It was clearly a case of: We love this actor and character. What else can we do with him?

It's also very nicely foreshadowed by the Female Changeling in "Favor the Bold."

I remember being *really* annoyed at all the recycled footage back when it originally aired, but this time… I kind of didn't care that much.

It's a great moment, and one that I assume Ira Behr had in mind a year earlier since he set it up so clearly.

I wondered rewatching just why they felt the need to put Ezri and Bashir together, but it's obvious here that they did it because they wanted Bashir to not end up alone after O'Brien leaves.

I don't know that she was convinced she's wrong. She appears to be barely holding back her utter contempt for Ross as he delivers that speech as the war officially ends.

Shout-out to Salome Jens, a DS9 semi-regular that you almost never see anybody really talk about, but who was another fantastic contributor to the series. She saves her best performance for last, I think.

Watching it again, I would have liked to see them adjust things in the editing process, do the Sisko-Dukat confrontation, and then do the Vic party as somebody's flashback (Jake thinking of Sisko maybe), and then head into the montage and goodbyes.

Thanks so much, Zack, for these reviews. They will be required reading any time I revisit the series (and I will recommend them to anyone who is trying it for the first time).

They use static in the audio to obscure the fact that Zek is saying "Rom" during his conversation with Quark, but whoever captioned the episode forgot to hide it (or, more likely, didn't realize they were supposed to).

(Possible repetition — consider it emphasis)

Yeah, I'm happy Behr stayed on for the full run. He was clearly great at fostering a creative, supportive environment for writers to bring their best.

Huh. I've never read any of the post-series DS9 books (other than Andrew Robinson's), and maybe that's a good thing?

Yeah. I mean, Behr says one of the things he's most proud of about DS9 is the way he developed the Ferengi in the series, given what they were on TNG.

Quark should have just read the closed captions. Zek clearly says, "Is that you, Rom?" right there. (Way to preserve the surprise, caption writers.)

Quark's role in the occupation arc is one of my favorite things they did with him in the latter seasons.

I think Ron Moore and company would probably have looked for things to do with Quark outside of sticking him with five or six other Ferengi and commencing the shenanigans.

I will always appreciate Ira Steven Behr for the way he guided the show for seven years (the first three along with Michael Piller), but, man, if he had a blind spot, it was those damn Ferengi episodes. (There's more than a few that work, but the batting average is not terribly high, IMO.) I mean, if Ron Moore had…

Happy to contribute. Those writers did some good work (and a lot of them are still working on genre shows today).

It may have been a little messy getting there, but Ezri and Worf as friends (with a crazy history) who are comfortable poking a little fun at each other is just delightful. Both characters come off really well in their interactions.