In the thirteenth episode of the second season of Deep Space Nine, two parallel storylines explore grief, death, and friendship. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of grief and death.
This might have been a fairly ordinary Star Trek episode were it not elevated by a fascinating structure. LET’S DISCUSS.
On the planet
If you view this episode as two separate stories in two different locations, there’s a really touching parallel between the two of them. While the crew is reeling from the death of Julian and Miles, they’re both alive and dealing with mortality for an entirely different reason. I spent most of this episode being confused by the Harvesters, and I’m still not sure what it is that they do. They’re biological weapons that give people… the flu? I suppose the logistics of them aren’t that important. I had what I needed to understand the conflict here: the T’Lani and the Kellerun had been locked in a long, genocidal war, and the destruction of the Harvesters was the start of their peace agreement.
And yet, right after the last Harvester samples are destroyed, the team is attacked, and both Bashir and O’Brien (the only survivors) beam down to an unnamed planet in order to avoid MURDER SQUADS. There’s a proper amount of adorable bonding that happens during these scenes, but shit gets really serious after O’Brien realizes he’s been contaminated by the Harvester fluid. Now, I’ve read a lot of fanfiction that uses this trope, so let me tell you: I LOVE THIS TROPE. Two people who either don’t like each other or don’t get along are put into a situation where one of them is DYING and they confess many personal things and everything is emotional because DEATH. “Armageddon Game” does not disappoint at all, and it builds off of characterization we’ve seen before between O’Brien and Bashir.
But it’s most interesting to me that O’Brien discusses his marriage and his mortality while the rest of the crew believes him to be dead. He resents the idea that his life has been any less adventurous because he’s not single and has to worry about the challenges of work while having a family back at home. I don’t blame him! Julian is dismissive of Keiko’s work and her contribution to the marriage, so I understood why O’Brien took offense at what Julian said. I think it’s great that Deep Space Nine has a relationship like this in the main cast because all the other entities avoided long-standing relationships, you know?
On Deep Space Nine
I mentioned during the video for this episode that the experience of watching “Armageddon Game” was surreal because we were getting a story about death when those persons hadn’t actually died. So, on the one hand, I was kinda devastated to watch these people grieve over O’Brien and Dr. Bashir. It’s sad! It was wistful to hear Dax speak of the old medical journals that Julian gifted her. And the scene where Sisko had to tell Keiko that her husband had died… NO. THANK. YOU.
But how awesome is it that Keiko almost immediately snaps into action, analyzes the security footage provided by the Kelleron, and points out that it was edited? I think it’s admirable that the writers (and Rosalind Chao) chose to play Keiko differently than I expected. Not everyone reacts to death in the same way, and this is how Keiko did. At no point does the show ever say, “Hey, Keiko reacted the wrong way to her husband’s death.” In fact, if it weren’t for her attention to detail, they may not have ever discovered the truth. (Hilariously, though, that detail? TOTALLY MISREMEMBERED BY KEIKO, meaning that the rescue at the end of this episode was based 100% on faulty information. BLESS YOU, KEIKO.)
Armageddon
I can’t believe I didn’t figure out why the Kellerun fired on O’Brien and Dr. Bashir. They spelled it out to me IN THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE EPISODE. Y’all, these people are fucked up. They were willing to murder the very people who helped them negotiate peace with one another!!! And they were gonna murder Sisko and Dax, too! Newsflash: it doesn’t count as peace IF YOU HAVE TO MURDER TO GET IT. That’s the LITERAL OPPOSITE DEFINITION OF PEACE.
That’s the whole point, of course. I don’t know why they didn’t think to lie to their people anyway and just say that O’Brien and Bashir died while in transit home or something. That’s what they have to do now. Oh, well. I don’t want to question this too much because I’m perfectly fine with the set-up if it means I get as many feelings as I did during “Armageddon Game.” This is the price I’m willing to pay!
The video for “Armageddon Day” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
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