Episode #19: Duet
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Episode #19: Duet
DUET (prod.#419; first season) Directed by James L. Conway
written by Lisa Rich, Jeanne Carrigan-Fauci and Peter Allan Fields
This episode makes many top 10 lists of the best episodes of the DS9 series and some even list it as number one (it's true - check out the double-sized issue of Cinefantastique from December, 2000). I've even read that the story and ending of this episode makes some people weep for a day or so; I can believe it, especially considering Harris Yulin's performance as the Cardassian. Still, all that would seem unlikely considering the content of the story. Most of the episode, a 'bottle' show, consists of Kira visiting & confronting a prisoner in DS9's jail. The prisoner is a Cardassian. Kira is a Bajoran. End of story? No, not by a long shot.
The plot concerns the arrival of a Cardassian named Marritza at DS9. He suffers from a disease that could only have been acquired during a mining accident at an infamous labor camp during the Cardassian occupation years ago. Since he is Cardassian, this makes him automatically guilty, in Kira's eyes, of being involved in all the unspeakable atrocities associated with that camp. However, Marritza claims to have been a harmless file clerk at the time; Kira feels sure that he is lying. Sure enough, photographic evidence soon arrives that shows this Marritza is actually Gul Darhe'el, the commandant of that camp who was also known as the 'Butcher of Gallitep' (the township name). Kira goes back to the jail to confront him and, to her horror & revulsion, he admits to his true identity and gloats about his past crimes, bragging about his accomplishments, the tortures, the mass murders and, worst of all, pointing out to her that no matter what is done to him now, she has already lost - she can't undo what he did - "the dead will still be dead."
This is very obviously another variation of the Nazi war crimes perpetrated during WW2 - at one point, Marritza yells "I am alive! I will always be alive!" This is the specter of Hitler and his ideology hovering over civilization yet again (perhaps not 'again' but 'still'), threatening to rise up at any moment - the moment we forget, the moment someone seizes power - and then the heel of someone's boot will once again press down (Darhe'el - Dar / heel; just chance, that is the name?). It's kind of amazing that this small episode, barely moving from a jail cell on DS9, lays bare the awful repercussions of war, of oppression & tyranny, until most viewers will catch themselves repressing a shudder.
But, that's not all to the episode, no indeed. There is a twist near the end and that's why this one probably does make the top of some lists. In my post on the very first episode, the pilot Emissary, I wrote how distasteful the Cardassian race seemed to me at that point. My opinion may have been based on how the race - the characters - were written, that perhaps there was a limited scope to the writing. But, maybe that's not all there is to it; maybe I was seeing only what I expected to see. I was astonished by the final few minutes of this episode, that I was suddenly presented with (for lack of a better word) a human being, rather than just another Cardassian. That's how good this is - it not only completely transformed the character of Kira, it also completely changed my perceptions - me, the audience - changed how I perceived Cardassians, I would think permanently.
But, here's the rub. I say 'permanently' but I've seen this episode before, years ago, and I forgot. I forgot what it ultimately said about Cardassians and about how you shouldn't look upon a race - even an imaginary one on a TV show - as all just the same; hence, my comments about them in the first episode post. (I will say, Gul Dukat also pops up in this one on a viewscreen; he's still kind of slimy, but there's probably some decency buried in there somewhere, even if he is rumored to end up as the ultimate villain by the end of the show). Remember what I just wrote a couple of paragraphs up about people forgetting...? There's a saying in one of my favorite films, something like 'It is the Doom of Men that They Forget...' BoG's Score: 8 out of 10
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