To help Starfleet develop countermeasures to the Breen energy weapon, Damar and his resistance fighters are going to steal one from a Cardassian station -- if divisions with Kira (and Odo's rapid deterioration) don't jeopardize the entire effort. Chief O'Brien concocts a plan to extract a cure for the Changeling disease from Section 31. And Worf is tasked with doing anything to end the threat that Chancellor Gowron poses to the war effort.
This is a big episode with some big plot moves. The only slow moments involve Bashir and O'Brien setting up for the next episode -- and even those scenes are informed by character in fun ways. Hearing Bashir turn down an opportunity to play at spycraft would have been unthinkable a few seasons earlier. Meanwhile, O'Brien himself has experienced some spycraft in that time to get him thinking in such devious ways.
Fans who have watched all the Star Trek series are rewarded with some thematic bookends. Just as Worf began the reign of Gowron on The Next Generation, here he ends it: with an assassination-by-honorable-combat. It's far from the series' most dynamic hand-to-hand combat sequence. (The cramped setting inhibits movement, the stunt doubles are obvious, and the odd cutting suggests there was limited time to shoot enough camera angles.) Still, I find the circumstances leading up to the fight quite compelling.
Writer Ronald D. Moore, most responsible for building up Star Trek's Klingon mythology, here tears it down, using Ezri Dax as his mouthpiece. For all their talk of honor, Klingons leaders are irredeemably corrupt: politicking and backstabbing, harboring secrets and coercing others to keep them, and amassing power for their own ignoble purposes. It is a bit sad, though, that we never really see what the Empire looks like after this; Voyager was not in a position to address it, and then no Star Trek series was set after this moment for more than two decades (and even then, Star Trek: Picard has not yet spent any time on Klingons).
Entertaining as all that is, though, the standout story line for me is the one involving Kira, Odo, Garak, and Damar. For the romance between Odo and Kira, this may be the most effective episode of the series. There have been times the relationship has felt quite one-sided (starting as it did, from Odo's infatuation-from-afar). But here, Kira's love is clear; she knows how sick Odo has been come, but also knows he wants to hide it, so she honors him by playing along.
The tension between Kira and Rusot builds effectively throughout the episode. Rusot simply will not allow himself to be taught anything by Kira. He takes every opportunity to goad her into lashing out, and she carefully avoids taking the bait. It takes Garak to see that, diplomatic as she's being, the two are on a collision course. And it takes Damar to finally act, in a transformative moment that completes his journey from villain to hero.
Along the way, we get several poignant moments that use what we've learned about the characters over seven years. Garak finding a frail and flaking Odo echoes the moment when he tortured the shapeshifter seasons earlier. Kira cannot help but get a dig in on Damar at his lowest moment, when he learns of the death of his family. (And Damar deserves it, really.) Odo has always disliked "guns," and we see it his horrified reaction to the extermination of the Jem'Hadar bridge crew during their infiltration.
Other observations:
- This episode has a great opening, showing us the destruction of a Jem'Hadar ship that turns out to be on "instant replay."
- Weyoun isn't in much of this episode, but he has a great moment where he spews some of his true believer propaganda at its very architect, the Changeling Leader. Needless to say, she doesn't get high on her own supply, threatening that she'd kill this Weyoun if only the Vorta cloning apparatus were up and running.
- The is the first of two consecutive episodes in which Quark doesn't appear at all. This final season of Deep Space Nine lined up with the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; likely Quark was written around deliberately to free up Armin Shimerman for the other series.
- A scene reportedly filmed but cut for time had Ezri asking Worf about his incredibly brief reign as chancellor of the Empire (before handing the mantle to Martok). Worf wished that his father had been there to see it, and the two end up toasting both Mogh and Jadzia.
Though it could have had a better final fight for Gowron, I think "Tacking Into the Wind" is still one of the strongest episodes of the final arc. I give it an A-.
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