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

Oh, man. I’ve been waiting to do this one for a while, because it’s my #2 favorite Deep Space Nine episode. “Sacrifice of Angels” (sick title, brah) is an absolutely spectacular hour of Star Trek, a loaded platter of every single awesome thing about DS9 elegantly combined into a thrilling story. There’s a lot of great acting and character material set against the backdrop of an epic space battle, and the episode manages to touch upon many of the over-arching themes of the show. I just cannot say enough good things about it. The war story was so great and gripping, and the way it’s concluded here is absolutely perfect.

It mirrors the general awesomeness of “By Inferno’s Light,” and the episode seems like it’s two hours long – in a good way. There’s just so much stuff going on and it maintains energy and tension by jumping back and forth between all the plot threads so elegantly. Both “Sacrifice” and “Inferno” showcase the very specific formula Deep Space Nine created and just nailing it.

One of the best and most unusual aspects of the episode is that it’s ultimately Dukat’s story. Sisko is also front and center, but “Sacrifice” spends as much time with Dukat and the plot hinges around the series of choices he makes. And it provides an absolutely fascinating window into why he’s making these choices. It’s such an unexpected storytelling decision – with the heroes making their final push to save all that is good and holy, the episode focuses on the villain who caused all of this in the first place. And it works so well.

“Sacrifice of Angels” essentially is a Greek tragedy for Dukat. One of the reasons why the story works so well is because it’s based on ancient tried-and-true principles of drama. At the episode’s beginning, Dukat is on the cusp of greatness. His side is about to achieve a decisive victory over their enemies and the advantage is 100% his. Through a series of twists and turns, the story ends with Dukat having lost absolutely everything, including his very sanity. It’s a reversal of fate that would seem unfathomably cruel if he weren’t the bad guy, and if it wasn’t all the result of his own doing.

Facing the much larger Dominion-Cardassian blockading fleet, Sisko orders his fleet’s smaller fighters to only attack the Cardassian ships. Nog wonders out loud why he’s doing that, and Garak helpfully explains that Sisko is trying to isolate and provoke the Cardassians enough to break formation. Another brilliant and dorkily great thing about the episode is its emphasis on the specific tactics of the space battle. It’s something we hadn’t seen in Star Trek on this scale before. This isn’t just one ship versus another, but hundreds of vessels trying to strategically outmaneuver one another. There are all sorts of different types of ships and they’re used differently depending on their strengths – in this opening salvo, the smaller Starfleet fighters do quick strafing runs to target the Cardassians. It lends a greater sense of realism and tension to the action that’s going on. And again, it highlights how much of a strategic boss Sisko has become, more so than any other Trek captain. He’s singlehandedly commanding hundreds of ships in this operation and with each order he is moving dozens of them around on a big interstellar chess board. It’s so cool.

On Terek Nor, the Dominion leadership watches the battle play out in Ops. Dukat chuckles at Sisko’s tactic, and attempts to embarrass Weyoun (who pretends he knows what’s going on) in front of the Female Changeling over it. It’s so fucking petty, but what else is new? Dukat can’t resist the opportunity to show off how much he knows and with his swaggering overconfidence tries to impress the Female Changeling. She’s notably silent as he mansplains to her – of all the solids she’s not impressed by, this guy impresses her the absolute least.

Dukat boasts about how he plans to purposefully open a hole in their defenses and close it on the Federation fleet once they take the bait. He seems incredibly pleased with his own cleverness, but it’s already betraying his flaws. There’s absolutely no reason to open up their lines at all – the Dominion fleet is a decisively larger, impenetrable wall of ships that the Federation has no chance of breaking through. The dismantling of the minefield and opening of the wormhole is imminent, which will bring an overwhelming surplus of ships to absolutely crush the Federation. Time (and every other advantage) is 100% on Dukat’s side here – patience and doing absolutely nothing are key here for victory. And that’s exactly what he doesn’t do. Because doing nothing wouldn’t reflect on him well enough, and it wouldn’t fulfill his narcissism. His need to own the battle (and victory) is so great that he has to insert himself and over-manage a situation that doesn’t need any managing at all.

