DS9 S5E22 Children of Time

Let’s talk about DS9~~~

Okay, this was a strange one. I was actually putting off watching this episode, because when I saw it about 10 years ago, the Odo/Kira feels were devastating, and I didn’t want to deal with it again.

And this time around, older Odo deeply weirds me out and makes me worried. He’s so desperate to spend these two days with Kira. What on Earth has he been doing all this time? He wants to talk about how lovely she is, and to spend time with her, and to assure her that “her” Odo will change if she gives him time, and it’s all adorbs, great, except then he pulls the trigger on eight thousand people against Kira’s express wishes because maybe that way some form of him can be with her.

Yiiiiiiiiiiikes, future Odo, you worry me.

I remember reading an excellent novelization of this episode by Tracy Hemenover (still out there, ds9encyclopedia.0catch.com) which posits that this Odo spent most of his time away from the colony as his friends began to die off, one by one, and thus he doesn’t know anyone in it. He’s been waiting 200 years for Kira to come back. She’s the only real one left, now.

But gaaaaaaaaaaah, he goes exactly against what she’s just said? Because her wishes don’t matter? Because an imagined future self might have a chance with her? Because he’s torn up that he never told her how he felt?

Odo, you took away her choice.  Take your ball, leave the field, you broke the rules, the game is over!

God, if I was Kira, I’d almost want to stay the hell away from Odo at this point. I know, I know; it’s not his fault, and it’s not him, it’s what he could be. And I guess we could all be anything, given the right set of circumstances. But I’d still wonder what else was lurking inside the friend I thought I knew so well.