H: Episode opens with Julian and Jake on a runabout on the way back from a scientific conference. Jake is interviewing Julian about the findings he presented at the conference. This assignment is Jake's first big break as a journalist, but he is obviously not enthused about the dry science topic. Also Julian is being his typical pompous, asshole self.
"Good! That's the key! Those protein anomalies!"
J: Julian is being his usual pompous ass for sure, but it's clear that he's also a very bright doctor at the top of him game. As he continues on about how the establishment just won't accept that quantum mechanics plays an important role in some peptide whatever whatever, a distress signal comes in. Agelon Prime, a key system in the ongoing war, is under attack from Klingons and requires medical assistance. Jake is thrilled- this is just the break he needs. But the doctor, despite his carefree attitude while discussing biology, is quite wary of subjecting a young untrained fellow such as Jake to the dangers of a warzone. In the end, humanitarianism and glory win out, and they set a course for Agelon Prime.
Jake needs some action
H: Yay the DS9 theme! My favorite <3
J: That's not an Enterprise. It has no neck!"
H: But it's from a front angle. You can't tell."
J: The saucer section should be way above the engineering section. I think it's a nebula class.
H: Okay fine.
(Let the record show that the ship is indeed a Nebula class and Jason knows way, way more about Star Trek then me and I should know better by now!)
H: Back on DS9, Quark is trying to make a decaf coffee for Kira, who is pregnant. I totally love this storyline with Kira carrying O'Brien and Keiko's baby. I'm happy they wrote Nana Visitor's pregnancy into the story line instead of having her awkwardly hold objects in front of her belly for half of the season. Plus some good episodes came out of it!
Anyway, DS9 gets news that Julian and Jake are helping out with the emergency situation on ~Agelon Prime~. Sisko is hella freaked out about Jake being on the front lines of a warzone.
J: Zoom to Agelon Prime. Jake finds himself in a makeshift triage center in some kind of cave receiving wounded from an ongoing battle with the Klingons. It's a mess.
Yikes.
H: A man is brought in with a "disruptor blast" to the foot, which he explains he got when stepping over a Klingon he assumed was dead. Julian takes one look at his foot at knows that his injury is not caused by a Klingon disruptor, but by a phaser blast. In other words, this guy shot himself in the foot to get off the front lines. Julian moves on to patients with more pressing injuries, barely hiding his disgust of this coward. Jake is left alone with the man, who proceeds to admit shooting himself in the foot after explaining how unimaginably horrible it was to be in the middle of the fighting. Jake is not convinced by the man's explanation, and is ready to write him off as a coward as well.
"You weren't there! You don't know what it's like!"
**foreshadowing**
J: Jake continues on in his defacto-role lugging around the dead and dying. We meet an inappropriately cheery young nurse/orderly who befriends Jake. Finally the day is over. The battle has ended for the time being and the doctors have handled most of the wounded for the time being. Julian Bashir and some of the others make some wise cracks, and Jake looks lost, coming down from the rush of constantly doing whatever job was put in front of him. He's not as comfortable seeing death so close.
Back at home on DS9, Sisko is worried, and pondering with Odo about the fragility of the mortal coil.
H: Odo is complaining about the hardships of no longer being a changling. I feel bad for him and all (a fundamental change to your molecular structure must be pretty hard to process), but whenever this comes up with all I can think about is how Odo has to eat food now, and what it must of been like for him to experience the horror of his first poop. I am very mature...
J: Anyway....Sisko receives word that Agelon Prime is in danger of falling, and sets off on the Defiant to rescue his wordy and wayward son.
H: Back on the planet, everyone is having dinner after the exhausting day. Julian makes some really horrifying surgeon humor that literally makes Jake run out of the mess hall to puke. Julian follows him, and after Jake has calmed a bit, they chat about the guy who shot himself in the foot. Jake is still shocked that, despite all of the Starfleet training, the man still couldn't handle the pressure of battle.
"Some people say you don't really know what you're made of until you've been in battle."
**Mega foreshadowing.**
H: In the next scene, Julian is talking with one of the other doctors. Turns out her husband is on one of the ships that has been sent to the front line. Julian tries to assure her that her husband is a great officer on a good ship and he will be fine. This scene is a bit of a segway as you never find out what happened to her husband, but is yet another reminder that this whole war thing really sucks and that Starfleet officers, usually so confident and tidy, are starting to unravel.
J: When Jake gets his appetite back, he returns to trying to eat something. The inappropriately cheery nurse shows up and starts chatting about how they are all probably going to die horribly. Jake can't help but think that his article on Bashir wasn't worth this, and he's probably going to die pointlessly without contributing anything of value.
The Klingons attack! Jake and Julian leave the cave to try and retrieve a small generator from their ship to keep the outpost going just a little longer.
H: Julian and Jake are walking over to the runabout when-oh shit!-the Klingons! Shells are raining down around them and they dive for cover. Julian heroically proclaims that "whatever happens one of us has to get that generator!" Two seconds later Julian is hit by a shell and Jake gets separated from him.
Typical Bashir.
