Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 4x06 — Rejoined

Aired 1995-10-30

SpaceOpera.com rating:2

Average reader rating:4.65

Synopsis

Jadzia Dax must choose between her feelings and the rules of Trill society when she is reunited with the wife of one of Dax's previous hosts.

Filler rating: bad filler

Reassociation is relevant again later, but you don't need to watch this painful episode to understand the later stories.

Remarkable scenes

Jadzia's magic trick.
Quark trying to figure out the specifics pertaining to Dax' relationship with Dr. Lenara Kahn.
Kira: "What do Klingons dream about?" Worf: "Things that will send cold chills down your spine and wake you in the middle of the night. It is better that you do not know. Excuse me." Kira: "I can never tell when he's joking."
Bashir getting called away on a medical emergency at the dinner. Saved by the bell!
Jadzia walking on top of a forcefield!

Review

An episode exploring lesbianism... sort of. The cause is a bit different, the effect is the same. Personally, I don't like this one. Trill society's taboo on previous relationships is frankly absurd. And the episode never tackles it directly. Consider this: isn't the whole point of being a joined Trill to build off the experiences of the previous hosts? The exploration of Jadzia's past relationship is far less interesting than the B plot anyway which is the endeavor to create an artificial wormhole. Unfortunately, it gets very little screen time despite what seemed to me to be remarkable progress, and despite Worf's lack of enthusiasm for the project. ;) A misguided effort of an episode, despite some nice performances.

5 reader comments

The overreaction to this episode speaks volumes about Trek fandom. It's okay for Kirk, Riker et al to snog their way around the galaxy, but show one brief kiss between two women - who first became attracted when they were different genders - and the whole world collapses.
It's true that the episode isn't particularly interesting, but judge it on its own merits, not on prejudice.
by Rob Herbert | 07/30/2010 at 6:12 pm

The other joined trill in the romantic relationship with Jadsia was Dr. Lenara Kahn. This character was played by Susanna Thompson who played the Borg Queen in four Voyager episodes: Voy: Unimatrix Zero Parts 1 and 2, and Voy: Dark Frontier Parts 1 and 2. Interestingly, she did not play the Borg Queen in ST: First Contact, the only other Star Trek title that includes the Borg Queen. In First Contact, the Borg Queen was played by Alice Krige. Personally, I thought that Susanna Thompson did a better job.
I agree with the comment that this episode does not deserve to be rated as low as a 2. There was some pretty good stuff here. Certainly, Jadsia's heroics were entertaining. There was some decent acting. The onscreen kiss was provocative and actually kind of hot.
But our reviewer is correct that this is not up to the best that DS9 can offer. The main issue was that is was rather slow. I got tired of seeing the two joined trills incessantly doing their thing. They were so boring! I actually related to Bashir in Quarks when he got so bored.
Certainly, it is nowhere near other episodes in season 4 such as DS9: The Visitor (which I would say is the best single Star Trek episode ever). Or even DS9: Hippocratic Oath which was also completely terrific.
I gave it a 4 personally.
by Jeff Browning | 11/02/2011 at 1:06 am

The kiss? Disturbing? Definitely not the word I'd use for it.
All in all a pretty dull episode though.
by Psycroptic | 03/28/2012 at 7:48 pm

I found this a decent episode. Good acting from dr Khan and good chemistry with her and Jadzia.
But - why couldn't they just beam her out from engineering… ?
by Hugo von Ahlenius | 04/05/2012 at 7:38 am

The reason I love this episode is not as much because we get Trek's first same-gender kiss, but more because literally nobody in the entire episode brings up their genders as a Thing. The taboo in-show is reassociation. As a lesbian, I love seeing a sapphic love story where it's treated just like any straight love story. This ep could have been basically the same if Lenara or Dax were a man. And that's pretty much the goal of LGBTQ+ activism: that normal variations in human(oid) sexuality and gender identity are treated as that: normal. Kind of how some people are left-handed or hate cilantro. It's just one of many value-neutral facts about them.
And honestly, the scenes between Jadzia and Lenara were wonderful for me. Their kiss was amazing to watch. The actors nailed it, IMO. I totally don't blame anyone else if they're not excited about it, but for me, even in 2021, seeing a WLW love story where their gayness is treated as 100% normal in-universe is still quite refreshing. Also, this episode establishes Jadzia as canonically not-straight. Take that, Rick Berman! :D Note: Roddenberry wanted a gay character on TNG, but Berman blocked it until Gene's death. Berman continued to block gay characters throughout the rest of the series he produced, so the writers and cast had to sneak it in. Garak and Bashir, for example, are definitely gay (or bi, as the case may be) for each other, the actors intended it that way, but they couldn't state it outright.
I tend to agree that the in-universe taboo against reassociation is absurd, but I think that may be part of the point. The real-world taboo is homosexuality, which WILL get you exiled or killed in certain parts of the world, including here in the US. (The number of homeless LGBT teens kicked out by their bigoted parents is utterly sickening. And those are the ones that don't die by suicide. Lawmakers are trying to pass anti-trans bills as I type.) Sisko rightly points out that, regardless of the morality of the situation, there will be a cost to Jadzia being in the relationship she wants. And for many gay people, that is all too often intimately, depressingly true. I can't blame Jadzia for being willing to face the cost. And I can't blame Lenara for being unwilling, either. When faced with severe, irrational societal pressures against us being true to ourselves, we cope how we cope.
My little quibble here is not with this episode, per se, but it's this tendency for Dax to make these rather impulsive decisions around romance. This might not have bothered me if Meridian had never aired -- where Dax is ready to throw everything away to go join Brigadoon In Space -- but here her willingness to face exile and the deaths of two symbionts is less convincing because of that episode. I tend to agree with Lenara on this. Jadzia loves hard, and she WILL love again. Surely Lenara will too. I did appreciate the explanation for Jadzia's impulsivity, though: Curzon. This is especially insightful given us just having seen "Facets" and getting to know Curzon (albeit fused with Odo) in the flesh. Of all the characters we barely see, Curzon is one of the most interesting. I enjoyed the scene where Sisko speaks his mind but then says he'll be loyal to Jadzia whatever she ends up doing.
I also wondered about the transporter thing. They could have easily waved it off with a bit of technobabble like "there's a subspace field that would scatter a transporter signal" or something. The transporter only works when it serves the plot!
Side note: I said "I can't tell if Worf is messing with us" right before Kira said the same thing! ????
by Azalea Jane | 12/24/2021 at 9:11 pm