“The Homecoming” launches Deep Space Nine’s second season by thrusting the audience deep into the midst of the political and social turmoil of Bajor – with a former war hero as the central focal point. The story is one of risk and sacrifice, with the repercussions of ideological struggle affecting everyone on DS9 – right down to Sisko’s son, Jake. More than that, this episode has a well-constructed story-arc, moving both the plot and the characters seamlessly along a treacherous path toward instability and conflict. This is an episode which features strong writing and acting and, as a result, this is a very successful installment.

When Quark receives from a smuggler the earring of a former Bajoran war hero, a man by the name of Li Nalas, Kira decides that she must stop at nothing to retrieve him from the Cardassian labor camp in which he is being held. To help prod Sisko to agree to her plan, the series introduces the enigmatic and disruptive group called “The Circle” who are Bajoran extremists who want all aliens expelled from Bajor. The group had been gaining strength but now have a presence on DS9 as evidenced by graffiti in a secluded section of the station. Sisko recognizes the need for a strong leader to help unite Bajor and so he allows Kira to take a Federation shuttle to retrieve Li Nalas in the hopes that his return could quell the instability.

One interesting element to the story is the fact that its central action piece – the rescue of Li Nalas – happens through the very middle of the episode. Indeed, this isn’t so much a story about the rescue of Li Nalas as it about the political and social circumstances before and after his return. In that sense, DS9 features a much more evolved sensibility, focusing on more subtle conflicts between ideologies, rather than on the whiz-bang excitement of battle sequences.

And it is in the character of Li Nalas that the episode really finds its full maturity. The legends of this man’s exploits during the Cardassian war have helped bolster the Bajorans but, as it turns out, they are just that: legends – with very little basis in fact. This leads Li Nalas to be a reluctant sort of leader – as Sisko says, Bajor needs a symbol more than a hero – and thus Li Nalas must continue to allow history to tell a different story than the one he knows to be true. He’s been given the opportunity to help his people and, because his inner character matches the stories – a man willing to sacrifice for the greater good – the people see a genuine leader, instead of the fraud he believes himself to be.

On the balance, this episode gets high marks for introducing new story elements such as The Circle, the unrest of the Bajoran people, the growing xenophobic elements to Bajoran society, and how the often shifting sands of politics and power manifest themselves on board DS9. To that end, the episode even manages to find time for such small-but-significant events such as when Quark endures an assault in which his head is literally branded with the symbol of The Circle and when Jake’s first ever date is called off because his would-be Bajoran girlfriend’s father disapproves of her going out with a non-Bajoran.

These small brushstrokes demonstrate the care and craft of the episode, allowing viewers to see that what is unfolding isn’t drama for drama’s sake – that there really is a message and purpose to it all. And so when the episode ends on the decidedly melodramatic note of Kira being replaced by Li Nalas on DS9, the moment makes sense and doesn’t fall empty or flat, even with the “To be continued …” credits adorning the final frame.

“The Homecoming” is a solid example of storytelling it’s a strong setup for a multi-part story which contains its own beginning, middle and end – an important element to episodic storytelling.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine