Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter Finale: What You Leave Behind

Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter

Finale: What You Leave Behind

The computer announces the time as 05:00 hours, waking Bashir and Ezri, who are sleeping together.  After discussing their night they along with the rest of of the senior staff prepare to leave on the Defiant.  O'Brien admits to Keiko that he hasn't yet told Bashir about the offer for him to teach at Starfleet Academy.  Sisko comforts Kasidy who is experiencing pregnancy-related morning sickness.  Jake walks him to the Defiant.  Odo walks with Worf to the Defiant, they discuss their hopes that Kira is well.  The Defiant departs with the fleet for Cardassia Prime.  On Cardassia Weyoun and the Founder monitor the incoming fleet.  The Founder says that the outcome of the battle will determine the outcome of the war.  Broca reports rumors that Damar is alive and in the capital on Cardassia Prime.  While sneaking through the streets Garak and Damar are stopped by Jem'Hadar patrols.  Kira, masquerading as a Breen kills the Jem'Hadar.  Following a meeting with his loyalists Damar, Garak and Kira discuss the upcoming disruption to the planets power grid while Mila brings them food and drinks.  On the Defiant the crew are quiet as they break in the new ships systems.  Worf and Ezri discuss Ezri's relationship with Bashir.  O'Brien tries but can't bring himself to tell Bashir about the offer.  Sisko and Odo worry about Kira.  Sisko has a vision from the Sarah Sisko Prophet, telling him not to falter on the path the Prophets set for him, the end is nearing.  On Bajor Dukat returns to Winns residence, his sight restored by the Pah-wraiths.  She tells him how disgusted she is that she shared a bed with Dukat.  She also says she was waiting for Dukat to join her on a trip to the Fire Caves to release the Pah-wraiths.  She says the Pah-wraiths will destroy the Prophets and the wormhole, Dukat says that he alone will deal with Sisko.  A bored, on-edge Quark plays cards on the holosuite with Vic Fontaine and muses about the war.  Dukat and Winn arrive at the Fire Caves.  Dukat muses on the occupation but Winn shuts him down, she is not interested in hearing his stories.  On Cardassia the Breen leader insists that the Jem'Hadar and the Breen fight together.   Weyoun tries to send reinforcements to reinforce their lines, but power and communications go down.  Broca reports that it is sabotage.  He reports that the saboteurs are regular citizens, not soldiers.  The Founder becomes enraged that the Cardassian people are rising up against the Dominion.  Weyoun suggests that the Cardassian people should be punished.  In the basement Kira, Damar and Garak huddle in the dark and plan their next strike.  Power is restored and Weyoun sends a message to the entire population: in retaliation for the acts of sabotage against the Dominion the largest city, Lakarian City has just been leveled.  2 million people dead.  They plan to attack Dominion headquarters.  Over subspace Martok, Sisko and Ross discuss the upcoming battle.  Martok promises to bring a barrel of bloodwine to Cardassia after their victory.  The battle begins, many ships are damaged or destroyed.  Garak, Kira and Damar make preparations for their strike on Dominion HQ.  Mila responds to the doorbell, then is killed by Jem'Hadar.  Garak goes to check on her body, he is stunned by an explosion and they are all captured by the Jem'Hadar.  In orbit the battle rages, a number of Klingon ships are destroyed by Jem'Hadar kamikaze runs.  O'Brien is injured, he finally tells Bashir about the offer.  Admiral Ross hails, they're losing too many ships but must press on.  The Founder impatiently waits for updates on the battle, which Weyoun is unable to give as the sensors are still down.  Broca reports that Damar, Kira and Garak have been captured, the Founder orders them executed.  The Jem'Hadar prepare to kill the three prisoners, but they are themselves killed by Cardassians, in retaliation for Lakarian City.  In orbit the battle goes ill, O'Brien is ordered to sickbay by Sisko.  Suddenly the Cardassian ships start attacking the Dominion and Breen ships-they've switched sides!  Weyoun reports that sensors and communications are back online, only to discover that the Cardassian fleet has turned against them.  The Founder orders the troops to fall back and orders Broca executed.  She then orders the extermination of all Cardassians on the planet: genocide.  As the Dominion and Breen forces retreat toward the planet Martok and Ross hail Sisko.  Ross says they can now keep the Dominion bottled up on Cardassia indefinitely, Sisko disagrees, they will use the time to rebuild their ships and forces.  Martok agrees.  They agree to press on.  On Bajor Winn and Dukat reach a precipice in the Fire Caves.  Winn begins reading from the Kosst Amojan, the empty dark cave beyond the precipice is suddenly filled with fire: the Pah-wraiths.  On Cardassia Kira, Damar, Garak and their supporters begin their attack on Dominion Headquarters; hearing explosions they realize the Dominion is levelling cities, they have to hurry.  In the Fire Caves Winn discards her Kais robes and embraces Dukat.  She reads from the book and professes her allegiance to the Pah-wraiths.  On the Defiant while the crew lick their wounds and catch their breaths Odo relays the reports from Cardassia: the Dominion is leveling whole cities, millions are dead.  On the viewscreen they can see the full scope of the enemy fleet.  On the surface Garak reports a problem: the cargo door into Dominion Headquarters is neutronium, they can't blast through it.  realizing the ridiculousness of their predicament Garak and Kira and later Damar start to laugh-they're ready to "storm the castle" yet can't even get "through the gates".  Inside the Breen leader asks to leave to join his troops, the Founder reluctantly lets him go.  After he leaves the Founder nearly collapses, her disease is progressing.  She muses on the irony of her dying as a solid, and the knowledge that the entire Great Link is dying of the disease and she can do nothing about it.  The cargo door opens and several Jem'Hadar walk out with Broca, who they kill.  Damar and company seize the moment and kill the Jem'Hadar and enter headquarters,  But Damar is shot and killed.  Kira and Garak pledge to continue on and Garak gives a rallying cry "For Cardassia!"  Inside Weyoun reports the security breach to the Founder, but says that there are no more guards, he sent them all to eradicate the Cardassians.  Hearing weapons fire he sends the remaining guards to secure the door to the command center.  In orbit Ross, Martok and Sisko discuss the next phase of the attack.  Kira and Garak make it to the command center, the other Cardassians save one are killed, as are the remaining Jem'Hadar.  Kira demands that the Founder stand down her troops in orbit and on Cardassia.  Weyoun asks about Damar, Garak tells him that Damar is dead.  He then shoots and kills Weyoun.  The Founder says she wishes he hadn't done that; that was Weyoun's last clone.  The Founder still refuses to stand down, saying that the Jem'Hadar will fight to the last man.  