1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
multiple personality disorder - Trill style, November 22, 2004
This review is from: Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 50: Equilibrium [VHS] (VHS Tape)
When Sisko prepares a Cajun meal for the senior staff, Jadzia spies a digital musical instrument of Jake's - a type of portable piano sans black & white key's. She comments that in 7 lifetimes, none of her hosts ever exhibited any musical talent - but she sits down and starts playing a beautiful piece. She says it sounds familiar, but she doesn't know how - nor does she even know how she is able to play anything resembling music. She becomes obsessed with the tune, humming it, hearing it and playing it - trying to jog her memory - then she starts seeing hallucinations.
A creepy phantom with a never-ending supply of masks is constantly in her path. She behaves irradically, insults Sisko and nearly drop-kicks Bashir. An exam finds that a critical enzyme that the symbiont needs to survive is 73% of normal and Sisko & Bashir take Jadzia to the Trill homeworld for treatment. They know the stakes. Trills value the symbiont at all costs - the host is expendable if it means the symbiont will live on, and if the symbiont is in any danger, it will be removed and placed into another host - meaning Jadzia will die in a matter of a day or two.
The Symbosis Commission gives her some enzyme treatments and she goes back to the runabout to rest. Sisko is able to find the tune that Jadzia has been obsessed about and finds that it is an 86-year-old composition by Joran Belar who died 85 years earlier. When they pull up his photo on the console, Dax zones out, has another hallucination and goes into neural shock. As she is sent back to the Trill homeworld for more tests, Sisko and Bashir start investigating and find that the Trills have some dirty laundry that could cost Jadzia her life.
Before Curzon, the Commission made a major blunder. They gave the symbiont to an emotionally unstable and ultimately violent man named Joran Belar. They claim that a mismatch can mean death for the symbiont in a matter of days, but Joran Belar had the Dax symbiont inside of him for 6 months - until he murdered his own doctor. It was subsequently removed, put into Curzon and they used some technique to mentally block Joran's joining just to protect their dirty little secret.
Too many Trills want symbionts, but there aren't enough to go around. Some Trills who would love to be joined are discouraged by the lengthy tests and trials and don't even attempt to apply for joining. If their world knew that over 50% of them were fully compatible with joining, there would be riots in the streets and symbionts would be traded on the black market.
The Commission is more than willing to sacrifice Jadzia for "the greater good" until Sisko promises he will air their dirty laundry if they don't come clean and help Jadzia.
Jadzia's integration with the memories of Joran and acceptance of his personality in her life is interesting, as is the new insight into the life of symbionts that are inbetween hosts.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best, September 5, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 50: Equilibrium [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This probably one of my top three favorite DS9 episodes. This is by far my favorite Dax episode. The musical score was very good, also.
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