Mini Review #53: Star Trek DS9 "Playing God" and "Profit and Loss" (Patreon)

Two more FANTASTIC episodes of DS9 today! Playing God was a great Trill focused episode about new initiates and how they work with Trills who are already hosts in order to be recommended being a host. Arjin was a very nice character who brought lots of great insights into what it was like to be an initiate while Dax went through her own character development as she learned about the teachings that Curzon Dax taught her while she was being an initiate. Really great episode and I was particularly interested in the fact that she got Curzon's symbiote once he died. Also, this episode's B plot was about a whole universe expanding into ours. I really enjoyed it and the implications it brought to our characters on the topic of death and whether it is right to destroy a civilization to save others. Thought it could have been its own episode as it was so interesting.

Profit and Loss was a very emotional and romantic look into Quark's past with Natima, a Cardassian on the run from her own world with two others. The complexity of their relationship was really well done and I could really feel the anguish and love between both characters. Quark opened up more than he ever has before in this episode and the ending left me a little heart broken as I have no idea if they will ever see each other again. Besides that, GARAK baby! He was such a standout in this episode and whenever he spoke, he would communicate like 3 different things at the same time. Really great writing overall for this episode!