The battle for DS9 at last.
A pretty good first half followed by a second half that rests on a [deus ex machina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina) so pure I’m tempted to write it in to the Wikipedia article as an example. Using the wormhole aliens in this way might make sense, but it cheapens events, and makes everything that has gone before meaningless.
It’s a pity, because there was some good stuff here. Poor old Quark. Forced to be a hero. And the part of the ending with Dukat was unexpected and interesting. It’s nice to see a villain not just disappear for another day at a defeat, but rather be completely crushed by it. And when I said last time that I was worried about Damar and Ziyal, I did not expect one to kill the other.
This is also the end of the seven-parter for the DS9 occupation. It’s been a mostly successful experiment, but I think there were a lot of signs of a lack of planning. But there’s a clear shift to a more long term story telling here, and while I’m sure we’ll get a few one shots to rebalance things, that can’t really stop here.
493 down, 244 to go.