52. The Abandoned

Summary

A Boslic captain sells Quark the salvage of an unknown vessel; he discovers an abandoned infant among the wreckage. Bashir cannot determine the child's species, but his metabolism is incredibly fast. Sisko is taken with the child and he and Dax share a few fond memories of when Jake was small...memories brought into focus by the fact that Sisko's about to meet Marta, Jake's Dabo-girl girlfriend. The infant grows at an alarming rate. By the next day he appears to be about 8 years old, with fully developed speech and cognitive abilities. Bashir surmises that he must have been genetically engineered, but he has a flaw. He lacks a specific enzyme without which he'll die. Bashir begins work on synthesizing a substitute. Meanwhile, Kira brings Odo a plant as a housewarming gift for his new quarters, which everyone's curious about. He lets her in and shows her all the objects her has for shapeshifting practice. She asks where to put the plant...he gets out his old bucket (he now just spreads out on the floor to regenerate) and puts the plant in it. As for the boy, things start to make sense when the child (now a young man) breaks out of the infirmary and fights his way down the Promenade. Dax calls for Security and Odo rushes to the scene. The young man leaps at him but Odo just de-solidifies and he passes right through him...then falls cowering on the floor at Odo's feet. The child is a Jem'Hadar. Starfleet wants to study him, but Odo, understandably sensitive to sentient beings being treated as lab specimens, persuades Sisko to let him try to reach the boy...he's the only one who can control him due to the boy's instinctual worship of him as a Founder. He tries to impress on the boy that he has other choices besides violence or service to the Founders, but the boy has very strong urges to fight and feels superior to everyone on the station except Odo. Odo lets him express his urge to fight by sparring with holographic partners. Kira tries to caution Odo against this course of action, believing that he's listening to his heart and not his head, but Odo maintains that he can get through to the boy. However he soon finds out his mistake when the boy forces his way off the station at gunpoint...all he wants is to be a Jem'Hadar, nothing else. Odo agrees to go with him and take him to his people, then returns to the station, admitting to Kira that she was right.

Meanwhile, at the dinner with Marta, Sisko finds himself liking his son's older girlfriend and learning a bit more about Jake in the process.

Analysis

This episode's structure is unusual. As Trek viewers we're conditioned to expect certain things. When Sisko got all goo-eyed over the baby, I thought to myself, "okay, he'll get all attached and then there'll be angst when he has to return him to his people or something like that." Then the episode went in a totally different direction, having Odo try to bond with the boy while Sisko's warm fuzzy feelings were channelled to the unrelated B plot about Jake and Marta. I can't decide if that's a good thing or not. On one hand I'm proud of DS9 for surprising me and spurning the traditional Trek narrative style, on the other hand this episodes does feel somewhat disjointed and perhaps that's the reason. Either way it's a moderately successful episode. Trek usually takes the optimistic view that everyone can be good, any species has redeeming qualities, everyone comes around to the nice comfy Federation ideals given a chance. I hate to keep saying it but it pleases me when DS9 does not revert to those Pollyanna cliches. The notion that this boy simply is a killing maching and that nothing can be done about it, and that he would actually prefer to live that way, is something we probably wouldn't have seen on TNG. Kira was completely right about Odo's motivations. He was transferring his own traumatic memories of being studied in a lab onto the boy and his desire to keep him from the same fate blinded him to the fact that some things can't be changed by a few encouraging words and some time in a holosuite. The fact that he didn't realize that by letting the boy fight in the holosuite he was actually making things worse is an indicator of how biased he was in this situation. I found the actor who played the young Jem'Hadar (sorry, can't recall his name) to be quite effective in the role...and what a bod. This episode did lay the groundwork for much of what we would later come to expect from the Jem'Hadar...dependence on the ketracel white, worship of the Founders, extreme loyalty and aggression and rapid maturation. I like this episode, but I'm still undecided about whether the storyline really works or not.

Rating: 7.0

Memorable Quote:

Jem'Hadar: Why do you want to look like a humanoid? You're better than them! You're a Changeling!
Odo: That doesn't make me better, just different. No one on this station is any better than anyone else, we're all equal.
Jem'Hadar: Then I must be at fault...for I know that you cannot be wrong.

Classic Scene:

The young Jem'Hadar's first taste of hand-to-hand combat in the holosuite is probably the most effective scene of the episode...both because it's clear to us that the more he fights the less he'll be able to deny his own nature and because it's also clear that Odo doesn't see that.

Sexually Slanted Line 'O the Episode:

"Some things came up at dinner I didn't expect." --Sisko...no more oysters for you, Ben.

The O/K Status Report

The scene in Odo's quarters is very cute. It's yet more evidence of how much these two people really do mean to each other even if they themselves don't quite realize it...that he actually told her she was welcome in his quarters (Odo's very private) and seemed to mean it is significant, as is the fact that he placed her plant in his old bucket, a symbol of personal growth for him. That gesture meant a lot to her, the affectionate look on her face is unmistakable. Kira is clearly concerned about Odo's interest in the boy throughout the episode. At the initial conference when they're discussing the boy's future, everyone is around the table except Odo who's standing at the window. During the entire conversation Kira is turned away from everyone else watching Odo with a worried expression on her face. When she confronts him in Quark's while the boy's in the holosuite, he exhibits a strong wish that she understand why he's doing this, but she's still concerned that the boy is dangerous and Odo's just letting himself in for a huge problem. When Odo returns, the first thing he does is find Kira and talk to her about his perceived failure. Just more friendship fodder.

Special Alerts

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