In keeping with the theme of the Greek tragedy, Dukat’s downfall is entirely one of his own making. The Greek tragic hero is a victim of fate, but also of their own hubris. The episode details the entire chain of bad decisions that leads Dukat from certain victory to total loss. The trope of the villain who stupidly snatches defeat from the jaws of victory is one that’s been comedically lampooned since the first Austin Powers film. And normally, that would be a huge plot contrivance and mark against the episode. But the story cleverly sidesteps this by illustrating how Dukat’s established narcissism poisons his decision-making process. He is an intelligent, skilled man who Sisko does not stand a chance against in this scenario. But his personal flaws are a disability that cause him to lose, and lose big.

Damar wisely suggests that until the minefield is deactivated, Kira and her buddies should be placed under arrest so that they can’t possibly perform any sabotage. Dukat agrees to it, but when Damar dares to suggest that Ziyal also be sidelined, he is silenced. Dukat can’t fathom that his daughter would betray him like that. We’ll call that Bad Decision #2! Because he views Ziyal as just another extension of himself, Dukat isn’t able to see her as her own person that is capable of making decisions he wouldn’t agree with.

In Quark’s, Kira sits with Jake and Leeta as Quark hovers over them. The mood is tense and dark as rumors fly around that the Federation fleet is losing, or completely destroyed already. Focused on disabling the station to prevent the minefield from being destroyed, Kira decides to make a quick and dirty bomb. Before she can get much further in planning it, Damar enters with a security team to arrest the lot of them. He goads Kira into trying anything again, which is hilariously pathetic. She already kicked your ass, bud. And you show up with all your armed goons surrounding her like you’re some badass? LOL, you wuss.

They have no choice but to surrender, and Damar loudly proclaims that they have nothing to hide. As Leeta slides past, he gives her a full eye-fucking as he adds “You certainly don’t.” Suuuuuuchhhhh a diiiiicccckkkk! You’re lucky Rom’s already locked up, buddy. As they’re hauled away, Quark realizes that all hope now rests with him. That he’s so successfully cozied up to Damar that he doesn’t get arrested himself (despite being Rom’s brother) is impressive, and something the previous episodes spent time establishing.

Putting Quark into the role of unlikely hero is a great turn of events, and consistent with his small storyline throughout the war arc. After being initially pleased with his profits during this occupation, he gradually grows weary of the Dominion and Cardassians and longs for the Federation to return. Despite his grumblings and misgivings throughout, he continually provides invaluable help to Kira’s resistance. Going against his usual role as a scoundrel and creep, his heroic actions during this period ultimately prove what kind of person he is. Like all the character work throughout the arc, it’s organic, well done, and a treat to watch.

Sisko continues to target the Cardassians with waves of fighters, and Dukat decides to spring his trap by ordering their ships to break formation and engage them. Switching back and forth between the two sides as they make their decisions is an inspired choice. Sisko and Dukat are both smart tacticians and know what the other is doing. Sisko and his crew immediately see that the hole is a deliberate trap, but at the same time it’s an opportunity that can’t be passed up. As Will Riker once said – between a slim chance and none, I’ll take slim any day.

Covering his ass as best he can, Sisko orders several wings of Galaxy-class ships to fortify the edges of the hole while the rest of the fleet enters to try and fight their way through. Using Starfleet’s biggest and strongest ships to wedge the enemy fleet open is smart, not to mention incredibly badass. The dramatic score is great as the Defiant leads the fleet into the heart of the enemy, and the sight of those Galaxies effortlessly blasting the shit out of the Cardassians is awesome. It’s consistent with what we’ve seen before in The Next Generation – the Cardassian Galor-classes are absolutely no match for Galaxies one-on-one, so this is not a hole that can be closed again easily.

