SDS9 – S5E5: "The Assignment" (Patreon)

This episode was recorded on January 19, 2025.

We recap "The Assignment." It's a body snatch episode that oddly tackles the racialized Other.

SDS9 seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 can be found wherever you stream Southpaw. Season 5 is only available to paid subscribers.

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Transcript

[Note: Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain errors.]

This is Southpaw Deep Space Nine Season 5. We are your hosts, Scott and Sam. On this Stardate, January 19, 2025, we are discussing The Assignment. Scott, can you tell us about this episode?

Yes, so we're at Quark's. He's talking to Moran. He's all excited. And then we see his brother, Rom. Quark just offers him some Beetle stew and... Rom's like, no, I need a very American diner order, like bacon, corned beef hash, eggs, toast sort of vibe. Rom is working on the ship. He's doing science work, helping out Miles.

He's really excited. He's cleaning waste. He hopes for a promotion. There's a little bit of hero worship there. And then we see Bashir and Miles are cleaning out the house because keiko is returning bashir notices that miles has killed keiko's plants bonsai trees are dead and they're all trying to figure out how to misdirect

the blame as it's miles birthday miles will uh go meet his wife at the bay molly and uh mys like no and bashir's like no They meet, Keiko forgives them the trees, and then you realize they are not Keiko. They have taken over, whoever this is has taken over the body, possesses her,

and will hurt her if the vessel isn't helped by Miles. And they experience Keiko in this place. sort of, you know, taking over. And you're just like, what? Give that Pikachu face. Miles and fake Keiko talk and tries to find out what's going on. Miles says he won't put the ship in danger,

but he just needs to reconfigure some certain things. Keiko sort of knows every time that Miles is trying to misdirect, slow things down, buying time. And Keiko's like, you don't have time. At the quarters, they're trying to figure out what is going on. Bashir comes by and fake Keiko reveals that there's going to be a surprise party

for Miles' birthday and implores that the party still happened to keep up appearances. Ram comes to work and is given... A special thing to do. Rom is excited. Special shift. He's given a different shift because he's been working the night. And Raktachinos abound. Miles needs Rom to do some stuff.

Miles is going to do some work and asks Rom to not worry about what is going on. Miles confirms that fake Keiko is in Keiko's shell. Miles asks the computers how hard it is to phase fake Keiko, and Miles comes to party. The Ciscos are there. Molly is being cute. Odo, who can now eat, is there.

They drink whiskey, single malt, scotch. I don't think that that's what Miles would drink. As Miles is from Ireland, he probably, if drinking whiskey, Jameson or Powers. if it still exists, or at least Irish whiskey. Jake talks about the paw rates in the fire caves of Bajor. Who are they?

Miles does fake Keiko's task, and fake Keiko feels that she can trust Miles. And she makes this kapara dish that is very popular. And fake Keiko insists they sleep together. Miles searches for information, folktales, mythology, try to learn anything of the paw rates. They wake up and Faco, Faco hands Miles an iPad with his orders.

Miles wants to warn Ben before he can. Keiko calls Miles' name and, content warning, she jumps off the promenade railing, lands in front of the Bajoran temple, and Miles is just like, uh-oh. Miles is acting shady, talking to Bashir and Ben, and wants to meet Keiko in the sickbay.

Fake Keiko reminds Miles that she has the knowledge of Keiko's understanding of Miles, so she knows when he's trying to pull some stuff. And she gives Miles some Star Trek plot armor, so he's like, I need to do this in 20 hours, and she's like, you have 12. Not the exact numbers, chill out.

and then asks for a kiss. Worf offers Miles support. Miles knows how not to snitch. Rom startles Miles. Rom has been doing a good job. Miles is impressed. Miles tells Rom that they have some work to do, and gives him a top-secret science job to work on this thing. Rom agrees.

He's so excited, but is told that, hey, the whole team is in on it. So it's like he's kind of being manipulated, gaslit, whatever you Jadzia pulls Miles aside after finding anomalies in the station system, shows the data, but it's dismissed as minor issues. Jadzia is not convinced and thinks that sabotage is coming and informs security and

wakes Ben up. Miles and the squad look over the systems and do notice that they're off the Just a little bit. And they're worried that it's like cyber terrorism or like some sort of war act. And Miles has to pretend it's not him doing the sabotage. Odo is searching for the bad guys. Molly and fake Keiko Skype.

Miles, you know, not actual Skype, they video call and she is braiding Molly's hair. Then Miles rats out Rom as a saboteur. But Rom, playing his role, accepts his responsibility. Odo can't get anything from Rom. So Miles is time-maxing and goes to see Rom. Rom asks to talk in private. Miles disconnects the spy where Odo puts it,

and he's just doing all this stuff to cover his tracks. Rom realizes that the real plan is to shoot the wormhole that the prophets are in and get rid of the prophets by using this sort of weird space blast. Miles doesn't understand why they would want to blam out the Prophets.

It's realized that fake Keiko is probably a Pawwraith, who are like celestial beings exiled from the wormhole to the fire caves, like some opposite of the Prophets, like false prophets. Maybe they're hoping to unalive the Prophets to get back in the promised wormhole place.

