Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — 6x15 — Honor Among Thieves
Synopsis
Starfleet Intelligence recruits Chief O'Brien to infiltrate the Orion Syndicate, the Alpha Quadrant's leading organized crime ring, to find a Starfleet informant.
Filler rating: partial filler
You'll need to watch this episode to understand the context of how and why O'Brien acquired a cat, which becomes somewhat relevant later. Understanding that context later on is useful for understanding a few scenes in later episodes, but not essential, strictly speaking.
Remarkable scenes
- O'Brien spiking one of Bilby's people.
- Quark and Odo speaking at the same time.
- The numerous system glitches.
- Bilby to his cat: "Well, what do you make of that, Chester? I've found me an honest man."
- O'Brien: "There's a Klingon ambassador here? Gowron must not like him much."
- The Orion Syndicate conspiring with a Vorta...
- O'Brien and Bilby robbing the bank of Bolias digitally.
- Bilby to O'Brien: "I'm going to take care of you. I don't forget my friends. 'Cause friends; they're like family. Nothing's more important. Nothing."
- O'Brien revealing himself to Bilby.
- The final scene with O'Brien feeling bad about what he had to do.
Review
An Orion Syndicate episode in the tradition of DS9: A Simple Investigation. Though this version of the plot is far more successful. O'Brien begins working for Starfleet Intelligence, attempting to infiltrate the syndicate to try and find out who the traitor to Starfleet is. In this process, he discovers the Dominion is working with the syndicate, and so his mission is extended to discover the full extent of the Dominion's plans. But by the time he finds out, he realizes that he'd have to betray Bilby, the man he worked so hard to earn the trust of all this time. Feeling that it would be dishonorable to let Bilby die like this, O'Brien warns him. But Bilby knew his fate was already sealed. O'Brien let him go reluctantly, but as a final honorable gesture, when O'Brien left he honored Bilby's request to look after hist cat, Chester. I love the final scene, showing a distraught O'Brien petting Chester. A moving episode.