“Afterimage” is the obligatory Everyone Must Adjust to Ezri episode. It is amusing to watch because there are only two extreme views--either someone misses Dax so much they want little to nothing to do with her or they want to make made, passionate love to her because she is just so darn cute. Or Bashir and Quark are horn dogs. Whichever you think sounds more rational.
Ezri definitely is a mess. She has zero confidence in herself whatsoever. You would think her condition would be the exact opposite. Recall way back in “Invasion Procedures,’ Verad was a nebbish wimp who became strong and confident only after joining with Dax. Either the writers are overlooking continuity or Ezri was a horribly spineless pile of goo afraid of her own shadow before her joining. Again, whichever you think is more rational.
I do think it is a stroke of genius to have Ezri come into her own by cracking the toughest walnut around. She gets Garak to finally be honest about his feelings of being a traitor to is people not that he truly is one. Garak even goes to far as to apologize for his abusive behavior to her earlier.
So does Worf, who has been the jackass he usually is even on the best of days. While I have always preferred the DS9 handling of the character, he is still my least favorite on the show. It does not make sense that worf does not give the first crap about his son, but acts like an animal over someone who is no longer his wife. Regardless of his motivation about sullying her memory or whatever his problem is.
In the end, Ezri decides to stay on DS9 and even winds up with a celebration over her promotion. I assume Bashir and Quark are happy in the thought she might be in a festive enough mood to boff both of them.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
