The Delta Flyers - The Rapture

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

The Delta Flyers is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, Terry Farrell & Armin Shimerman. In each podcast release, they will recap and discuss an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.This week’s episode, Rapture, is hosted by Garrett Wang, Robert Duncan McNeill, and Terry Farrell..Rapture: A shock Sisko receives when the Holosuite system shorts gives him psychic insight to a lost Bajoran city.We would like to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Production Managers, Megan Elise and Rebecca McNeill.Additionally, we could not make this podcast available without our Executive Producers:Stephanie Baker, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Kris Hansen, Chris Knapp, Janet K Harlow, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, Mike Gu, Tara Polen, Carrie Roberts, Sandra Stengel, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Alex Mednis, Holly Schmitt, Roxane Ray, Andrew Duncan, Tim Neumark, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Jenny Cordina, Izzy Jaffer, Francesca Garibaldi, Jonathan Capps, Chris Dellman, Chris Garis, Sean T, Cindy Woodford, & Tamara Evans. Our Co-Executive Producers:Liz Scott, Sarah A Gubbins, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Elaine Ferguson, Captain Jeremiah Brown, E & John, Deike Hoffmann, Anna Post, Cindy Ring, Lee Lisle, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Mark G Hamilton, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Elizabeth Stanton, Tim Beach, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, David Wei Liu, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Randy Hawke, Penny Liu, Matt Norris, David Smith, Stacy Davis, Heath K., Ryan Mahieu, Robby Hill, Kevin Harlow, Megan Doyle, & Jeff Allen.And our Producers:Philipp Havrilla, James Amey, Jake Barrett, Sab Ewell, Ann Harding, Trip Lives, Samantha Weddle, Paul Johnston, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Carl Murphy, Jocelyn Pina, Chad Awkerman, AJ Provance, Maxine Soloway, Heidi McLellan, Brianna Kloss, Dat Cao, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Alexander Ray, Kelly Brown, Sarah Thompson, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Renee Wiley, Maria Rosell, Sarah, Dominique Weidle, Jesse Bailey, Mike Chow, Matt Edmonds, Miki T, Heather Selig, Steph Davies, Stephanie Aves, Seth Carlson, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, Annie Davey, Jeremy Gaskin, Sarah Dunnevant, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Eddie Dawson, Lauren Rivers, Jennifer B, PJ Pick, Preston M, Rebecca Leary, SnazzyO, Karen Galleski, Jan Hanford, Katelynn Burmark, Timothy McMichens, Cassandra Girard, Andrea Wilson, Slacktwaddle, Willow Whitcomb, Mo, Leslie Ford, Jim Poesl, Daniel Chu, Scott Bowling, Michael Jones, Ed Jarot, James Vanhaerent, Nick Cook-West, Kilian Trapp, Katherine M. Prioli, Nelson Silveira, Kit Marie Rackley, Gordon Watson, Andy Bruce, Andrew Golden, Durrell Bishop, Rebecca Long, Daniel Friend, & Damien O’DonnellThank you for your support!This Podcast is recorded under a SAG-AFTRA agreement.“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark, and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, or distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail] this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Delta Flyers Journey Through the Wormhole with Quark Dax and their good friends, Tom and Harry. Join us as we make our way through episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Your hosts for today are my fellow Trek actors, Terry Farrell, Robert Duncan McNeil, and myself, Garrett Wong. Yes, and for the complete and exciting version of this podcast, with all kinds of fun, cool stuff with games and prizes, check out patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers and sign up to become a patron today. Yes, there are prizes.

I was just going to ask you that. Are you serious? Well, yeah, you get merchandise fulfillment is what you get certain little bonuses if you're, different tiers. You know, I haven't seen the show. Yeah. Check out the prizes, everybody.

Did you like my pronunciation of your name? Yes, I did. I gave it a little bit of a Mediterranean twist. Robert Duncan McNeil is what I was trying to. I was rolling the R, doing a little kind of a random Euro, a little European juge. I'm half Irish. Can you give me that?

Or a Norwegian or a Danish? You would rather be? But I'm half Irish. So Terry Farrell, would you like me to speak from Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland? I'm not sure. where you want me to be from? Where is that from? I don't know.

Yeah. I'm from, seriously. County Cork? My grandmother's, yes, my grandmother Farrell's family. She was a steward and she was part of, I have to look it up again. But they were part of, what is it when you're part of the plan? No, no. Like the people that come in that aren't royalty, but they're.

The court? Yes, they're part of the court. So it's still kind of a big deal. Wow. And the family name was Stuart, is what you said? Spelled S-T-E-W-A-R-T? Is that correct? Yeah.

I think so, yeah. I think so. I always thought that was Scottish as opposed to Irish. Hmm. Okay. There's a lot of names. They mix around. Maybe they mixed around a little bit. Yeah.

Of course they did. Look how tiny it was. Well, good. You look so nice. Do you see how the tear fairs? Thank you. Look at the, that's why I put you on this. You like this little leopard.

I've got a collar shirt on, you've got a jacket on, and Terry's dressed for cocktail hours. She's ready for cocktail. I guess I am. Yes. Look good. And see, these are things you can see if you're a Patreon. It's one of the prizes. Yes, at one level, you get to watch us and see what we're wearing.

These are the cool things that come with membership. A little spicy. She's got a sticker on her coffee mug there. I like it. All right. My apple. You're ready to go. Coffeeology.

Well, we look good. We're feeling good. And we're going to talk about a very spiritual episode. We are. We are. But before we jump into that, let's talk about birthdays. Yes. Oh, good idea.

Starting with on February 13th, Lee Lyle. Lee, happy, happy birthday to you. Lee, happy birthday to you. Wow, February 13th, it's popular today. Yes, it is. February 13th has a lot of Delta Flyers birthdays. But Lee, we wish you a very, very happy birthday. And Paul Johnston, February 13th.

What? I think 13 is a lucky number. I'm sending you so many wonderful birthday greetings. Happy birthday, Paul. Have a great birthday. Happy birthday, Paul. The 13th, a very, very significant number in Taylor Swift's life as well. So there you go.

All right. We have one more birthday on February 13th. It is Rich Gross, Rich Gross. Happy birthday, Rich. Happy birthday, Rich. Happy birthday, Rich. Woo-hoo. This is a worldwide kind of international podcast.

It is. We have listeners everywhere. Cultural influences from all over the world. European, Asian, every continent is represented by listeners of the Delta Flyers. It's covered everywhere. Every continent. Wonderful. That's amazing.

That's true. Every planet. This is not just Earth. This podcast is, really? Yes, it's got fans all over. So Vulcan, Frenganar, Cardassia, all those planets. The Ferengis love this podcast. I didn't even know that.

They do. Love it. What? Yep. Yeah. Well, you know, we do. We do respect the Ferengi culture on this podcast. We do.

I'm a big fan of Ferengis. Are we up for poems? Oh, yeah. And who's? Yes. Because I'm ready. Okay. Let's go with the Limerick, Robbie.

All right. I've got a little. limerick here. I'm feeling good these days with my limericks. All right, here we go. The Federation came knocking at the door with treaties and welcomes galore. But Cisco cried, no. Benjamin had a veto.

