassian arrives at the station seeking medical treatment. The trouble is, his condition only exists in survivors or soldiers of a forced labor camp called Gallitep. Kira wants the guy’s head on a stick, but Sisko is being cautious. We take a very deep dive into the details of this dialogue-heavy episode.
Duet
No B-story in this exceedingly dramatic and rather shocking classic episode. WHERE’S MY JAKE? On the other hand, mixing in some lighthearted stuff would have been awkward. We get some extremely disturbing stories from the mouth of this guy claiming to be either Marritza, an “innocent” filing clerk, or Gul Darhe’el, the Butcher of Gallitep. Fasten your seat belts for this one.
What’s this rebinge thing?
It’s a re-watch of a thing you’ve already seen but love to watch and talk about. We go deep with every episode, walking you through every scene and analyzing all of the characters and story lines.
Listen to our intro episode if you want to know a little more about us. And kick off the whole thing with our rebinge of the pilot episode Emissary. Or catch up on the previous episode: S1E17 Dramatis Personae.
Next time…
We dig into Season 1 Episode 19 of DS9: In the Hands of the Prophets.
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While this is a hard episode to watch because of the mods it has to real world situations, I do love this episode because it’s a character heavy episode! You have backstory for Kira in this, a moral debate for Kira on what to do about Meritz, and the fact Kira get to be unapologetically an anti hero in some of her actions and dialogue – what’s not to love about this episode especially if you love Kira! Even now we rarely see characters, much less female characters, written to the anti hero levels of Kira or a Xena on “Xena: Warrior Princess” so on that point alone it’s worth watching multiple times but when you factor in the mystery of who Meritz was going to be and the backstory content it’s just a classic DS9 episode!
Dukat was a great villain. 🙂
I’m with Kim in regards to the ending of this episode does feel weird because while Meritz is sorry for what happened he still was a part of the crimes there and so Kira letting him off easily arguably felt a bit out of character. I can certainly see her not wanting to kill him because she can tell he’s sorry and she doesn’t want to be on the level she sees most Cardassians but I don’t think she would have just been “Oh well there was nothing you could do!” either. I get the message they were going for, but it didn’t feel completely honest to the character either; it’s a small knock but it’s an earned one. This is still an amazingly done episode though!
Agreed James re: Meritz’s records and how they could be used to catch others and show what they did at the camps.
Thanks for the feedback Aaron. This episode is pretty great, even if the end flopped.
We hope you listen to the episode coming out today (Rules of Acquisition). We have a lot to say about it and would really be interested in your take.