“Chimera”
Written by Rene Echevarria
Directed by Steve Posey
Season 7, Episode 14
Production episode 40510-564
Original air date: February 17, 1999
Stardate: unknown
Station log: O’Brien and Odo are returning from a conference in a runabout when they’re approached by a changeling disguised as a space-based lifeform. The changeling then enters the runabout through the vent and adapts a human form. He refers to himself (and Odo) as a metamorph, and O’Brien as a monoform.
His name is Laas, and Odo believes he’s one of the hundred infant changelings who were sent out into the galaxy. He’s willing to be taken prisoner in Odo’s custody until his identity is verified. Odo vouches for him to Sisko—especially after Bashir examines him and confirms that he doesn’t have the disease the Founders have—and the captain is willing to release him as long as he remains Odo’s responsibility.
Odo fills Laas in on who his and Odo’s people are. Laas has been “alive” for two hundred years, and he has grown tired of monoforms. The Varalans who found him never accepted him completely. Laas even had a mate, but they broke up because they could not have children. (Laas reveals that after he sees a picture of Kira in Odo’s quarters.)
Laas and Odo link, a concept Laas was unfamiliar with, and it’s incredibly enlightening to him. Laas now truly understands what he is—he also understands what Odo himself won’t admit out loud: that he would return to the Great Link, Dominion War notwithstanding, if it weren’t for Kira.
At Kira’s request, Odo brings Laas to Quark’s to meet her, Dax, O’Brien, and Bashir. However, Laas spends the conversation dismissing sentient humanoids as interfering bastards who disrupt the natural order of things, saying that he prefers “primitive” lifeforms who function on instinct. Odo cuts the gathering short and takes Laas to task for insulting his friends, but Laas is unrepentant, convinced that Odo has done what Laas did centuries ago before getting fed up: deny his true nature to pretend to be humanoid. He wants Odo to leave the station with him and to go find the other 98 changelings.
Kira is concerned that Laas thinks that Odo is unhappy on DS9 with Kira and the others. Odo insists that it’s wishful thinking on Laas’s part and that he loves Kira. He tells Laas as much, but Odo would like Laas to stay for a while. He would like the company of another changeling, and Laas agrees, as long as he doesn’t have to socialize with the monoforms.
Later, Laas becomes fog on the Promenade (which O’Brien describes as “creepy”), prompting a couple of Klingons to start trouble. Laas is obnoxious right back at them, and one draws a d’k tahg. Laas forms a sword out of his hand, and one Klingon stabs Laas (ineffectively), and Laas kills the other one. The Klingons want to press charges and extradite Laas to the empire—Sisko says it’s up to the magistrate. Odo is pissed, feeling that Laas is being discriminated against because he’s a changeling. Quark then reminds him that humanoids have spent millions of years evolving a reasonable fear of that which is different, and that, combined with the ongoing hostilities against the Founders, means that Laas is being too provocative for anyone’s good.
Odo admits to Kira that, as much as he loves her, part of him wants to be out there with Laas existing as a changeling because that’s what he is. Kira then goes to Laas’s cell and provides him with an escape route and a place to wait where no one will find him until Odo meets with him. When Laas asks why, she says that she loves Odo.
Kira reports that Laas turned into plasma energy and forced his way through the force field. While Worf coordinates a search, Kira tells Odo the truth. She doesn’t want him to stay out of a sense of obligation, she wants him to be happy.
Odo goes to the rendezvous point—and tells Laas that he’s not going with him. He has only come to say goodbye. Laas thinks that this whole thing has proven that Odo belongs with Laas because even Kira knows it, but to Odo it just proves that with Kira he has something more valuable even than the Great Link.
To Kira’s surprise, Odo returns to the station—she expected never to see him again. To express his gratitude, he changes his shape into golden glowy light and surrounds Kira in what has to be the weirdest sex scene in television history…
The Sisko is of Bajor: Sisko has to keep reminding Odo that Laas actually killed someone, and generally is only giving Laas as many chances as he gets because Odo vouches for him. Odo is particularly unappreciative.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira embodies the cliché that if you love someone, you set them free.
There is no honor in being pummeled: When Laas kills a Klingon, it’s Martok who objects—but since the actor playing him is already playing Laas, Worf gets to speak for Martok and do all the frowny Klingon stuff.
Preservation of mass and energy is for wimps: Odo is thrilled to meet another of the one hundred infants who were sent out like he was. He’s less thrilled when it turns out that he’s kind of a dick.
Victory is life: We’ve seen on several occasions that the Founders consider Odo’s return to the Great Link to be more important even than victory over the powers of the Alpha Quadrant. This episode reminds us that, despite everything, the feeling is very mutual. Odo’s desire to return home, confessed to Garak under torture in “The Die is Cast,” hasn’t dimmed with the advent of all-out war.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: Odo and O’Brien return from a conference, and Odo has two gifts for Kira, which guilts O’Brien into realizing he didn’t get anything for Keiko. He tries and fails to buy one of Odo’s gifts off him.
Keep your ears open: “Mine’s bigger.”
Laas’s response to a Klingon pulling a d’k tahg as he turns his hand into a sword.
Welcome aboard: Having already played the Saratoga captain in “Emissary,” the changeling impersonating Martok in “The Way of the Warrior” and “Apocalypse Rising,” Ritterhouse in “Far Beyond the Stars,” and the recurring role of Martok since “In Purgatory’s Shadow,” J.G. Hertzler adds another character to his resumé, playing Laas. He’s credited as “Garman Hertzler,” which is what the G in his usual credit stands for. (Hertzler started a rumor that Garman was his brother from New York.)
Trivial matters: The title of this episode comes from the daughter of Typhon and Echidna in Greek mythology, a creature with three heads, that of a lion, a dragon, and a goat.
It was established in “The Search, Part II” that the Founders sent one hundred infant changelings out into the galaxy to seek out new life and new civilizations (ahem), of which Odo was one. Laas is the second one.
It will be established in “When It Rains…” that Odo has the morphogenic virus that is affecting the Founders. This means that, when he links with Laas in this episode, he gave him the virus. This was never addressed onscreen, but it is addressed in the post-finale DS9 fiction, with Avatar Book 2 by S.D. Perry showing that Laas, like Odo, returned to the Great Link after the war ended, and Olympus Descending by David R. George III in Worlds of DS9 Volume 3 establishing that Laas was given the disease by Odo, but he was cured as Odo and the rest of the link was, as will be established in “Extreme Measures” and “What You Leave Behind.”
Walk with the Prophets: “This is just a form I borrowed.” One of the things that long-running shows can do when they reach a planned end is tie up loose ends and/or address stuff they never got around to addressing. This episode does the latter, in that we’ve known for several years now that Odo is one of many infant changelings who were sent out, but we haven’t seen any of the other 99.
It’s also a nice return to the fundamental issue of Odo as other. Since the mystery of where Odo came from was solved at the top of the third season, that element of the plotline has been inextricably tied with the simultaneous revelation that his people run the Dominion. The actual exploration of what it means to be a changeling amidst solids wasn’t really dealt with up until this point without the spectre of the Dominion warping and distorting it.
Still, the episode doesn’t quite come together as well as it should because—aside from Quark’s rather scattered (and mostly nonsensical) speech about genetic imperatives—nobody ever reminds Laas that the monoforms on Deep Space 9 have particular reason to suspect changelings because of what the Founders have done over the past few years. Indeed, the crew can’t be 100% sure that Laas isn’t a Founder trying to pull a fast one. This not being addressed is all the more frustrating by the fact that this episode suffers from a severe lack of a B-plot. Odo and Laas wind up having the same conversation over and over again, and by the time Laas is in his cell you’re just ready for the Klingons to extradite him already just to shut him up.
Still, J.G. (sorry, “Garman”) Hertzler does superb work as Laas, who sounds so calm and reasonable as he’s generalizing about how awful monoforms are. Laas is a very compelling character, even if he isn’t particularly likeable (he does actually kill a Klingon, and Odo’s self-defense argument is specious). And the episode in the end embraces the notion that species does not determine behavior: Odo and Laas are not the same, in the end, and Laas’s generalizations about monoforms are not fair or well-founded.
Warp factor rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido is feelin’ groovy.
I have a huge freakin’ problem with this episode, and it’s our beloved Colonel’s behavior. Laas is a murderer, and she just waltzes into the brig and lets him go, with basically no repercussions whatsoever. I don’t think I need to explain why this is 47 kinds of wrong.
The good thing about this episode, though, is I nearly forgot that was J.G. Hertzler under different makeup. He’s an outstanding actor, and the only similarity I could catch was the voice bearing passing resemblance to Martok’s gruffness. Well done, sir.
A good episode, to be sure, and I’m more or less in agreement with krad’s analysis.
However, Hertzler’s voice is so distinctive that I find myself fighting suspension of disbelief the whole time. Whenever I think of this episode, I don’t think so much about the story or the character (both of which are pretty wonderful), but rather the fact that they chose the very recognizable Hertzler for the part. Hertzler is great, and I’m sure he appreciated the opportunity to dive into another meaty role, but there are a lot of actors in Hollywood. I kind of wish they hadn’t doubled up here.
(Just saw MeredithP’s comment above. I guess this means I fall on the opposite side of the spectrum from her re: Hertzler.)
Ha! I’m probably just more easily fooled, and I’m obviously not as good with recognizing voices. Casting folks must love gullible people like me. *laughs*
Well, Star Trek has pulled this sort of thing a lot, and it doesn’t always pull me out. In fact, it usually doesn’t, especially if there are a few years between appearances — especially if it’s a different series. Like most people, I like to see my favourite actors show up again and again. For instance, I didn’t mind Hertzler’s appearances in Voyager’s “Tsunkatse” or Enterprise’s “Judgement” (though him playing yet another random Klingon in “Borderland” felt a tad excessive). Aron Eisenberg in “Initiations” is the main other one that pulls me out every time. But I digress.
And I hardly ever notice Jeffrey Combs’ famous dual role on DS9. Brunt and Weyoun are so thoroughly different — both looking and sounding — that the show gets away with it.
So the baby changeling that died wasn’t one of the 100 then?
I did come to recognize Hertzler, but it wasn’t so jarring that I didn’t appreciate the performance. He was a good enough actor in this one that I accepted him as a different character. And I appreciated the irony of him going up against Klingons.
This episode did get me more thinking about the whole nature of the changelings and “the ocean becomes a drop” stuff. I mean, we are told they are one and many…but it seems like there are distinct entities in there, and therefore a finite number. For example, if Odo and Laas link, can they then choose to just take the shape of a single humanoid (or other) life form and exist as that? Can Laas decide to split himself into multiple independent entities? In this episode, they link, and Laas learns stuff about Odo that he doesn’t admit, and there is something shared there, but they still function as the same individual entities they were before, which is more separate than a joined trill. Do they both get their exact same molecules back?
The only thing I can think of to say about this one is that it seems odd that the Klingons would be upset about Laas’s slaying of one of their warriors. It looked to me like it was a combat/duel situation, with challenge given and accepted and weapons drawn on both sides, and Laas won. Isn’t that pretty much an everyday social interaction in Klingon culture, with the victor lauded as a warrior rather than charged as a murderer? If they were applying a double standard because Laas used shapeshifting to win, that would sort of support his point about discrimination.
Still, it does seem kind of melodramatic to have him randomly kill a guy — like they were trying too hard to escalate the stakes. It might’ve been better to keep it strictly to Odo’s personal dilemma and the clash of values with Laas.
@5: There’s an exchange of molecules when two solids have sex — or even when they just shake hands — yet that doesn’t cause them to lose their distinct identities. A personality is more about the gestalt pattern than the bits that make it up. For what it’s worth.
While Laas should likely be tried (by Bajorans, not Klingons – I don’t believe an extradition treaty has been established between the two entities, but I may be wrong), I disagree that he was a murderer.
The Klingons had disruptors, and while the intent to reach and use them was in dispute, it is clear that they intended to commit serious harm and Laas would be reasonable in assuming they they wished to kill him. It is reasonable to infer from the dead Klingon’s hand motions that he wasn’t about to retreat, but continue the attack. Laas reasonably was concerned about not just physical safety, but for his life (should he be hit by a disruptor blast). Therefore, lethal force in self-defence was reasonable.
Regardless of the charge, nothing should have stuck to Laas. He did not initiate the confrontation, he attempted to dissuade the attack by displaying his “knife” before being struck, he disabled the attacker that displayed what was a non-lethal weapon to him, and only used lethal force against an individual who had a lethal weapon on his person and continued to show intent to attack even after knowing that a blade would be ineffective. Textbook defense.
Oh. I thought the episode was better than recent fare, but still frustrating. I was bothered by Kira’s guilt tripping on Odo for linking with one of his species, a group that he can’t have any contact with because he’s at war with them.
@@.-@: I don’t mind as much when shows use the same actor for different characters in cases like this where they have different alien makeup. It bothers me when both characters are more or less human and don’t have any physical differences, especially if at least one of the characters is someone we’ve seen a couple of times and know well. For example, Narim the Tollan in SG-1 showing up later on Atlantis as Dr. Weir’s boyfriend. But Dr. Weir herself was the same character with a different actor as in the SG-1 season 7 finale…and that kind of thing bothers me even more, but can probably be helped less.
@6: That’s a good point about the molecules. But that was also intended as a bit of a seperate question, as I get the impression their identities exist independent of the molecules that make them up. So I’m still a little curious as to my other questions regarding the nature of the changelings.
@5: Memory Alpha says the baby changeling “could have” been one of the 100, but my feeling is that it isn’t, simply because of the age difference. Then again, Laas is older than Odo, so maybe they were sending the infants out over a really long period of time…
Also, in light of the ethical discussion on whether Laas is a murderer, my comment on it was in-universe. He’s being charged with killing somebody, and Kira let him go. What we think of the charges is a separate issue from what Kira did. :)
@7: I think that Kira’s concern over the linking kind of highlights the misunderstanding of changelings by solids that the episode was trying to put forth. It maybe was kind of rude to act that way with Odo when he said it was innocent, but her emotional reaction is still valid. The last time she was around when Odo was linking with another changeling it was during the all that crap at the beginning of season 6 with the female flounder. So, just that in general aside, those episodes also seemed to set up an analogy between linking and sex. And Odo DID have humanoid sex with her during those episodes too, which he may have told to Kira during their all-night talk in Jadzia’s closet. So she may have just gotten a little bit of a jealousy vibe from knowing that he linked with Laas, not to mention the distrust of Odo being potentially manipulated.
Something that occurred to me when watching this episode it that Laas is actually a really good depiction of a sociopath. He isn’t crazy, but he is entirely self involved, doesn’t really see those around him as real people, and feels no remorse about hurting or killing them. Odo’s behavior towards him is similar to the people who are taken in by a sociopath’s natural charm, and don’t see them for what they are. No idea if this was intentional, but it resonated a lot with me.
@10: Regarding the baby changeling and Odo and Laas’s age difference, I always thought that the time they spent as simple, amorphous blobs could be short or long depending on their individual development. So for example, it’s possible that Odo was actually older than Laas, but spent a longer time as a blob before being “awakened” into shapeshifting and evolving as a being, and the baby changeling spent even longer than that.
…though typing it out like that, I suppose that is very solid-centric of me, assuming that their development and sentience don’t really begin until they start imitating us…
@12: No, it makes sense. Not as solid-centrism, but just as a function of the different lengths of time they spent drifting through space, presumably in some kind of nascent, embryonic state, before they were found and awakened. The Hundred were sent all over the galaxy, adrift until someone eventually found them at random, so there could be decades of difference in their “birth” ages. Indeed, it seems likely that a high percentage of them are still drifting through space in their undeveloped state. Odo and Laas may be among the only ones who’ve actually reached maturity, at least outside the Gamma Quadrant.
I always forget about this one. The whole thing is just kind of meh to me and feels like something that would’ve taken place sometime around season 4 or 5.
Due to @14’s “meh” response, I only just noticed this got a 7. I know, I know, the ratings are less important than the reviews. I’m still surprised, given the review, that it got a 7. As the review itself notes, the plot isn’t strong enough to support the lack of B-plot.
I feel like I want to like this one – and I love @12’s note that Laas is a sociopath – but I just don’t see going higher than 5 or 6. Just my two cents or so.
Huh. I’ve identified Hertzler in other roles by voice (and I love his work every time!), and I tend to think I’m fairly good at recognizing actos by their voices, but I never did catch that Laas was also Hertzler. Then again, I haven’t re-watched this episode in a LONG time.
Like Field of Fire, this episode has so many strong and weak points all muddled together than I struggle to come up with an overall opinion. Laas is just such a dick. This episode shows true love between Odo and Kira more than any other, which seems really touching … but it’s darkened by the fact that Kira broke an accused criminal out of the brig and set him free, and also by ingongruity with what the finale will portray about their relationship. And also by the memory of Odo being a total scumbag in early Season 6, last time he “linked around.”
For what it’s worth, I was also always of the opinion (like @12) that the baby blob in The Begotten was another of The Hundred, and that the blobs didn’t really acquire any sentience until something knocked them out of suspended state and started their growth process. Laas was just one of the very first (if not THE first) of these to get “started.” So we only have 97 unaccounted for … many of whom are probably still mindess blobs, or in very far reaches of the galaxy. I also feel like their lack of sentience in their original state is supported by Odo’s description of his own infancy in The Alternate.
Also for what it’s worth, I do feel like Laas had a strong case for self-defense. Also that the Klingons shouldn’t have given a darn, as CLB @6 states. Though Bajoran law should certainly object.
@@.-@: Combs speaks differently enough as Brunt that I usually don’t “notice” that he’s the same as Weyoun, either. But anytime Shran shows up in Enterprise, I find it jarring that “Weyoun” is showing up 200 years early, and sometimes even as a protagonist. ;-)
@5 “For example, if Odo and Laas link, can they then choose to just take the shape of a single humanoid (or other) life form and exist as that?”
CHANGELING VOLTRON!!!
@6 @9 On the molecular/linking front (versus the discussion of things like humanoid coupling), I guess that there’s a distinction with how the Changelings “Self” in related to their particularity versus how solids have central organ-based systems and such. Consider if each molecule of Odo was a stem cell of sort that set itself into a form than re-pluripotentiated itself when he reliquified. Now, consider how all of this extends into the psychological and spiritual faculties. Kira as a Bajorian, at least, has a sense of body-soul/spirit not too different from many pre-Roddenberry Space-Atheism conceptions (and Odo “grew up” around that ethos), so the difference in such duality when considering anatomy would be something that would come to mind, at least philosophically and phenomenonologically.
But still, CHANGELING VOLTRON!!!
I’d completely forgotten this episode existed. After reading the review I do remember being bothered by the “preservation of mass and energy is for wimps” factor in this episode more than usual. I know we’ve seen changelings turn into liquids (starting with the first episode), but is this the first time we’ve seen one adapt a gaseous form? And if that is possible, what’s to keep a changeling from splitting into two independant parts? A pair of Odo ‘mini-me’s? What’s to keep the Founders from existing as pure energy beings?
I always figured the baby changling Odo found to be one of the 100 as well. What else could it be?
As to the age and maturity thing. I remember Odo telling Dr. Mora that he was more than happy to remain a blob until someone started to prod him and make him do things. He could have been sitting wherever they found him for centuries for all we know. We don’t know anything about the reproductive process of changlings, nor how long they typically take to mature. Or how long they even live. It’s possible that a changling “born” in the great link reaches maturity and individuality sooner because it is connected to the great link from the beginning, where as the 100 were sent out and had no adults to teach them who and what they were. They had to figure it out on their own.
We also don’t know how the 100 were sent out. Or how they ended up on planets. Were they sent out in probes like Superman, or just left to drift in space? And if they just drifted how did they enter an atmosphere? There are too many questions related to this to really draw a solid conclusion.
I always wondered about Lass in the back of my mind when we learned that Odo was the source of the changling plague. Part of me is glad to know that he survived and returned to his people. Although, you have to wonder how he was able to do this. I may have to check out the books he is mentioned in.
There’s one other changeling who appears in the books; the uncreatively-named Meta showed up in one of the very early numbered DS9 novels.
Of course, he appeared long before the Dominion was revealed in-show, and he doesn’t act like any changeling we’ve seen (he was a horror-movie serial killer, basically). It’s easy to dismiss him as early installment weirdness, but I ‘ve always mentally retconned him as one of the Hundred who must’ve had a particularly rough history.
@19: I always figured that the capsule the baby changeling was found in was the same kind the others were sent out in. True, mature changelings like Laas can somehow travel FTL under their own power, but there’s no way dormant infants could.
@20: That was the very first original DS9 novel, The Siege by Peter David (no relation to the later episode of that title). It’s actually surprising how well it still holds up aside from a couple of minor continuity glitches like Odo encountering another shapeshifter and the Rio Grande being destroyed at the end of the book (like that could ever happen).
And yes, Meta could be interpreted in retrospect as another member of the Hundred who never learned the “No changeling has ever harmed another” rule. Laas certainly proves that changelings are capable of murdering solids even without any Dominion indoctrination. But the book was deliberately ambiguous about whether Meta was actually a member of Odo’s species or just from a very similar shapeshifting species.
I would absolutely read books about the 100 changelings. That would be interesting in the same way TNG’s “The Chase” was interesting – the idea of scattering across the galaxy, and coming back together. (Okay, that wasn’t a great episode, but the idea is fun.)
“To express his gratitude, he changes his shape into golden glowy light and surrounds Kira in what has to be the weirdest sex scene in television history…” – This is a bit sacriligeous of me, but my first thought was of some of the paintings of the Annunciation which show the spirt of God as a golden beam, lol. Or of the Greek Myth where Zeus impregnates somebody as a golden cloud (Danae?).
Some of the discussions regarding self-defense/lethal force/they looked threatening…hit a little too close to home based on some discussions I’ve been having with many others in recent weeks. On one hand, I do agree that were he a Klingon, nobody would have batted an eye at what he did (no Klingons, anyway), and they were definitely antagonizing him with intent to hurt/kill. But given that he had many other mechanisms at his disposal to incapacitate his attackers, I don’t know that lethal force was justfied. Is one morally obligated to always use the least force they can, even if using lethal force would otherwise be justified? I don’t know. I’ve been in several heated discussions on that very topic.
The thing about Laas’s big rant that especially irritates me is that it’s not like the Founders are exactly beings of pure instinct that leave everything alone and allow the balance of the universe to flourish/nature take its course. Although I suppose he doesn’t know that. I kind of wonder how he would react to the Founders, or if he would just accept their rationale on the basis of his views of the superiority over ‘monoforms’.
Also – what precisely does the title refer to? A chimera is a blend of multiple species, correct? Whether or not that’s the true description of the chimera of myth, in biology it is frequently used as such. But that’s not really what Odo and Laas are.
@7 As I undertand these things, in most common law jurisdictions, you have a duty to withdraw – or at least attempt to withdraw – before you can claim self defence.
Laas could not claim self defence unless he had clearly tried to avoid any need for violence.
Or to put it another way: don’t pick a fight and then claim self-defence.
@1 I think the fact that Kira does something illegal and immoral for Odo, is part of the point of the episode.
And of course, there are cultures where it is considered immoral to put laws and rules ahead of your family and friends…
@25
And in other states (like FL) there is a “stand your ground” law removing that requirement. And the situation could be looked at under Starfleet (station in time of war), Klingon, Federation, or Bajoran law.
As for the least necessary force, the only thing I’ve ever heard similar to that is that you can’t escalate force and claim self defense. That’s the source of the common trope of former professional boxer/special forces/whatever who’s been in prison because their hands are lethal weapons and they killed someone that hit them. Usually they get out of prison and get the girl though.
@26: I can accept that no problem. But the fact that the illegality and immorality of what she did is largely ignored really does not sit well with me. I just rewatched it, and in the next scene, in Sisko’s office, it’s patently obvious (to me) that she’s lying. In the following scene, in the turbolift with Odo, there is not even a flicker of concern on his face about what she did. He’s surprised, touched, grateful – but that’s all. This would have worked as a B-plot (or A-and-a-half), or they could have given Odo a single line at her revelation, “But that’s…” and let him trail off as he realizes why she did it. Instead, it’s just totally ignored that she let the guy go, and I think that stinks.
@23: Oh, I agree — Laas’s use of force was excessive. He could’ve just turned back into vapor if he wanted, so the Klingons’ weapons wouldn’t really have posed much danger to him. And he did have other options for dealing with them. So resorting to lethal force was unjustified and I’d call it criminal. But that’s by human standards. What surprises me is that the Klingons saw it the same way.
That’s the thing that always bugged me about this episode. We know Odo has a deep desire to reunite with the Founders. We know that. In theory, Laas is supposed to be a great inspiring presence for him. The problem is he’s written like such a sociopath, I have no idea why Odo would go along with his tune.
Also, when Laas said Odo and Kira had no future using the inability to have a children, it rang false. Odo may not be able to reproduce, but that wouldn’t stop him and Kira from either living together childless, or even adopting a Bajoran occupation orphan. That option is available.
What bugs me even more is that it feels like a season 4 episode, back before the Dominion War took over the main arc. It feels like Echevarria had this story in storage for a while. But it feels odd to deal with the whole Laas situation without ever addressing the ongoing war, treating this story like a Pre-Dominion shapeshifter concept.
Regarding the morality of Kira’s behavior – I agree. While I think he was justified in his actions (more below), Laas should have been called to account for them. Nevertheless, I agree with his assertion that he would not recieve a just trial. Had that thought been Kira’s motivation, I would have supported her letting him go. However, her decision to let him go had no thought for justice.
Regarding the jurisdiction on the station, my understanding is that the station is still Bajoran property, but being managed by the Federation. While I would grant the Federation authority to conduct any hearing, it would need to be done in accordance with Bajoran law. The Klingons would have, and asserted, a claim to trial, but I am not aware of any extradition treaty between Bajor and the Empire (as opposed to the established treaty between the UFP and the KE). I don’t know Bajoran law, real or imagined, but I suspect that it would contain a strong self-defence mechanism as an outcropping of the occupation. I firmly believe my assertions regarding his actions (still further below) were justified would have not resulted in extradition.
Regarding Laas and his actions. Did he antagonize or incite the Klingons by being foggy? Sure. The entire promenade was uncomfortable (well, except the many extras who seemed fascinated and were playing in it – although, they looked like minors, which raises other concerns), but he ceased his behavior as directed by law enforcement. It was at that point that he was approached by two hostile and armed Klingons, and was force to justify his right to free expression. He did so rather curtly, but being curt is not a crime. The Klingons threatened him with a bladed weapon, and he demonstrated his ability to possess a similar device, in the hopes of demonstrating that he was not prey and that mutual assault was not desirable. At that point, the Klingon struck him, with an apparent intent to kill (as it would have any other humanoid). There is no indication of experience between Laas and other Klingons, so even if Laas knew he could not be injured, he had no reason to believe that the Klingon was aware of this fact. Nevertheless, Laas tossed the Klingon aside, using a minimal amount of force to stop the threat while establishing that future assaults on his person were unacceptable. Without giving him time to withdraw, and frankly why should he have withdrawn having been the first on scene and not the party to instigate the altercation, the second Klingon began to draw a weapon. Seeing that the Klingon was in possession of a lethal disruptor, and knowing that he had already established the inefficacy of the blade, Laas was forced to make a split-second decision in defense of his life. Rather than permit the Klingon to take his life, he struck once with the blade to the center of mass, incapacitating the Klingon, and then considered the confrontation terminated. He did not continue to strike, as the Klingons had him. Might he have been better served to allow local law enforcement, who he was with, to resolve the matter? Of course. However, the contsable declined to intervene before the matter escalated into armed conflict and the speed of the situation did not leave time for appeals to authority – Laas had to make a decision in defense of his life. And just as any creature would when threatened, he instinctivly struck. There may be some who believe he should have retreated, but the lethality of the disruptor would have affected him in any state he could have quickly changed into. Additionally, the Klingon behavior suggests that any attempt to change would have been treated as hostile, and thus incur an undefended strike. Laas is a being of peace and had no desire for conflict. It was brought to him and he could only disengage through the use of force. There is no reason to believe that he committed any crime and, especially in the face of knowledge that he would never recieve a fair trial from the Klingons, justice demands his immediate release.
I really should reset my password. That wall of text is in need of serious breaking up.
@30: Hear, hear. I hate it when screenwriters have characters ignore the very possibility of adoption as a valid way to have children. It’s harmful to all the children out there who need to be adopted and who suffer from the social stigma that adoption is somehow not a “real” form of parenting. (I had a huge problem with this on TNG’s “When the Bough Breaks.” The crisis there could’ve been resolved easily if the characters had simply realized that there is such a thing as adoption.)
@31: As I said, I disagree that Laas’s actions were “in defense of his life.” He was a freaking cloud of mist not two minutes earlier. His shapeshifting was so advanced that he had a thousand ways he could’ve safely evaded the Klingons’ fire or rendered himself immune to it. His life was absolutely not in danger, so he was absolutely not justified in killing.
I love how Garak and Bashir have one scene in one episode where Garak grabs Bashir by the shoulders and a million slash fics get launched, but Odo and Laas actually meld together and fanficcers stay completely silent. (Odo and Laas aren’t nearly as cute as early Bashir, obviously.)
My fave part of this episode is where Quark gives Odo a quick briefing about humanoid wariness of the unknown. It’s a welcome reminder that Odo is actually very unenlightened about much of humanoid behaviour. Sisko and the others tend to forget that because he’s around them all the time and they make assumptions.
@33: Sadly, this neglect of adoption is media reflecting reality. I have friends for whom infertility is a major issue … and while I understand that they would prefer procreating their own children, and I don’t want to belittle the sadness and frustration and depression that can be caused by infertility struggles, it DOES make me sad how reluctant they seem to be to consider adoption as a still-very-good option.
They can keep trying to figure out treatments with their doctors while raising an adopted child (or more). Adoption can be expensive, but it’s less expensive than some medical treatments that they are trying instead! It just seems like they consider adopting a child to be a “last resort” and maybe even a badge of shame … which makes me sad.
There are millions of children whose lives would be orders of magnitude better if they were adopted by caring parents, and a number of friends of mine (and an aunt) whose lives were improved by such. Can society please drop the stigma it has built around a win-win situation? (I’ll climb off my soapbox now, thanks for listening.)
@33 – I get that he would be a cloud, but it isn’t like his transformations are instananeous. With a Klingon hand already approaching the disruptor, he’d have to have shifted in less than a second. I saw no indication that he could make a major safety change that quickly (and other than changing into the nonform of mist or gold light, any form would still be susceptible to disruptor fire).
Could or should he have aimed his pokey-stick elsewhere? Perhaps. But it was still self-defense in the face of reasonably percieved lethal force.
@36 – That was a bit perplexing to me. He went from being fire to being humanoid almost instantly. When he was fog, we had a huge long sequence of the fog coalescing before he became humanoid. I get that it was probably for budgetary reasons, those effects cost money, but the timing could have easily been adjusted.
@36: We’ve seen changelings move whip-fast before, in “The Alternate,” for instance. My point is not that he would have to turn into a cloud again specifically; my point is that his ability to turn himself into a sentient vapor at all is evidence that his shapeshifting ability is extraordinarily advanced, and that could give him many, many options for evading the disruptor blast or nonlethally restraining the Klingon. If he could morph his arm into a sword and stab the Klingon, he could’ve just as easily morphed it into a club to knock the gun out of the Klingon’s hand, a chain to bind the Klingon’s arms, a blindfold to keep the Klingon from knowing where to aim, any number of things. He had a thousand ways to save his life without taking someone else’s, and yet he chose to kill. That is murder as far as I’m concerned.
I’m with Christopher on this, FWIW. Laas’s self-defense argument is weak tea indeed.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@33 @35 Yes, adoption is so seldom addressed as a way to grow a family that is just as justified as giving birth. I have a bunch of adopted siblings, and my cousin is adopting a daughter to complete his family of 4 sons. My adopted sibs are as much sibs as my bio sibs. To my Mom, we are ALL her children equally. I don’t understand why media at large and Trek specifically don’t seem to think this is a reasonable option. It’s not like it’s uncommon.
@21
I was a big fan of The Siege when I read it way back when. From what I remember, it was a much better version of the ‘serial killer in a haunted house’ story than Empok Nor, wonky continuity not withstanding.
@41: Well, at the time it came out, its continuity was as solid as a book written before the show premiered could possibly get. PAD had access not only to the pilot script and series bible (which was all Diane Carey had when she wrote the first original TNG novel, Ghost Ship, which has aged very poorly), but the scripts to every episode up through “Captive Pursuit,” and it shows. So at the time, it was very authentic. It was only in light of later developments that things like the presence of a shapeshifter and the destruction of the Rio Grande became problematical.
Oh, I had a similar thought when they talked about how they can’t have children! And you know, it’s not like there are other relationships between ‘monoforms’ that have the same issue. Odo and Kira wouldn’t be candidates for special treatment (like Jadzia and Worf) but if you really want to have a family with somebody…there are many ways.
This episode struck me as a strong gay metaphor even if it may not have been intended as such. It’s all there: The out and proud changeling “linking” with Odo, the only other “different” one he has encountered, and imploring him not to repress his true nature any longer. Kira’s implied jealousy and disappointment at Odo’s confession of having linked. Homophobic Klingons. The wish to run away together, away from it all. Quark even mentions “changeling pride”! Once you start seeing it that way, it’s everywhere.
Once again, I’m left aghast at the choices Kira and Odo make. I am beginning to see the wisdom of the show’s creators in putting them together. A Klingon DIED. By all rights Laas should have stood to answer for that death. But Kira just springs him out of the clink for the sake of her boy toy so the two of them could link their way around the galaxy looking for other playas….
Meanwhile, Odo browbeats Sisko into allowing Laas out of confinement and promises to take responsibility for him – but as soon as he, ummm, KILLS someone Odo plays the race card to defend him, despite ample evidence from Laas’s own mouth that he has no use for “monoforms”. Self-defense my ass.
Nice, classy episode. Remarkable that the show could pull off such a classic story in its 7th year. I had season one flashbacks – only the good stuff, mind you.
Apart from that, didn´t “that klingon” had a name? Even Sisko refers to the dead guy as “that klingon”. I do like my Star Trek to be a little better than hat. Even if it is DS9, famed for its grey areas in character morals etc. bla bla. People shouldn´t be plot devices – TNG´s infamous “Starship Mine” comes to mind here.
In fact, it has been a long time now, in season 7, that I was reminded of why I even liked Sisko in the first place. Does anyone feel the same away about beloved Benjamin Sisko? I guess I´m still angry from how he acted in “Siege of AR-558”. If it weren´t for “Take me out to the holosuite”, I would be completely lost in anger about him by now. At this point in the show, he seems to be more like one of those TNG admirals from old times. Or is this just my impression?
Seriously, still angry because of Siege AR-558 … Nevermind.
I freely admit that I’ve been binge watching DS9 for weeks now and it has all started to blur together but wasn’t the episode where Odo and the female changeling linked after the wormhole closed and she was trapped in the AQ? If so, how did the rest of the Great Link get infected? The only time I recall Odo linking in the Great Link was when they first discovered the Founders’ home planet (that was later destroyed but not until after they’d moved) and that was before Section 31 infected him. Since the female changeling was trapped on the AQ side, she couldn’t have taken the infection back to the Great Link.
I’m glad Krad pointed out that Laas would have been infected. I thought of it but there didn’t seem to be any mention on the show itself.
EDITED: Oh, yeah, I forgot about Broken Link and him going into the link and coming out a solid. So Neverr Miind!
This episode is terrible. Odo’s sense of justice is ignored by the script and Laas isn’t just a dick, he’s a murdering dick who shows no remorse for taking a life. Laas never once tries to justify to Odo why he killed and Odo ignoring the fact that Laas was never in any real danger points to the level of absurdity that Odo was reduced to in this episode.
There are far better ways to show the conflict that is at the core of the character of Odo. What was done here was simply showing us that even the castaway 100 changelings are dicks, remorseless killers who seem to feel that they are superior to all other forms of life yet the episode seems to want us to believe that Laas is different from the Founders.
DS9 really missed the boat here because up until this point, the show has done a terrific job of showing us different personalities within each different race: Klingon, Ferengi, Trill, Human, and they had this chance to show us something different from Odo and different from the Founders and they chose to make Laas into the same character as the Female Changeling.
There is no compelling reason for Odo to leave with Laas. He isn’t offering anything new to Odo, just the same garbage that the Founders offer. Ranking this episode above a 3 is a travesty in my opinion, how you saw fit to rate it as high as you did is a mystery to me.
48, there are the OTHER castaways. One or more of them might be less obnoxious.
If they’d gone with that, then perhaps the appeal to an alternative might have felt less false.
This would have been an excellent episode if Odo really did leave the station. It’s not like he did serve any special purpose other than “being there” for quite some time.
waka: You are spectacularly underestimating Odo’s importance to the show.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
krad: I’m not. But it seems the writers did for most of season 7 up to this point.
I know others have said it but that was an incredibly stupid plan on the Founders part to just send infant changelings out into the galaxy with the idea that they would somehow learn and come back.
Laas does point out one of the limitations of live-action Trek and that is how most of the species we see in this giant Federation are humanoid. He also points out Odo’s neglect of his shapeshifting although I don’t know how he could tell that the equipment in Odo’s quarters hadn’t been used just by a glance – maybe because it was so shiny??
Before I started my re-watch, I had the impression that Odo’s abilities were used a lot less after Season 5’s “Apocalypse Rising”, probably because of budget constraints. Now I realize they were used just about as often as before. Still, this one gives a good indication of how Odo has conformed to everyone else in a sense.
I almost skipped this one but J.G. Hertzler in the role of Laas convinced me.
Lockdown Rewatch I always felt this should have been a season 3 or season 4 episode, to drop another Changeling in whilst the war with the Dominion was in full swing threw me a little. It’s an ok episode but with some glaring plot holes, did Sisko really believe Kira’s BS story about how Laas escaped from the holding cell? where did Odo tell Sisko he was going to when he left the station to meet Laas at the end of the episode? Also a lot of it just doesn’t go anywhere, we knew why Odo remained on the station and not joined the Founders, it’s almost like the writers felt they had tell remind us before the series reached the closing arc… however it is the first episode where I did believe in Odo and Kira as a couple I never really liked that they got together as anything more than friends but in this episode it works beautifully and Nana Visitor and Rene Aubojonois play it very well indeed.
Pandemic Rewatch: I really enjoyed this episode. The social commentary made in this episode is poignant, and I appreciate the message it was sending. It’s a solid allegory for the fight for LGBTQ equality, and it’s great to see our heroes come face to face with their fears, bigotry, and must deal with it. Laas and Quark are very well used in describing what’s going on, and more importantly, why. As well, it was great to see Odo take on Salome Jens’ typical role of the changeling “mentor”, just to discover he’s not really good at it. (Whereas Salome Jens’ character doesn’t really give two flying f***s about solids and the implication of her beliefs, Odo does, so it comes across, as Laas says, in riddles.) It reinforced, at least for me, that despite what his people expect him to be, Odo aspires to be more than he is, and that he sees his people as something more than just the leaders of the Dominion. That he continues to hope for a better outcome, despite all the odds. I really respect that.
My take is it was a pretty clear cut case of self-defense and he shouldn’t have been held for it.
Is it? We see the sword has no effect on Laas. Self defense is only valid if there is actually a chance to be hurt (or at least a reasonable expectation one can be harmed.) If someone comes at me with a pool noodle I do not have the right to shoot or stab him and claim self defense. In my mind Laas kills him because he doesn’t care he is killing another person.
Agree that it is partly a metaphor about queerness, particularly being bisexual, since at the time there was almost no acceptance that bisexualitywas real. Odo’s gay friend is like “come on, you know you’re gay” and Kira is like “if you’re gay then I will do what’s best for you” and he’s like, wait but I can be two things? I can be a lot of things!
I wish Laas had been less sociopathic. Not 100% kind either, but he’s hard to empathize with. Laas could have been played with more excitement and enthusiasm. When he talks about having a solid lover, his virtual heart could be breaking. He’s just so cold, he’s very vulcan. The “Female Changeling” is often so emotionally present that she’s more compelling, despite her general crappiness. Laas is just not cool. I would like to feel like his proposed mission is more attractive. Like he’s fun to hang out with.
I loved the last scene, though it was a bit awkward. He comes to her in a rain of gold like Zeus. You can really see why they are considered gods, for a change. You can see why Odo is selling himself short by not doing this more, and you can feel his shyness in not fully revealing this to Kira.
I also (maybe projecting a bit) related to Kira being like “this is AMAZING and i LOVE it, but, I get it; I may not be enough for you. You really are something else.” I think that kind of edge makes love more compelling, the little bumps on the key to one’s heart, like a serrated knife.
“…at the time there was almost no acceptance that bisexualitywas real.”
Depends on whom you ask. My 1991 textbook from Human Sexuality class in college has a section on bisexuality that cites research and interviews with bisexual people as far back as Kinsey in the 1940s, though it acknowledges that as of its writing there wasn’t much of a support community for bi people, since gay people saw them as gay people who were wavering, while hetero people just lumped them in with gay people. So scientists and psychologists (and college students who took Human Sexuality) knew it was real, even if the unenlightened masses didn’t.
Sigmund Freud believed everyone was innately bisexual and that which preference we picked was the result of our upbringing, though he was ambivalent on whether homosexuality was pathological or not.
Still, I’m not sure if DS9’s writers would’ve intended it as a metaphor for bisexuality, as opposed to any kind of in-between identity or divided allegiance of the sort that Trek had been doing allegories about since Spock. Themes of alienation and identity conflict are pretty universal, so a story intended as one kind of allegory can work just as well as another — e.g. how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby intended the X-Men as a metaphor for racial or religious discrimination, while these days, particularly since the Bryan Singer movies onward, they tend to be read more as a gay allegory.
I’m super shocked only the more recent comments recognize the allegory for the queer community (although, as a bi person, I didn’t feel it directly targeted bi people). The episode was rife with messages of, “It’s fine as long as we don’t have to see it,” and, “Cut us a break in our bigotry; what you’re doing isn’t natural to me!” When the Klingons attacked Laas, I was literally yelling, “Gay panic!”