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Text File | 1994-06-11 | 8KB | 142 lines

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Lynch's Spoiler Review: "The Collaborator"

WARNING:  This article contains spoiler information for DS9's "The
Collaborator."  Don't collaborate with the unsavory interests who want to
expose you to spoilers prematurely.

Well, this wasn't *quite* on the level of the last few shows we've seen, but
it was still pretty impressive -- and the final move they took was quite a
surprise.

Kai WHO?

Oh.  <ahem>  Sorry.  More on that later.  (If you're expecting this review to
be either long *or* coherent after the monster I just wrote for "All Good
Things...", you might want to rethink it.  :-) )

The main problem I had with "The Collaborator" was that all the things
designed to make it a "gutsy, surprising episode" are starting to become
standard techniques.  I mean, having all the evidence point to Bareil was an
absolute given, for one.  Having Bareil "confess" to Kira later was no major
surprise, either -- and his noble motives behind his betrayal were expected.

The final revelation that he *didn't* do it, but was only covering up for Kai
Opaka, was strong, but again not a major surprise.  It's nice that it was
_someone_ we trusted who was forced by extreme circumstances to do "terrible
things", to quote Odo, but Opaka was too easy a choice -- the dead characters
don't have as many fans waiting to cry foul.  I'm glad that it wasn't
revealed to be, say, Winn who was behind it, but this seemed a little bit too
pat.

However, the ending made up for it.  Kai WHO?  Oh.  <ahem>  Sorry again.
I'll come back to this.

Much of the power of the episode hung on Bareil's three visions.  While some
of the symbolism lurking within makes a lot of sense in context (such as
Bareil having to accept the gift of the snake whose "venom will make you
stronger", which I'm certain was meant to represent Winn and her own special
venom), some of it's still mysterious.  Why was Bareil finding himself
intimate with Winn?  What did Opaka mean when she said Bareil would have to
follow him?  She clearly didn't mean as Kai (at least for now).  Unanswered
questions, which I'm hoping to see answered somewhere down the line.  Orbs
are like that.  :-)

Winn proved a far stronger character than I was expecting.  While she's
always been a villain I've enjoyed loathing ever since "In the Hands of the
Prophets" (and if you think I'm restarting *that* flamewar again, you're
mad), she had a few actions here that really brought her some grudging
respect from me.  Yes, her actions with Sisko were pure hypocrisy and purely
self-serving, and yes, her ultimate goal with the investigation was to nail
Bareil to the wall -- but her one solemn promise, not to reveal Kubus's
accusations, was one that she _stuck_ to, which I didn't expect.  She wanted
Bareil out of the picture, surely, but once she had her word extracted, she
kept it.  That was a little surprising, but intriguing nonetheless.

Other than that, of course, Winn was her usual "boo-hiss" self.  :-)  In
particular, her behavior around Kira with the repeated use of "my child" in
an oh-so-condescending manner was a pretty nasty way to behave.  And her
playing politics with Sisko and with his word, while expected, was one of her
best scenes of the episode.  (I could say it was Sisko's as well, but since
it was Sisko's _only_ one, that's not necessarily saying much.)

The side plot of Secretary Kubus's return was an intriguing one so far as it
went, but it dried up way too early.  Did Winn keep her word and grant him
sanctuary?  Did Kubus have any *other* information that might convince the
authorities not to ship him right back off Bajor?  It's not made at all
clear, and here I think it should have been.  The concept of Kubus serving in
what was essentially a "Vichy Bajoran" government is a nice one, but it was
only brought up to make the plot work, which rings a little false.

Speaking of ringing a little false ... maybe it's me, but I'm still having a
little trouble buying into the Kira/Bareil romance.  The opening scene with
the two of them, granted, was far, *far* better here than in "Shadowplay",
where it brought the plot down by leaps and bounds; but I was still thinking
that the dialogue needed work.  (Among other things, I was always of the
opinion that it was the Vedek Assembly that chose the new Kai, which makes
all the joking about Kira's vote highly weird.)  This didn't get the show off
on a weak footing, particularly since the first vision right before it was so
intense, but it kept it from being as strong as it otherwise might have been.

Most of the rest of the show was standard "Kira finds out information through
most of the usual sources, and it's all damning to Bareil" fare.  That
doesn't mean it wasn't entertaining -- it was, particularly the Quark
sequence -- but it's not stuff that needs a lot of comment.  Standard fare,
executed well.

That leaves two twists in the episode to talk about.  One of them was Odo's
reaction when he found out Kira was in love -- and to be honest, interesting
though it might be, I have to wonder if "Necessary Evil" even happened.  I
also think the "concealed love for a colleague" plot is one that is extremely
easy to abuse, and would just as soon not see this pursued any further.
Doesn't Kira have enough problems?  :-)

The other twist, however, was that Kira's discovery of Bareil's innocence
came *after* it was too late, and that we now have Kai Winn to deal with.
That puts the political and religious situation on Bajor on a whole new
plane, and is going to make Sisko's job a lot more difficult when he gets
around to focusing on Bajor again.  I don't like it in terms of having Winn
in charge, just because I dislike the character -- but it's a gold mine
dramatically, and I look forward to seeing where it's going to go.

So, a few short takes and I'm outta here:

-- So Bajor *has* applied for Federation membership.  One debate settled.

-- I'm a trifle surprised that Odo doesn't have an easy way to bug his own
computer, so that he could find out trivially what Winn was looking for.  One
security camera that could handle closeups would do the trick, and Odo's
certainly thorough enough to consider it.

-- Bareil's "I have destroyed myself" when Kira confronts him turns out to be
far more true than we realize at the time...

-- Either Ira Steven Behr or Robert Hewitt Wolfe has been watching "Star
Wars" a bit too much lately.  Considering that Opaka tells Bareil "it is your
destiny" at least once *and* and that Winn refers to the collaborator as one
who chose to "reveal the location of the rebel base", I kept expecting to see
Alec Guinness make a guest shot.  :-)

That would seem to be that.  So, wrapping up:

Plot:  A little more standard than usual lately, except for the final ending.
        Pretty good overall, though.
Plot Handling:  Nicely executed most of the time.
Characterization:  I still have trouble with Kira/Bareil, but everything
        else was golden.

OVERALL:  Call it an 8.  Solid, but not as breathtaking as usual lately.

NEXT WEEK:  A rerun of last season's "Vortex".

Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET:  tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET:  [e-mail]
UUCP:  ...!ucbvax![e-mail]
"Perfect:  not only is it illegal, it's sacrilegious."
                -- Quark
--
Copyright 1994, Timothy W. Lynch.  All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...