Kira contacts the Defiant and fills Sisko and co. in on their status.  She reports on the Founder's status; knowing that if she dies the Jem'Hadar will fight to the last man Odo asks to beam down to talk to the Founder.  Sisko allows him to go.  On Bajor Winn pours a drink and gives it to Dukat, he drinks it, she goes to drink but pours it out, Dukat seems to have been poisoned, he collapses.  Winn says the Pah-wraiths demand a sacrifice and he's it.  She offers Dukat to the Pah-wraiths as a sacrifice.  Odo materializes in the command center and greets Kira.  He talks to the Founder, she still refuses to stand down.  Odo tells her that the Federation does not desire conquest and that the Klingons and Romulans are in no shape to wage war.  She doesn't have Odo's faith in "solids".  Odo asks her to link with him to convince her.  Garak and Kira thinks it's a bad idea.  Odo insists, by linking he can cure her.  Garak pulls a weapon, but Kira holds him back.  Odo and the Founder link, he cures her and convinces her to stand down.  The Founder orders her troops to stand down, she's agreed to stand trial and accept responsibility for the war.  Odo tells Kira that the Founder won't be going home to cure her people-he will.  It's time for him to rejoin the Great Link.  In the burning ruins of Cardassia Martok, Sisko and Ross share bloodwine.  Martok toasts "to victory.  Hard fought, and well earned".  Seeing the death and destruction around them Sisko and Ross aren't thirsty and pour their drinks out.  Martok says the Bajorans would call the Cardassians fate "poetic justice".  In the command room Bashir meets with Garak for the last time.  He reads to casualty reports: 800 million dead, reports still coming in.  Garak remarks that his exile is over, he has returned home, however his home, his Cardassia is gone.  He laments how much of Cardassian society is lost, possibly permanently.  He says he'll miss having lunch with Bashir.  In DS9s wardroom the Founder signs the treaty of Bajor, officially ending the war.  Admiral Ross makes a speech, quoting Douglas MacArthur: "Four hundred years ago, a victorious general spoke the following words at the end of another costly war: 'Today the guns are silent.  A great tragedy has ended.  We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no going back.  We must move forward to preserve in peace what we've won in war'."  Security officers take the Founder into custody.  On the Promenade Sisko, Ross and Martok offer Worf a position of Federation Ambassador to Qo'nos.  Worf accepts.  On the upper level Kira and Odo discuss his departure, she knows he won't be coming back, and she understand why he has to do this.  She asks to take him back to the Link.  He gladly accepts.  In the holosuite the senior officers are all gathered for a goodbye party at Vic's.  They discuss their future plans and Sisko makes a toast "To the best crew any captain ever had.  This may be the last time we're all together, but no matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel, a part of us, a very important part, will always remain here on Deep Space Nine."  Music starts and Vic Fontaine sings "The Way You Look Tonight".  In the Fire Caves Winn chants to the Pah wraiths, a Pah wraith flies up and knocks her back.  Another enters Dukat, bringing him back to life and restoring his Cardassian appearance.  In Vic's Sisko realizes that he has to go to the Fire Caves.  Arriving he confronts Dukat.  He raises a phaser rifle, Dukat sends it flying.  He attacks Dukat, his hits have no effect.  Dukat telekinetically controls him, Winn distracts Dukat and tries to destroy the book.  Dukat telekinetically takes the book from her, he then summons Pah wraiths who immolate her.  Sisko, alerted to the book, rushes Dukat sending both over the edge into the fire.  At the last moment Sisko is transported to the Celestial Temple, where the Sarah Sisko prophet tells him "The Emissary has completed his task".  On DS9 Ezri and Worf report to Kasidy and Jake that they found the runabout orbiting Bajor, but there is no sign of Sisko.  Suddenly Kasidy has a vision: she sees Sisko in the Celestial Temple.  He tells her that the Prophets saved him and that he has much to teach them.  She realizes that this is the sorrow the Prophets warned them about.  He tell her that his life, his destiny "is not linear".  She asks when he will be back, he says "maybe a year...maybe...yesterday".  Returning to DS9 she tells the others about seeing Sisko.  Having finished clearing out his quarters O'Brien takes one final look around, finding the missing Colonel Travis figurine from the Alamo model under a chair.  He reminisces about his time on the station and his friendship with Bashir.  Following Martok to an airlock Worf looks around the promenade, reminiscing on his 4 years on the station, his friends and fellow officers and his relationship with Dax.  As Ezri waves him goodbye from the upper level he enters the airlock.  In his quarters Odo gives Kira his bucket as a keepsake, and they reminisce about their relationship, their friendship and their love for each other.  In the bar, Quark thinks back on his "friendship" with Odo, with Bashir and O'Brien, and the rest of the staff.  In their quarters a pregnant Kasidy watches Jake complete the scale model of the house on Bajor that Ben had started.  Jake thinks back on his life growing up on the station, from first arriving seven years ago as a child, to experiences as a teenager with his father, and growing up into a man.  Kira walks Odo to the runabout, Quark catches up, hoping to get in a goodbye or one last jab.  Odo, gruff as ever, says no.  He gives Quark one last trademark "harrumph" before boarding the runabout.  At another airlock Bashir and O'Brien share a hug and shake hands before O'Brien boards a transport ship for Earth.  Kira and Odo beam down to the Founder homeworld, Kira comments how the link looks so different.  Odo asks her to tell everyone he'll miss them-even Quark.  After sharing a kiss Odo morphs from his uniform to a tuxedo-this is how he wants Kira to remember him.  He them joins with the Great Link and spreads the cure to his people.  Back on the station Nog, now a lieutenant enters the office to give Kira the duty roster.  She congratulates him on his promotion-it was one of Captain Sisko's last official acts.  She sends him to work on cargo inventories and holds Sisko's baseball.  Exiting the infirmary Ezri and Bashir discuss a new holoprogram they want to try out after dinner.  At the bar Quark discusses hair regrowth products with Morn but is interrupted by Kira, telling him that betting pools are now illegal on the station.  Quark begrudgingly agrees.  As Kira leaves Quark muses "the more things change, the more they stay the same".  On the upper level Jake stares out a window toward the wormhole, the celestial temple, where he knows his father is.  Kira joins him, putting a hand on his shoulder.  The view pulls back out the window, across the central core of the station, across the habitat ring and the docking ring, and continues pulling back, as the station recedes into the vastness of space, until it becomes just a speck in the distance. 

