DS9 S03E19, S03E20, S03E21, S03E22

In this installment:
(viewed Sunday, October 5th)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E19 - "Through The Looking Glass"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E20 - "Improbable Cause"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E21 - "The Die Is Cast"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S03E22 - "Explorers"

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"Through The Looking Glass"

• This is the second DS9 episode to take place in the now-infamous "Mirror Universe", first introduced in the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror".  DS9 will play in this sandbox more than any other series, with a total of five (!) episodes involving it.  By comparison, TOS only did the one (albeit the grand-daddy of them all) and ENT will do two.
• Dude, Quark.  Odo already told you:  No vole fights on the Promenade.
• "Poor Morn.  This is going to break his hearts."
• Mirror Universe O'Brien is my second-favorite O'Brien.
• When kidnapping Ben Sisko, it's important to be super careful.
• The idea that Sisko would happen to marry Jennifer in both universes does strain credibility a little bit, but no moreso than all of the other main characters ending up in the same place (just as very different people, in some cases).
• Mirror Universe Kira is my second-favorite Kira.
• Hey kids, it's Tim Russ!  Before he was Tuvok on VOY, he was many things in Star Trek:  Including a human bridge officer on board the Enterprise-B (Star Trek:  Generations) and a Vulcan member of the resistance against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in the mirror universe in this episode.
  
  Correction:  Apparently this is actually Mirror Universe Tuvok (I didn't realize that this episode actually aired a few months after VOY premiered in 1995), who just happens to pop up on this DS9 episode.  So that's pretty rad.  I was never that big a fan of VOY, but I liked Tuvok okay and I'e always liked Tim Russ (he's a Trekkie in his own right, and has been very generous with the fan community; he's even worked on several fan productions).
• I enjoy that Mirror Universe Bashir and Mirror Universe Rom are vengeful militants (with good reason, given their treatment by the Alliance).  It's so contrary to their counterparts' personalities :)
• Mirror Universe Dax is my first-favorite Dax.
• Mirror Universe Garak is my least-favorite Garak. 
• I kind of forgot that Mirror Universe Rom is totally a back-stabbing snake.
• "The only reason I can think of to keep you alive is to infuriate Garak."
  
  "What better reason do you need?"
• "This isn't over, Benjamin.  I'll hunt you down.  I swear it."
  
  "You're welcome to try."
• It's a little funny that Mirror Universe Sisko was such an jerk that Mirror Universe Jennifer can easily tell that real Sisko isn't him.

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"Improbable Cause"

• I'm with Garak:  Shakespeare is overrated :P
• "Fear of starvation amid plenty:  It points to some dark secret hidden in the human soul.  A gnawing hunger.  Perhaps someone should do a study."
• "Garak's Clothiers:  Our shop is literally exploding with savings and quality!"
• "Have you ever heard the story about the boy who cried 'wolf'?"
  
  "No."
  
  "It's a children's story about a young shepherd boy who gets lonely while tending his flock.  So he cries out to the villagers that a wolf is attacking the sheep.  The people come running, but of course there's no wolf.  He claims that it ran away, and the villagers praise him for his vigilance."
  
  "Clever lad!  Charming story."
  
  "I'm not finished.  The next day, the boy does it again.  And the next, too.  And the fourth day, a wolf really does come and the boy cries out at the top of his lungs.  But the villagers ignore him, and the boy and his flock are gobbled up."
  
  "Well...that's a little graphic for children, wouldn't you say?"
  
  "The point is:  If you lie all the time, nobody's going to believe you--even when you're telling the truth."
  
  "Are you sure that's the point, Doctor?"
  
  "Of course.  What else could it be?"
  
  "That you should never tell the same lie twice."
• Garak and Odo on a runabout together?  It's like a paranoia and suspicion double-header.
• Romulans:  They'll straight up blow you to pieces if you're wanted for a capital offense.
• "The question remains:  Why would the Romulans want to have Garak killed?"
  
  "I don't know.  Considering those uniforms of theirs, you think they'd appreciate a good tailor."
• Meeting in a shadow cave is the DS9 equivalent of meeting in a dark parking garage.
• "You blew up your own shop, Gark!  Well...I don't think I've ever seen that particular look on your face.  Is that surprise?"
• For fans of Mr. Garak (me included), this episode (and its second half) is a real treat.  There are a number of particularly great exchanges between him and Odo that are among some of the finest dialogue in the series.
• Any time you're in a small craft and a Romulan warbird de-cloaks right above you, you're having a bad day.
• Hey kids, it's Enabran Tain!
• The plan between the Romulan Tal Shiar and the Cardassian Obsidian Order that Tain references includes a "fleet of ships in the Orias system".  This is the same fleet that we glimpsed when Thomas Riker took the Defiant deep into Cardassian territory in the episode "Defiant".
  
  The story arc for this scheme (which includes the aforementioned "Defiant", this episode and the one to follow it), which involves the intelligence agencies of the Romulan Star Empire and Cardassian Union without the knowledge of their respective governments and could initiate an interstellar war with the Dominion, is one of the more exciting plots we see on the show right up until the actual Dominion War breaks out.
  
  
  
• "So...do you want to go back to your shop and hem pants, or shall we pick up where we left off?"
  
  "Garak, this is the man who put you into exile.  This is the man who, just two days ago, tried to have you killed."
  
  "Yes, he is.  But it doesn't matter.  I'm back."

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"The Die Is Cast"

• Chief O'Brien is a fantastic guy, but lunch with him just isn't the same as lunch with Garak.
• "My mother told me 'If you try to combine talking and eating, you'll end up doing neither very well'."
• This episode marks the second appearance of the Cardassian Keldon-class starship, an uprated version of the much more numerous Galor class.
  
  
  
• "Oh, there are a number of people I intended to 'look up' when we get back.  For instance, do you remember a gul named Dukat?"
  
  "Dukat?  Oh yes, the business with the arms merchant.  I take it you'd like to have him eliminated?"
  
  "The thought had crossed my mind."
• Colonel Lovok, the Tal Shiar commander of the Romulan half of the joint Romulan-Cardassian fleet, is played by Leland Orser.  This isn't his first trip to DS9; he previously played Gai in the episode "Sanctuary".  He'll also go on to have guest roles on VOY and ENT.
  
  But as I mentioned during the commentary for "Sanctuary", I know him best as this dude from Alien:  Resurrection.
  
  
  
• Hey kids, it's Lt. Cmdr. Eddington!
• In the long tradition of our hero captains ignoring orders and pretending they didn't hear them, this one is one of my favorites:  "Listen, I know they said to stay at the station in case the Jem'Hadar strike back after the Cardassians and the Romulans wipe out the Founders' homeworld...but let's go charging into the wormhole and find Odo.  What?  They're saying 'don't go'?  That's not what I'm hearing.  Sounds pretty garbled to me."
  
  :D
• The device that the Obsidian Order has developed to prevent Changelings from modifying their molecular structure is put to very grim use in this episode (to torture Odo), but one wonders if the Federation Alliance ever developed anything similar.  I can see it being useful as an area-denial weapon for ultra-secure installations and so forth--to prevent (or at least impede) infiltration by a Changeling.
• Eww.  Changelings are always a little gross, but they're really gross when they can't revert to their liquid form.
  
  
  
• "So much for the Dominion...OPEN FIRE."
  Yeah.  How's that going to work out for you?
• "Why are you doing this?"
  
  "Because no Changeling has ever harmed another."
  
  Womp womp.  Fake Romulan, bro.
• "After today, the only real threat to us in the Alpha Quadrant are the Klingons and the Federation.  And I doubt that either of them will be a threat for much longer."
  
  Well...that's ominous.
• I do believe this is the first taste the Defiant gets of a scrap against the Jem'Hadar, taking out at least five enemy fighters at my count.
• "Garak, I was thinking that you and I ought to have breakfast together sometime."
  
  "Why Constable, I thought you didn't eat?"
  
  "I don't."

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"Explorers"

• "So, uh...that last episode was pretty dark.  What do we do this time?"
  
  "Ben and Jake go on a family sailing vacation?"
  
  "Sounds good to me."
• This episode is the first appearance of Leeta, a Bajoran dabo girl at Quark's who will eventually become a major character (and a love interest for Rom, of all people).  Leeta was played by the weapons-grade adorable Chase Masterson.
  
  
  
  
  In this case, Dr. Bashir is doing what he does best (at least in the early seasons, before he got interesting):  Hitting on the pretty lady.  At least until Lt. Dax shows up and gets in the way. 
  
  
  
  I need to get this app for my iPad.
• This episode marks an extremely important milestone for DS9:  Cmdr. Sisko grows his goatee.  He just needs the shaved head and the new grey uniform, and his transformation into the badass we will grow to know and love during the Dominion War will be complete.
• Build a Bajoran lightship?  Yeah, that seems like a pretty logical thing to do in the wake of a massive battle in the Gamma Quadrant and the constant fear of a Dominion invasion hanging over your head.
• Oh, Kira.  Don't tell O'Brien that he sounds just like a Cardassian.
• If there were a Cardassian Ministry for the Refutation of Bajoran Fairytales, Gul Dukat would be the worst guy to run it.  You know, given all the business later with the Pah Wraiths and whatnot.
• The "b plot" for this episode, Dr. Bashir confronting his old medical school rival, is...well, uninteresting.
  
  It does, however, give us the only scene in any Star Trek series or movie with which I can personally identify.
  
  
  
• "Let's take a break and set up the hammock.  Hammock time!"
  
  "Yo!"
  
  Okay, writers.  Fess up.  Who was responsible for that?
• Oh, tachyons.  Is there anything you can't do?
• We won't meet her until the next episode ("Family Business"), but this episode is the first reference to the freighter captain who will eventually marry Sisko:  Kasidy Yates.
• They made Dukat read an official statement celebrating the ingenuity of the ancient Bajoran astronauts, and set off fireworks for the?  That had to smart his pride a little bit.