Miles is caught by Odo, knocks out Odo, and grabs a runabout with fake Kako to do the job. Jadzia asks Miles if he likes his birthday. They get to the Deep Space Nine to create the blaster for the wormhole. Miles actually uses the blaster to instead attack fake Keiko, which brings our regular Keiko back.

Ben tells Miles he has explaining to do. Keiko explains the difficulties of being taken over and is impressed with Miles. And they have a nice moment. And she's appreciative as... She figured that if the fake Hiko had gotten what they wanted, she was for sure going to kill them. Ron meets with Quark.

He has been given the day shift. He orders pancakes. Everyone loves pancakes.

First off, it's been a very stressful time here in L.A. We still have the biggest wildfires in U.S. history here. But thank the ancestors this episode, and especially the next one, were lighthearted. And if you haven't seen this one and only heard the recap wonderfully done by Scott, you know this episode has stakes,

but you got to watch it. It was very enjoyably campy. Even the way it was shot and acted reminded me of B-Alien movies or like a sci-fi movie from the Sci-Fi Network. But anyhow, even the plot was very fun. What if an alien possessed you? And the writing made fun of itself,

even with the fake Keiko fake-o kind of tongue-in-cheek poking fun at the formula of the show. How it'll get bad, you guys will stall, go along with it, and then the gang will figure it out and defeat the baddie at the end.

But what stood out most for me and what I thought was the most clever about the writing was the writing of ROM. In this silly episode was this interesting story of Rom as this marginalized outsider or foreigner. How he's treated by Starfleet and his co-workers, his very low rank as an engineer,

how he's made to be the fall guy and take the blame. And of course, they want to blame him because of their feelings toward Ferengis. O'Brien also doesn't feel bad using Rom. He's not very nice to him. Very self-aware writing. Basically pointing out how xenophobia and prejudice exist even in Starfleet and how

our characters are not above this. Even not giving Rom credit for his deductions on the real motive of the Faco. But Rom's story arc developed as now he's no longer just on an engineering crew, but he's moved to a more prominent role where we should be seeing more of him as an engineer.

We also know Rom is not just any engineer, but a brilliant one. But of course, the underlying message is ultimately about meritocracy. The best way to overcome discrimination is by working hard, not complaining, rather than, you know, changing the system. But I'm still happy for Rom and seeing where his character was when the show

started to how much his role grew is poignant because this episode also, or mainly was about Miles O'Brien. And pairing the two is very poignant because O'Brien was also a character that grew from basically an extra with lines to a main character.

And all I'm going to say is that the ROM arc is awesome.

It definitely is.

Because he's one of those people where him and his son, Nog, get counted out because of people's preconceived notions and prejudices about the Ferengi culture. And it kind of shows you nature versus nurture, because him and his son have values that are not celebrated by his culture, but are appreciated in other cultures. thoughtfulness, kindness, collectivism versus individuality,

being into unions, trying to think about other people, trying to be part of something. So you see that So Quark will also grow throughout the show, but only so much. But you see Rom, who is sort of like you grew up in a rough neighborhood or a neighborhood where you were judged.

I grew up in a neighborhood in Brooklyn in the 90s. It was rough. I saw some things we don't need to talk about, just like street violence and whatever. I got beat up for wearing a Star Trek shirt. by the local kids because they're like, what's wrong with you?

But you dress different because I went to school outside of the neighborhood. And then once I was able to take the train and I went to other neighborhoods and met different people, I was able to see the opportunities of meeting people like yourself. So I think the Ram and Nag characters are really interesting, especially since

you know, anti-Ferengi sentiment is like just accepted.

It almost reminds me of like an online role-playing game character where just slowly, right? Rom and his son are just grinding and grinding, but they've been slowly over the years leveling up, leveling up, changing, changing, changing. I think those two characters really personify that more than probably any other characters. other than Miles O'Brien from The Next Generation.

But as we mentioned, this episode was important for ROM, but also ROM mythology and where his story arc is going. But as far as overall mythology, right? We know this was important for ROM mythology, but as far as overall mythology, how important is this episode? How do you rate it, Scott?

Okay, so this is complicated, right? Yeah. Because the actual episode's mythology at this point is light. However, the PAW rates are important. So I rate it as a mythology episode. So as a mythology episode, it's like a 3.5. As a standalone episode, it would be a 4. However, the PAW rates... So that's important.

And I also just thought the writing was good. It was a fun little episode. It was a nice respite from some of the heavier topics. I dug it.

I think if you want to see the normally serious Rosalind Chow, right? Like even if you've seen her in other stuff, she's always just like kind of a more of a dramatic, serious actor. But in this one, I mean, she's serious too. But like when she's getting zapped by like lasers or like, you know,

getting possessed or like, you know, doing something to herself and she's like pretending to get shocked, right? It's like she really goes right. She really goes over the top. And I enjoyed that.

Yeah, she's just a fun actor. And she really does it for her. She just does a good job.

So we mentioned Ram and it was important for him. Also for Rosalind Chow, she had a meaty episode this time, right? And we don't see her often. And sometimes it's more of like a recurring guest kind of role. But in this one, it was like the guest star kind of role.

Now, can you tell us about the next episode?

Can I? Tribbles.

Until then...