What would you do when your back is against the wall while trying to protect the things most important to you or the people you love? What morals would you compromise? How far is too far? This week’s episode, “Dominion,” asks these questions concerning morality and provides no easy answers for our beloved crew.
It’s shocking to learn about Vadic’s experiences and what drove her to seek revenge against Starfleet, but it makes a lot of sense at the same time. The idea that the changelings invaded the Alpha Quadrant as a measure of self-protection against the Federation is absurd. But Starfleet is just as bad! Starfleet manufactured a virus to target the changelings and deployed it against them before the Dominion War even began. Section 31, a branch of Starfleet Intelligence, was ready to commit genocide from the beginning.
If that’s not enough, Vadic and nine of her fellow changelings were prisoners of war and subject to brutal experiments. Seeing Vadic as such a flamboyant, stylized villain when she was a changeling was strange, but this backstory ties it all together. Vadic was broken, as evidenced by the fact that she took her tormenter’s face. It’s the form she chooses now, and it’s Starfleet’s fault she’s so good at mimicking solids.
At the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Odo returned to the Great Link and delivered the virus cure to the Founders. I always assumed this was part of the settlement after the war. I was shocked (and somehow not surprised) to learn that’s not how it happened. Despite everything, Odo had to return to the Great Link covertly. Starfleet, once again, does not live up to the standards it holds others to.
Apparently, Vadic can pass her unique abilities onto others, but it’s not an evolution that all changelings have. Presumably, the Great Link remains as it always was. Is the creepy hand face that Vadic talks to a representative of the Great Link? Is that who Vadic is taking orders from? I can’t imagine it being solids, but who knows at this point?
All of this exposition is a lot to take in, and there isn’t much time to do it. As I mentioned, the pacing of the episode is strange. It starts off very slowly as Seven contacts Tuvok for help and learns a changeling has replaced him (we’d better see Tuvok alive and happy at the end of the series!). Nothing happens for a while, and then in an instant, everything happens all at once. It is hard to keep up!
The Titan’s plan seems doomed from the start. Vadic has always been a step ahead of them — what makes its crew members so confident they’ll retain the upper hand when they invite her onto the ship, even if it is a trap? I am deeply uncomfortable with this entire plan. As anyone could predict, it doesn’t go well.
The confounding variable is nothing anyone expected (yet anyone who watched The Next Generation could have predicted): Resident shit stirrer Lore decides to stir shit up just because he can. He at least saves Jean-Luc Picard and Beverly Crusher from themselves, though, as they are getting ready to execute Vadic to save their son. Things probably would have been better for the short term, but what would that have done to each of them over the long term? Better we don’t find out.
We do learn why the changelings wanted Jean-Luc’s body from Daystrom Station, though. Like everyone else (including Jean-Luc and Beverly), I concluded it had something to do with being able to convincingly mimic Jean-Luc and fool scanners, but Data reveals that it’s much more complicated than that. What’s going on within his parietal lobe may not be Irumodic Syndrome. But what is it, then? What in the world is going on with Jack Crusher?
He’s also getting a lesson in morality here as he reads Sidney’s mind, and instead of getting closer to her, she is super-suspicious of Jack. His abilities are increasing. Mind reading? Telekinesis? Is the series going to end with a reveal that he is, in fact, Professor X?
But there’s more than that. Vadic seems fond of Jack. How is it possible she knows more about him than his mother does? Is he a changeling? That makes no sense, yet when Vadic says she wants to take him away to where he belongs, the only thing I can think of is to the Great Link. It’s genuinely difficult to know what to believe here, but this story is just getting deeper and weirder (not bad weird, just weird weird!).
Things look pretty dire when the episode ends. With Lore’s help, the changelings have managed to take the bridge. Data manages to get control of the synthetic body back from Lore, but this isn’t a good situation. And Beverly has figured out a way to track the changelings, but what good will it do? What will the crew have to do, and how much of their values and selves will they compromise to escape this terrible situation?
Captain’s Log
• Legacy-character count: 4 (Deanna, Will, Worf, we miss you!)
• What’s the morality involved in killing Lore to save Data, as Jean-Luc suggests at the beginning of the episode? It’s genuinely a hard thing to think about. On the one hand, Lore’s a dick who keeps trying to kill them. On the other hand, it’s not his fault — he’s unstable! I think we should just blame Noonien Soong for everything at this point.
• I screamed when I saw Tuvok. I hope we get more legacy-character appearances (and not just as changelings). With all the Admiral Janeway references, I feel like we’re building to an onscreen Janeway-and-Seven reunion.
• LeVar is bringing it in this season. His scenes with Data and Lore are terrific.
• What does Vadic mean when she says Jack wasn’t for Beverly? I hope Bev doesn’t lose another child.
• For the record, I am Team … Jackney? Sidack? No, definitely Jackney.
