Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 4x22 — For the Cause

Aired 1996-05-06

SpaceOpera.com rating:8

Average reader rating:7.23

Synopsis

Sisko is shocked to learn that his girlfriend, Kasidy Yates, may be a Maquis smuggler.

Filler rating: not filler

Numerous major long term plot threads are serviced here.

Remarkable scenes

Kira participating in the springball tournament.
Garak expressing attraction for Ziyal to Bashir.
Sisko gently needling Kassidy about the places she visits on her cargo runs.
Garak's first meeting with Ziyal.
Eddington's opinion of the Maquis... or lack thereof. :)
Ziyal visiting Garak in his shop.
Jake making fun of his father about his relationship with Kassidy, unaware of the allegations against her.
Sisko inviting Kassidy to Risa for a few days to try and get her off the hook.
Quark complaining about his new suit and then Kira threatening Garak about Ziyal. Too much at once! Poor Garak.
Garak: "Paranoid is what they call people who imagine threats against their life. I have threats against my life."
Quark egging on Garak's paranoia.
Sisko discovering the plot against him.
Eddington stunning Kira.
Sisko's conversation with Eddington after his betrayal.
Garak's conversation with Ziyal in the holosuite.
Kassidy returning to the station, alone.

Review

A story of secrets, lies, love, tension, betrayal, and perseverance. Garak has fallen in love with Ziyal, and Kassidy is a Maquis supplier! I always suspected something funny about her since her DS9: The Way of the Warrior when she seemed a bit nervous about all the activity on the docking ring. The writers probably did that to make her falsely seem like a Changeling, so this is a nice twist on that continuity. I felt Sisko's pain all throughout this episode and deeply at the ending too. He struggled with his deep love for Kassidy and his duty to the Federation. In the end, he had to sacrifice his love for his duty; then, to top it all off, he's betrayed by one of his most trusted officers, Michael Eddington! You really got to feel sorry for the poor guy by the end of the episode. By contrast, things between Garak and Ziyal couldn't be better. And, since Garak is my favorite character on DS9, I couldn't be happier for him. :)

3 reader comments

Great episode. "You're even more insidious than the Borg -- at least they tell you that they're going to assimilate you!". But it's too bad about Eddington; I liked him. At least his plot was well enough hatched that he got away safely to the Badlands.
by Jason Shooter | 10/24/2009 at 7:23 am

Several episodes of TNG and DS9 have dealt with the Maquis now, and they’ve all been very, very good. It’s a dilemma that is relevant to the real world, in situations like the Middle East peace process. What’s great about these episodes is how powerful the Maquis point of view is always portrayed. These are not truly terrorists, they are ordinary men and women who are convinced tey are doing the right thing for their well being. But you can also understand the Federation’s point of view.
This might be one of the best Maquis episodes yet, if for no other reason than Eddington’s very well written speech to Sisko. Hell, he almost had me ready to join the Maquis, even knowing they don’t really exist! But this episode hints at a greater theme, a disturbing one, at least for Star Trek fans. The Federation has always been the “good guys” in TOS and TNG. It’s a group of aligned planets whose goal is to explore the galaxy and make peaceful contact with new worlds, and to protect the fundamental rights of its members. DS9, for all its other faults, is really the first series to explore the darker side of the Federation, and it’s a very compelling theme. For the first time, we see covert agencies, we see attempted military coups, we see naivety in government…and we see a distant bureaucracy unable to grasp the demands of its former colonists. The Federation that Gene Roddenberry conceived is shown in a very different light in DS9. I don’t know that Roddenberry would have approved, and I don’t know if I really do either. But whatever the case may be, it certainly is fascinating, and it strikes a powerful chord: after all, isn’t America supposed to be “paradise”? And don’t we have our darker side too? This is what separates DS9 from other Trek series, and in my opinion, what ultimately makes DS9 worth watching.
by MJ | 01/14/2011 at 8:08 pm

Kiras interference with the Ziyal and Garak romance was absolutely unnecessary. Her charater shown as being a tough woman is overdone too often for too many times. Physically she does not fit into the role. It is total nonsense that she could fight Klingon or Jem Hadar warriorrs in hand-to-hand combat. Only Dax, who is much more athletic and trains constantly with Klingon combat prorgrams could stand a chance against such opponents.
by peterwolf | 12/03/2013 at 5:15 am