Jake frantically tries to decide to help Julian or continue onto the runabout solo, but with the horror of explosions all around he totally freaks out and runs off. Jake ends up getting lost and wandering into the carnage of a recent battle when he literally trips over a dead Klingon. He panics and starting running, eventually colliding with a fatally injured Starfleet officer.
J: This dying guy is a tough guy. Classic hero. He repeatedly insists that he's "not gonna die with his face in the dirt," ordering Jake to keep his eyeballs pointed in a generally upward direction. Jake offers to try and carry him out, desperate to do the right thing after his display of cowardice, but the tough fellow just laughs and points out that any attempt to move him would result in his guts falling out. To amplify Jake's guilt that much more, it turns out this guy found himself in his present situation saving his platoon, sacrificing himself and giving them the time to get to the hopper. Jake can't cope with the guilt and insists that he must have run for a reason, perhaps to save this hero's life. The tough guy doesn't respond kindly to the news that Jake is, effectively, a deserter.
You don't eat nails and whiskey for breakfast?I thought that the actor and the episode as whole really did a good job of hinting that Jake's cowardice is coming from a place of unfamiliarity and a sense of uselessness more than a straightforward aversion to sacrifice. This isn't stated in the show and doesn't lessen the shame, but its an interesting undercurrent. Jake isn't a medic. He isn't an engineer. He can't fight. I get the feeling he runs more because he just doesn't know what he's doing and feels like he would be giving his life away without contributing anything. Given his lack of training, should he have pushed on into the shells? He had no clue what he was doing- he'd almost surely be killed, accomplishing nothing. Would that have been better?
H: I liked this guy for a different reason. To me, the point being made here is in real life people don't run fleeing only to become heroes in the next scene. Real life is messy. Some people make horrible decisions and some people make incredibly courageous ones, but neither one guarantees your survival. This man's last words are literally "sorry kid, life doesn't work like that", and then he spits up blood and dies. I also like this scene because (like this whole episode) it's contradictory to the whole utopian Star Trek universe. Even in this amazing future time, there are still cowards and good men still die horrible deaths.
H: In the next scene, Jake manages to make it back to the hospital. You can practically see the shame and guilt radiating off of him. He's relieved to hear that Bashir made it back alive, with the generator in tow despite his serious injuries. Jake reluctantly goes to the ICU to visit Bashir, who looks literally nauseous with anxiety and worry over Jake. The look on his face when he sees Jake safe and sound is great, and further emphasizes how selfless Julian really is. Jake lies to Julian about what happened during the shelling, telling him that he got knocked out. Later in his room Jake is writing about his day, concluding that he is a coward.
J: Next scene, Jake has to attend to the foot-fellow. The level on which Jake is now able to relate to this man's shame ironically leaves him feeling even more isolated and horrible. He walks to the mess hall. Inappropriately cheery nurse and some of his friends are at a table chatting about their preferred method of execution: decapitation, disembowlment, disintigration, lots of 'd' words. Inappropriately cheery nurse asks Jake how he'd like to die, and Jake freaks out, feeling far to vulnerable and stressed to joke around. He then delivers the ultimate rant line of the episode, lamenting the hopelessness of their predicament and the uselessness of courage in its face.
"MAYBE YOU SAVED A HOPPER FULL OF PEOPLE! MAYBE YOU SHOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT!
NO ONE'S GOING TO REMEMBER!"
Sisko out.
Either way, shit is definitely about to hit the fan. The medical base is now under attack and the staff needs to evacuate all the patients down a tunnel to safety. During the evacuation, Jake and a few of the medical staff get ambushed by Klingons! The Klingons are true to form and within seconds Jake is the only one left alive in the room. He grabs a phaser from the body of a nearby officer and starts shooting in all directions in a blind panic, eventually causing a cave in. The falling rocks crush the Klingons, but also knock out Jake.
I use the same "oh shit!" fighting style in every first-person shooter.
Jake wakes up to find Bashir and his dad sitting over him. Yay! Captain Sisko and the Defiant made it to the base and saved the day. Sisko and Bashir both congratulate Jake on being clever and brave enough to cause the cave in, even though that's not how he intended it at all.
J: Back on the station, Jake shares what he's written about his experience with his father. Jake insighfully concludes that "The line between heroism and cowardice is a lot thinner than most people think... I was just as scared at the hospital as at the generator, so scared I'd do anything to survive. Once it meant running away and once it meant picking up a phaser."
Deep. It made me wonder if real journalists in warzones experience a similar feeling of displacement, inadequacy, and cowardice. They're certainly not being cowards, but I wonder if, standing next to the deliberate sacrifices of trained soldiers, they might come to feel that way.
H: Also, this episode reminded me that even though Jake has grown up quite a bit during the series, he is still only 18. He hasn't had really any official training of any kind, and certainly not military training. I can only imagine how 18 year old me would have reacted in his situation, and I'm pretty sure I would have ran for my life as well. What I find admirable is that he 'fessed up. At any age it's not easy to admit when you have done something wrong, especially when the stakes are so high and a wrong decision can literally end someone's life, but Jake still puts it all out there. I think that show some serious maturity and also alludes to what an excellent writer Jake is going to become.
So that's it! Our first episode recap. Any other thoughts on this episode? Any suggestions on what we should watch next?