Now surrounded, the Defiant gets blasted from all sides as Sisko grumbles about his ships not staying in formation. Unfortunately, the Dominion jams their frequencies and prevents any intra-fleet communication. Uh oh!

Dukat sits in his office pouring himself and Weyoun some kanar (Weyoun of course refuses, barely hiding his disgust). The cut from the frenzied action on the Defiant to the calm energy of this scene is an effective plot swerve. Dukat is literally toasting himself to the conquering of the Federation, to which Weyoun immediately calls out the presumptuousness of. This is a key scene of the episode, and one of the most well-written and fascinating ones of the entire series. It’s the thematic core of the story and a revealing character study of Dukat. It’s so good.

The Dominion have always represented an existential threat to the Federation. They don’t want to politically/strategically outmaneuver them in the same way that the Klingons, Romulans, or Cardassians have sought to do in the past – they seek to annihilate them and their way of life completely. Not since the Borg threat has humanity been so up against the wall and fighting for their lives. That an entire fleet is fighting tooth and nail while their enemy casually talks about how the Federation will be carved up and digested is chilling and tense. The entirety of Star Trek has led up to this point – either the Federation will succeed and repel the Dominion, or everything that every Starfleet officer has served to protect for centuries will end. It’s huge.

The disparate personalities of Dukat and Weyoun are on full display here. As always, Weyoun the consummate worker bee embodies a cautious and joyless servitude to the task at hand – Dukat accuses him of being anhedonic (which forced me to break out the dictionary). Even if the Federation is defeated, managing its vast territories and resources will be a great ongoing task. Dukat salivates at ruling over it, while Weyoun is concerned that they’ll need to completely annihilate the population of Earth in order to quell any possibility of a resistance. Whoa.

Dukat flatly rebuffs such an atrocity – if there’s no one left, how can it be a victory? As a narcissist, the adulation of others is supreme; if no one is around to acknowledge your greatness, how can it exist? For Dukat, the ultimate defeat of an enemy is them realizing it was wrong to have ever opposed you. It’s a narcissist’s wet dream – receiving that opiate of an opponent telling you that you are completely right and they are completely wrong. Weyoun can only stand in smug awe of Dukat’s bottomless well of vanity and self-delusion. Dukat of course doesn’t notice. Combs is great here too, and that impassive look he gives while Dukat drones on is like he’s studying some pitiful bug.

It’s a revelatory scene, and the odiousness of Dukat is thoroughly disturbing. It retroactively explains why the Cardassian withdrawal from Bajor was so rankling to him. The Bajorans militarily repelled the Cardassians from their planet, but what really sticks in Dukat’s craw is that they never capitulated to their superiority. They courageously rebuffed their oppressors and continue to draw strength and pride from having done so. He launches into a self-pitying tirade about how there isn’t a single monument of himself on Bajor. After all he did for them! Dukat then complains about Sisko, who for all his intelligence can’t recognize his greatness either for some reason. The framing of the scene with Sisko’s baseball in the foreground is great and symbolic. Weyoun can’t help but openly chuckle at his small pettiness.

Here it becomes clear why Dukat can’t kill Sisko like he – the supervillain he’s trying to be – should. He doesn’t want to kill Sisko, but defeat him in order to prove his superiority. And he wants the ultimate reward of Sisko’s acknowledgement of his superiority. And of all of humanity. And all of Bajor’s. And his own people’s. And the Dominion’s. And, and, and…

The only thing Dukat truly fights for is himself. And because he has such a gaping hole in his soul, it’s something that can never be fulfilled. He is a loser, and someone who will always be lost. It’s why, despite the overwhelming advantage he has in this situation, he can only lose. It’s his fate.

