{"id":5885,"date":"2016-10-10T13:00:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=5885"},"modified":"2016-10-03T23:44:21","modified_gmt":"2016-10-04T06:44:21","slug":"mark-watches-deep-space-nine-s05e19-ties-of-blood-and-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2016\/10\/mark-watches-deep-space-nine-s05e19-ties-of-blood-and-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Deep Space Nine’: S05E19 – Ties of Blood and Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the nineteenth episode of the fifth season of\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>, OUCH TO THIS WHOLE EPISODE. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of death, grief, war\/war crimes.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Seriously,\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>has no problem going right for the jugular. The show is continuously more complex, especially when it comes to characterization, than any of the other\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>entities. As a whole, though, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also far more willing to test out a different kind of episode structure or conflict, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still stuck on how\u00c2\u00a0quiet<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ties of Blood and Water\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is. Yes, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Dominion battle ship, and yes, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the threat of warfare from Gul Dukat, but everything exists off the screen. We never see the vengeful raid on the Cardassians; the threats never come to fruition. Instead, the writers focus entirely on the painful experience of grief, especially when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to watch someone die over a long period of time.<\/p>\n

I want to start by saying that Nana Visitor, unsurprisingly, gives a vibrant and challenging performance here. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to note not just because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so talented, but because this is the kind of story that would usually work best in the written form. How could you possibly represent such an internal struggle onscreen? Yet this episode achieves that through a symmetry of writing and performance. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing how quickly this goes from a story of hope \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that Kira has found the perfect person to lead the resistance against the new Cardassian\/Dominion alliance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to one of loss. You can see the disappointment all over Kira\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face when she learns the truth of Tekeny Ghemor, but then she snaps back. She finds purpose in what Ghemor asks of her: to complete the ritual of shri-tal and accept the secrets he carries with him.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fitting that the show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore the political ramifications of this act. From a writing standpoint, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a neat way to inject some more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153traditional\u00e2\u20ac\u009d action into the episode, but it never\u00c2\u00a0felt<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0artificial. Instead, Dukat pesters Sisko because he knows that Ghemor, a longtime dissident, is about to spill a ton of state secrets to a member of the Federation. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very,\u00c2\u00a0very<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0bad in EVERY RESPECT for the Cardassians and the Dominion, but I never saw this as opportunistic from Kira\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective. Maybe from Sisko\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, sure! But this is is such an intimate and moving experience for Kira, and I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrapped up in the death of Ghemor.<\/p>\n

In that respect, this was very difficult to watch. As some of you know, it took my father about a month to die. Cancer, Alzheimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, and other ailments slowly ate away at him, until he got to the point where he no longer seemed like the person I remembered him as. And in a haunting synchronicity, I found myself watching an episode of a television show about someone else who couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bear to be there to watch their father die. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t escape how close-to-home this felt, you know? Granted, the circumstances were different, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00c2\u00a0still something disturbing about seeing this depicted on\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So I understand Kira\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fears here. I get her guilt, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something she can never quite rectify because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never get a chance to do it over. Even if she could,\u00c2\u00a0would<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0she? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I would. I have an image of my father in his last couple weeks, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough. What if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen worse? Would I be even more traumatized than I already am? Yet Kira still can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think about the last time she was asked to stay with someone as they were dying. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the details that the writers find a way to make matters even more complicated. Kira didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just miss her father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death; Ghemor was part of the military group who attacked the very monastery that her father was at. What if Ghemor fired the shot that killed Taban? How could you even\u00c2\u00a0know<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that?<\/p>\n

You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. And Kira won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever figure that out. Yet she still refuses to see Ghemor once Dukat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan to separate them works. (GOD, HE IS SERIOUSLY THE WORST. HE CARES FOR NO ONE BUT HIMSELF, I SWEAR.) And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fault her for that! I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel guilty about that, either, and I am glad the show gave her the space to figure out what she wanted to do with Ghemor, even if it made others uncomfortable, even if it seemed cruel and vindictive. If anything, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the reasons I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve appreciated the writing for\u00c2\u00a0Deep Space Nine.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Characters get to behave more realistically and fairly and aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t demonized for doing so.<\/p>\n

In the end, it was Kira\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice to be there for Ghemor, to see him die, and to honor him with a burial next to her own father. (That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s who the other grave belonged to, right? It was weird seeing it with all that growth over it.) That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t detract from her struggle or invalidate it. It means that she found a way to make up for the mistake of missing her father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death by offering Ghemor company in his last moments.<\/p>\n

LORD, WHAT AN EMOTIONALLY INTENSE EPISODE.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ties of Blood and Water\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded\u00c2\u00a0here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b>
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"