Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 6, Episode 4

What I loved about Deep Space Nine’s Season 6 opening arc was the upending of the show’s status quo. The Starfleet crew had abandoned the station while the non-Starfleet characters remained alongside the villainous Cardassians and Dominion as the war raged on. But as topsy-turvy as wartime was, everyone still managed to carve out a sense of the new normal they were in. “Behind the Lines” throws that new status quo out the window with some new twists and turns that set up dramatic situations as well as tease the conclusion of this storyline.

Case in point: now back to commanding the Defiant again (after being temporarily relieved for a side quest), Sisko and his crew have been performing missions into Dominion territory from Starbase 375. While chilling afterwards in the mess hall, O’Brien brings an expired phaser power cell from the ship. Sisko takes it into his hands and launches into a speech that gets the crew worked up. It’s a little dorky, but it gets the point across that this has become a ritual to keep their fighting spirit up as Sisko places it up against the wall with several other spent cells as a symbol of their determination to keep on fighting (“…and they’ll win!”). It’s definitely a different Starfleet than the one we’re used to, but I think it toes the line of good-natured camaraderie and avoids the jingoistic bloodlust that can rear its ugly head during wartime. It’s another thing I liked about the Dominion War arc – these are still the same smart and generally peaceful heroes they’ve always been. They’ve been pushed to extreme circumstances and are fighting for their survival, but they’ve managed to hold onto their humanity while getting the job done.

Admiral Ross drops by with another mission for Sisko – Starfleet has discovered a huge Dominion sensor array that has given their side a massive tactical advantage. It’s up to Sisko to take that advantage away, and he gets started on coming up with a plan to do so.

On Terek Nor, Kira and Rom sit on the upper level of Quark’s as Damar comes in to get a drink. It’s a very peculiar scene but there’s something kinda hypnotic about it. It’s so weird because Kira is basically narrating what’s going and info-dumping all of this background information which Rom should already know. It’s perhaps the most nakedly info-dumpy scene in the entire show. It’s establishing some of the norms that people have fallen into on the station and how they’re taken advantage of. Kira helpfully tells us that Damar is a regular at Quark’s who always likes to get his drinky-poo on after work, and that Rom was able to snatch his PADD that had a top secret report on it. That report was a proposal that if the Dominion/Cardassians can’t reopen the wormhole soon, they should poison the last supply of the Jem’Hadar’s ketracel white, lest they go insane and turn against their superiors when it inevitably runs out.

Rom left the PADD where the Jem’Hadar could find it, and right on cue, some of them show up to confront Damar about it. Rom had outed himself to Quark as a Federation spy back in “A Call to Arms,” but this is the first time we’ve seen him involved with Kira’s new resistance. Kira continues to narrate as Damar and the Jem’Hadar argue below them. It helps to move the plot along and there’s a quality to it I like, but it’s also so weird and stagey. Visitor really goes for it though and she’s the only reason why it works. She’s almost like one of the Greek furies watching her cauldron of chaos that she’s brewed up, and she exudes a gleeful malevolence over how her machinations are perfectly playing out below. She muses how much the Cardassians and Jem’Hadar hate each other despite being allies, and this is just the match required to ignite that powderkeg.

On cue, fists start flying (and Quark gets tossed aside as he tries to calm the tensions) and a full on brawl ensues between all the Cardassians and Jem’Hadar. Rom looks on as Kira steps back and disappears into the shadows. Thus endeth the teaser! As I keep saying, it’s such a bizarre scene but I don’t hate it.

In the aftermath, Weyoun and Dukat oversee the mess as Odo mops everything up. Weyoun chastises Dukat for Damar leaving such an “inflammatory” (to say the least) document lying around, and as Dukat begins to argue that the Jem’Hadar must have stolen it, Weyoun barks at him to keep his voice down and SMILE so everyone knows they’re all still friends. Dukat gives a hilariously pained grimace that doesn’t quite meet Weyoun’s approval.

Odo meets Kira in private and demands to know if she was behind the brawl. Kira is quizzical – because they had a whole meeting about it, and Odo expressed his displeasure about the idea and left the room. After which Kira continued talking with Jake and Rom and they all decided it was a good plan and went through with it (confirming that despite their initial refusal, Jake is also now in the secret club). It showcases Odo’s trademark rigidity and bullheadedness in that he even bothers to ask whether it was Kira’s plan or not – like, obviously it was, man. You were there.

