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Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 65: Improbable Cause [VHS]

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Episode title: Improbable Cause

Teleplay by: René Echevarria

Story by: Robert Lederman & David R. Long

Just when the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine appeared to be full of potential unused, it shocked by tying the continuing aspects of the season into one neat baggage by the way of a two episode long story.

"Improbable Cause" is the first one of these episodes, and noticably different from "The Die Is Cast", the latter and equally succeeded episode.

It all begins as Garak's shop is mysteriously burned to the ground by a bomb. This leads to a dark and fascinating investigation by Odo, who eventually manages to connect the explosion of Garak's shop to a much more complex scheme within the Cardassian political structure.

The episode progresses with subtle, even modest scenes, but conveys a much more dramatic substance on a deeper level. Garak has finally a meaning, and Odo's developement is been given a new direction.

It's amazing how such a short episode, with minimal dramatical twist can have so much substance and developement in it. It's dark exploration of the characters and their lives is extraordinarily incorporated to the episode, so that it's almost impossible to notice it.

The whole episode, in fact, is so subtle in it's ways of telling what it needs to say, that it takes countless of times to see it before it truly opens up.

A true masterpiece of writing.

Garak's shop is destroyed and it looks like someone is trying to kill him, Odo is called in to investigate, using his contacts on Cardassia it is revealed that a lot of Garak's former 'associates' were eliminated. Odo and Garak take a Runabout and go deep inside Cardassian space where they find evidence of Romulan involvement. It becomes apparent that Garak's death-threat is just a small piece of a bigger puzzle as a fleet of Cardassian ships decloak. It seems the Romulan's and Cardassian's are preparing an attack force but who is the target?

DS9's 3rd season was probably its worst and yet it still managed to produce one of the best double episodes ever made. This first installment was marginally the stonger of the two with a totally faultless hour - don't expect extravagent SFX - DS9 sticks to its now famous character driven shows with unparalelled flair. It also stands the test of time, showcasing the qualities of the character of Elim Garak and revealing some of the master plan the writers had install for him.

When an explosion destroys the Cardassian Garak's shop, Odo investigates and experiences a series of wild and contradictory stories from Garak. As Odo continues his investigation, he reaches the conclusion that Romulan agents are trying to kill all of the former operatives of the Obsidian Order, the Cardassian intelligence service that Garak worked for under former chief Enabran Tain.
Odo and Garak go in search of Tain and they finally manage to find him, only to learn that Tain is in the midst of a massive conspiracy with the Romulan intelligence agency. Their plan is to take a fleet of cloaked ships through the wormhole and destroy the Dominion by bombarding the home planet of the founders.
Faced with the possibility of one more great adventure with his mentor, Garak agrees to once again be an agent for Tain and this requires him to betray Odo and turn him over to the Romulans. A device is planted in Odo's cell that prevents him from regenerating, leading to a rapid deterioration in his condition.
This is an excellent episode because it helps flesh out the background of the mysterious Garak. Although he works as a tailor on Deep Space Nine it is clear that Garak was once a powerful man in the Cardassian military, yet the clues are uncertain and sometimes contradictory. The interaction between Tain and Garak is much like that of a worshipful son to his mighty master/father.