The Female Changeling checks in on Odo, who’s distracted as he ponders the fate of his comrades fighting in the battle. She’s intent on breaking Odo of his connection to the solids, and tells him that not only has Kira been arrested but she will be executed. It’s yet another example of the Founders’ casual cruelty – since she’s the only link (heh) to this mortal world, why not simply destroy her and be done with it? Odo is understandably horrified by this. It also showcases the Female Changeling’s own superiority and arrogance – she believes that she’s sidelined Odo so much that she feels confident in revealing her plans for Kira. What’s he going to do about? Well, plenty as it turns out!

The Defiant plows ahead as its support ships get blasted to smithereens. There’s so much carnage here, with hundreds of people dying each second. It’s hard to fathom. The visual of those two Miranda-classes getting obliterated is one of DS9’s most enduring images, and the SFX team went all out in creating the impressive maelstrom of destruction here. Likewise, the inside of the Defiant effectively communicates how much of a beating the ship is taking. Sparks are flying, Damage Steam is turning the bridge into a full battle sauna, and the ship is constantly rocking from weapons fire. It’s a brutal gauntlet that the crew is running, and they all look like they’re being put through the wringer. Sisko’s unflinching determination pushes the crew (and Defiant) forward.

The scale of the battle is incredible and to see the Defiant pushing through the hundreds of ships highlights how crazy and hopeless their chances are. The episode channels the magic of Return of the Jedi’s exciting climax, in which a gigantic space battle is the backdrop for simultaneous smaller action and character-based conflicts.

The Defiant is pursued by a squadron of Jem’Hadar fighters and all hope seems lost when a sudden shower of green weapons fire signals the arrival of the Klingons. Beating hopeless odds and sudden reversals of fate are key elements of the episode and bring a lot of epic excitement. The Klingons weren’t expected to arrive in time, but here they are nonetheless. The visual of their fleet flying out of the light of a nearby star is awesome. Every frame of this episode was engineered for maximum coolness.

Worf apologizes for their lateness, and the element of surprise opens up a hole in the Dominion’s lines. They’re now having to fight an enemy from the front, the side, and within. Nice going, Dukat.

The Defiant battles forward with its own posse of Birds of Prey, and it’s thrilling to watch as they’re all picked off one by one until Sisko’s ship emerges intact from the explosion of the last enemy ship. They’re the only one who made it through and despite the odds, Sisko orders maximum speed to the wormhole.

On Terek Nor, Damar reports the Defiant breaking through and asks Dukat if they should order pursuit. Weyoun agrees but Dukat belays him, as the Defiant by itself is no match for the station. He clutches Sisko’s baseball to his face like an emotional support binky. It’s the first time he’s brandished it in public, and the Captain is clearly on his mind. Also, Bad Decsion… #21? Ah, I’ve lost count.

Quark enlists Ziyal’s help in springing Rom, Kira, Jake, and Leeta from jail. Ziyal throws her weight around with the guard to get him to comply (who’s not quite as stupid as he looks). It appears like Quark’s hidden some handy device in some food, but when the guard checks Ziyal gives him the ol’ hypospray nap. Are knockout hypo’s just freely available to anyone? Sure, why not.

Quark enters with phasers in both hands and faces off against the two Jem’Hadar guards. Amazingly, he’s able to kill both of them without getting killed himself. While he’s still frozen in shock, Ziyal releases everyone.

Weyoun reports to the Female Changeling and Odo that the prisoners are loose, and wants to move them both to Ops for safety. She leaves, but Odo chooses to stay in his quarters. She allows him to stay, and there seems to be a knowing look on her face about what’s to come.

Kira and Rom dash down corridors and dodge weapons fire from enemy security. They hide in a cargo bay where Rom hears Bajoran phasers which continue until everything goes silent. Odo and his own security people step out over the bodies of their enemies in a badass entrance that almost redeems him. He escorts the two of them to a hatch so they can access the main computer. Kira of course wants to know why Odo is on their side again, but there isn’t time to explain. He simply says that although the Great Link was paradise, it’s not something he’s ready for yet. Fair enough, thanks for the save!