Odo rants about how insane it was to do, how if Dukat found out Kira was behind it he would use it as an excuse to throw every Bajoran off the station (or worse). Kira questions the wisdom of Odo being on the station’s ruling council, and accuses him of being more concerned with keeping order than in actually defeating their occupiers. Odo bristles at this, and demands to know if she’s questioning his loyalty. It’s all really great writing and I love how complicated and fractured their situation has become. They’re both on the same side (for now, dun dun), but because of their disparate personalities, dispositions, and agendas, they’re having an incredibly hard time seeing eye to eye. It showcases Deep Space Nine’s wonderful predilection of having its diverse characters butting heads in organic and believable ways.

Suddenly, the absolute worst person to enter the room does – the Female Changeling, whom we haven’t seen since the end of the fourth season (where Odo was transformed into a human). Dismissing Kira, she explains to Odo that she’s been trapped in the Alpha Quadrant ever since Sisko mined the wormhole and she simply wants to spend time with another of her people. Odo of course brings up their last meeting and his judgment/punishment by his own kind. She brushes that aside as being in the past. To which Odo brings up that in the present her people are still waging a war against the Federation. She replies that this is not his home nor are any of these solids his people. You don’t say…?

On Starbase 375, Sisko has come up with a plan of attack to approach the Dominion array without being detected. Later on, Ross informs Sisko that his assistant has been promoted out of her position and he’s found her replacement – you, buddy. He’s been impressed with Sisko’s strategic prowess and wants to move him up in the chain of command. The arc highlights this new aspect of Sisko’s skills. He’s consistently been shown to be adept at commanding a single ship (or station) in a battle, but these episodes start to showcase Sisko’s strategic skills in commanding large fleet operations. It’s a cool new piece of his character and sets him apart from the other Starfleet captains and with a greater burden of responsibility. We’ve seen Picard command large numbers of ships at times, but Sisko seems born for this sort of thing.

This of course once again removes him from the Defiant, which Ross has placed under the command of Dax. Ross immediately puts Sisko to work on some battle plans for other operations. Sisko obeys, but seems a little disoriented at no longer being the guy on the front lines. Sisko is adept at the big picture stuff, but he’s also been portrayed as someone who is a builder, the kind of person who likes to be on the ground floor getting their hands dirty. So as good as he is at sitting behind a desk and pushing the big chess pieces around, there’s a certain dissatisfaction to it. This is of course a consistent theme of Star Trek, especially that of Captain/Admiral Kirk.

During a meeting of the station’s council, the Female Changeling enters and inquires about the minefield. Weyoun immediately switches to her side and lambasts Dukat for taking so long with it. Dukat defends himself and tries to vainly ingratiate himself on her (who barely acknowledges him). After they leave, she wearily asks Odo if they’re always competing with one another like that. He confirms that they do, and how exhausting it is.

They go back to Odo’s quarters, where she observes all of his wacky shapeshifting furniture, and he speaks of the lessons she tried to teach him when they first met, vis a vis the joys of shapeshifting and understanding the nature of the objects they imitate. She confirms the real reason why Odo doesn’t return to his people – that he’s in love with Kira. Salome Jens embodies the character really well and gives an interestingly nuanced performance. The way her distinctively level voice can change to a high pitched lilt is an interesting aspect to her portrayal. There’s something very alien about her, and she seems like a simulacrum of person that’s somewhat off. From this point on she will become much more of a recurring character and ultimately the face of the Founders. Her impassive disinterest in humanoids is apparent but she regards Odo with an intense curiosity and determination.

Odo starts to vent about his intense feelings for Kira and how weak they make him. It’s already a clear indication of Odo’s wavering loyalty and poor decision making. Seizing on that very weakness, the Female Changeling offers him clarity and outstretches her hand. Oh yeah baby. Odo touches her and they start to link. She even pauses to ask him for his consent, and he’s so blissed out he can’t even speak. Literally wrapped around her finger! F- in self-control, bud.

Kira goes to Odo’s office to look for him, where she finds Damar. As always, I absolutely love both how much of an absolute asshole Damar is, and how much him and Kira loathe one another. Kira teases him about being demoted to security detail, and when she asks where Odo is, Damar sarcastically looks around the room before stating that he’s not there. LOL. He eventually reveals that Odo is in his quarters with the Female Changeling, and as Kira turns to leave he immediately asks “Jealous?” with a shit-eating smirk. The fact that his character eventually gets redeemed is amazing because he is such a smarmy dick. I love it.

Kira finds Odo in his quarters, who is wistfully staring out the window. Kira fears that he might have linked with the Female Changeling, to which Odo defiantly reveals that guess what, I did link with a girl, mom. And I liked it! Which rightfully freaks Kira out, and it seems to take all her willpower not to start screaming at him. The discord that was already present between them only widens further. And it’s really illustrative of how morally weak Odo is. This guy has literally no moral compass of his own outside of how it relates to Kira and her opinion of him. And even that seems like it’s now departing the Bajoran system at warp 9.7.

Kira is in total disbelief over how he can open himself up and be vulnerable to someone who has so thoroughly misled and mistreated him over the years. Odo assumes Kira is worried about the Female Changeling finding out about their resistance, and denies that it’s possible. He goes on about the hippy-dippy nature of linking, how thought and form meld together, etc. Mind you, this is probably like… the third time he’s linked, ever? He’s as naive as can be, and is even convinced that not only can he totally keep secrets from the Female Changeling, but maybe he can sway her to not see the Federation as a threat. Yeeeahhhh, sure buddy. And if you believe that, *snort*, I’ve got a wormhole to sell ya!

Kira tries to reason with Odo, imploring him to stay focused on the task at hand and makes him promise not to link with her again. Odo agrees, but she hardly seems convinced. Visitor is great here, and really conveys how terrified she is of losing her friend.

Sisko visits Dax on the bridge of the Defiant as they prepare to get underway. Brooks does a good job of showing how displaced he feels with his physical acting, and the pain of watching everyone else preparing to leave without him. Back in his office, he watches the Defiant out the window as she departs.

Damar shows up at Quark’s again, and casually brags about his new promotion to a gul (AKA captain), all thanks to something super duper secret he’s cooked up. Quark starts pouring him some free booze to loosen his tongue. He later stumbles into Kira’s resistance meeting with Rom, Jake, and Odo. “I just shared a bottle of kanar… with Damar! That rhymes!” he drunkenly cackles. LOL.

But he quickly starts blubbering about how much he dislikes this occupation. It’s a far cry from the beginning of the season when he implicitly stated how bad it wasn’t. However, he’s realized how much he dislikes the Cardassians (“They’re mean. And arrogant.”) and the Jem’Hadar (“They’re creepy. They just stand there… like statues! Staring at you!”). I love his wide, empty eyes while he talks about the Jem’Hadar. He goes on to say how much he misses the Federation and how he wants to serve root beer again! Despite how dorky and insufferable humans can be, they’re still good people and clearly the least worst species.

It’s all pretty silly until he darkly reveals that Damar has devised a way to deactivate the mines. As Kira feeds him fluids to sober him up, Quark hazily remembers the technical details of what Damar told him. Rom is confident that the mines can’t be isolated, but quickly realizes that with some tinkering the station’s deflector array could do it. “Why didn’t you think of that when you set up the minefield?” Quark demands. Rom says he doesn’t know. “Uhh, he doesn’t know,” Quark says sarcastically, hilariously doing a perfect impression of Rom. Despite how weighty and grave this episode is, there’s a lot of really effective little comedic bits.

With Rom and Odo, Kira formulates a plan to take the station’s deflector offline. The place they need to do it from is heavily secured, but if Odo runs a diagnostic of the security system, it will be unguarded for five minutes. What could go wrong!

Sisko speaks to Worf over subspace about the Defiant, and they each worry about her being gone for over 16 hours now. Worf suggests that Sisko get some sleep (which is oddly sweet of him), to which Sisko ardently refuses. Admiral Ross catches Sisko up late and needles him about how alert he’ll need to be the next day. Sisko says he won’t be able to sleep until he’s heard about the Defiant. Ross is sympathetic to how much the ship and crew mean to him, but correctly points out that they’re responsible for many ships and thousands of lives now. And if the Defiant under Dax is successful with this mission, there will be many more dangerous ones they’ll be sending her on. It’s a nice story beat as Sisko struggles to adapt to his new role and expanded scope of duties. Ross’ reality check cements him as someone who knows a thing or two.

