Mini Review #76: Star Trek DS9 3x3/3x4 "The House of Quark" and "Equilibrium" (Patreon)

Two more fantastic episodes today that make Season 3 4 for 4 so far in terms of great episodes! The House of Quark was an episode that had been mentioned a few times to me but was never mentioned as much as episodes such as The Wire or Duet. Wow though, this was a fantastic Quark episode!! An episode full of Klingon politics, Aggressive shouting, Quark and Rom, and a fantastic O'Brien Keiko subplot made for a thrilling and emotional watch at times. I really loved the start and how the Dominion has impacted the station through people not wanting to live there and raise families. Once Quark "kills" Kozak and we meet Grilka though, that's when the episode gets so good. All of the Klingon politics always fascinates me and seeing Quark work with Grilka to save her House and family honor was great to watch. The O'Brien and Keiko stuff felt like the emotional backbone of the episode as Keiko found herself purposeless in the face of closing down the school. Watching O'Briend attempt to be a fantastic husband only to realize that these distractions are only distractions and that the only way for Keiko to be happy is to be a botanist on Bajor gave me goosebumps many times.

Equilibrium was a fantastic Dax episode where we learn quite a lot about Trills, as well as an insane cover up regarding the joining process. My favourite part of the episode was Dax's musical motif through having part of a song stuck in her head. The song was beautiful and haunting and made for a great connection to not only her hallucinations, but also the past life she had been forced to forget. We got to visit the Trill home-world in this episode as well and it was beautiful and clean... pretty much as I thought it would be. We also got to see the symbiotes swimming in this murky milk water pool thingy. Gotta be honest and say I am still very grossed out by these slug creatures and you would NOT be catching me swimming in one of those pools. Finally, the way Sisko and Bashir uncovered the conspiracy and their discussion to the Trill doctor about it was fascinating and exciting. The fact that so many Trills can be hosts yet they are lied to was interesting yet, I understand why they are lied to due to the potential for anarchy and commodification of the symbiotes. Also, Dax now remembers a life where she murdered someone. I hope that comes back in some way because that is big.