Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter 7: Extreme Measures

Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter

7: Extreme Measures

After returning to the station Odo is in the infirmary, being treated by Dr. Bashir.  Bashir tells him that he is still working to find a cure for the disease and that he estimates that Odo has a week, maybe two to live.  Kira and Garak leave to rejoin Damar's resistance.  O'Brien tells Sisko that Starfleet engineering has the schematics of the captured Breen energy dampening weapon and are working on a defense.  Bashir transmits a report to Starfleet Medical, falsely claiming that he has found a cure.  He tells Sisko that he didn't inform him before because he didn't want Section 31 to cover their tracks.  He also say he plans to use Romulan mind probes on a Section 31 member.  Sisko allows them to proceed, overlooking the ethical and legal issues.  After a late night round of darts with O'Brien at Quarks Bashir goes to bed, only to be woken by Luther Sloan from Section 31.  Bashir activates a forcefield to trap Sloan, telling Sloan he needs the cure for Odo's virus.  Sloan, confused thinks Bashir already has a cure, then realizes it was a trap and he took the bait.  Bashir drops the forcefield and stuns Sloan.  In the science lab Sloan wakes up restrained by a forcefield.  He taunts O'Brien by asking about his family, Bashir tells O'Brien to ignore him.  Realizing that Sloan must know the cure Bashir prepares to use the mind probes, but Sloan activates a brain implant in an attempt to commit suicide.  Bashir works to stabilize Sloan before he suffers brain damage.  Having temporarily stabilized Sloan, Bashir prepares an engrammatic interpreter to link minds with Sloan.  O'Brien decides to undertake the link with Bashir.  Inside Sloan's mind they find themselves in a turbolift, the "paths" of Sloan's mind manifesting as corridors and rooms on the Defiant and DS9.  They are greeted by a seemingly cooperative Sloan who leads them to the wardroom.  Sloan seems to be at peace with his impending death and tries to give Bashir the cure, only to be stopped by the part of his mind unwilling to give up the cure.  A second Sloan, the unwilling part, appears and kills the first Sloan.  Bashir and O'Brien then appear on the Defiant, getting very real-feeling phaser wounds from one of Sloan's guards.  Bashir discovers he is unable to break the mind link and wake them up.  Seeing a light at the end of the corridor they press on.  Suddenly they wake up in the science lab, with Sisko, Worf and Ezri around them.  Bashir works to save Sloan, but fails, Sloan dies.  Bashir tells Odo that he has no hope of finding a cure.  Bashir and O'Brien feel bad about their failure, and after commiserating part ways for the night.  While trying to read a copy of a Tale of Two Cities Bashir realizes that something is wrong, the book does not continue past where he left off.  He realizes that he and O'Brien are still in Sloan's mind, they never woke up.  He realizes that if they do not get the cure quickly and wake up, they will die with Sloan.  Remembering where they were before "waking up" they return to the corridor and find Sloan.  Sloan gives Bashir the cure, then tries to bait him with enough information to bring Section 31 down; learning this info will take too much time, Bashir and O'Brien will die when Sloan dies.  O'Brien convinces Bashir to wake them up.  They wake up (for real) in the science lab, Sisko tells them that Sloan died a few minutes ago.  Using the info from Sloan, Bashir synthesizes the cure and administers it to Odo, who fully recovers.  Playing darts at Quarks Bashir and O'Brien toast "to aging gracefully" and "to Odo" and discuss Sloan trying to bait Bashir with Section 31 info.

Interesting episode.  I'm personally not a fan of Section 31, but this is a good episode.  As the episode title suggests, Bashir and O'Brien go to extreme measures to find a cure for Odo, probing/invading the mind of Section 31's Luther Sloan to take the information they need.  Desperate times need desperate measures.  The moral ambiguity of Section 31 is pitted against the moral ambiguity of Bashir's actions.  This is also just a really good Bashir episode (the last Bashir focused episode).  Looking at this episode, and then looking back at the pilot "Emissary" and at "Past Prologue" the first Bashir-centric episode, as well as early Bashir-O'Brien episodes, one can really see how far the character of Bashir has come, how much he's grown and matured, and how far the Bashir-O'Brien friendship has come.

Quotes: 

Sisko: Genocide – committed by people who call themselves Federation citizens.

Bashir: Remember these?  Romulan mind probes.  Not the most pleasant devices, but very efficient.
Sloan: They're also illegal in the Federation.
Bashir: Oh, I hope you can appreciate the irony of that statement.

O'Brien: Hey Julian, the next time you take a trip inside someone's mind, you're going on your own.

O'Brien: Here we go. I knew Quark was hoarding a bottle of the good stuff.
Bashir: This is older than I am.
O'Brien: What? I'm drinking with a child.