“Crossfire”
Written by Rene Echevarria
Directed by Les Landau
Season 4, Episode 12
Production episode 40514-485
Original air date: January 29, 1996
Stardate: unknown
Station log: Odo sets everything just so for his Tuesday morning security meeting with Kira, complete with a raktajino for her. One of the items on their agenda is a political agitator who objects to First Minister Shakaar’s upcoming visit to the station. They’re interrupted by Quark, who has a complaint about the noise made by Odo when he shapeshifts around his quarters.
Sisko, Kira, Dax, Bashir, and O’Brien are in their dress uniforms to greet Shakaar on his arrival. (O’Brien wonders why he’s there, since he’s not an officer, and Bashir says the dress uniform shows off his figure, thus sending slash fans into a frenzy. It’s also the only scene for those two and Dax, and I was just waiting for one of them to wail, “But it’s my only line!”) They escort him to the big-ass crowd on the Promenade, and as he goes to make his big speech (Sarish, his aide, reminding him to enunciate), Odo informs Sisko that he’s received intelligence of a planned assassination attempt on Shakaar by the True Way. Odo insists on cancelling his meeting with Federation delegates, but both Sarish and Kira say Shakaar won’t go along with that. He won’t capitulate to threats. Sisko therefore orders security levels to be raised significantly, and Odo asks to use Starfleet security as well as his own Bajoran Militia personnel. Eddington is on leave, so Sisko assigns Worf to head up Starfleet security.
Odo and Worf set up security for Shakaar’s reception in the wardroom—but then Shakaar announces he wants to visit the Promenade and the temple first. He doesn’t realize what a security problem that causes, and Odo has to remind him that he’s first minister now, and he can’t get out of bed without a thousand people knowing about it. Odo escorts Shakaar to the Promenade, where the latter says that because Kira trusts Odo with her life, he’ll trust the constable with his as well. He approaches the temple, meeting and greeting folks the whole time while Odo looks aggressively about.
The reception goes well, with everyone wanting a moment with Shakaar, and Odo staring menacingly and making people nervous (which is his intent). Kira decides to turn in early, at which point Shakaar zeroes in on her, and they go for a walk. Odo insists on securing their stroll, and Shakaar agrees only to allow Odo to shadow them. They have a lively chat as they walk, both being very affectionate with each other.
After the first meeting with Federation delegates, Odo escorts an exasperated and frustrated Shakaar back to his quarters. He wants to accelerate the process of Bajor’s admittance to the Federation, and the delegates are resistant to that notion.
Shakaar invites Odo in and apologizes for making the constable’s job more complicated and expresses his appreciation for his thoroughness. And then, suddenly, it’s high school, as Shakaar asks Odo if Kira likes him likes him, as opposed to likes him. Odo lies and says no, at which point Shakaar says he’s falling in love with her, but he’s worried about saying something and ruining the friendship if she doesn’t reciprocate the feelings, something Odo has absolutely no sympathy for, cough cough.
The next morning, Kira shows up twenty minutes late for the Tuesday meeting with Odo. She spent the morning with Shakaar going over a proposal over raktajino (so she doesn’t even touch the one Odo prepared for her), and then she buggers out early so she can give the first minister a tour of the station—for which Odo is once again escort. On an upper pylon, they see the wormhole open, and Shakaar makes a wish—he leans in to kiss Kira, but Odo’s presence makes him hesitate.
Odo gets a call from Worf saying they need to reroute the turbolift. Odo asks to verify Worf’s security code before handing over control of the turbolift, but he’s distracted by Kira and Shakaar’s happy small talk about food and hands over control anyhow. The ’lift then goes into freefall, and they’re saved only by Odo using his shapeshifting to push the sides of the ’lift outward so they jam against the shaft.
In a meeting with Sisko, Odo admits that he neglected to verify Worf’s security code. Sisko rebukes him, then says that no ships have left the station since the incident, so the perpetrator is still on board. Worf and Odo meet, but Odo barely pays attention to Worf’s technobabble notions for tracking the assassins, and goes off to talk to Kira. However, he arrives at her quarters to find a full security detail there, because Shakaar’s in her quarters. Odo relieves one guard and takes his post.
The door doesn’t open until morning, when Shakaar—who has obviously spent the night, wah hey!—heads off to his quarters (probably to shower) before the next meeting. Shakaar goes off with two guards while Odo enters Kira’s quarters, both to question her further about the turbolift incident and to find out what was pretty obvious from his staying the night: Kira and Shakaar are now a couple. Kira is grateful that Odo’s the first person to know—Odo is, of course, completely devastated.
That devastation is furthered when he goes to his office to see Worf ordering a deputy to take a prisoner away. Said prisoner is the True Way operative, whom Worf caught trying to sabotage the environmental controls via the very technobabble notion he floated earlier. When Odo asks why Worf didn’t call him when he made the arrest, Worf says there was no need. “Your deputies assisted me quite capably. They are well trained. You are to be commended.” The words are meant to be compliments, but they just twist the knife that much more.
Odo goes to his quarters and starts trashing everything. By the time he’s done, his cabin’s a wreck and Quark is standing outside the cabin ringing the doorchime in his jammies. Odo, of course, doesn’t let him in, so Quark uses a purloined access code to enter. Odo barely notices, as he’s lamenting his unrequited love. Quark, being Quark, tells Odo to get his act together—not that he cares about Odo’s personal life, not at all, but it’s affecting his “manhunt pool.” Whenever there’s an unusual crime on the station, Quark runs a pool to bet on how long it’ll take Odo to catch the perpetrator. Odo needs to either tell Kira how he feels or move on with his life. The alternative is no good for the work or for Quark’s profits. Odo, of course, could give a damn about Quark’s profits, and he actually tells Quark that, for a minute, he thought the Ferengi was talking to Odo as a friend. Quark just stares at him, says, “Nah,” and leaves.
So Odo makes a decision. He tells Kira that he wishes to cancel the Tuesday meetings, as they’re not an efficient use of his time. Kira is disappointed, as she enjoyed the meetings, but she gets that he wants to focus on the essentials. Odo also has the floor of his quarters reinforced, which will effectively soundproof the floor. Odo naturally insists that it’s not for Quark’s benefit, but Quark thanks him anyhow. Odo wistfully watches Kira and Shakaar together, then goes off to do his job.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? The True Way assassin has an isolinear interface, which allows him to sabotage the turbolift, and with which he was attempting to sabotage the environmental controls in Shakaar’s quarters. Worf traces the signal of the latter attempt and captures the bad guy.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira is gobsmacked by her and Shakaar’s relationship. As she tells Odo, he’s seen her go weeks without bathing—after ten years in the resistance together, there are no surprises, and yet here they are.
There is no honor in being pummeled: Worf and Odo have a magnificent scene in which they discuss their love of order and their lack of desire to have people drop by unannounced. It’s a symphony in gruff, misanthropic snark. Odo and Worf have had tense moments, notably in “The Way of the Warrior” and “Hippocratic Oath,” but in this scene you can see them both realizing that they’ve found a kindred spirit in the other as they compare ways to keep people from annoying them.
Preservation of mass and energy is for wimps: For only the second time, Odo allows his feelings for Kira to get in the way of his ability to function as security chief, the other time being in “Heart of Stone.” In the previous episode, though, he was alone in a cave, so the consequences were far less. This time, he nearly gets himself, Shakaar, and Kira killed and stands around with his thumbs in his ears while Worf does his job for him.
Rules of Acquisition: Quark’s quarters are right below Odo’s. According to Odo, his being assigned quarters (a place where he mostly shapeshifts around, making all kinds of noises on the floor) right over Quark and his sensitive ears was not a coincidence. (When Kira expresses surprise that Quark can hear so much, the latter just points to his ears and says, “Hello?”)
For Cardassia! The True Way, which was responsible for the sabotage of the runabout in “Our Man Bashir,” is back and threatening Shakaar. They’ve already succeeded in assassinating two Bajoran officials.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: Your classic love triangle here, with Odo in love with Kira, but Kira in love with Shakaar, with the added knife-twist of Shakaar asking Odo for advice on how to approach Kira, with phrasing that applies to Odo as much as it does to Shakaar in terms of not knowing how the other party feels and of ruining the friendship and such.
Keep your ears open: “Make sure everyone knows they can’t just drop by your quarters to say hello. If someone does, whatever happens, don’t make them feel welcome.”
“Of course not! That would only invite subsequent visits.”
