2x02 The Circle (2)

[7.2/10] “Homecoming” was a tightly-plotted, well-motivated start to Deep Space Nine’s second season. “The Circle” is a lumpy middle act full of narrative odds and ends. It’s not a bad episode by any stretch, but it’s full of random scenes and jumps in time that don’t really fit together despite nominally being relevant. I don’t mind any of the plotlines here individually, but they never quite coalesce into something whole.

We have a grand farewell for Kira, Li Nalas coming into his own as Bajoran Liaison to Starfleet, the increasingly extreme moves of The Circle, Odo and Quark figuring out who's supplying the extremists with weapons, Sisko trying to bring Kira back to the station, Kira herself going on vision quests and low-key flirting with Vedek Bareil, Minister Jaro and Vedek Winn plotting, and the unveiling of a scheme for Bajoran hardliners to expel the Federation without realizing how they’re inadvertently leaving themselves vulnerable to another Cardassian occupation.

That’s a lot! Again, none of it’s bad. Political struggles with complex diplomatic and practical ties are always good. Frank Langella and Louise Fletcher make for a great power couple. Examining what Kira’s departure from Deep Space Nine means for the station and for her is a good tack. And watching our heroes sniff out a conspiracy right under their noses thanks to some clever subterfuge is classic Trek.

There’s simply nothing to unite these developments beyond the fact that they’re built around roughly the same web of events. “The Circle” provides very little in the way of theme or cause and effect or the poetry of the show’s last outing. Instead, it’s a kind of photo album of different moods and moments, which have some force individually but do not truly build on one another in a meaningful fashion.

Still, even if this is a piece-moving episode, color me interested in where the pieces now stand on the game board. I’ll confess to guessing (or maybe having remembered? It’s been a long time) that Minister Jaro was in league with The Circle. His position is a naive but understandable one, shared by other Bajorans we’ve met in years past -- he’s tired of his great people constantly being under the thumb of whatever great power passes through and decides to dominate them. Obviously we know that’s not the Federation's role, but it’s understandable why someone who’s lived through the Cardassian occupation only to need the protection of another major civilization would be irked by the arrangement.

And yet, I’m compelled by the notion that to whatever extent Jaro and Winn are true believers, they’re also social climbers. Winn is as bothersome and faux-superior with her phony smile as ever. Her aims may carry the whiff of principle on the surface, a return to “othrodox” values, but what seems to bring her and Jaro together is not their belief in a more traditional “Bajor for Bajorans”, but rather the chance to ascend to power: Jaro as Prime Minister and Winn as Kai.

They’re met by an equal and opposite power couple: Kira and Bareil. It’s a little odd that “The Circle” devotes a good portion of its runtime to “My Romance with a Cardinal”, and the dialogue between the two forbidden romantics is tin-eared much of the time. And yet, there’s something interesting in the proto-Sopranos-esque dream sequence (thanks to the orb of prophecy) in which Kira sees herself in a political role, and also...naked with Bareil. There’s a lot to unpack there, but it seems to suggest a fate, albeit a potentially metaphorical one, in which the forces and movements these figures represent seem poised to do battle.

Still, all the visions and monastery flirting can’t compare to the sweetness of the episode’s opening, where scads of Kira’s colleagues come into her quarters to say goodbye. There’s a stage-y quality to most of this episode (give or take the cave rescue). But the talky vibe works, with rat-a-tat dialogue and characters talking over one another all trying to rouse or commiserate or just bid farewell to Kira. And the moment of parting between her and Sisko is just as freighted with warmth and kind things felt but unsaid.

The episode seems to jump in time without really engaging with this material, leaving it a little underfed, but it’s also my favorite part of this one. These moments are built on the shared affections and forged bonds of the last season, paying dividends even for what seems destined to be a temporary parting.

All that said, the bigger political machinations are compelling in their own right. It’s funny, in my memory, Deep Space 9 was a fairly stable show. I remembered adventures in and around the station, with some wide-ranging external conflicts, but thought the premise was pretty sturdy and steady. Instead, here the show leans into how fragile this state of affairs is, how weak the Bajoran Provisional Government is, how readily the Federation might evacuate this outpost,and how quickly the Cardassians might swoop in. It all sells the tenuousness of this arrangement, and how remarkable it is that this motley crew of Starfleet and Bajorans and civilians have made it work this long.

It’s hard to imagine stakes greater than all non-Bajorans having to evacuate the station, power-hungry autocrats taking over the civilian government and the religious institutions, hardliners and extremists shooing away our heroes, and the series’s ostensible villains planning to use the moment to retake control unbeknownst to the activists who are greasing the wheels for them. The cloak and dagger of it all is a little silly, but the intra- and extra-political intricacies are engaging.

That’s why I’m ultimately willing to give an episode like “The Circle” a pass. It can’t live up to the great path paved by “Homecoming.” Instead, it’s a series of mismatched puzzle pieces, glued together regardless of whether they truly fit. But each piece is a good one, advancing the characters or deepening their world or bringing a dramatic conflict to the fore in compelling fashion, even if they don’t necessarily make up a bigger picture together.