Love Stinks

"Indiscretions" Plot Summary:

While Sisko romances Kasidy Yates and nearly undergoes a breakup before they agree to balance their careers and personal lives, Kira is persuaded to take Dukat on a mission to retrieve possible survivors of a long-lost ship. Over the course of the journey, Dukat reveals to Kira that he had a Bajoran mistress whom he loved very much...and that that mistress bore him a child, whom he seeks...so that he can kill her, thus avoiding the shame that her existence represents.

Kira, of course, has no intention of letting Dukat carry out his plans, but it's Ziyal herself who persuades him to spare her, with her trusting innocence. They take her back to the station, where Dukat and Kira both make plans to make her part of their lives.

Analysis:

I expected either to love this episode or hate it. Kira and Dukat, on a mission together? Fireworks like in "Necessary Evil" seemed to be in the offing. But the plot was achingly predictable, and even the marvelous sexual tension between Kira and Dukat, wrigglingly uncomfortable in past episodes, seemed forced. None of this is the fault of Nana Vistor or Mark Alaimo, who struggled valiantly to seem spontaneous while snarling about her past and laughing at the spike in his butt. There was just something too contrived about the entire situation.

And there's something insulting about using the title to parallel Dukat's fateful decision to become emotionally entangled with a Bajoran woman and Sisko's diddling with the idea of a Serious Commitment with Kas(snore)dy Yates. How can that man be an adult, and have a son who's almost an adult, yet be THIS much of an idiot about love? Oh, yeah...he's male on a Star Trek series!

The plot setup was engrossing but strange. Seemed like a rushed attempt to get Kira and Dukat alone on a runabout together. I wish we'd gotten some of the background on the lost ship before the middle of the episode, as it was hard for me to piece together who was on the vessel and why. That odd scene where Sisko had to convince Kira to take a Cardassian along - I see he's calling her "Nerys" now that he's a captain - went WAY too fast, and I wish Kira would show a little of her old fire. She didn't argue NEARLY enough this episode, not with Sisko then, not with Dukat later when the latter was contemplating cold-blooded murder.

I did love the discussion in the runabout - Dukat's not the only one who loves the sound of his voice - and the initial moments in the cave were very funny although not nearly as charged as Kira/Dukat scenes often are, especially considering how much physical contact there was between her hand and his rear. But it was a copout fading to a commercial right after he revealed that he planned to kill his child, and a bigger copout to have Kira making a fairly dumb argument about it the next morning on the way to find her; she should have ordered him back to the runabout right then.

The girl herself was terrific; the tearjerking aspects of this episode worked mainly because of her performance possessed the conviction the others lacked. I don't really like Dukat the pussycat; he'd have been much more interesting not falling to his knees in tears but smashing something, which seems more his style. I have the same complaint with the graveside scene. Kira had some fantastic moments at the end both on the planet and with Dukat on DS9, but she still seems like a muted version of herself. Bajor may be at peace with Cardassia, but has she really quelled her own demons so easily? I have a hard time believing it.

And then there's Sisko, whose demons seem to have gone from all-encompassing to ridiculous in the course of a few months. I was relieved when he admitted that losing Jennifer in the line of duty might have something to do with his reluctance to date Kasidy. Why didn't he say so earlier, to Jake if not to Dax and Bashir - surely he must have known that, as it's seemed like a pretty patent observation? And Benjamin supposed to be HOW old, and still needs advice from his son and a Ferengi (god I hate Quark's asides on women even if they're supposed to be obvious satires; I'd feel better about how the Ferengi treat females if the show itself did a better job with them!)

I'm glad they're playing around with the idea of a captain having a real relationship, but I wish they'd do a better job of establishing the sparks before plunging into the fire. Kasidy showed a little flare at the end, but during the dinner scene she reminded me of wet noodle Deanna Troi. The one thing Sisko's scene with Kira made patently obvious is that Avery and Nana have the better chemistry then he and Penny do. When Kira's on, she makes everyone around her light up - Sisko, Odo, Dax, Bashir. Give the woman something hot to handle.