Rom can’t disable the station’s graviton emitters in time, so Kira tells him to go after the weapons instead (so that they can’t destroy the deactivated mines).

Damar reports that the Klingons have outmaneuvered their fleet, but Dukat is overly confident that the Dominion ships coming through the wormhole will answer all their problems. Despite his bravado, he nervously tosses Sisko’s baseball back and forth in his hands. Alaimo’s fantastic throughout the episode, and his physical mannerisms sell Dukat’s precipitous emotional and mental state beautifully.

As the Defiant approaches the station, the last of the mines are finally disabled. Rom succeeds in sabotaging the station’s weapons, but a second too late as a single phaser blast annihilates the entire field. It’s a bit of dark humor, but the horror sets in as he realizes that they were too late. Sisko’s crew also watches in silent despair as they see the only thing holding back the enemy go up in smoke. He then orders them into the wormhole to face the fleet head on.

In Ops, the Dominion leadership evilly chuckles as victory seems assured. Weyoun orders the Defiant destroyed, but Damar reports that their weapons are down and will be for quite a while. Dukat realizes it’s the work of Kira and can only watch as the Defiant enters the wormhole. Oh, buddy.

What happens next is controversial for some. It’s a literal textbook deus ex machina, and I can understand complaints that it’s a lazy solution to the conflict. I personally have no issues with it, though. In keeping with the episode’s theme of Greek tragedy, it’s fitting in a meta way that the climax involves literal gods stepping in to solve the crisis. Involving the Prophets makes the episode that much more of a Deep Space Nine buffet and lends a different dimension (heh) of epic grandeur to an already over-the-top epic adventure. They’ve been an integral part of the show from the beginning and they live in the wormhole. I find it to be a clever trick to involve them as a last resort at this point when all else seems lost. If this was the first or second time we had seen them, I could understand the criticism of it being weird or a weak story choice.

As the Defiant prepares to face the 2,000+ Dominion ships approaching them in the wormhole, Sisko is whisked away to the Prophet’s little pocket dimension. I always enjoyed how the Prophet vision scenes throughout the series were presented. The ethereal light and color, the sound of a heartbeat throughout, and the usage of players from a person’s life as stand-ins for these higher beings all make for a mesmerizing out of body experience.

Case in point: visages of Odo, Kira, Jake, Damar, Dukat, and Weyoun converse with Sisko in that vague, slightly annoyed and moderately condescending way the Prophets seem to have. “You desire to end the game,” Prophet-Dukat proclaims as he clutches a baseball. It’s a really nice callback to the first episode, in which Sisko used the game of baseball to explain linear time to these beings. And of course, how weird and obsessed the real Dukat is with that ball. So many layers!

Sisko susses out that the Prophets don’t want him to die. He doesn’t either, but he has to do everything he can to stop the enemy fleet. “We do not agree,” Prophet-Jake says. Sisko becomes annoyed with their interference and vagueness. Their accusations of him being “belligerent” and “aggressive” are more callbacks to their first appearance.

Sisko suggests that if they want to interfere, why not do something about those ships? The Prophets seem uninterested in such corporeal matters, but Sisko reminds them that the destruction of Bajor is imminent, and if they truly are “of Bajor” (as they had previously claimed), then they need to do something. The Prophets seem to relent while expressing their annoyance with Sisko trying to “control the game.” They vow to exact a penance for his intrusiveness and proclaim that although Sisko is of Bajor he won’t find any rest there. He demands to know what that means, but of course he runs out of Prophet minutes and the vision ends.

I don’t think it’s 100% perfect as a plot development. In their final proclamation here, the Prophets here are more like literal Greek gods and less like wormhole aliens and it’s a little nonsensical. Although they’ve been around since the beginning of the series, the ultimate plan/aims of the Prophets weren’t really solidified until the last couple seasons – at which point the cracks in their story credibility began to show more. Much like the Borg on Star Trek: Voyager, their usage came with diminishing returns. Exactly why Sisko must be punished for forcing them off their asses to protect something they themselves claim to value isn’t ever explained. And I’m not sure any explanation would make much sense. I appreciated the vagueness of the Prophets for its enigmatic drama, but it’s also wise from a storytelling standpoint. Handwaving it away as them being too detached, timeless, and inscrutable to ever understand completely is the best way to deal with it. But I can appreciate how that may not work for all viewers.