Odo and Worf bonding over their mutual misanthropy.
Welcome aboard: Duncan Regehr returns for the second time as Shakaar, having previously appeared in the character’s eponymous episode, and is now the Bajoran First Minister. Bruce Wright plays Sarish and Charles Tentindo plays Jiminez.
Trivial matters: The potted plant that Odo throws against the wall when he starts to trash his quarters is doubly symbolic, as the pot is the bucket he used to regenerate in, and the flowers inside it were a gift from Kira when he took his own quarters in “The Abandoned.”
Shakaar ran for First Minister at the end of “Shakaar.” This episode establishes that he won that election.
When Odo is sitting in his trashed quarters, he has a single strand of hair over his face. That was an improvisation by Rene Auberjonois, who wanted to emulate an image from a Japanese print he’d seen of a samurai warrior in defeat. The producers kept it because it symbolized how Odo was falling apart, since his hair wasn’t so much hair as a part of his entire self, as a shapechanger.
Odo temporarily goes back to the belted uniform that he wore from “The Search, Part I” through to “Second Skin” when Kira tells him that she thought it looked good on him, but removes it again by the episode’s end, when her relationship with Shakaar makes it clear that looking good for her isn’t something likely to do him any good.
Walk with the Prophets: “They say to err is human, but you’re not human.” I first noticed Rene Auberjonois when he became a regular on one of my favorite shows as a kid, Benson. And then a few years later, I finally got to see the original MASH movie directed by Robert Altman, from which the long-running TV shows (another of my favorites) spun off of. Auberjonois played Father Mulchahy, nicknamed “Dago Red” in the film, and I was impressed by his versatility. Over the years, I quickly learned that his name in the credits of a TV show or film was a sign that at least one part was going to be brilliantly played, and he has yet to let me down, all the way through to his recent guest turns on Warehouse 13.
Auberjonois is kind of DS9’s secret weapon. Avery Brooks is badass, Nana Visitor is nuanced, Terry Farrell is detailed, Armin Shimerman manages the great balance between comically broad and seriously subtle, Colm Meaney and Alexander Siddig grew into a magnificent double-act, Michael Dorn is the same blunt instrument he was on TNG…
And then you’ve got Auberjonois, who isn’t necessarily someone you think of first when you think of DS9, yet like the character he plays, he’s orderly, consistent, brilliant, subtle, and supremely competent. There’s never a wrong note with Odo, whether he’s being his usual self or when he goes out of his comfort zone (like in “The Search, Part I” where he tears Quark a new one).
In this episode he spends most of the hour out of his comfort zone, as the feelings he’s repressed for ages, that he’s only let out once (in “Heart of Stone”—even when Lwaxana confronted him with it in “Fascination,” he never actually admitted it) get thrown in his face watching Shakaar actually have the balls to do what he hasn’t done, which is to not only acknowledge his feelings for Kira, but to do something about it.
To me, the heart of this story is the great scene between Worf and Odo as they compare notes about being orderly and unfriendly. Besides the fact that it’s one of the single funniest scenes in Star Trek history (the sheer disgust in Dorn’s voice when he mentions the possibility of return visits is masterful), it also reinforces the core of Odo’s character—his reserve, his orderliness, his desire for everything to be just so—right before Shakaar and Kira unintentionally rip it all away from him. The episode’s climax sees him tear apart the very quarters he boasted to Worf about, the very quarters whose rearranging of things by a few centimeters by Dax sent him into a tizzy in “Homefront.”
Naturally, the only person who can even talk to him about this is Quark. Odo’s desire is for order above all else, and his job is to maintain order on the Promenade, so his job gets to also be his hobby. Because he’s so good at his job, and because he never lets anyone inside his personal life (which is why he’s in this mess in the first place, since he can’t figure out how to even tell Kira how he feels), the person who knows him best is the person he’s constantly butting heads with in his job.
What’s most amazing about this episode is how little Auberjonois’s facial expressions change, yet the slightest alteration in his eyes, in his mouth, in his body language speaks volumes. Les Landau deserves a lot of credit, too, as he blocks the scenes so that Auberjonois looks shorter as the episode progresses—part of that is the actor’s own body language, slumping more, but compare the three Worf-Odo scenes in the latter’s office. The first has them on an equal plane; the second has Odo sitting while Worf is standing, so Odo is choosing to be on the lower plane; the third has them both standing again, but Worf looks like he’s a foot taller than Odo, thanks in part to Auberjonois’s posture and in part due to camera angles, but it’s tremendously effective at showing Odo’s breakdown.
