“For The Cause” overplays its hand far too much. The notion that those we love and care about, those with whom we closely work, can often hide surprising and even treacherous secrets is certainly a worthy one to explore. But this episode simply ignores subtlety and character development in favor of contrived and overly melodramatic revelations. It’s a victim of trying too hard to shock the audience. And while the inner conflicts ring true, the circumstances upon which they are based clang with hollow dissonance.

After a brief scene meant to establish just how much Sisko and freighter captain Kasidy Yates are in love, we’re suddenly introduced to a surprising suspicion: Odo and Eddington tell Sisko that they suspect Yates of collaborating with the Maquis (yep, the Maquis are still out there doing exactly the same thing they were doing years ago when they were introduced in TNG). The result of this is to stir up some very sincere and painful inner turmoil for Sisko: How does he reconcile his duty to investigate a suspicion with the inherent trust upon which his love for Yates is founded?

It’s this inner conflict which really provides the episode with resonance. The performance from Sisko is absolutely perfect as he wrestles with his duty and his love — with trying to find the right line to balance the two. If not for Sisko’s performance the whole production would have crumbled completely. Fortunately, Sisko manages to elevate an otherwise garish story to levels that almost resemble legitimacy.

Sadly, though, it’s just not enough. Part of the problem is the contrivance of Yates-as-conspirator. Sure, she’s presented as little more than a sympathizer. And her decision to return to DS9 in order to confront her breach of trust and ask forgiveness from Sisko are commendable. But there’s almost no foundation or basis for this sudden change of character. It’s as if the writers simply wanted to give Sisko as hard a time as possible with his emotions and amped up the conflict by forcing an extreme change of character on Yates.

It’s not like we ever see Yates struggle with the decision to become a collaborator herself — and for it to make sense, she *should* have struggled, considering how her actions could, eventually lead Sisko’s conflict of interest. If she *really* loved Sisko (and the episode goes a long, long way to try and make that point), then she would, necessarily, have grappled with her choice. That we never see this is a clear indication that she became a collaborator not because it made sense for her character, but because it would make the story more dramatic.

And that’s a very, very dangerous direction to go in a series. Once that starts happening, it’s not that long before a series can literally become addicted to plot twists — to forcing characters to change just to get as much melodrama as possible on screen. It’s cheap and lazy storytelling, pure and simple, and one has to hope that it’s an exception and not a harbinger of things to come. (Note: the teleplay was by Ronald D. Moore who would make this kind of melodramatic plot-twist formula the central focus of his later BSG series).

And as if one major character change was not enough, we’re given the ridiculous change-of-heart by Commander Eddington — he of the Federation Security on board DS9. In this episode he goes from the hopelessly professional demeanor he has always displayed into that of a villain — to the point where, if he had a mustache, you could easily envision him twirling it as he taunts Sisko after his escape.

It would seem that Eddington has used Yates’ collaboration to lure Sisko away from the station in order to steal a precious convoy of supplies bound for Cardassia. As a “born again” Maquis, he now completely hates the Federation to the point where he says, with no hint of hyperbole (though it’s clearly the case), that the Federation is, “even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You’re more insidious. You assimilate people and they don’t even know it.”

Uh-huh. It might have made more sense, and been more of a powerful indictment, had we seen Eddington’s change of character evolve. That, at the very least, would allow the audience to understand his motivations and sympathies a lot more. His words would carry a lot more weight. As it stands now, the speech is more like the ravings of a lunatic villain (one who changes allegiances without rhyme or reason) than an informed criticism.

So how does Eddington go from loyal soldier to maniacal, hyperbolic villain? Who knows? No explanation is given. His character simply switches allegiances. And it’s done purely for narrative expediency, purely to ramp up the “drama” in the episode. It’s cheap, it’s kitschy, and it’s laughable.

The subplot about Garak and Ziyal is notable only insofar as it makes sure the series doesn’t forget about the Ziyal character. But there’s little of consequence here. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen Garak so woefully underutilized.

On the whole, “For The Cause” is a substandard outing. Sisko’s performance is powerful … even visceral. But it’s lost within a story that makes no sense given the rest of the characters involved. Perhaps they needed to remove Yates from the show for some odd reason. But if so, there had to be a better, more in character way to do so. As for Eddington … it’s just a stupid, stupid idea all around.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine