In the nineteenth episode of the third season of Deep Space Nine, WHY DON’T YOU JUST PUSH ME OFF A CLIFF INSTEAD. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
Trigger Warning: For mention of slavery.
I did mention this on video, so excuse the repetition if you’re seeing this twice. It was hard for me not to compare this episode to “Distant Voices,” and of the two, one felt very clearly like the better story that also gave the cast the chance to play different roles. There’s a commitment to the alternate timeline here that the previous episode couldn’t accomplish, and thus, I found the experience a whole lot more rewarding and entertaining here.
It helps, of course, that the Mirror Universe is so fleshed out and intense, and it helps that the writers ground everything in a heartbreaking plot that focuses on Benjamin’s reunion with his dead wife… sort of. And there’s just so much here that’s surprising and thrilling, y’all! I love the use of Rom, which gives us a glimpse of a version of him that might be. Garak is suitably intense, and TUVOK’S APPEARANCE WAS SUCH A GREAT ADDITION. While most of the worldbuilding was done in the last Mirror Universe episode, “Through the Looking Glass” focuses more on the characters within this oppressive universe. A rebellion has spawned due to the events last time, though it’s not doing too terribly well. UNDERSTANDABLY SO. This episode is about a rebellion in its infancy. There aren’t a lot of people willing to oppose the Alliance, and those who are don’t particularly get along with one another.
Which is why it’s so rewarding to get these little snippets of what the rebellion is like. Bashir mistrusts Sisko; Dax believes the rebellion is doomed to fail. (I must say that I find it tiring that so many writers are convinced that it’s totally fine to have sex scenes with people from alternate universes who DON’T TELL THE OTHER PERSON WHO THEY REALLY ARE. That seems super gross to me.) Rom is desperate to kill Jennifer, who is developing some kind of array that will reveal the location of all the rebel bases.
And then there’s Jennifer Sisko, who we haven’t seen since the pilot episode. I knew this was going to be hard to watch. Sisko had to extract her from the station by convincing her that her work for the Alliance was a betrayal of herself, and yet he couldn’t actually be truthful to her. Sisko had not seen his wife for five years, and until Smiley O’Brien pulled into into this universe, he hadn’t even thought it was a possibility. For what it’s worth, I think Avery Brooks completely kills it here. I honestly believed that he was willing to maintain this secondary identity just to save his wife in another timeline, even though he knew he couldn’t be with her. I think most actors might have been more over-the-top than Brooks, but I’m thankful that his scenes with Jennifer – especially the one at the end – were so muted. Instead of some dramatic reunion, we get Sisko struggling to stay neutral and stoic while reuniting with someone he never thought he’d see again. You can see it in his face during all of his fantastic scenes with Jennifer. He’s fighting not to be overly emotional, even though he clearly wants to.
“Heartbreaking” is the only word I know how to describe this episode. It’s often quite a brutal experience, too, since Intendant Kira is even more willing to kill slaves than ever before. (Partially due to her anger over the original Sisko’s death.) I don’t know that I have much critical analysis to offer of many of those scenes. The chase sequences were genuinely thrilling because I didn’t know who would survive and who would die. (That’s part of the fun of the Mirror Universe. Major characters can die and it can stick. I honestly thought O’Brien would be killed once they were captured in the first act.) Rom’s death was SUPER FUCKED UP, and it set a tone: Kira and her Alliance counterparts would do anything to stop these people, and murder was very high on the list of things they would do.
I’m hoping there’s another entry in this arc at some point because the show has done such a great job building this universe. Plus, the roles written for the main cast in the alternate timeline are just so drastically different than their main ones, and it’s a whole lot of fun to watch. Bravo, Deep Space Nine, for keeping this story so goddamn good.
The video for “Through the Looking Glass” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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