The theme of unrequited love is a popular one for a reason, and many of us have been in Odo’s position in the past: loving someone who does not return that love, made all the worse by the object of your affection considering you a close friend. There is nothing more agonizing than having feelings for someone that isn’t reciprocated to the same degree by the other party, and Auberjonois plays that agony magnificently.
Warp factor rating: 9
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be co-running a writers workshop sponsored by the I-Con convention tomorrow, the 8th of March, in downtown Manhattan, alongside fellow author Laura Anne Gilman and writing professor Joan Digby. Click here for more info.
Always one of my favourites, because as you say, we’ve all been there. a quiet, gentle episode that is beautifully, exquisitely painful, and Rene Auberjonois is masterful at portraying it.
I enjoyed your assessment here krad, although I do think Odo was just a TAD creepy in his insisting on ‘chaperoning’ Shakaar and Kira everywhere, to the point where he even stands outside her room all night. But at least he doesn’t go into full ‘Nice Guy’ territory and seem to think he is somehow entitled to Kira’s feelings, so I don’t completely hold it against him.
Plus, he’s going to be totally out-creeped by Dukat in the next episode!
They’ve played with all of the elements here before, really going all the way back to “A Man Alone”, but they finally put them all together and they do it very well. But in some ways it also feels like they’re just going over old ground. For me, that knocks a point or two off the final score.
One thing that stands out to me this time is that whenever they do an Odo-centric episode, there’s a… layer over all the other characters. We see them at a remove or more through Odo’s PoV than through their own. It’s especially true in his scenes with Kira, where it really feels like we aren’t as much in her head as usual. Which is an especially interesting choice given the importance of this episode for her character arc.
I disagree with this slightly. It’s maybe a little more true at this point than later, but Worf is much more nuanced and better written on DS9 than he ever was on TNG.
“Michael Dorn is the same blunt instrument he was on TNG…”
I wouldn’t say that. By this point, he’d become much more versatile and nuanced as an actor, and the material he got on DS9 let him take full advantage of that.
I didn’t care for the True Way, this random extremist group that only existed as a catalyst for the plot of the week.
I’ve been in unrequited love more than once, but I’ve never understood the notion that being considered a friend by the one you love makes things worse. I’ve always found it a great comfort and compensation — at least you still get to spend time with the person, to have them in your life and be a part of theirs. Heck, I once gave up my unrequited love for someone rather than lose her friendship — better to have her in my life as a friend than not to have her in my life at all. And though it took a while for me to work through the emotional fallout of that, eventually our friendship became the closest one I’ve ever had.
And then you’ve got Auberjonois, who isn’t necessarily someone you think of first when you think of DS9
Actually, Odo’s usually the first one I think of whenever I drift to DS9-specific thoughts and analysis. Kira and Bashir are the other ones.
Even in episodes that aren’t Odo-centric, he’s the first one to pop up in my mind, because if there’s a plot taking place on the station, chances are he’ll be involved in investigating and analyzing it in some shape or form, and he usually is.
Duet is the prime example of this. A Kira-centric episode, that relies heavily on Odo’s actions towards solving the mystery.
And René always delivers. Even Star Trek VI’s Colonel West was a brief, but memorable character thanks to his presence.
The best non-Trek crossover out there has to be Auberjonois interacting with Shatner on Boston Legal.
I can’t help but hear the “Keep Your Ears Open” dialog in Ron Swanson’s voice now…
I thought the beginning of this episode (with the jokes) was great, and then during the “Does she like me like me?” conversation with Shakaar and Odo I started to roll my eyes a bit, but by the end, the episode was kind of winning me over because I did indentify with some of the feelings that Odo was going through.
@@.-@: I agree that it’s better to just stay friends with the person. Especially if it drives you apart and then your last memories of that person are of a love unrequited, rather than your friendship.
CLB, you’re more mature than most men ;) Although I also have been able to remain friends with a few crushes, and there have also been a few guys who were interested in me and stayed friends. Some of them were very close indeed, and ended up finding love with others, in time. I’m glad I didn’t lose their friendship!
That said, I do remember getting a call from a friend telling me he had a crush on me in high school and I told him I didn’t reciprocate. The next night he called me and told me we couldn’t be friends anymore because for him things were ‘all or nothing’. I remember feeling a bit flabbergasted, but figuring good riddance!
crzydroid, I’m not following you – what do you mean by ‘especially if it drives you apart…’ – do you mean that being friends is what drives you apart (making your comment somewhat sarcastic), or that it’s better to be friends, instead of letting unrequited love drive you apart?
@8: I don’t think I was really that mature about it. Forcing yourself to stop being madly in love with someone is… well, I suppose it’s literally like drug withdrawal, with a lot of the same brain chemistry involved. It threw me into a pretty bad depression for about a year and I wasn’t too fond of her for a while. I even ended up driving another friend away (temporarily) with my neediness when I reached rock bottom — but then the object of my former unrequited love reached out to me as a friend of her own volition and helped me get back on my feet emotionally, which was really wonderful of her and was the beginning of the really great, close friendship we shared throughout the rest of college and beyond. So she deserves at least as much credit for making that friendship possible as I do. Unfortunately she drifted away once she got married and started a family.
That’s too bad, and it happens. I know I’ve been guilty of letting some friendships fade. It’s not a purposeful thing, it’s just that once you start a family, it really does take up so much time and energy (at least mine do) that sometimes the thought of entertaining others is just overwheming. We’re actually trying to make more of an effort to reach out to old friends and have them over every so often (going out isn’t an option with our kids) although it can be a lot of work!
@8: No, I guess I meant that if the person with the unrequited love tells the other person and they don’t reciprocate, but then it’s too awkward and they don’t really talk after that instead of being friends.
@11: As my own experience shows, that’s not always the case. My friend was aware of my interest for some time, but we still managed to be friends for a while. Once my feelings got too intrusive, she did try to break it off entirely, but that’s the beginning of the story I told above.
@CLB, Lisamarie: It depends on the person, and on how willing (and able) they are to treat you as a friend. One of my best friendships (in spite of being long-distance) is a gal I was in love with for two or three years (2005-8). But at the same time, there are other cases of unrequited love that didn’t feel like continuing the friendship was worth the transitory painful phase.
Anyway, on the topic of the episode … I don’t think KRAD gave enough lip service to the Quark/Odo conversation. This might be one of the strongest 4 episodes in the arc of Quark/Odo’s friendship that neither of them is willing to admit is a friendship. And that arc is one that always manages to be poignant and yet hilarious at the same time.
@13: Well, it seems to me that if someone isn’t worth fighting to keep as a friend, then he or she wasn’t a worthy object of love anyway and you’re better off. Personally I’ve never understood how romantic love could work without friendship being a core component of it.
Also, I’m not sure “lip service” is the term you want there. It means superficial and insincere acknowledgment or support, just saying the words without meaning them. It’s pretty much the opposite of giving genuine credit and appreciation to something, which is what you’re saying the Quark/Odo scene deserves.
@14: Sometimes you’re right, he or she wasn’t a worthy object of love anyway. Other times there are legitimate reasons that the friendship would only be worthwhile with the extra incentive of love being involved, e.g. if you met online and live far apart from each other.
And yes, you’re right, “lip service” is the wrong connotation for what I intended in my fatigued state. Still struggling to come up with the phrase that I should have used instead …
@15: I think online friendships can be totally worthwhile without the incentive of love involved. You may be speaking specifically of someone you were in love with first…I may be missing some of what you’re saying here. But I think that online friendships are completely valid whether or not you loved the person first. I have had many online friends. I think you may need the right medium (i.e., website) to develop and foster those friendships, but I think that it can often be the case that online friends are just as important to a person as IRL friends.
Coming at this a bit late, but I love the direction in which the comments on this episode have flowed, since so many of us have been where Odo is and where some of the previous commenters have been, too . . . (though I have to admit, I’m also reminded of a pithy, somewhat-relevant offering in a neighboring context from philosopher-king Homer Simpson: “Dear Baby. Welcome to Dumpsville. Population: You.” :-) )
Anyhoo, just a minor addition at this point re @13 (and @14 and @15, too): “Plaudits”? “Laurels”? However we want to describe them, the little Quark-Odo moments are the perfect grace notes in this episode, both for the story in the short-run and for the characters over the long haul. Those grace notes aren’t necessary per se (yeah, yeah, OK, I may be pushing the metaphor a bit, since the post-room-trashing Quark-Odo conversation is what spurs Odo to move along to the next movement in the symphony that is the story and hence is more than just a grace note, but let’s just run with this, please!), but they flesh out the melody in ways such that they would be much missed in their absence. That final exchange between Quark and Odo in that scene–particularly Quark’s long pause before the “Nah”–speaks volumes. The wheels are clearly spinning in Quark’s head as he considers his response–kudos to Armin Shimmerman for conveying that.
Holy crap. I felt so _awful_ for Odo watching this. I wanted to give him a big (manly, bro) hug. At the end when he cancels his meetings with Kira and I thought he was going to profess his feelings I was yelling at the TV, “No! Don’t do it! It’ll be a disaster!”
Which just goes to show how great an actor Auberjonois is. He fucking nailed it.
Oh, and Quark in his footie pajamas? How great was that?
Hey guys,
i watch star trek episodes since 20 years and this is the first time that i feel the need to search for commentaries on the web: because i need to understand more about this episode! Guys, this was painful, i don’t understand what is the purpose of the authors in doing this to us, LOL. No really! I liked the idea of exploring the painful feelings of odo during the episode… but ending the episode like that, come on: how can the watcher appreciate an ending like that? I search for something nice in a dvd… not plain suffering with no hope LOL i really don’t understand what did they have in mind! No realy why did they do this thing, really? What did they really want to do to us???
@20: One of the brilliant things about DS9 vs. most other Star Trek is that an end of an episode is not necessarily the end of a story. We’re used to seeing the hero get the girl. It’s a credit to the DS9 writers and the actors involved that they chose to tell a different story, one you rarely see on television (at least at the time) but one which is all too common in reality.
Besides, I wouldn’t call it plain suffering with no hope by the end. Odo endured and ultimately broke a bit during the episode but he came out the other side calmer, more centered, more sure of himself. Although it didn’t go the way he might have secretly hoped, Odo still found some degree of resolution; enough for him to get back to his life and function instead of continuing to obsess.
If this is your first time through DS9, keep watching. :)
I always want to hate Quark….but seeing him in his PJs….O.k. Armin, you win.
They talk about raktajinos so much that now I want one.
It’s especially noticeable on DS9 how they try to cram in every castmember so nobody gets left out. Eddington on leave – but doing what? Probably something to do with the Maquis.
I didn’t care for this as much as everyone else. Perhaps it was that long conversation between Shakaar and Odo, which would fit right in on any soap opera.
Yep. And the still think of that one person from time to time even though it happened almost 20 years ago and I’ve been in a happy and very stable relationship for the past 15 years. It was almost painful to watch.
The Odo-Quark scenes where a welcome relief, so to speak. It’s quite funny to see them trying to pretend they don’t care for each other
Lockdown Rewatch. Just a magnificently acted episode, I still find it a great Loss that Rene Auberjonois is no longer with us. Odo was one of my favourite characters from day one of the Series premiering and remained so throughout the series run, its a great episode a great performance and the brief shape shifting aside has almost no Sci Fi elements to mention, and it doesn’t matter. Fantastic stuff.
I dunno y’all, I found this one painfully awkward and derivative. Almost every scene dripped with high school drama, ugh. I thought it was so far beneath the dignity of Trek and DS9 in particular. The “Odo likes Kira” bit has never been compelling or believable to me, so the only thing that saved this episode is that he didn’t confess his love. Thank goodness, I hope we can all move on now. I did, however, enjoy the Odo-Quark scenes.
Can someone more simply explain the visual presentation/blocking with the Worf-Odo scenes mentioned at the end of the recap? What am I supposed to feel from the change in plane, particularly the third one?
Did Shakaar dye his hair since we last saw him? It looks awkward to me; I preferred his somewhat grizzled and dignified look. His whole presentation in Shakaar felt wiser. Here he seems more like an awkward high schooler with a crush.
If he went about his chat with Odo more like how he was, I think, it wouldn’t have stuck out to us like it does. There are ways to do that scene without the raw insecurity, while still indicating the insecurity beneath the mask.