When Garak begins to experience new claustrophobia-induced panic attacks, Ezri Dax is asked to serve as his counselor. But when the effort does not go well, it serves only to underscore Ezri's growing doubts: not only does she not belong on the station, she may not belong in Starfleet at all.
I find subtle genius in the strategy of pairing Garak with Ezri for our major introduction to the new character. By not putting the new Dax with one of the other primary characters, we really get a chance to brush up against everyone briefly, where things would have been more limited had this been, say, an Ezri/Julian episode.
So indeed, Ezri does interact with almost everyone this episode, and we're given a wide variety of reactions to the character. On one end, Quark is immediately accepting of her: this is Dax and I want her in my life. Okay, there's a bit of creepiness mixed in with the friendliness, since he already has amorous aims, but it's nice that someone is starting from a place of acceptance. Besides Sisko, of course -- who's here to be supportive at times and offer the hard truths in others.
Somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, there's stiffness in the interaction between Kira and Ezri. Kira is open to this new friend, but the loss of her old one is still entwined with her spiritually in a difficult way. Bashir is also friendly, but here it's Ezri who makes clear that things will have to be different than the way he related with Jadzia. (Writer René Echevarria said in an interview that Ezri's "if Worf hadn't come along, it would have been you" was supposed to offer some measure of closure to Julian. Yet it strikes me as having more of a "uh, what am I supposed to do with that?" quality. But then, it seems like the desired effect for Ezri in that situation, shutting down his unwanted flirting.)
Of course, Worf is on the far end of the spectrum, and though his hostility to Ezri definitely makes him a villain of the episode, his attitude makes sense to me. He voices the quandary of grieving for someone who's not entirely dead (to O'Brien; it's good that more scenes are finally happening between the two former Next Generation characters). The flip side, of course, is that Worf is also being a shit to someone who is largely the person he loves... which he finally comes around on by the end.
But all that is basically background around the main story: Ezri must counsel Garak. It's a story that I think contains many good elements and a key not-so-good one. I like that Garak's psychological troubles are not as simple as "Unresolved Daddy Issues," as it's initially made to seem. I appreciate that inexperienced, "junior counselor" Ezri Dax is not able to get to the heart of the issue right away. And I love that Garak's character isn't softened at all to go easy on the newbie; his scathing rant to push her off the station is quite emotionally violent, and capped with the most brutal "now get out of here before I say something unkind."
What I'm not-so-hot on is that Ezri isn't even truly allowed to shine in the end. She doesn't figure out Garak's problem, or persevere in the face of the challenge. She's on her way out the door, then accidentally stumbles on the answer behind Garak's mental state. She doesn't get to display the skill of a trained Starfleet officer, or draw upon the wisdom of past Trill lifetimes -- she just gets lucky. It doesn't damage her character, exactly, but it's not really a strong moment for her. And she kind of needs one after an episode of babbling to Morn, standing on her head, and holding up the line at the replicator. Let her be competent before her endearing quirks start to sour. (But fortunately, at this point, I still find the character pretty endearing overall.)
Other observations:
- The exchange between Sisko and Dax about how he intimidates Worf is as fun to me as the moment Bashir digs something out of Quark's ear is gross.
- Jake mentions that Ezri is cute, which his father is there to quash... but it seems like maybe the writers were open to that pairing.
- A special shout-out goes to DeBoer's makeup artist Mary Kay Morse. This episode had only been filming one day before a weekend, during which Nicole DeBoer wiped out on her bicycle and got a black eye. Morse used a subtle prosthetic and clever shadowing to hide it completely for the rest of the shoot.
The dovetailing of plots and the accidental resolution feels a little "TV convenient," but this episode overall is still a good introduction to Ezri Dax. I give "Afterimage" a B.
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