My only defense for Ezri's counseling in Paper Moon is that it seems like Nog is very hostile to the idea of getting counseling, and I'm sure that would limit how effective Ezri could have been with him. Vic might not be trained in this, but at least Nog wanted to listen to him.

Yes. "Family" was weird at times, but those two were great.

The flip side is that sometimes, until you have your own established home, going back to your parents' house can make it hard to feel independent. You see things you remember from your childhood and they're obviously much smaller, but being placed in that setting seems to put you back in your parent's power. So some…

Yeah, we don't get to see her side. Maybe it really wasn't enough money to support both herself and her kids, or maybe she was being forced to ask for more by the Syndicate as part of that testing scenario I proposed…but all we hear is Norv going "She was greedy so I killed her!"

I actually thought it being Bilby's ex was about the Orion Syndicate trying to take care of his widow after Bilby died during his mission; give her a sinecure to get her out of the way, and test this new mining relationship by asking for something small and seemingly innocuous first, rather than going straight to…

NOT AVAILABLE WITH THE EXPLODING MELONS OPTION.

You might get a Multiplicity situation, though. After the 3rd soldier clone, they start to have trouble holding their phasers facing the enemy.

I've always assumed the Dominion was afraid it would happen again, since I doubt Sisko would have told them "Hey, I did that, but I can't do it again."

SPOILERS

I wonder if some of the issue with the Covenant is that the story leads to a darker place than the writers took it? I mean, if the whole cult had ended up dead, that would have been a huge body count and a real tragedy, but it also would have been way too heavy for even DS9. At the same time, having Kira convince…

Odo does not know how relationships work. Thankfully he manages to be sweet about it rather than disturbing…most of the time.

I don't think he admits his hatred of Kor to anyone other than Worf, though. Even when he tells the whole story to Worf, he orders everyone else to leave first. He HAS to initiate that toast thanks to Darok handing him the bottle in front of everyone.

Yes. That final scene works better with Martok essentially defeated by his crew's adoration for Kor, rather than joining in, even grudgingly.

As a side note, in "Once More Unto the Breach," I love the conversation between Dax and Kira about the repeated "Is it really you" conversations that symbiont hosts get, and Kira as a counselor.

It helps that even though O'Brien points it out, Bashir spells out the problems with being involved with Sarina near the end, so he's not just going "What did I do wrong?" I think it's important to his character that when he admits his mistake, he can spell it out and see all the moving parts.

My explanation is that Solok is basically someone who got ahead because he's in Starfleet, not on Vulcan. He's got enough self control that he can probably get around in Vulcan society, but he's only as high as he is in a non-Vulcan run organization because he "gets results." Most Vulcans would probably look down on…

Damn straight. The show might not stick the Ezri landing completely, but in terms of dramatic potential, Ezri was a clear upgrade over Jadzia.

The charitable version is that she agreed to do it for the sake of all Trill not losing an irreplaceable symbiont.

I think how Jadzia exited didn't help either. "We're almost going to have a baby! Whoops, random magic zappy death!" is hardly the most consequential way to go for any character.

Weird thing about that Garak monologue where he completely DESTROYS Ezri: it has one of the few accurate but positive descriptions of Jadzia. The idea that she knew and owned herself, despite having all these lifetimes, is essentially true, regardless of how you thought the writing for Jadzia actually went or whether…