Indeed, if any admirals were killed, it could have been a net military positive for the Federation.

"I want to practice real frontier medicine, where nobody ever presses charges."

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.

I would say that the episode doesn't build around the blowing up of the Defiant because that's not the climax here: Damar's speech is. It's really designed to be an hour full of moments that tell you "You're fucked. You're fucked. You're fucked." followed by a small glimmer of hope.

Was he still? When he married Dax, it seemed like he moved into her quarters, and I don't think we got any indication in S7 he'd moved back to the Defiant.

SPOILERS

The Bay Bridge, on the other hand…

Yeah, and that his Valiant Lt. Commander should have had two and a half pips, and the costume people just screwed up giving him one and a half.

Yup. I love that even when Damar is launching himself as this new hero to free Cardassia, it's still very clear that his motives are personal, not necessarily patriotic.

Kira is someone with a very particular set of skills. Skills she has acquired over a very long career. Skills that make her a nightmare for a particular occupying power.

SPOILERS

I think it's considered a battle between him and Geordi, who has:

With the start of season 4 Game of Thrones, I was thinking that blowing up the Defiant like that is about as close as Trek goes to something like that show in terms of being a completely shocking, unexpected moment that would blow up Twitter. Obviously they don't do meaningful character death but having us go from…

"Changing Face of Evil" really benefits from a unity of purpose not found in a lot of the other episodes. Dukat/Winn stuff aside, nearly he entire hour is about the Breen Alliance being a big fucking deal and a pretty big threat, and there's a palpable sense of dread that hangs over the episode from the suicidal…

Yeah, I reposted it from something I wrote back in Broken Link when it was all spoiled. Thanks for the catch.

That's what they say. Best we can figure on the timeline is:

"Come now Mr. Worf, you're a Klingon, don't tell me you'd object to a little genocide in the name of self defense!" - Garak in Broken Link

I kind of think this is a week where Zack got really hurt by the order of the episodes here. The Changing Face of Evil is very much a button to the plot threads that carried through the first three episodes of the "Final Chapter" and a turning point to set up the ones that carry through the back half. Ezri and Worf…

Next week, on Mad Space Nine…

"The Sisko is of Bajor but he will find no rest there!"