What a colossal waste of an otherwise exceptional character drama. The “Sons of Mogh” takes a truly compelling premise, standout performances, and riveting dialogue and literally sabotages it with some truly preposterous sequences, culminating in the entirely inexplicable “final solution.” If you could ignore the final scenes, this would easily be a classic, another praiseworthy installment of Deep Space Nine. But it just doesn’t work that way, does it?

Following Worf’s choice to side against Gowron in “The Way of the Warrior,” his brother, Kurn, has fallen upon hard times. Gowron has stripped Kurn of his council seat, seized the family lands, and cast Kurn out of Klingon society. That the episode would take such a brutally honest approach to the consequences of Worf’s decision is exceptionally praiseworthy. Indeed, they give Kurn some rather pointed lines of dialogue to demonstrate the “selfishness” Worf’s decision.

This is, of course, something that TNG would never have touched — certainly not at this level of frankness. As it is, Kurn wants Worf to assist him in a death ritual that will allow Kurn to reclaim his honor among the Klingon dead. The interplay between Worf and Kurn, with Kurn continuing to drive home how Worf’s position in Starfleet has clouded Worf’s ability to think as a Klingon, is as fascinating as it is powerfully wrenching. One doesn’t have to imagine the pain Worf’s decision has inflicted on Kurn … it’s plain to see, thanks to both the dialogue and the performance from Kurn.

As a result, it’s no surprise that Worf actually agrees to carry out the ritual. What is a surprise, however, is the fact that Worf actually goes through with it, and plunges the ritual dagger into Kurn’s chest. Even Dax’s revelation about what is transpiring, and her subsequent interference in the ritual to save Kurn, makes sense. And it sets up a fascinating conflict: Kurn wants to die, his choice has been taken from him, now what? The rest of the episode sets out to explore that very question — all the while drawing a stronger and clearer contrast between Worf and the lives of the Klingons.

All of this is, without question, exceptional. Sadly, the episode quickly devolves from here.

Sisko’s reaction to Worf’s actions is severely overplayed. Sisko himself is no stranger to bending the rules (heck, even breaking them). So his tirade dressing down Worf for “attempted murder” rings hollow. Furthermore, not only is the act not considered to be murder by Klingons, the jurisdiction on the station is Bajoran. So why all of the rigamarole about Federation law? I get that the scene is meant to tie Worf’s hands, to prevent him from simply retrying the ritual. But it could have been handled much more plausibly.

But the episode gets worse.

There is another strong scene between Worf and Kurn in which Kurn points out that Worf didn’t exactly do a whole lot to prevent Dax from saving Kurn (a real Klingon would have fought to death over the matter). After this, Worf does his best to help his brother transition into a non-Klingon lifestyle by securing a security job with Odo (complicit in an assisted-suicide one moment, member of the security team the next … brilliant!). As if that’s not bad enough, Kurn spends the entire day doing exceptional work … only to allow himself to be shot by an angry freighter captain. Why would the freighter captain even pull a gun on a Klingon anyway? And wouldn’t allowing yourself to be killed without a fight be looked upon as dishonorably as suicide (while Klingons love ritual murder, they think suicide is bad, mmmmkay)?

Following this, Worf tries one more time to help his brother by recruiting him to help with the episode’s B-plot (figuring out what a bunch of Klingons are doing just outside of Bajoran space). Incidentally, this kind of “intervention” from Worf is sadly pathetic. It’s like being sad or depressed and having people come up to you and say, “Hey, just get involved in something and you won’t be depressed anymore.” Yeah, sure. Do something to ignore the real reasons for the depression — those reasons never have to be confronted.

But that’s exactly what’s going on here. Kurn is a lost soul. He’s been exiled from his homeland. He does not accept the “comfortable” life on board DS9. And all Worf does is try to get him … involved on DS9. Why not confront the issue of alienation that Kurn feels? Heck, why doesn’t the episode directly confront the issue of suicide? Kurn himself asks why a warrior is not allowed to end his life on his own terms. Sounds like a worthy direction for the episode to go following the original botched ritual.

I suppose none of these missed opportunities would matter so much if the final solution wasn’t so completely ridiculous. Sisko tells Worf that the ritual was tantamount to murder. Kurn obviously wants to die. So the solution? Wipe Kurn’s memory and make him think he’s some other Klingon. Yep. Don’t kill the body, just kill the mind, just kill the person. And you know what’s even worse?

Kurn never gave explicit approval to have his mind wiped.

That’s right. Worf was forbidden to use a sacred Klingon tradition to kill his brother with honor. But he’s allow to wipe his brother’s mind, surgically his brother’s features and DNA sequence, without permission.

Eh?

Never mind the fact that one could make the argument that the solution is more morally questionable than the ritual (which, admittedly, is a pretty bad turn of events), the final solution essentially takes the power of choice away from the one person most in need of it: Kurn. Let’s face it, many of us, at one time or another, have felt thoroughly trapped by our circumstances. And one way or another, we’ve all had the power to choose how we respond to them. Kurn’s decision to let the freighter captain shoot him was, at least, his *choice*. Removing choice from Kurn completely eviscerates the power of his character’s story. He begins as a powerful, if tormented soul. He leaves as an empty shell.

What the hell kind of story is that, anyway?

And before anyone says that, perhaps, this is a cautionary tale, the fact that Worf, Dax, Bashir, and everyone else involved in the procedure face no consequences for their actions speaks to the episode’s implicit approval of the solution.

“Sons of Mogh” is a failure of a story. Plain and simple. The only reason it rates higher as an episode is because its opening paces are both praiseworthy and exceptionally well-executed.  I also like the minor scenes in which Worf comes to terms with his own decisions to side with Starfleet.  Otherwise, the results are abysmal. Heck, we’re even forced to endure Worf and Dax flirting with one another (not a bad concept … but it’s really bad execution).

If only Bashir could wipe my memory of having watched it to begin with …

Filed under: Deep Space Nine