Me. Must. Torture. O'Brien!!
Plot Synopsis:
Get yer semiannual taste of delicious pain here.
The Skinny:
Why do we love torturing poor, unassuming Miles Edward O'Brien so? Why do the writers let their sadistic sides out at every opportunity and put him through the ringer? It is all summarized in the final moment between O'Brien and Bashir in the cargo bay.
BASHIR: You killed him?
O'BRIEN: And the worst part of it was, the next day the guards began feeding me again. I'd killed him for nothing, for a scrap of bread he was going to share with me.
BASHIR: But it was a mistake. You didn't mean it.
O'BRIEN: I meant it. I wanted him to die. I keep telling myself it doesn't matter. It wasn't real. But that's a lie. If it had been real, if it had been you instead of him, it wouldn't have made any difference. He was my best friend and I murdered him. When we were growing up, they used to tell us humanity had evolved, that mankind had outgrown hate and rage. But when it came down to it, when I had the chance to show that no matter what anyone did to me, I was still an evolved human being, I failed. I repaid kindness with blood. I was no better than an animal.
BASHIR: No, no, no, no. An animal would've killed Ee'char and never had a second thought, never shed a tear. But not you. You hate yourself. You hate yourself so much you think you deserve to die. The Argrathi did everything they could to strip you of your humanity. And in the end, for one brief moment, they succeeded. But you can't let that brief moment define your entire life. If you do, if you pull that trigger, then the Argrathi will have won. They will have destroyed a good man. You cannot let that happen, my friend.
There it is. Why we love tormenting O'Brien - as strange as it may be to say - is simple. He's a good man, but a common one. He's not a superhero (they get tortured all the time, and frankly, I usually find that boring) - just a fallible human being doing his level best to live by a moral code and do the right thing. We love to see this kind of person stumble, fail, and still get back up and try again, because that's US up there. Every day, we do our best to do the right thing in a world that makes it very difficult for us sometimes. Sometimes we fail, but life goes on and we have to keep trying. That's Miles Edward O'Brien - everyman - in a nutshell. Just a regular Joe who keeps trying his best. The writers flog this dynamic a bit more often than probably they should, but hey...it works. :)
Writing: 8.0
The script doesn't sing with memorable dialogue throughout - this story could have been far more devastating if every aspect of this experience had been written a little more fluidly. As is, I do enjoy the flashback sequences with Ee'char a bit more than I enjoy his appearances in the real world. But you know...you have to give a script credit when the plot and characters are well conceived, even if the execution isn't perfect.
Acting: 9.5
Com Meaney was, of course, BRILLIANT in this episode. But, I'd like to give a bit of a shout-out to Craig Wasson (Ee'char)...I actually very much appreciated his performance here. And even Alexander Siddig was solid here.
Message: 9.0
Morality is a bit more complex than "actions are the only things that matter" or "intent is the only thing that matters." The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but you can be a deeply unenlightened soul indeed while still performing great services for your fellow men. The key to morality is the sincere effort to repent when we fail to live up to a higher standard. This episode is all about striving to make that sincere effort.
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