Mini Review #116: Star Trek DS9 3x25/3x26 "Facets" and "The Adversary" (Patreon)

THE SEASON 3 FINALE IS HERE AND WOW IT WAS SO GOOD! But we have one episode to talk about first: Facets. What a great Trill episode, and Jadzia episode specifically. I say Jadzia episode instead of a Dax episode due to the fact that the episode revolved around Jadzia's interactions with her past hosts as well as coming to terms with being good enough to be a host. I really enjoyed watching the whole cast play different people as their bodies were taken over. My favourites were Kira being an old women, Bashir being some might brave man, and Quark being a woman brushing Jadzia's hair. All so much fun! The seed of doubt planted by the musician/murderer man whom I forget the name of at the moment was such an interesting conversation and Sisko was terrifying as this calm but crazy man. But the best part of this storyline was Jadzia standing up to Curzon Dax about why he kicked her out of the program only to let her back in. It was very eye opening, and shocking with the whole love angle, but I think it did Jadzia a world of good in becoming much more confident in her own skills. But the best part of the episode in my opinion was actually the B plot. Nog was training for the Starfleet Academy and seeing how much work and determination he puts into this just fills me with joy. Not to mention when he actually passes the test and he is standing there all happy in the little suit Rom gave him... just great stuff. Oh and speaking of Rom, he is quickly rising the ranks of favourite characters. When he defended Nog in this episode I wanted to reach through the screen and hug him.

And now the season finale! You know, I was expecting something big and bold like the season 2 finale. I was expecting some big fight with the Dominon and maybe for a ship or two to explode. But instead, we got a quiet and small scale episode that was very reminiscent of John Carpenter's The Thing. I gotta say, I loved this episode! The tension created through the fact that a changeling was aboard the ship was phenomenal and watching people lose trust in others in fear of their own lives was so fun to watch. The episode had me guessing the entire way through about who or what was this changeling and so it made it even more intense and stressful for me because I, like the characters, never had a single clue (although I did guess that Bashir was a changeling at the start). Sisko got his captaincy which was awesome and he fully deserves it! He is my favourite CAPTAIN in Starfleet and in Star Trek as a whole! Plus he looks like a cool captain with that goatee. Besides that, while this episode was small in scale, the set up felt large. First, the founders were trying to start a war between Starfleet and another group of people but luckily, that fell through thanks to Odo. Ok, cool so Sisko and all saved the day from the Dominion right? Wellllllllll... that's when the episode really feels like it is setting up for something so intense and dreadful for our characters. First, Odo kills the changeling which is pretty big because this is the first time in history where a changeling harms another. Second, the very end of the episode had Odo saying that the changeling he killed said that it was "Too late, we are everywhere". WHAT DOES THAT MEAN. YOU CAN'T END AN EPISODE LIKE THAT. WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN I AM IN SHOCK. Anyways, while this episode was smaller in scale than previous finales, I can't help but feel that it was just the introduction to a massive and intense storyline or episode starting with the Season 4 opener!