Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 5x19 — Ties of Blood and Water

Aired 1997-04-14

SpaceOpera.com rating:7

Average reader rating:4.83

Synopsis

Kira's encounter with a Cardassian dissident brings back traumatic memories.

Filler rating: not filler

This episode is a sequel to DS9: Second Skin, in which Legate Ghemor was Kira's "father" of sorts. It's also the episode which establishes that the Vorta are expert cloners, which explains how Weyoun could return after having died in DS9: To the Death.

Remarkable scenes

Worf: "Cardassian politics are very complex." Dax: "I think they like it that way."
Dukat's conversation with Sisko.
Kira's flashbacks.
The Jem'Hadar battleship arriving at the station.
Weyoun 5's appearance.
Dukat showing up at Kira's quarters.
Sisko confronting Dukat about the poison Kanar.
Weyoun: "How delightful! The mysterious plots, the subtle innuendos, the failed threats, it's all so entertaining." Weyoun picks up the poisonous glass of Kanar and drinks it. The look on Sisko's and Dukat's face at this point is priceless. Weyoun: "Oh my. That is quite toxic, isn't it?" Dukat: "Are you insane?" Weyoun: "The Vorta are immune to most forms of poison. Comes in handy when you're a diplomat."
Kira: "They kill us, we kill them. It's nothing worth celebrating."
Kira's emotional scene in the end with Bashir.

Review

This episode features some very good drama. Picking up where DS9: Second Skin left off, Kira is reunited with Legate Ghemor. Unfortunately, he's dying. But before he dies, he wants to divulge Cardassian secrets to Kira. Dukat, knowing this, shows up to try and stop him from doing so. He meets with zero success. While many of Dukat's and Weyoun's scenes were entertaining, their involvement in the story ended up being largely pointless. It would have been nice if they tried a bit harder. All in all, this is Kira's episode. And she does a fantastic job acting it. Very moving.

6 reader comments

Weyoun is a very entertaining character. I enjoyed his scenes immensely. However, Kira's emotional problems really brought this episode down. Reminded me of those Troi suffering episodes on TNG. After awhile it's like "We get that you are fucked up about your daddy's death. Get OVER it and stop being a bitch." The Legate was only a foot soldier on that battle and she acts like he was the mastermind behind it. I absolutely can't stand her when her Bajoran bitchiness kicks in and she starts whining.
by Pete Miller | 07/09/2006 at 3:55 am

I cannot believe this terrible, boring, overblown and over-sentimental pile of rubbish gained a 7 here.
It's not interesting in any way. The plot is obvious within a few minutes and the acting is absolutely bloody awful. This episode is the only one where I used the DVD controls to skip ahead to see if there was something more interesting about to happen. I didn't even do that with TOS The Empath!
by Rob Herbert | 08/02/2010 at 12:01 am

I have to agree with the other commenters, this episode deserves well below a 7. For me it's 2, 2.5 tops, and both of those points are for Weyoun.
by John DC | 09/23/2011 at 3:38 am

I agree with the other comments. Kira is awful, Weyoun is brilliant. It's also completely unrealistic that Gul Dukat and Weyoun would be allowed to freely roam DS9 - the Federation and the Dominion are in a state of war for god's sake. Very dull episode on the whole. It was worth watching solely for the scene in Quark's bar where Weyoun drinks the poison. Classic.
by Selador | 06/18/2013 at 12:32 am

I found it to be very moving and understood Kira’s ambivalence well. It was more to do with how she failed her father than anything Ghemore had done. And her anguish at how Ghemore struggled in death rang very true to me. Icon ur with the 7 rating.
by Scott Nolan | 09/06/2018 at 11:21 pm

I think the complaints about Kira "overreacting" to Ghemor's participation in that attack are unfounded, and I'm frankly not sure if we watched the same episode.
Just as Kira looked for an excuse to leave her own father's deathbed, she wanted to get away from Ghemor's. Dukat gave her a reason, and she hates that it was him that did what she wanted. It's her guilt that is eating her, guilt over her lack of presence at her father's death and the guilt she knows she will feel if she avoids Ghemor's. In the end, she makes the right decision and is able to take some peace from it, burying Ghemor next to her own father on a hill that was once barren but is now verdant.
This episode speaks to any child who has lost a parent or a parental figure. Those questions of "did I do enough?" never go away. Fantastic entry.
by Gaius Gracchua | 11/20/2021 at 1:54 pm