Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Recap/S01/E19 Duet

Series:Star Trek Deep Space Nine Episode: Season 1, Episode 19 Title:"Duet" Previous: Dramatis Personae Next: In The Hands Of The Prophets Recapper: Rms Oceanic

Duet begins with Kira and Dax discussing their dating lives when a ship containing a passenger suffering from Kalla-Nohra docks at the station. Kira heads down to Doctor Bashir and, seeing the passenger is Cardassian, arrests him on the spot. As it transpires, Kalla-Nohra is only ever found in people who were at a specific work camp during the Occupation of Bajor on the day of a mining accident. Many bad things happened at that camp, so Kira has arrested him as a war criminal.

His claims that he does not have Kalla-Nohra, but instead a similar disease that was mistaken by the transport doctor he was traveling with, are quickly dismissed, and he keeps insisting that he is Aamin Marritza, a military file clerk, who had nothing to do with the crimes committed by the Cardassian occupation. During Kira's questioning of him, a Drunken Bajoran is released from holding muttering about being imprisoned with a Cardie.

While Sisko faces pressure from the Bajoran Government to hand him over for trial, he holds off while he attempts to verify his identity, which is tricky when there are few images of the work camp. During this he discusses the matter with Kira, and his intent to release Marritza if his story checks out. Using a picture from the work camp, the prisoner looks nothing like Marritza...but he is a spot on match for Gul Darhe'el, the camp's administrator.

Confronted with this, he admits that he is Gul Darhe'el and gives a long boastful confession about how he slaughtered people and all his other crimes, and how Kira and her Shaakar resistance cell were insignificant. With this it looks like he will be handed over to Bajor for Trial and Execution, but something's amiss...how did he know the name of Kira's Resistance cell?

With this loose thread to sort out, Odo gets in contact with Gul Dukat, who provides surprising information: Not only has Gul Darhe'el already died and been buried in a public military funeral, but he was not even at the camp on the day of the accident and so would never have contracted Kalla-Nohra. Further investigation of the prisoner's home reveals he spent a lot of time researching Kira, and taking medication for the after effects of surgical alterations. Once again, Kira confronts him with the evidence, claiming that he is Marritza after all trying to pass himself off as Gul Darhe'el, but he tries to cling to it:

""I am alive! I will always be alive!!! It's Marritza who is dead! Marritza, who was good for nothing but cowering under his bunk and weeping like a woman. Who, every night, covered his ears because he couldn't bear to hear the screaming... for mercy... of the Ba-jor-ans... *breaks down weeping uncontrollably* Covered my ears every night... because I couldn't bear to hear the horrible screams. You have no idea what it's like to be a coward. To see these horrors and do nothing... Marritza's dead. He deserves to be dead."

Marritza finally admits his true identity and his motivations: He believes Cardassia has to face its past and accept responsibility for what it has done, and by having a very public trial he can force Cardassia to deal with it. With this, Kira releases him, having realised that his death would just be another murder.

Kira arranges transport for Marritza to return to his home, saying Cardassia needs good men like him if it's ever to reform. As they head for this transport, the drunken Bajoran from earlier comes up and shivs Marritza in the back. As Kira cradles him as he dies, she looks at the Bajoran.

"Kira: Why did you do it?! He wasn't Gul Darhe'el!

Bajoran: He was a Cardassian! That's reason enough!

Kira: No, it's not."

The TV screen tends to become unusually blurry at this point, and no amount of whacking seems to fix it...