Now the emissary has changed the score. Very nice. Very nice. Bam. Bam. They're so effortless now. They flow well. Very good. I know. Well, I'm not doing the whole plot anymore.

I've given up on that. Yeah, I didn't do the whole plot either. I can't do that anymore. Yeah, I try to find rhymes that also fit the plot and cover the A story and the B story and the C now. I'm just going to focus on a character. And I'm going to venture to say, Robbie, that this is you now. Oh, 100% you doing these at this point, correct?

Yes. What do you mean? Haven't they always been on? What are you implying? I'm implying at the very beginning, the very beginning. Robbie would get stumped and then the master limerick, the most of the most. Master Limerick writer, A.K.A. Rebecca. Would come in and just, oh, my God. Rebecca can do this.

She is pretty remarkable, I've got to say. She's one of my favorite people in the planet. She's pretty awesome. She really is. I mean, she's so smart and she's kind. And she's grounded and she's respectful. Very. Forgiving, impassioned. And very good at Limerick's.

So in the very beginning, when Robbie hit a speed bump, in came team Rebecca. and it was amazing. Yeah, she hasn't done one at a while. Maybe I'll hand one off to her. Just for fun, right? Yeah, get her back in the game. I would like to hear that. Okay, here's my haiku for rapture.

Cisco inspired searching for ancient city. Visions no longer. Ow, poor baby. I know. He was so bummed when he woke up and realized he could. He was. This was a tour de force for Avery Brooks and Benjamin.

Francisco. Yeah. Yeah. He got to act in this one. It was quite impressive. Yeah. My poem for rapture. A curiosity blossoms to obsession. Answers to the universe in question. Throwing caution to the wind for a spiritual awakening within on the precipice of death he fights. The prophets need him and his might. Reunited with his family to move on and the cool cat sing. his jazz song. Wow. That's even more than a poem. That's like soliloquy. I mean, that was that was a good job. Shakespearean sonnet. Thank you.

Yeah, she sonnited us. Thank you. Oh, that's so good. Yeah, you sonneted. Well, he was in a better space at the very end with Cassidy and his son. There was that little moment, but then when he grabbed her hand. Yeah. So that made me feel like he appreciates.

I think Nana's character said maybe, I don't know, I thought it was her. We'll get to it. Well, we'll get to it. But that he maybe, or maybe it was Louise Fletcher, I said maybe that's all the prophets had for him at this time. And that really made sense to me. Yeah. Because he was forcing it. And it was really the prophets gave them a gift of vision.

And then, okay. That's their plan. You just get that much. You don't need more right now. And we need you to be alive so we can give you another chance at vision. Yeah, that made a lot of sense to me too. All right. Teleplay by Hans Baimler.

I just have to pronounce that the German way. Hans Baimler. Hans Beimler is the teleplay. Story is by L.J. Strom. That's a new name. We haven't seen it. Yeah, I don't think you've heard that before. That one. Well, it was a great story. Really was. Directed by our good friend Jonathan West. The director of photography gets another episode. Very well directed. So you were impressed with this, Robbie. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Guest stars, Penny Johnson as Penny Johnson. Is it just Penny Johnson or she's not Penny Johnson Gerald in this one? Penny Johnson. No. Okay. Penny Johnson. As Cassidy Yates, Ernest Perry Jr. as Admiral Charlie Wattley, and of course, special guest star Louise Fletcher as Kewan. Yeah, it was a good, like the guest cast getting folded in, I thought was really great. Seeing Penny back there, having Louise come back.

Oh, yeah. And Ernest Perry, as Watley was great. Right. I loved his dynamic with Cisco. I thought it felt really like they had it passed in history there. Or that they work together. chemistry. Yeah, I wonder if Avery knows him personally.

It's very much. Yeah, I don't know. Because they had really good energy together. Let's get into it. But before we get into it, let's just say one thing. The first thing we notice in the very first scene, Robbie, is that there's a new uniform happening. Oh, yeah.

That's right. And that's a bit of the trivia that I had. Right. Just to start talking about the first scene. I was happy about those. So those were. Because like girdles. Yeah.

Those were basically the same uniforms introduced in the feature film, Star Trek First Contact. And they actually waited to introduce this uniform until they waited for the the movie to actually come out. Yes. Once the movie released, then they were like, okay, we can show this uniform. The reason why Voyager didn't have this uniform is because we were stuck in the Delta Quadrant and we didn't copy it.

We're stuck with our old uniforms. Yeah. Interesting. Oh, 100%. That would be weird if you would be super weird. Yeah. So really. I wonder, though, if.

Why didn't they just start your show? Oh, because you already started. Yeah, we already left. Got it. See, they should have left space between each show, like two years or a year between each show. Exactly. That would have been helpful. Yes.

For a lot of reasons. I was going to say, I wonder if Bob Blackman designed the costumes for the movie for first contact. Oh, yeah. He probably is. I don't know. I'm going to guess that it was him because she was the main guy. Many people as they could. Right.

Not all of them, which upset some of them, of course. Right. But a lot of them did cross over to the films. Well, I just want to talk briefly about this uniform. It's cool in that, you know, before Robbie, the old uniforms, it's the black, lower half, and then the upper quarter is the gold, red, or blue for, you know, the different departments. And now it's everyone's uniform gray and it's the undershirt that is a color, right? So now they've relegated the color to be more minimal and everything's more uniform across.

So you just see a little bit of the color in where the neck is. But the actual upper area, everyone shares that same gray. So it's black, gray, and then the color happens up here. I like that. I mean, I don't know how you guys like the look. I love Davey's jacket. I liked wearing it better because it wasn't wool. So it wasn't like you'd get that little bit of scratchy.

Yeah. But was it hotter? because it almost looked just the way... Thicker, quilted. I think nominally, nominally, I don't remember that being a big... A big deal. I think everybody looked better in them. I feel like the air conditioners on your stages worked better than on our stage.

Because I remember when I went to your stage, it always seemed cold to me. And when on our stage, it was very uneven. Some days was very cold. Some days it wasn't. I don't know why that is, but yours was... Well, I don't know. I think on the set, though, it was always super hot because they definitely turned off the air conditioning when we were filming. Of course, of course.

So it would depend, I think, on the shooting day. Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean? If they're long scenes and the air conditioner's off for like an hour and a half, then it starts to get, especially in the summer. Yeah. You know, July. I remember filming on your stages on seven. for Enterprise, the series Enterprise, when I directed.

And I remember noticing a difference on that stage that, oh, it's cooler. And then Enterprise also had some of their swing sets and their sick bay and things like that was on stage eight, our stage. Right. And that was always, when we went to film over there on Enterprise, I was like, oh, yeah, I remember this stage. I thought we were four, 17 and 18. No? Maybe it was four then. Yeah, maybe what she's talking about.

Yeah, that's where Ops was. Whatever stage your ops. On the very end. Yeah. And Promenade. Was the Promenade on the same stage? No. Promenade was on 17 and our planet hell was 18.

Was 17 next to four? Yeah. I don't know why, but it was. And five was across from four. Okay. So, Robbie, when we walked out of stage eight and looked across and we saw Russ, the security guard for DS-9, that's stage four, right? When you guys walk out?

Yeah, that's four. Okay. I loved for us. He was the best. It's cold, super cold. Yeah. Yeah, and I think the promenade, too, because why it was cool was because everything was open. Yeah, because it was so big and multi-levels would get hot when we were shooting there,

but you could walk out into the promenade and at least have some residue of cool. Okay, so in the very first scene, we're in the wardroom, and there's a painting that Cisco Dax and Kira are studying. It's a very important Bajoran painting. We learned in the scene it was painted 20,000 years ago, and it's the most important Bajoran icon ever painted. It's proof that this very important city of Baha'u'lla actually existed. This painting proves it. They believe, and they've been waiting for the Kardashians to release this painting.

They've been holding onto it since the occupation started. So they're looking at it, and Cisco is just amazed by this. He's fascinated by it. They talk about this Bantaka spire. So there's like this obelisk in this beautiful. It reminded me of like the pyramids or something, this whole story. Kind of Egyptian marking kind of thing. Yeah, with a waterfall behind it.

Yeah. Yeah, it felt like a painting of an old Egyptian city, you know, some mythical city or something. But yeah, this is Bontaka spire. And ancient Bajoran cities were built around these spires. They were very important. They were about 11 meters high, made from stones carved and fitted together so perfectly that they didn't need any cement or mortar or anything. That's very impressive. Very impressive, right?

But that's like a pyramid as well. Yes, it is. It is. That we don't even have the tools to cut it the way they did. Yeah, like how would they do it? That's why people think aliens came down and built them. which they probably did. Mm-hmm.

They probably, I'm on board with that. I just realized something. The city, the ancient lost city of Baha'u'lla now makes me think of the Norse Valhalla. Exactly. I just came to. I had that just now. I was like, oh my gosh, that was so in my head from the beginning. It was not in my head.

You know what? We're Vikings. We're from Vikings. You guys are. So maybe there you go. That's why. It's in your genetics. Okay.

So we do learn in the. this scene, though, that there was a prophecy that says only someone who is touched by the prophets will ever find the ruins of Baha'u'll behaal. So that was kind of important. And Dax's line at the end there where she's like, turns to Cisco, no pressure. He takes that well, too. Yeah, he does. And there's a nice transition here, Mr. Jonathan West, director, because we're kind of looking at the painting and then he cut to a computer image. of the painting because he had it scanned.

And that was the transition into his quarters as he sort of studies it. So it was a very elegant transition that Jonathan did there. I liked him a lot. Bravo, Jonathan. Yeah. Yeah, he's got a scan on his monitor. Great low angle shot of Cisco looking at the file, the sort of memory tube or whatever they put the file in.

That took me a second to put together because I really noticed it a little later. Yeah. Did it look like blood to you? It did. I thought, why is it, is that his blood is green now? Or is it green, yeah. It's green. And so I was thinking, oh my gosh. Well, anyway, that's not for a little bit. It looks like a medical tube, not a memory tube because of the liquid in it. Yeah, it was a little, which is different for us, Robbie. It doesn't ruin it, but no, but we don't. I felt like I should have known what that was. Yeah. But that's, that's Cardassian tech though, correct? That's why they use those tubes. Like when, in, On Voyager, we have isolinear chips.

Everything for us is chips. We don't have any tubes of liquid in it, but that's Cardassian. Right. Right? Like on the Enterprise. Yeah. Well, he's looking at this painting or the scan of the painting. He's really kind of obsessed with it.

He takes the file that has the copy on it with him. Doesn't he take a copy of that to put it into Quarks Hallisweet? Yes. The next week. Oh, that's right. He's in a hollow suite. That's why he takes a copy. Yeah.

Yeah, it takes the copy. and then we cut to the Holliswee where he's put it in and he's got this hollow obelisk there. He's reconstructed. He's trying to reconstruct the backside because they can't see it on the painting. And he like made 70% smaller. And then he asked it to superimpose the reflection from the waterfall and reverse the image and clarify it. And it was like a big difference. Yeah.

It is a big difference. But I have to nitpick for a second here. I mean, this is the move that basically pushes him towards finding the exact coordinates of this city. In 20,000 years, no one has been able to look at that photo and go, hey, there's a reflection in the water. Let me reverse it. You have to be touched by the prophets. He's a prophet and he's smarter than they are. I guess.

I wanted something. It did seem like an easy cat. It was too quick. We all have to let some of these things slide. I suppose. Otherwise, we wouldn't have any stories. I get it. And also our computers are probably much better than what they have down on Bayshore.

How about we say that? Thank you. Right. Okay. That, Terry, I'll buy that. I'll buy that. Right. Our computers must be way more expensive than what they possibly do.

Yes. And that's why they want to be part of the Federation. We got toys. We got good toys. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Well, Quark shows up and says it's 3 a.m.

You've been here for hours. It's three in the morning. He offers Cisco a pleasure maze program with a surprise at the end. Yes. There's always a surprise. Always a surprise in the old pleasure maze. Cork has the pleasure maze programs in the Hall Suite. He also has in the last episode.

Didn't he have the Vulcan romance novel? Yes. You know what? It's not that he has those things. It's that he's so gross about how he describes it. he's very blunt yes well quark is pushing the

the pleasure maze but Cisco's not interested he's safe tells a computer to to end and save the program and then when he goes over to pull the I guess memory

memory rod memory jab yeah yeah he gets zapped and he falls back on the ground and he's got static electricity going all over his body when he's on the ground that was kind of cool

it was yeah nice fritz nice fritz on the and I like that quark was like immediately computer corked infirmary medical emergency in hollow suite four it was like then his he totally shifted yeah he's a hero i'm a big i'm a big cork fan yes he's not old old old blames quirk it was like what the heck's going on but cork hasn't been doing his um maintenance on all of his hollow suite so it really yeah otta thinks it's quark's fault exactly

And then Quirk blames Chief O'Brien. Yeah, because O'Brien is told, taken his best holosuite fixer, ROM, and kept him on these upgrading censor jobs. So Quark is blaming Miles O'Brien and Odo is just not moved at the end of this. No. No. Tell it to the magistrate. He arrests Quark. Poor cork.

He's always getting in trouble. He is. I feel bad for him. Well, we cut to the infirmary now. You don't feel that one? No, because he gets himself into these messes. And if he would change his behavior, maybe people would trust him a little more. Yeah.

But he was a hero in the last episode, Terry, that we reviewed with Armin. Mm-hmm. Hork climbed to the top of Mount Everest, basically, to save Odo's life. I love it when he has those moments because they're really powerful. Yeah. Because how his character is so opposite. Yeah. Like when he had the thing with Pell.

it was so powerful. Yeah. Well, we cut to the infirmary. Sisko's recovering in there. He's very calm, though. It's like he's on drugs or something. Bashir asked him if the colors seem brighter. And Sisko says, oh, yes, absolutely.

And then he looks at the file of the painting. At the end, he's staring at this file. He's just very obsessed, very interested in this. That's the tube that's green where I thought, oh, my gosh, is that his blood? But he also says, that everything looks brighter. Yeah. Clearer.

Yeah. I did like this shot, though. Again, I'm going to shout out to Jonathan West because it starts out on Bashir, kind of pulls back to reveal the two shot, and then it pushes into Cisco as he's just obsessed with this tube. And Bashir's behind him out of focus talking, but our story is all about Cisco and what he's experiencing. So I thought that was really very well done, Jonathan, very well done.

Good, good, good job. Beautiful. Yeah. Cisco's quarters next, I think. Jake's cooking dinner. I love the towel over his shoulder. Oh, he's so wonderful in this scene, isn't he? Yeah, he's so grown up.

And so tall. So tall. Yeah. He's still not at his full height. I know. That's what's incredible. Yeah. Nog was back in the last episode.

And when you see how much, it's been a while since Nog's been on the show, it's like doubled. The height difference. Yeah. Wait till he's 6-4. Yeah. Or 6-3. 6-3-6-4. It doesn't matter.

He's tall. He's tall. Cisco loved dinner and Jake says that Dad has to cook tomorrow because Cassidy Yates is coming back. And we hear she's been in prison for six months. Jake thinks she's paid, you know, her debt to society here and done her time. But Sisko seems not very interested. He's still distracted by this painting.

Can I say something? Yes, please. Of course I can. It reminds me of the close encounters. Yes. When Richard Dreyfus is doing the mashed potatoes. Yes. Right? And when Avery's, he's not just playing with his food, he's actually cutting out shapes and things. Shapes on his plate. Mm-hmm. That's what it reminded me of that moment. Because that was intended by the writers as an homage to the famous mashed potato scene. Oh, really? Yeah. Was it really? Yeah. Well, it's in the notes. You could see. Right on the nose.

Yeah, the 1977, Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, that film and that scene, exactly. So you called that perfectly. Well, great job. Got telegraphed to me. Yeah, great connection there. Also, the interesting,

my little takeaway from this is that Cassidy Yates had a prison sentence of six months. Garrick also had a prison sentence of six months. So six months seems to be the standard prison sentence for any type of. That's just Starfleet. Starfleet just, yeah. You get six.

That's it. That's right. If you get a speeding ticket, six months. Six months, yes. Overdue library book, six months. So that's the way it works in Starfleet. That's very funny. All right.

Well, at the end of this scene, Cisco does say these shapes. He's looking at the food. He's cut up. I know what they are. So he's starting to piece together whatever this obsession is about. And we go to the hall, back to the hall of suite. Great Jonathan West, just knocking out of the park. This crane shot over the obelisk as Dax makes a call to Cisco.

She says, sorry to disturb you, but Admiral Watley is calling from Starfleet headquarters. And Watley says the Bajorans have been approved to join the Federation. So preparing for them all to visit. This has been five and a half years we've been waiting for this. Yeah. Yeah, that's the whole reason why he was sent to this posting was to make sure that the So Jorans make it into the Federation. So now we're.

And I forgot that. It's a big deal. We've been so busy working. I haven't paid attention to the big picture. The whole mission. You guys remember, it was Picard. That very first episode, Picard is sitting in the office with Benjamin Cisco. And he says, you know, no matter what, you've got to make sure if Bejoa enters into

this federation. So, okay. So that was the first command. That was their whole assignment. And that's what makes this even more shocking. that Cisco is not really interested in that. He's so distracted with this. Yeah, he's obsessed.

Well, we cut into quarks. Quark hushes all the customers, which I thought was very funny. Oh, it's so cute. It's a spotlight up on the banner, the dabble girls. He's so excited. So excited. It's like. Drum roll, please.

Yeah. And then the double girls. And we really get a drum roll. Yes. The dabble girls let the banner fall and it's a cling on banner. It's the wrong one. Right. And work.

is behind Quirk and says, welcome, Klingons. And then Quark turns around and he's horrified. And he goes, not that banner, this one. And he goes behind the bar. He hops up. He does. He jumps over the bar. It's like he's just a kid.

He hops up, grabs the other one and lets it go. And he's, no one's going to stop his joy. He's very proud to unfurled that banner. It was so small. It was kind of pitiful. It was a little. Yeah, a letdown. Yeah, the Klingon banner is like massive, massive 15 feet long.

And then the pejoramman. Benner's like, me. It was funny. Then they should have had a cutaway where he's like, that's bigger than I remember it before they unfurled it because it's like, he should have seen the difference in size and though. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

Daxon Wharf commented he seems very, very happy. Cork says, yes, I am. There's going to be more traffic in the bar. And more traffic means more info on things that I shouldn't know, which I thought was very funny. Yeah. Hira shows up. She joins them.

She's still pregnant, but I think. Garrett, we were talking about this, it's fake at this point, right? Because she's had the baby. Yeah, because it was, yes. So she's got her fake pregnancy going in the scene. She admits here that she used to not want Bejor to be part of Starfleet, but now she's after five years working with Cisco and everything and Starfleet. She's a believer, basically. She's like, yeah, I think this will be good. I think this will be really great. And she wants to congratulate the captain, ask where he is, he's in the Hall of Suite. And then I like when Quark walks back. by and assures her, I fixed it.

Yeah. Yeah. He's not going to get shocked again. I fixed it. We go inside the Hall of Suite. Kira is just mesmerized by this obelisk. And Cisco's frozen, kind of in a, like a trance or something. Yeah.

It's hard to play that as an actor, too. A trance. And he did a very good job of being in the trance and being put out of it. He did a great job in this whole episode, I thought. Yeah. Wonderful, elegant performance. Yeah. Yeah.

So she shakes him to sort of. get his get him back to reality. And this is when we realize that he's having visions now. Yes. That plasma, whatever, that strike that he, that he went through kind of, that was like the spark plug to begin the visions. So he was actually in Baha'uha during the Pell Door Festival, seeing the people. So he's while he was in that trance. Yeah.

He transported to the past. And it was the vision was so vivid and so clear. But now, I mean, he's literally obsessed with this right now. Yeah. And Kira's saying, no, you were dreaming. And he says, no, I was there. I could smell the burning, where do they? I don't know how you pronounce that.

Batteret. Batteret. Yes. Yeah. Those things. Those things. Those things. The burning Bajoran leaves.

Yeah. The discovery of the wormhole and the orbs and the coming war with the dominion. And it was just amazing. I loved when he was describing this. This is right up Avery's Alley. It's sensory. It's like the jazz music that he loves. He's kind of...

It is. He falls in line with who he is as a person and how he communicates with people. You're right, Robbie. Good call. I think he really was connecting with this story for Ben Sisko throughout. And this is a moment where you really feel him, you know, playing with this describing the sensory experience of it all. Like he was really there. Yeah.

This sort of reminded... When he says, Kira says, you could see the future as well as the past. He goes, for one moment, I could see the pattern that held it all together, which then reminded me of Tom Paris when he broke Warp 10. Yes. In the amazing episode, Threshold, that is so beloved by the fans. But do you, do you agree, Robbie? Yes. In Threshold, you become omnipotent in a way.

You know everything. You're everywhere at the same time. And I tried to describe that to people, you know, or Tom Paris did. tried to describe that. And I remember loving the opportunity as an actor to have those kind of scenes where you're trying to describe something that's indescribable. And that's what I felt from Avery in the scene, that he was enjoying it as an actor, that sort of experience. You should have, Tom, in that episode, you should have described it to Captain Sisko. He would have understood exactly what you're going through. I also want to say the 180, as he's describing this and walking around the

Obolus. Jonathan West, again, off of a crane did a 180 shot that is very difficult to do. That's hard. Is it? Yeah, it was a hard move. It sure looked great. Yeah. Very ambitious.

And then Kara tells Cisco that he was having a pogtemfar, pogtimfar vision. Pogtemfar. A sacred vision. Yes. And he said, I don't know what I had, but it was wonderful. And she says, the prophets chose well when they made you the emissary. So how does it all fit together? And Cisco says, I wish I knew someone woke me up.

That's very funny. That was funny. Yes. That was cute. I was almost to the end of the dream and somebody woke me up. Yeah, don't wake people up in the middle of punk, Tim Far. Come on now. No.

That's just never. You should know that already. Well, O'Brien calls, and Kai Wyn is on her way, of course. In trouble. And Cisco says, fine, Carol, Carol will meet her there. Yeah. Which is very unusual. Usually Cisco would, you know, show up in this situation, but Kira's going to go to it.

His dialogue's hilarious, though, Robbie. He's like, tell the Kai that I'm busy today, but I'll meet with her tomorrow. Just make something up. Yeah, exactly. I love how you feel that, too. Just make something up. I cannot be bothered with her right now. Seriously, he's on to more important things, that's for sure.

Yeah, he says the answer is in this spire. I know it. So he's really obsessed with this obelisk and figuring out what he's meant to do here, I guess. We go to the airlock next. When arrives, asks about Cisco. Where's the captain? She thinks that he's just basking in all the agilation of Starfleet command. then she's a little sarcastic here.

Like, yeah. Yeah, he got what he wanted. Yeah, passive, aggressive and sarcastic. She's a little annoyed. Is she annoyed that he's not there to meet her as well? She's annoyed he's their prophet. Yeah. And then she learned that later.

Yeah. And she's annoyed that Bejor is joining the Federation at this point. Yes. She's not happy about it. She thinks he's won. Yeah. They have a little walk and talk here, which I noticed, I don't know if you guys noticed, But they walked around a corner down a corridor.

And they seem to be walking slow, but it's hard to tell when you've got the two shot and you can't see their feet. But you could see the background behind them. And you could see how slow the background was walking. It was like tiny baby step to match them. Try to not get ahead of them. But often on a steady cam walk and talk like that, you're going a little slower than you naturally would to accommodate the camera.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. And he's walking backwards. Exactly. Stedicam's walking backwards, trying to keep the frame. But you could see the background. I just, I point that out if anybody rewatches, watch the background behind them in this this, uh, this, Kirah and wind scene. They're in molasses is what they're.

Yes. Step and step. Oh, God. Yeah, it's very, very fun. It kind of works with the dialogue being so painful. It's like, oh. Yeah. Well, Wynn thinks that five years of freedom was not enough.

And Kira reassures her, you know, just because we joined the Federation, we're still going to have freedom. You know, it's not going to change anything. But Wynn is not very sure. Kira comments, you know, you'll never give up, will you? And she says, Kira says, you can object if you want, but nothing is going to change this joining Starfleet. It's going to move forward. It's going to happen. So deal with your feelings, Kai Wynn.

Suck it up, Buttercup. That's right. We go to the Hall of Suite again. There's maps. There's Sextons. There's star charts scattered everywhere around. Another, I feel like a broken record, but another great crane shot over the obelisk from Jonathan West. No, I'm sure that Jonathan would not feel it's a broken record.

It is so beautifully shot. He should be complimented. Yeah. It really is. Beautifully shot. And it's over the obelisk. And the lens is sort of twisting like this. So they were using like a probably a three-axis head or.

complicated photography that is, I would say, above average for your show for most of the Straitric shows. Highten to like cinema level. Yeah. Very cinematic. Yeah. Well, it's Jonathan West. Yeah.

He does have an enormous amount of experience and wisdom. Yep. Yeah. Sisko's in the Hall of Sweet. Cassidy arrives. Ben immediately goes in for this hot kiss. How did you feel about that? It was.

It was. Because after the dinner, because after the dinner, I thought, oh, he's really not vibing on her. Yeah, he's not going to be excited. And I'm not going to blame him. And that's a lot to have that kind of traitor move to help the marquee. But then again, Tara Fair, at the dinner, he was in close encounters mode. So he wasn't really caring so much.

It was like an odd. Yeah, it was, it was surprising. It was. It was a little bit of a yo-yo feeling of, wait a minute. Yeah. Thought you weren't into her. Now you are into her. But it shows a little that he's unstable in some way.

You know, this whole experience is kind of making him go to extremes. Yes, I'm glad they had him do that because it was so out of character. Yeah. I mean, it's not like he did that normally. Cassidy clocks the weird behavior, too. She's like, oh, well, I expected you to treat me a little bit differently. Like, she felt that she would be coming out of prison and he'd still be pissed off and angry or whatever. But he goes in for that huge romantic kiss.

So even she's clocking something's off. At that point, this is when Cisco starts going on about what he's been doing, trying to explain it to Cassidy. Cassidy is absolutely clueless as to what is happening here, except for there's some lost city, some sacred lost city. And he's like, you know what? Let's just go to Bejor right now. And she's like, what?

What are you talking about? She's like, okay, I guess I'm game. and they head to Bejor. Yeah, he's like, I think I know where Bahala is, this lost city. Let's go find it. Did you like when she talked about, she said, well, I don't even know where my quarters are yet. Yeah. Oh, I did like that.

I'm sorry. Yes. Yeah, and he already took care of it. There's still hers. And nothing has been moved. Which is awesome, because now she knows, he's forgiven me. He still loved me this entire time. He didn't.

Oh, I don't think his love for her changed, but you can still be disappointed in somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they head out to find Balhalla or Valhalla or Bahala. Mahala. It's Bahala.

It's Bahala. Or Bahala. Like that. I like that. I like that version. Bahala. Okay. I did not expect them to suddenly be 200 meters underground.

Yes. Yeah, they beam into the classic caves. Oh, so they beamed into the cave. Yes. Yes. They didn't find the entrance. and get down there. They beamed in.

They beamed into the caves. Yeah. They beam in. A little dangerous. And she's a little alarmed that they're 20, 200 meters below ground. And he says, well, you're looking at 20,000 years of sediment here. Yeah. That's a lot of sediment.

Stay close. It's a buried city, sacred city that just got buried. But don't you? Like if we found a map to Atlantis. Yes. Yes. It feels like Atlantis. You didn't buy it?

No, my feeling is this. I would beam down in a, in a whole environment. environmental suit because if you're 20 if you're down in some ancient area there could be ancient viruses and all kinds of crazy you don't know if the oxygen is good down they just beam right in they're like hey we're gonna we'll be fine he's yeah he's obsessed do you think about it and then he takes that's part of obsession is not considering anything else other than you're you're right he's laser focus you've answered it for me there it is well they're in the caves they start walking and then he gets hit by one of these headaches i think this is the first headache

Like he sort of stops It doesn't matter But there's definitely If there was one prior It was smaller It was a smaller headache Yeah this is the first time That I remember seeing a headache reaction

And she comments She goes Maybe it's your obsession about Baháha It's giving you these headaches Which I thought was funny And he comments Oh I don't want to be negative

Again Yep So they continue to the end Of this tunnel And there's at a dead end There's a wall Yeah He takes his phaser out, blows a hole in it.

What setting was that, Robbie? It kind of like, it went circular, like, like that. I've never seen that setting before. Well, it's a, like a regular drill setting. It's a mitre drill setting. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Wow.

It was kind of perfect. It was cool. I was thinking, oh, my gosh, he hits that with his phaser. I hope rocks don't land on them. On them, exactly. Right? Yeah. But he has that miter drill setting.

and just opens it right up beautifully. It's like a perfection. Like a cabinet maker. He just built a beautiful. As if somebody covered it up. Right. Yes. Maybe someone sealed it.

Was in Edgar Allan Poe, which one was it where he was it Lanar? Where he, in the story, the woman is put in the wall and bricks are dropping her up. Oh, yes, yes. Yes. Yeah. Anyway, that doesn't matter. It just made me think of that when I saw. saw that. It was like somebody covered it purposely.

Hidden the abelisk from. Yeah, because it was like this perfect arc. It wasn't as if it just kind of. It could have been that poetic metaphor or Terry. It could have been that the production designer and construction crew just built a wall that had a nice hole in it. I think so. I think you're probably right. Probably the construction crew. You mean we're not really there? It's not really 200 meters underground. Dang, I was fooled. In fact, I think when they cut the hole in the thing, they were on the second level of your caves. They were up on that because they had to look down on the obelisk.

Yes, they did. They were on the second level. The caves we see over and over again in every Star Trek episode. But as we revealed the obelisk, we realized this is the exact same obelisk in Bahala. So they found them. So it's awesome. Yes. Woo-woo.

We cut back to the security office. Odo is trying to set quarters assignments for all of these Starfleet visitors, these very important VIPs that are coming. Oh, the protocols are hilarious. Yeah, Worf has so many opinions about how assignments are made. Yeah. This was giving, this was triggering for me because when he was getting so specific, it was like this is like that Riza episode where he was so annoying.

It's like, uh, with Dax. Remember that where everything was like, please, Wharf, just chill out. Just lighten up. Oh, my goodness. It reminded me of actors' trailers in dressing rooms. I was going to say it reminded me of contract negotiations. Yeah. Well, that character can't have a bigger trailer than this character.

Nope. Well, Worf has these strong opinions about where people stay. And Odo asks Kira her thoughts, but she's very distracted. She can't believe that Cisco found Bahala in just a few days. People have been searching for this for hundreds of years, you know, pejoram. 200,000 or 20,000. 20,000 years, like a long time. That's a very long time.

Well, they say 10,000 here. That painting was from 20,000 years ago. Yeah, they mean a mistake. Is that a mistake? Yes, because later they say 20,000 again. They said 20,000 to begin with 10,000 here. And I caught that when they said 10. And later they say 20.

Because those are little hiccups that people need to pay attention. No, but this is what Judy Brown would have caught, though. Nine times out of ten. We've also seen plenty of little things that go awry. There was only one time I called Michael Pillar because in one spot it said an implosion and another spot it said explosion. And I caught it and I called it and I called it change a script. Yeah, which one is it? And he thanked me.

But those are the kind of things that if you catch it, you got to call the office and let them know. Yeah. Well, Odo says to Kira, it probably was just a lucky guess. So he sort of blows it off. But Kira says, no, I think it's a sign from the prophets. And that's when Wynn arrives to speak privately with Kira. So they take a nice little walk. And we've got a beautiful long lens walk and talk on the upper promenade. It was beautiful. Jonathan West, I'm going to be a broken record, but beautiful shopmaking so far all around. Really great stuff. Is this where they stop? Okay, there was something here that was, it pulled me out. Louise was looking at Nana's eyes and her mouth. And her eyes and her mouth. Oh, the oven downer? Yeah.

It was just really odd. I clocked that as well. Oh, interesting. And she's never done that before, though. That's why you saw that, Terry. Yeah. Because that's not normal for Louise. No.

To do the, uh, uh, uh, uh, yeah. Yeah, her head didn't move. It was her eyes. But I was thinking it'd be different if it's about her hearing and she's trying to read Nana's lips. Hmm. You know, when. That's interesting. I didn't catch it.

But I don't do it. In real life, I'll look at someone's mouth because I'm trying to hear. I can't quite hear what they're saying. Yeah. Whether it's ambiance or whatever. But when you're acting, you can look at both the eyes, but it's really weird to look down at the mouth. I wonder if, so Jonathan used long lenses on this scene. He used this long lens master and he used longer lenses.

So that's more of a telephoto lens. And that would amplify those glances to her mouth, if that's what you're, I didn't notice it. But I'm guessing, because I did notice the long lens overall approach. So for Louise, the camera felt really far away. Yes. Right. So she's maybe not as aware. of what she's doing. And that gets magnified, too. So. Yeah, it looked crazy. Wow. I didn't catch it,

but that's interesting. But also, Garrett, it was through the whole time that she was talking. The entire dialogue with Akira? Okay. Yeah. Wow. And that's why I thought, oh, my gosh, I have to mention this. Interesting. Basically, this scene, this, this scene is all about Kai Wynne saying that she was wrong, because she didn't believe that Cisco was the true emissary, and now she feels bad for doubting him. Doing a little bit research on this episode, this whole bit, this walk-and-talk with Kira was Iris Stephen Bear's curveball.

So you're used to Kai Wyn being this antagonist. We don't like Kai Wyn. Kewen is dangerous. And then all of a sudden you have this scene, which I kind of flips. It's almost like she's likable. a little bit. You're like, oh, okay. And this is Ira Stephen Bear. He's capable of growth. And I like that about Ira's decision making. He kind of throws in a scene like this just to make everyone go,

hmm, and it worked definitely for sure. Yeah. Well, Kira even comments on it. She says it takes a lot of courage to admit you're wrong. But Wynn gets sort of offended here. Yeah, that was not the right thing to say. Yeah, you think the resistance are the only people that had courage during this war? And the narcissist gets ignited. She's like, I was a POW for five years and all I had, I didn't have guns to protect me. I didn't have anything but my faith and my courage. Well, we learned a little bit of backstory. She was beaten on a daily basis.

So this is pretty hardcore, you know, PTSD stuff that she went through that we didn't know about. Mm-hmm. That is important. Okay. So the next scene is in the caves. You know, Cisco's made this discovery, and now there's a big archaeological dig going on, and Wattley arrives. And Wattley basically wants to know, how did you discover this thing? And you've been acting kind of strange.

And you've been ignoring the Admiral's calls. Yeah, that part's really bad. Yeah. And he's like, you need to have a physical when you get back. This is not good. Cisco is getting more and more obsessed in the scene. He's like, you don't understand. There's answers here. I need more time. I can't explain. Wally sort of loses credibility for me when

he mispronounces the name of the ancient city. He calls it B'u'u'a, but it's really Baha'a. He doesn't have but H in there. Yes. Thank you. What are you doing? Yes. This is the ancient city of Bala. I was kind of ticked off. He only gave Cisco till 700. 0,700. Exactly. 7 o'clock in the morning? Exactly. The next day? Yes. What? I thought he was going to give him a couple days. Exactly. He said he needed. Stingy, maybe?

I don't know. I don't know. But I mean, as a viewer, I'm observing that Cisco is acting a little obsessive and strange. Right. So Watley has got to be clocking all of this. And he's ignoring their calls. Yeah. And like we said, this was his mission.

I totally get that. From the beginning. I guess I'm just a Cisco supporter. And I wanted him to have a few more days. Yes. But also I do feel that, you know, Starfleet is a little on edge that Cisco is being called the emissary by this entire group of people. So that's in the subconscious of Admiral Wadley. It's like, okay, stop thinking of yourself as a god now, you know, because you're now the emissary, you know. So this is a note of concern, a point of concern for them. So how's that cocking for you, Cisco? Because he should be back on the station. Being a Star Trek guy.

Glad handling all of the Bajoran leaders, too. That's why he gives him such short notice. Like, you've got to get back at the station as soon as possible. Yeah. Doesn't he have a headache at the end of this? He does. Yeah, he's like, ah. Yeah.

Bad headache. Yeah, really bad one. Whenever, by the way, I have a rule when I'm watching a movie or show. What is it? And a character starts coughing that they're going to die. Yeah. Right? If a character coughs, if they go.

Well, they're sick. They're going to be sick. Like that. Yeah. They're going to die. That's just my rule. So if Cisco is now having multiple. Yeah, it's pretty much go watch anything.

So you cough, you die. And if you got a headache, you're going to maybe die. Yeah. Robbie. Okay. It's very funny that you should bring that up because the brand new Chevy Chase documentary just uploaded. And in there, they're following him around.

And he'll talk. about something. He's on camera. And all of a sudden, he'll be, he's coughing off to the side. And Megan's like, he doesn't have much time left. Is what her feeling is. Oh, that's so funny that she's got the same rule. Exactly. So you and Megan, same thing. Cough? Not good. Yeah. All right. Well, he's got a headache. Sisko's got a headache at the end of the scene. So probably going to die. And go to the infirmary. Wadley says that Sisko is late reporting and he's worried. And Bashir says, you know, he didn't have any scary symptoms when I saw him before. I don't think he's in trouble.

Bashir also tries to explain how important the emissary is to the Bajorans. And then they see Cisco arriving on the promenade outside of the medical lab here. So they step over to watch what he's doing. And outside in the promenade, Cisco's like a god. He's walking amongst the people giving everybody, you know, answers. He's a prophet. He's a prophet. Yeah, he sees the matrix.

Yeah. But he's not a god. No. No, he's not. He can see. He just want to clarify. Yeah. Yeah.

But he's definitely seeing into other people's futures. Yeah. And giving them like, like, Nick, don't worry about your son or, well, he actually says that to Watley. He says that to Watley, which really freaks Watley out at that point. Yeah. Wait a minute. How do you even know what Kevin and I are going through? What?

So, yeah, it's a little freaky that he sees everything right now. I don't know why his son's name Kevin is funny to me. It's just such a son name. Yeah, it is. I just know that Kevin and awesome. And to all the Kevin's out there, it's a great name. But for some reason in this episode, it just jumped out as like, yeah, Kevin, your son, Kevin, of course. But the other thing is son and Kevin seem to fit together.

But someone's saying my dad, Kevin sounds weird to me too. It's like, what? Wait a minute. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good son name. Unless your dad's name is Kevin. Unless your dad's name is Kevin. Exactly.

We cut to the infirmary back inside. Sisko's getting a head test, basically. He's got a cool little band over his head with blinking lights and things. They do a great job with those things. You couldn't help it. You were trapped. Yeah, but it should still be similar. We should have had some cool tech.

Yeah. You guys have had lately some very cool tech. Like, was it, there was an episode recently where they were all in the coma, the big head? Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, that was cool. We didn't have any of that. Well, Cisco's got a little band on his head.

He gets the head test. Bashir says, I'll have results in a few minutes. And then Cisco shares this vision he had. Yeah. And he says he was on Bayjor. Bahalo had been rebuilt. People were in the streets celebrating. But then there was a shadow that covered the sun.

And they looked up, they saw locusts, billions of locusts hovering over the city. And as quickly as they came, they moved on. He says, now I know where they were going. Cardassia. What does it mean? What does it mean? Nobody knows what all this means. This is a lot of, a lot of, like, abstract, writerly visions that are scary and ominous, but not clear.

Yeah. Kira is very intense about this vision he's had. Mm-hmm. Right? And yeah, she is. At least the swarm is moving away from Bejar. That's a good sign, isn't it? Mm-hmm.

And Cisco says, but what do these locusts represent? And why Cardassia? Whatley says, you were dreaming. dreams don't always make sense. And of course, Cisco says, no, this wasn't a dream. It was another vision like he had. He was telling Kira about being there. He transported there. And then Bashir's worried and he says something about your basil ganglia are starting to depolarize. I'm going to have to operate and try to repolarize your neural sheaths. What the heck is a neural sheath? I don't even. I don't know. Okay. All right. I don't know.

It sounds very medical. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is it your connective tissue, like a sheath for your muscles? Sure. That works for me. Well, Bashir's got, he got the test back from that strip that was on his head and things are bad. It's much worse.

Bad. Yeah. Got an operator. Cisco is going to die. I told you. You're right. If you got a headache, he's going to die. Headache or cough, you're dead.

Or bad stomachache. Anything that makes them go. Gas. It's not good. If you have a little gas. We know that he might die. And Cisco says, an important is happening to me.

So. Well, yeah. He doesn't want to lose. Yeah. He wants to keep seeing the visions. Yeah. Until he knows why. Yes.

Yes. He wants to figure out what's going on with these darn locusts heading towards Cardassia. And he feels that the more time he has with the visions, he will see everything clearly. So he doesn't want that surgery. He says, nope,

don't do it. Don't have this surgery. at all. That's, those are his orders. That's what he says. Yeah, that's important. No, tell us, Robbie, because now we're back in Cisco's corridors. We are. Jake and Cassidy are begging him to stop doing this, just have this operation and save your life. And Cisco explains, you know, Jake, when you were a baby, I held you in my arms and I could see your whole future. I could see your life all laid out in front of me, even when you were just a baby. And now I feel like I have the universe in my hands.

These visions are making, or like a baby in my hands, and I have to see this through. And so it's a beautiful metaphor, the way he kind of describes it to Jake. It is. But Cassidy and Jake are not, they're so emotional about what's happening right now. Like how could he leave his 18-year-old son?

They're afraid that he's going to die before he sees the final answer. So the final vision. So they want him to have this. surgery and I've never seen a more emotional Cassidy Yates, that's for sure. And also, Jake is extremely, extremely, you know, taken over. Yeah. And it's not the first time he's almost lost his father. So this is like, but this is like his dad is aware and conscious and making a choice. Yes. Well, Wynn arrives to help him through this next vision, I guess. She's here. And so

she's going to support him and off they go. We cut over to Ops. It's a nice scene on Ops. I thought, again, the way Jonathan shot Ops, it felt a little different, felt a little more cinematic, maybe longer lenses all around. I feel like he was using longer lenses in this episode a lot. And that was nice for him because he's been kind of stuck doing whatever any other director wants to do. Yeah. So he's been thinking about this a while, I imagine. Oh, I'm sure. For a while I mentioned. Yeah. Yeah. Kira comments that she's never seen the temple so crowded. Everyone's in there, crammed inside, praying for him.

The crew and ops basically debates faith in this scene. And Worf takes the side that he believes in faith, that you have to believe that you're going to win or you won't have a victory. So you have to have faith. Like faith is more important than anything. And Kira and Warf are on the same page. And- And Dax and Miles.

Yeah. Dax is kind of. seeing both sides. I felt a little bit here. But Miles is not. He's an engineer. He's like, he doesn't believe in it. I'm more, I think my character's more like whatever works for you. I'm not going to burst your bubble. I've seen extraordinary things too. However, it's not just faith. But if you sit back a little bit, look, take at the overall, if you look at this episode as a whole, this is a faith or religious, more religious-based episode that is very rare in Star Trek. You don't see, that. It certainly is. It's not a theme that they

sit there. And in doing my research for this, the writers were super surprised that how well the fans enjoyed this episode, because usually the faith-based religious episodes are the ones that the fans and the studio are poo-pooing. They're like, we don't want to hear this. Get it out of our face. But for some reason, this one spoke to them. Well, and why I said that about Dax, I see it now in the lines, Worf says, what I believe in is faith. Without

it, there can be no victory. If the captain's faith is strong, he will prevail. And my character says, that's not much to bet his life on. So I'm thinking, Dax is closer to O'Brien. Yeah, Dax is much more science-based, of course. Yes. Yeah. Well, we cut into the guest quarters.

It's a ceremony. Wynne is praying for Cisco. Cisco has a really bad headache attack in the scene. Even Wynn says maybe you should wait to do this procedure, You know, wait until after the signing, the Starfleet signing, do that first, and then you can do this vision thing because it may be too much. So it's interesting that Wynn is kind of flip sides. Now she's like, yeah. Also, she explains that this particular orb is very draining.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's the orb of prophecy. So it's a heavy, big deal. Well, Cisco says he may not have time. He's got to do this now. And so she leaves.

and he kind of opens the box and these lights come out of the orb box. It was very cool. Very cool. Love those orbs. In the wardroom, there's the signing is taking place. Lotley comments that Cisco is already an hour late, asks how long does this vision quest take?

And Wynn says, well, it could take minutes, hours, even days sometimes. And Wynn says, let's move forward without him. So she's ready to sign up and become part of Starfleet or the Federation. And so they all start. And as they start, Cisco comes in. Bursts in. Bursts in. Yes. And he says, no, Bejor must not join the Federation or it will be destroyed. And then he collapses to the ground. And we cut to the infirmary. And Bashir says that we've got to operate immediately. He's going to die. He's about to die. We've got to do this. And Kira says, you know, he made it clear that he didn't want surgery.

That's what you brought up Garrett before. He said, no. surgery. That's right. Yeah. And Bashir goes, well, I can't do it then. The closest relative will have to make this decision. If he's, if he can't change his orders to me, then the closest relative will have to do that. And a beautiful moment with Jake kneeling by his dad. Yeah. Thank God Jake was there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He says he can't let him die. Everybody is very moved. And when he says, I need you. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And he says, I need you. I'm sorry. Yeah, because he knows.

He knows what his dad wants, and this is against his wishes, but he also needs his father. So it is a very moving. And his father was acting out of his head. So. Yeah. Jake goes over to Bashir and says, do what you have to do. And Bashir prepares for surgery and calls in a nurse. We cut to the promenade at the temple entrance.

Kira tells Wynn that Cisco's having the surgery now. And Kira feels that Jake was right to make that choice. She says to Wynne, maybe this is how the prophets wanted it. Oh, it was Kira. Yeah. And Kira says, Wynn must be very happy that, you know, Bejor is not going to be part of the Federation right now. And Wynne says, before, it was easier before, she says,

because I knew who my enemies were. Now I'm not so sure. That was very ominous. Yeah. Wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Because Wynne always feels like she knows.

everything like she's playing chess with the whole. She's got her finger on the pulse of everything. But also it's because of Cisco's vision, right, about the locust and all of that, that's why she's saying that. Okay. That's what I thought too. Yeah. And Kira's response to all of this is, well, it makes life more interesting. I didn't like that line. I got to say. No. I would have cut the scene after Winslong. It's a little too throw away for me. Yeah. Like the weird lines I get sometimes. We're just like, oh my God. Where's that come from? All right.

We cut to the infirmary. Cisco wakes up. Beautiful oneer. You know, it pushes in from a very wide shot into a close up there. Jonathan West. Kaboom, you did it again. But Cisco is crushed. Yeah.

And good job by Avery Brooks in expressing his crushedness because he's just despondent at the end of that. He goes, I almost had it. I almost understood it all. Now it's gone. me, this is a big, big deal. Yeah. Yeah. It was a Latour de force for Avery this episode.

Yeah. Yeah, it really was. Yeah. He was phenomenal in this episode. We kind of inside the captain's office. He's looking at a scan of that painting on the wall monitor when the doorbell rings. It's Wattley. He says, tell Bejor that they should join.

They need to do this. And Ben says, no. He's very sure about it. He's very certain. And Wally says, you know, I could pull you from the station. but then the Bajorans wouldn't be very happy about that since you're the emissary now. And Cisco does say, I wish things turned out differently, but Bejor will join the Federation someday.

Yeah. I'm certain about that. He's very confident. Yeah, he's not poo-pooing the actual joining. He's just saying not now. It needs to be in the future. All right. We go to Cisco's quarters next.

Jake is cooking. Cassidy's setting the table. Cisco enters and they've prepared a reunion dinner. And Cassidy does say, I understand you've lost something very important, but she says you've held on to something very important too. And a beautiful tight shot of their hands there at the end. Wasn't it? Yeah. And then he finally grabs Cassidy's, which that one to me, I'm glad that Jonathan had that hesitation because there was sort of that moment of, I hope he's forgiven her.

I hope he has because it's been such a weird ride. Yeah. Yeah. With the two of them on this. It's not the normal welcoming back home. Well, there you go. We did it. That is the episode, the very spiritual episode.

What's your theme slash lesson slash moral? Here's what I wrote to him. Faith doesn't always offer clear answers, but being patient with the journey is worth it. I like that. That was my lesson. Darefair? Yours? Mine is choose health over.

a faith obsession, life over death. That's what he does. I mean, because he was obsessed. It wasn't like he was taking this with... Rationally in some way. Yes. Yes. It was an unsound mind on this vision quest.

Mine is family comes first, and that's from Jake Sisko's decision to make sure his dad is saved and doesn't die. So I'm going to know with that. Yeah, absolutely. I like that. Our Patreon poll winner for the theme moral of this episode is submitted by Nicole Brutel. Obsession can push you to the edge of your limit. 100%.

Yeah, that's a good one. He got right to the edge. He was about to die. Yeah. As I've said, coughs and headaches. Yeah. We'll kill you in television. All right.

Well, we've reached the end of this episode. Thank you again to Tare Fair for joining us and hosting this one. Thank you guys. All right. Well, we've come to the end of our episode. Please join us next time. And we will be recapping and discussing the episode, The Darkness and the Light with Terry also.

Yay. And Nana. She's coming back. She's coming back. Absolutely. Palo Nelastasia, Come On Enough is coming back. Yes. All right.

Yay. And for all of our Patreon, patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material. For everyone else, we'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Next time. Thanks, everybody. Bye.