Sisko finds himself back on the Defiant, and as they prepare to take their brave last stand, the wormhole flashes with strange light as the Dominion fleet vanishes from sight. The bridge crew scrambles to understand what happened. “Wherever they went, I don’t think they’re coming back,” Sisko says quietly. That the Prophets would seemingly just delete thousands of ships (and lives) from existence because he asked them to is a chilling prospect, and Sisko seems to understand the profound weight (and perhaps horror) of what he just did. Even though they were filled with bad guys and coming to kill them all, it’s still scary and fucked up.

In Ops, the Dominion leadership watches the Defiant exit the wormhole, only for it to close with no sign of their fleet. Dukat angrily demands to know where they are as the Defiant opens fire on the station. Not only that, 200 enemy ships have broken through their fleet and are headed to the station. In the episode’s absolutely funniest moment, a visibly terrified Weyoun immediately chirps, “Time to start packing!” Without missing a beat, him and the Female Changeling bolt out as Dukat is left staring in horror at the viewscreen. “Victory was in our grasp!” Dukat bleats as he stumbles around Ops.

Again, Alaimo’s performance here is absolutely A+, and you can see his sanity unravel on the screen as he undergoes complete narcissistic collapse. Damar busily makes the arrangements to abandon the station as Dukat continues to stumble in a daze. “Bajor… the Federation… the Alpha Quadrant! All lost!” he cries out. Like, you actually feel for the guy in this moment of utter defeat, that’s how good Marc Alaimo is here. The game winning pitch went right into his glove, and then it bounced out onto the ground. Even though he was playing for the other team, that’s just hard to watch.

Damar tries to focus his attention on evacuating, and a disoriented Dukat can only think about finding his daughter. As he leaves Ops he spins around to refuse Damar’s help and he’s physically and psychologically teetering on the edge, and his eyes are wide with crazed instability. I’ll keep saying it, but Alaimo absolutely owns this episode. He’s captivating.

On the Defiant, Sisko graciously allows the Dominion’s evacuation to proceed as Bashir reports that their fleet has broken off the fight and is retreating to their own territory. Sisko happily signals for all the ships to rendezvous at… Deep Space Nine! Mission Accomplished!

This moment of triumph is contrasted with a dazed Dukat aimlessly wandering the station as the evacuation proceeds around him. Weyoun escorts the Female Changeling to an escape ship and inquires about Odo. She pauses to say that he won’t be coming with them, but it’s only a matter of time until he joins them. It’s interesting that she seemed to know Odo’s betrayal was coming but did nothing to stop it. The Founders are supremely arrogant, but there’s a timeless certainty she embodies about what’s to come, no doubt a result of her immortal nature. Their thinking is always long term, and a few more years is a drop in the bucket (heh) in that context.

Dukat somehow finds Ziyal in a corridor, and seems genuinely happy to see her. He’s weirdly fixated on her, I suppose as a result of having just lost everything else. She admits that as hard as she tries to hate him, she can’t. He pulls her to go with him, but she says she’s not going. The station is the only home she’s ever known and the people coming to take it over are Dukat’s enemies, but not hers. She then confesses that she helped Kira and the others escape. You can see the final bit of Dukat’s grip on reality slipping away as he loses the last thing he thought he had control over.

She says a tearful goodbye to him just as she catches a phaser blast in the chest, courtesy of Damar. His growing disdain for Ziyal over her lack of Cardassian patriotism was something the previous episodes laid out well, and it crescendos into a violent end here – “She was a traitor!”

Dukat follows his daughter down as she slips to the floor, forgiving her and telling her he loves her as her life drains away. It’s painful to watch, the way she gasps in wide-eyed terror as she dies while he tries to soothe her. Damar implores him to get on the last escape ship, but Dukat bats him away with a loud, animalistic yell. He moans in sadness and cradles her, his total destruction now complete. The parting shot of their bodies on the floor is evocatively lit and composed, and there’s a morbid beauty to it that makes it one of the series’ most memorable images.

I liked Ziyal’s character more and more as time went on, and it seems like a shame to dispose of her in this way. But it’s an undeniably effective story choice and emotional gut punch to accentuate the extent of Dukat’s loss. This poor girl, a biracial child who was an outcast to both of her peoples and raised in a slave labor camp. Finding a home on the station and a calling in life only to be snuffed out by an absolute tool because she didn’t toe the fascist line. It’s pretty fucking sad.

The emotional rollercoaster pitches up again as our heroes enter the Promenade to ringing applause. Sisko and Jake hug, Dax confirms to Worf that their wedding is still on, Bashir and O’Brien make immediate plans to hit the holosuite. Martok admits defeat in his bet with Sisko who graciously accepts, and Rom is proud to see that Nog is an officer now. It’s all very cute until Garak learns of Ziyal from Jake.

Garak rushes to the infirmary. It’s an absolutely gutting scene, and I love the way it’s composed. The score is great, too. Ziyal’s body (and visible phaser wound) are front and center, and Garak stops in his tracks as soon as he enters, knowing he’s too late. The one person on the station he wanted to see again – dead. “She loved you,” is all Kira says. “I could never figure out why,” Garak responds as he gently caresses her face. “I guess I never will.” I wasn’t a fan of Ziyal’s crush on Garak, although I appreciated how his character consistently rebuffed it. But I do absolutely love this scene, and it heightens the tragedy of her death beautifully, and piles on another crushing personal loss for poor Garak.

Garak is a man who has done some horrible things, and the fact that this young woman loved him and saw good in him seemed to be a source of strength for him – but also confusion. That he’s in disbelief that someone could love a monster like him is monumentally sad, and the fact that he’ll never be able to understand why or see himself the way she saw him is bleak. His friendship with her represented a reclaiming of normalcy and goodness for him. So her death also kills a piece of him, as it did for Dukat. As always, Robinson shines here as he communicates that echoing tragedy of it all.

That carries into the next scene as we see a broken Dukat curled in the corner of a holding cell, muttering to his dead daughter. Sisko suggests that maybe Dr. Bashir can do something for him, and Odo gently helps Dukat to his feet. It’s a very valuable scene, not just because it lingers on the crushing defeat of this utter villain, but because it highlights the grace and compasssion of our heroes. We can imagine the Cardassians or Dominion not treating Sisko the same way if their positions were reversed. Despite the ravages of war, the heroes maintain their humanity in how they treat a helpless enemy. And in a larger sense, that the episode doesn’t treat Dukat’s fate with triumphant schadenfreude is an excellent and unexpected decision. There’s no joy to be had in this victory, even if we set aside the death of a young woman.

“I forgive you, too,” Dukat says to Sisko as he hands him his baseball back, his face wet with tears. It’s about as sincere and humanistic a gesture as Dukat is capable of. Just as he seemed genuinely forgiving of Ziyal for betraying him, his overwhelming grief has broken him down enough to extend the same to Sisko. He’s got nothing left in the tank and has found absolute rock bottom.

It’s so unexpected, but I love how much of a downer the episode’s end is, and I think it’s beautifully emblematic of both Star Trek‘s attitude towards war, and on Deep Space Nine’s uniquely grey and nuanced outlook. The heroes win and enjoy a brief moment of joyous celebration, but it’s not long until the costs set in. Ziyal’s death is a poignant symbol of how victory in war still comes at great loss. Sisko is mostly speechless at the sight of a destroyed Dukat. Yes, this man is evil and tried to kill them all, but his defeat is a fate worse than death and nothing to cheer at. To do so would mean a surrendering of one’s humanity. Brooks is great in the final scene and communicates a heavy ambivalence over his victory. The many Starfleet lives lost in the battle, as well as the entire enemy fleet blinked out of existence. Much as in the excellent “Rocks and Shoals,” the moral weight of the win is a lot to bear and consumes a bit of his soul along with it. And it’s far from over.

These initial six episodes of the season are still my favorite period in all of Star Trek. The action and storytelling are at peak levels throughout and it’s still a very impressive achievement so many decades after the fact. That a Star Trek show could pull off such a long and gripping story about war while keeping all of its values intact is all the more amazing. It still felt like the Trek I knew and loved while deepening and broadening the kinds of stories it could tell. “Sacrifice of Angels” is a thrilling conclusion as well as a monumentally impressive episode on its own that focuses on a very bad but multifaceted man. The villainy on display throughout Deep Space Nine was often far more realistic and insidious than anything we had seen before. The true evil of Dukat is scary but is also at its core incompetent and self-defeating due to its selfish, inward nature. It makes the daring and self-sacrificing bravery of our heroes shine that much brighter during dark times and reminds us that true strength means fighting for something larger than ourselves.

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Stray Observations:

• There are very few battle shots I love more than the Galaxy wings effortlessly cruising through the Cardassian formations. I remember cackling with glee when I first watched it. It kind of seems like a meta redemption for them, as the Dominion conflict first started with the Galaxy-class USS Odyssey getting blown to smithereens by the Jem’Hadar.

• As much as I love Sisko on the Defiant leading the charge into battle, it seems like he should not be in direct harm’s way if he’s the fleet commander. If you die, who’s going to boss all the ships around? Kelsey Grammer?

• There are so many great frames of the battle and years later I’m still noticing things. The attention to detail and the density of action is crazy.

• Quark sneaking up on Ziyal and doing that TV thing where he covers her mouth and asks her not to scream is silly. Like… neither of you are being watched or followed? You’re not forbidden from talking with her, bud. The drama in this episode is dialed up to 11 (and I’m all for it), so him just asking her like normal I guess wouldn’t be THRILLING enough.

• In the non-canon Deep Space Nine novels, it’s revealed that the Dominion fleet wasn’t destroyed, but simply moved into the future where it exited the wormhole to ensuing hilarity. I think it’s an interesting explanation – the Prophets seemed more about manipulation of time rather than sheer destructive power. And it’s consistent with other episodes where the wormhole was used for time travel (or universe hopping). I think they probably could have destroyed them, but chose to just slide the problem away in a somewhat lazy manner for someone else to deal with. Which is also consistent with their detached nature, and that of an uncaring group of gods.

• The Prophets’ special relationship to Bajor is never explained. My personal fan theory is that the Prophets are the Bajorans from the far future, at a point where they evolved into higher beings. This would be somewhat consistent with the fact that the Bajorans have been around for about half a million years longer than humanity has (as stated by Picard in their first appearance). This was a plot point in the film Interstellar, where the fourth dimensional beings (who also constructed a wormhole!) are theorized to be the future of humanity saving itself. Which I will also happily take take credit for!

• There are lots of other times that Sisko faces death without the Prophets stepping in. My other fan theory is that their power seems strongest in their own pocket dimension (Celestial Temple/wormhole). They’re on a higher plane for sure, but definitely lower than say, the Q Continuum. We never see them exercise super great power outside of it, and in fact time itself seems injurious to them – like when “chroniton” (time) particles were used as a weapon against them in “The Reckoning.” Their orbs seem to be probes/communication devices that allow them to explore and interact with the outside universe so they don’t have to leave their realm.

• That part when Sisko asks the Prophets to return him to his ship and they do this. LOL, these guys.

• Apropos of NOTHING CURRENT AT ALL, Dukat’s philosophy: