Mini Review #136: Star Trek DS9 4x12/4x13 "Crossfire" and "Return to Grace" (Patreon)

Two more fantastic episodes of DS9 today! I don't know how this show manages to stay consistently this good but these two episodes were just more amazingness!!

Well actually, I hated Crossfire. Well not the episode I thought the episode was amazing but it was so gut wrenching watching Odo slowly realize Kira does not love him back that it was hard to watch. Odo is never really an emotional character and we have only really seen him act on emotion a few times; finding his people in the Omarian nebula is one. But this episode contained the most emotional Odo we have seen. It started out so cute. We could see how much he enjoyed Kira's company and he did so many things to make her day go smoothly and her happy. But then my guy Shakaar showed up, who I actually like, and Odo was just thrown for a loop. As the episode progressed, we could see the relationship forming between Shakaar and Kira while Odo just had to sit there and watch it all unfold and man... IT HURT. The directing in this episode was fantastic and there were so many beautiful intimate moments with Odo. An example would be when Shakaar was discussing his love for Kira to Odo and the camera stays firmly on Odo's face. He isn't saying anything, Shakaar is doing all the talking, but Odo's reactions are what is important. When Kira hugs him near the end, We see Odo's face centre frame letting us take in the hurt and sadness. Man when she hugged him I felt like was getting stabbed 1000 times in the heart. The end of the episode as well as brutal with Odo trying to distant himself from Kira. It felt like Odo was trying to almost cut her out of his life completely (besides work related stuff of course) and it was painful to watch because they had such a good friendship. Overall, this episode was like being punched in the face constantly. I loved it (but I don't love getting punched in the face).

Return to Grace was another Dukat and Kira episode! I was surprised at this because they literally had one together not 10 episodes ago but maybe the writers realized they struck gold as this combination is always good. I always love the discussions these two have together and this episode mostly revolved around the similarities both characters had. Dukat kept trying to tell Kira how well they work together but Kira was not having it and kept brushing it off. It makes sense as Kira really only sees Dukat as a murderer but I have to agree with Dukat here, if they both teamed up they would be pretty unstoppable in a war. I do think Dukat has changed and I am starting to forget the war crimes he committed in the past. The love for his daughter is amazing to see and the fact that he left her on the station at the end of the episode after Kira suggested it, without complaining one bit, proves his love and loyalty to her and her safety. Dukat's monologue to Kira about joining his resistance was my favourite part of the episode as it was both powerful but also showed that the old Cardassian way is still inside him somewhere. It will be very interesting to see how the Klingon attacks develop as they are still attacking Cardassian space with little to no resistance. And with Dukat off to fight them, maybe he will gather supporters and lead a resistance of his own.