Odo hangs out with the Female Changeling and pesters her with more questions about the nature of their people. She’s insistent that he link with her instead of talking, but he stupidly reveals that he promised Kira he wouldn’t. This fucking guy. Of all the ways he could have rebuffed her, he chooses the one that blames Kira and absolves himself of any agency. It’s very telling.

Kira and Rom meet up and go to the conduit where Rom can access the thingamabobber. But as she heads to the security office, she’s horrified to see that Odo isn’t there. She tries to call him, and her hail goes unanswered as Odo links with the Female Changeling. Ha ha, of course. Just as she’s about to contact Rom, Damar interrupts her just long enough to ruin everything. Rom opens the panel with the security system still in place as alarms start going off. Kira can only watch in silent horror as Damar scampers off to catch him red-handed.

The Defiant has returned to Starbase 375 after their successful mission. Sisko and Ross check in on the crew celebrating. Bashir apparently took the helm at one point and wants to impress a chick about it. There’s a palpable sense of wistful FOMO from Sisko as he looks upon his crew getting into adventures without him, but also pride in them. O’Brien brings in another expended phaser power cell, to which Dax hold it up and repeats Sisko’s speech. Ross and Sisko leave to get back to work as Sisko takes one more look at his crew. It’s a bittersweet upending of their status quo as he fully steps into his new role.

Kira angrily marches down the corridor and she looks like she could Kool-Aid Man her way right through the wall. She literally pounds on the door chime a couple times and it’s the best. She finds Odo just standing in his quarters not giving a shit about anything. She demands to know WTH happened, and he simply says it didn’t matter to him. There’s a creepily serene look on his face as he calmly explains that none of this stuff has anything to do with him. Looking like she’s going to cry, Kira asks about their friendship and all they’ve been through – that doesn’t matter? Odo replies it did once.

It’s such an unsettling moment to see Odo completely turned over to the Dark Liquid Side. It would be one thing if he was a mustache-twirling evil villain, but it’s more disturbing that he just doesn’t care anymore and is perfectly pleased about it. The inhumanity that the Founders embody is in their wanton disconnect from other people – solids are lower beings to them, not worthy of their attention or mercy. And now that’s Odo – he’s too good for all this shit now, so fare thee well everyone else. #GetYourKinkInTheGreatLink

Kira leaves, and the Female Changeling comes out of hiding, wondering if Kira disturbed Odo. He replies nay, and she gazes at him, her nefarious plan having been accomplished completely. And very quickly! Fucking Odo, man. And this is after his huffy “Are you questioning my loyalties???” demand to Kira earlier in this episode. Of course she was, you spineless simp. Kira knew how compromised Odo was when it came to his own people, although she still couldn’t fathom how much his backbone was truly made of Jell-O.

So I do like Odo as a character, and I love Auberjonis’ performance. BUT! My blistering hot take is that Odo is by far the most morally bankrupt and weakest-willed main character on the show (including Quark!). It’s been a pretty consistent trait of his from when he got his first whiff of his own people. His shocking heel turn at the end of this episode is really not that shocking, and in fact is completely consistent with how much of an amoral being he is. If anything, the blissfully uncaring Odo we see here is probably his truest self, freed from the moral constraints of any of the solid structures he has always placed himself in.

Odo is not actively evil, and yet he has committed acts that range from questionable to outright unconscionable. Of course, if a good person does horribly evil things, does that make them evil? I think so. If anything, that perhaps makes it worse?

This isn’t meant as a criticism, by any means. If anything, I think it’s a tremendous strength of the show and a gutsy decision to have one of its “heroes” be such an outright villain at times. Or at least a pathetic coward. It speaks to one of Deep Space Nine’s best qualities in presenting a morally grey world, with characters who blur the line between heroes and villains. Odo definitely fits this description! It’s no wonder that he played the part of an antagonist opposite Benny Russell in “Far Beyond the Stars.”

That Odo has no principles of his own is pretty brilliant and appropriate, given his amorphous physical nature. All Changelings have been shown to have an active disconnect and disinterest in other forms of life – that they also have a very long (and possibly immortal) lifespan adds to this ambivalence. Which makes sense, and many other pop culture properties have trafficked the idea of long-lived otherworldly beings (vampires, elves, etc.) unable to connect with the concerns of mere mortals anymore. That Changelings have the ability to take the form of anything and exist – even as separate states of matter – further pushes them into distantly alien territory.

The nature of Odo’s shape-changing is illustrative of his morality. His natural state is that of a liquid. It takes constant effort to retain an actual shape, continual muscle effort to be that thing – so much so that after hours of that he must regenerate by reverting back to that shapeless goo. From a moral standpoint, it’s the same story. He’s actively been a lawman and a crusader of justice, someone with a hard moral code. But that is only a shape that he has been assuming, a mold he willingly poured himself into. And now he’s relaxed all of that, his willpower to do the right thing having melted away into a puddle of selfish ambivalence.

But setting aside his weakness where his own people are concerned, Odo has consistently been portrayed as kind of a whiny, weak loser. He isn’t really a fully-formed functional adult, and although he’s been shown to be adept at exactly one thing (except when he isn’t), being moved even a single millimeter outside of his comfort zone makes him totally fall apart. Auberjonis always excels at portraying how rigid and perturbed Odo gets when this happens. When Eddington first came aboard the station as Starfleet’s security guy, Odo immediately throws a tantrum and quits. When he loses his shapeshifting abilities he becomes pretty useless and mopes about his fate. And when marooned on a desolate moon with Quark, “The Ascent” really leans into how much of a pathetic, small person he is. A total failure at his profession and single purpose, even.

There’s something very adolescent and childish about all of it, and you could make the argument that given his enormous life span, maybe he essentially is a child, still maturing and figuring things out. So it makes sense when he acts like a big baby!

The only consistent concern that keeps Odo bound to his life on the station among solids is The Power of Love. Which is almost sweet on the surface, but becomes completely terrifying when you interrogate it further. Because romantic fixation without any constraining morality is the plot of so many suspense/horror movies. And indeed, we saw a future version of Odo delete an entire civilization so that his one true love could live. You could argue that wasn’t our Odo, but that’s a seed that lives in him and it’s part of his nature. To a lesser extent, we’ve seen other scary behaviors on Odo’s part relating to his unrequited love. In “Crossfire,” he violently destroyed his own quarters in a fit of rage, and a lapse in concentration nearly got both his precious Kira and her new boyfriend killed. And he abandoned his duty to the point where Worf had to step in and do his job for him to catch the bad guy. In “The Alternate” he had so much angst over his pseudo-father figure that he turned into a rampaging monster. Again, all of these acts seem childishly immature, which is appropriate if that is indeed what he is in the context of his species.

So where Kira is concerned, Odo is a bit of an unhinged lunatic. And where his people are concerned, he… is also a bit of an unhinged lunatic. Way back in Season 3’s “The Search,” we saw Odo completely and instantly abandoning any duty or loyalty to his comrades the second he sees his potential homeworld on a map. A map! To his credit, he does take a moral stand against the Founders when he realizes who they are and what they’ve done. But we also see this moral stand gradually erode as time goes on. While under torturous interrogation by Garak, Odo admits that despite everything the Founders have done, he still wants to be with them. More than anything, he wants to hang out with his brutal dictator bros. Cool?

And in this episode, Odo begins with his expected principled stand against the Female Changeling and what she represents. But the promise of learning more about his people and the experience of being physically co-mingled with one completely destroys those principles. I mean, if anything this seems like Kira 2.0 – total moral insanity not because of love, but because of getting some, brah. Of course, “linking” isn’t just sex, but it also isn’t not sex. At any rate, Auberjonis’ blissful reaction during the union conveys a sense of hedonistic pleasure derived from the act of linking, and his serene stance afterwards recalls post-coital euphoria. All of which turns him against his closest friend/greatest love, totally unmoors him from the concerns of the people he’s sworn allegiance to, and potentially dooms an entire quadrant of the galaxy.

Holy shit, man. It is dark.

What the Female Changeling actually does to Odo isn’t specified at all. We’ve seen how Changelings can weaponize their linking – as in “The Adversary” or “Broken Link.” But I don’t think there’s any wacky MacGuffin plot device at play. She’s not implanting ideas in his mind or transforming him in any tangible way. Odo has simply been given the bliss and sense of belonging he’s yearned for his entire life and said “fuck it.” I got mine, good luck everyone else! The allure of not having to give a shit about anything or anyone scratches some deep itch inside of him, and he surrenders all of his values to relax in a shapeless moral puddle. Perhaps he’s held the shape of a moral being, law officer, and trusted friend for too long. Story-wise, it’s an absolutely wonderful dramatic twist and an effective gut punch. It’s also essentially a total assassination of his character. But somehow I don’t hate it at all! It’s exactly the kind of chilling reversal the story needs and is strangely consistent with who his character has always been. It’s pretty genius. Odo, I love ya. But you do kind of suck.

“Behind the Lines” drops some dramatic bombs that up the ante for the wartime story. The great violence and upheaval going on in the battlefield causes other upheavals between the main characters behind the front. It’s some of Deep Space Nine’s most exciting and daring storytelling, and shows its willingness to plumb the depths of its characters for shocking twists and turns.

---

Stray Observations:

• In her monologue, Kira points out the weirdness of the Jem’Hadar hanging out at Quark’s. Ya know, since they don’t eat, drink, or have fun. OK, but really: what are they doing there. Why are you guys ALWAYS here. Make room for some paying customers!

• So Damar’s bright idea is to basically Order 66 all the Jem’Hadar at once to remove the threat they potentially represent. Which seems… far-fetched to say the least. You really think you can off the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of these guys in one fell swoop without any of them realizing it? The Jem’Hadar aren’t idiots, and their loyalty to leadership is not always supreme. It is arrogant, cruel, and short-sighted, as the Cardassians often are.

• Nog has a nice part in the story as he tracks down some Saurian brandy to celebrate, apparently a difficult feat during wartime. These little details make the war a more realistic and lived-in experience.

• The looks on both Dukat’s and Weyoun’s faces as they each try to vainly ingratiate themselves on the Female Changeling. LOL, these two haaaaate each other so much. Alaimo and Combs always kill it when they’re together.

• Odo mentions that after he visited the Changeling’s homeworld he got rid of all of his furniture and replaced it with his Play-doh playground. But… he didn’t even have quarters at all at the time. He did finally got some a few episodes later and filled it with his stuff. Fired, blunder, etc.

• Odo questions the Female Changeling about the nature of their people, and there are interesting tidbits revealed. Changelings can become other states of matter (like clouds or energy). They used to be solid eons ago, but evolved into their current forms over time. The Female Changeling definitively states that she has no name and doesn’t see the point of one (which makes writing about her oh so awkward), as there is no use in differentiating herself from the Great Link. She becomes a part of their collective nature when she rejoins (“the drop becomes an ocean”), but can also become an individual when she separates (“the ocean becomes a drop”).
  
  This last part is a little contradictory based on what she’s said before. She mentioned that in determining what to do about the murder Odo committed that there was actually “disagreement in the Link.” So this implies that the Great Link isn’t quite a unified single mind. There are individual voices within it. But then, aren’t there always in our heads? WHO SAID THAT?

• I’m surprised that apparently the Dominion doesn’t know it was Rom who designed the mines? Word tends to get around on the station, and the Dominion’s intelligence-gathering is usually pretty fearsome. It makes his decision to remain on the station pretty damn brave.

• As it will turn out, apparently the Female Changeling was the only Founder trapped in the Alpha Quadrant. She’s the only one shown at all until the end of the series. A Cardassian informant later mentions the existence and location of others, but we never got that info. It seem unusual that she’s the only one, despite their assertion at the end of Season 3 that “they’re everywhere.” Changeling O’Brien stated that there were four of them just on Earth back in Season 4 (assuming he was being truthful). Of course, they all could have returned to the Gamma Quadrant for some reason prior to the wormhole mining. But I would assume that there were Founder agents on all major Alpha Quadrant worlds – Qo’Nos, Romulus, etc. This would entail dozens (or even hundreds) of Founders in the Alpha Quadrant – enough to create a smaller Great Link, even.
  
  I understand the dramatic focus on the Female Changeling being better for storytelling purposes, but the lack of scale with this detail always struck me as odd. Some of them probably died – either from the virus or other means. Maybe some were being kept by the Dominion at ultra-secret locations, as indicated by that Cardassian informant?

• Literally one of my favorite moments in the show right here. During the bar brawl, everyone is double-punching, stabbing with weird blades, blasting phasers, etc. Standard good clean fun. And then this fucking madman goes full Backbreaker Bane on this random Cardassian. WTF LOL:

• Presented without context:

• Bonus dick, LOL: