The stuff of legends

Rhonda’s Take on Episode 3 “The Siege”

After gushing with excitement over the recap before Episode 2, it’s surprising how disappointed I felt with the recap starting this episode. It was the same recap as Episode 2 with a few additions from that episode. I guess I’ve gotten used to episode recaps that are tailored to specific elements for each new episode, but seeing Minister Jaro and Vedek Winn plotting just before being reminded that Bajoran assault vessels are on the way to the station served to reignite the tension from the end of “The Circle.”

In the following moment, we’re dropped into Commander Sisko addressing his crew in Ops. He reminds them of their connections to Bajor—the woman engaged to a Bajoran, the man with a daughter who completed a science project with a Bajoran child—before giving them the “out.” He tells them they will not be judged for making the choice to evacuate. However, the look of utter glee on his face when O’Brien and Bashir announce that it will take hours to pack up their respective departments tells us we shouldn’t leave. There are a few side-eyes as if the other officers were thinking, I’ll go if you go. Oh, no one’s going. I guess I can’t.

This is one of the few episodes that didn’t open on the Promenade, but we’re taken there post-opening credits, where Quark and Rom are watching the procession to evacuate. Rom mistakes Quark’s interest in proceedings as compassion when really it is his ear for profit considering how valuable seats on the shuttles now are. Of course, Rom will be the one to win when he sells Quark’s shuttle seat! This will lead us to learning yet another Rule of Acquisition, number 31, “Never make fun of a Ferengi’s mother,” when Bashir berates him for dragging a suitcase of latinum around the station.

In case we’ve forgotten this is a family show and that the station has become our home, we’re shown Nog and Jake saying goodbye. Jake bemoans having found “a new home and a new friend” that he is now losing. Nog reassures him that if two as different as them could become friends against their fathers’ wills that they will stay friends even at a distance. When Ben and Jake say goodbye, we’re again reminded that they are the heart of the series. Ben gives his son a letter, which Jake declares he will read as soon as he is on the shuttle, but Ben tells him to “wait a while,” and we know just what he means.

And then there’s Keiko. I’ve always hated how the relationship between Miles and Keiko O’Brien is presented. He is so lovably affable; she is so horribly prickly (and that’s an understatement). Yet again, she’s nagging about him choosing his job over family. In this circumstance, I feel guilty for hating her because she’s right. I’m pretty sure if my husband and I had a four-year-old daughter and he had the choice of coming with us to safety or staying on a station about to be attacked, I would darn well expect him to come with us and to hell with the honor. Still, I bristled at her argument.

As Li Nallas, Kira, Dax, and Sisko discuss how they can get the information to the Chamber of Ministers about the Cardassians supplying weapons to the Circle, we get a moment of brevity with Odo dragging Quark to Sisko for selling shuttle seats. Sisko manhandles Quark quite violently, but there’s no time to deal with him so Sisko shoves him away. Instead, Sisko and Li Nallas must calm the Bajoran citizens who are trying to force their way onto the evacuation shuttles.

Our war hero reminds them, “We’re Bajorans…We stay and solve our own problems together.” His death at the end of this episode is telegraphed in this moment. It is foreshadowed even stronger when Sisko lectures him that “dying gets you off the hook” and asks “Are you willing to live for your people?” Li Nallas, of course, recalls this line with his dying breath, “Off the hook after all.”

Even though Li Nallas dies heroically taking a phaser shot meant for Sisko, his death feels unremarkable, much like the actual siege of the episode title, which General Krim knows means the Federation and Li Nallas have not given up the station. There’s a brilliant moment when General Krim eyes the baseball Sisko has left prominently on his desk. I’m not sure that Krim would know what it is, but he knows it is a subtle message from the commander. 

The siege provides a number of wonderful moments that highlight Odo’s shapeshifting skill as he emerges from a wall panel or turns into tripwire or hides as a food cart. Bashir gets another heroic moment when his team captures five Bajoran prisoners.

While most of our regulars feel fully formed, the writers still seem to be finding Jadzia Dax’s character. She is uncharacteristically nervous about a failing ship and afraid of some critters on the planet’s surface, but she is strong as she tells Kira not to disobey her “elders.” Did we all perk up when Dax enters the room wearing the Sydney Opera House vedek robes from Kira’s vision? If not, I hope we did when the vision is almost enacted in the Chamber of Ministers!

Like other episodes, we get bits of character development: Dax thanks Tobin, a previous host for his engineering knowledge; O’Brien mentions being on the frontlines against Cardassians; O’Brien and Bashir tease each other; Kira tells Dax earnestly to shoot “with your eyes lieutenant, not your pants.”

We also get hints of what is to come. When Kira successfully delivers the proof that The Circle’s weapons were provided by Cardassians, Winn is quick to encourage the investigation that might be bad for Jaro, yet in her favor. Kira’s expression communicates the confusion we feel over Winn’s sudden support.

“The Siege” is lighter on thematic development than some episodes, but definitely asks us to examine our belief in legends who are all too human. Li Nallas’s death provides a moment of reflection on what makes someone a hero and the value of legends. Both sentiments are clearly given through Sisko’s dialogue. When Kira mourns Li Nallas’s death, he tells her, “There are heroes all over Bajor; I’m sitting with one.” After Kira leaves, O’Brien questions the pedestal that she holds Li Nallas on when his experience with the man showed him to be flawed, just like them. Sisko doesn’t reprimand or explain the matter to O’Brien, he simply says that he will remember Li Nallas as the hero he will be in the history books. We know O’Brien will too.

The final moments of the episode show the triumphant return of the evacuees. We too cry with Jake at the sight of Ben, “Dad!” We too want to embrace our families.

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