Wow!  What an ending!  I know I've said this before, but this episode is the best ending of any Star Trek series.  Kira, Garak and Damar continue their efforts on Cardassia, now that the resistance has become a revolution.  But-as with anything in DS9 (or any serialized show) actions have consequences.  The revolutionaries sabotage the power systems, the Dominion retaliates by razing the largest city.  This causes the Cardassian fleet to turn against the Dominion in the middle of the battle, turning the tide of the entire battle in the alliances favor.  The Dominion responds by trying to eradicate all Cardassians.  Genocide.  That word has come up in several of these last episodes.  The way it's done here, it really drives home the cost of war, with the leveling of whole cities echoing the firebombing of Dresden in WWII.  The humanity in our characters shows in the aftermath scene, with Martok drinking over the dead bodies of Cardassians, but Sisko and Ross feeling that they can't drink over the bodies of Cardassians, victims of an attempted Genocide.  The death of Damar, making him a martyr further drives home the stakes.  On the other hand the death of Weyoun and the Founder saying that was his last clone felt good.  Having some of the crew leave the station and go their separate ways adds to the realism: it would be less believable if everyone stayed.  O'Brien returns to Earth to teach at Starfleet Academy, satisfactorily wrapping up his arc.  Worf leaves to be an ambassador, Odo returns to cure his people and teach them about solids, and Sisko, after defeating Dukat and permanently imprisoning him in the Fire Caves with the Pah wraiths, goes to be with the Prophets.  Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr has said that the whole idea of Sisko becoming a Prophet was to take the idea that Trek fans tend to deify their favorite captains and literalize it, to turn Sisko into a god (a Prophet).  And it feels somehow appropriate as an ending to his Emissary of the Prophets arc.  The whole Winn/Dukat arc is wrapped up well, and serves the larger plot, leading directly to Sisko's fate.  Sisko's line to Kasidy "it is not linear" calls back to the beginning of Sisko's Emissary arc in the Pilot "Emissary", in which the Prophets tell Sisko and he comes to realize "it is not linear."  Full circle.  The montages for the different characters reminiscing on their time on DS9 were a nice touch, though it would have really been nice if Worfs could have had a few shots of Jadzia, since she was such a big part of his life on DS9 (I know there was legal issues at the time with Terry Farrell).  Nog's promotion and it being Sisko's last official act was a nice touch.  Kira being in command was cool as well, showing that even with all the changes on the station, life goes on.  As Quark said in the last line of the series: "The more things change, the more they stay the same."  I absolutely loved the ending scene, with Jake and Kira looking out from the promenade, and the view pulling back through the window, across the station and out into space away from the station, with the single horn playing the theme song.  Overall, a very satisfying ending to one of the greatest trek series, and a hell of a journey.

Trivia:

The farewell party scene at Vic's was the last scene filmed for the series.  The holographic club patrons seated at the tables are the writers and producers, including Ronald D. Moore, Ira Steven Behr, Lolita Fatjo, Rene Echeverria, Hans Beimler, and recurring guest actors Cecily Adams (Ishka), Casey Biggs (Damar) and Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun/Brunt) among others.  

Kira assigns Lt. Nog to work on cargo manifests-cargo manifests were an assignment that Nog was given by Sisko in season 3's "Heart of Stone" to test his intentions regarding wanting to join Starfleet.

Quotes:

Garak: All during the years of my exile, I imagined what it would be like to come home.  I even thought of living in this house again with Mila.  But now she's dead, and this house is about to be reduced to a pile of rubble.  My Cardassia's gone.
Kira: Then fight for a new Cardassia.
Garak: I have an even better reason, Commander.  Revenge!
Kira: That works too.

Founder: You may win this war, Commander, but I promise you, when it is over, you will have lost so many ships, so many lives, that your "victory" will taste as bitter as defeat.

Martok: Before you waste too many tears, remember, these are Cardassians lying dead at your feet. Bajorans would call this 'poetic justice'.
Sisko: That doesn't mean I have to drink a toast over their bodies.

Admiral Ross: Four hundred years ago, a victorious general spoke the following words at the end of another costly war: 'Today the guns are silent.  A great tragedy has ended.  We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no going back.  We must move forward to preserve in peace what we've won in war'.
(Quoting General Douglas MacArthur's speech at the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII)

Sisko: To the best crew any captain ever had.  This may be the last time we're all together, but no matter what the future holds, no matter how far we travel, a part of us, a very important part, will always remain here on Deep Space Nine.

Kasidy: This is scaring me.  Let's go home.
Sisko: I can't.  Not now.
Kasidy: Why not?  Oh, God.  This is it, isn't it?  The sorrow that the Prophets warned us about.
Sisko: It's difficult to explain.  It's not linear.
Kasidy: What isn't?
Sisko: My life, my destiny.  The Prophets saved me, Kasidy.  I'm their Emissary and they still have a great deal for me to do.  But first, there is much to learn.  Things only the Prophets can teach me.
Kasidy: When will you be back?
Sisko: It's hard to say.  Maybe a year...maybe yesterday.  But I will be back.
Kasidy: And I will be waiting.

Quark: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
(The last line of the series)