4x16 Bar Association

[7.7/10] It’s funny what lingers with you and what doesn’t. I watched much of Deep Space Nine when it first aired, so I remember the big things that happened. I remember the growing tensions with The Dominion. I remember the budding romance between Dax and Worf. I remember the moral gray areas that Captain Sisko had to navigate his way through on the station.

And yet, for whatever reason, I still remembered Rom as little more than Quark’s, well, idiot brother.

But he isn’t! And my biggest pleasant surprise in return to the series all these years later is seeing Rom slowly but surely grow from a bumbling, deferential younger sibling into a self-possessed independent person. One of the most striking and sad moments on the show comes when Sisko challenges Nog to account for why he wants to join Starfleet, and the young Ferengi’s reason amount to, “I don’t want to be mistreated and marginalized by my people, and even my family, the way my dad is.”

“Bar Association” is, famously, the union episode. Not surprisingly, Star Trek attracts a good number of fans whose politics align nicely with Chief O’Brien’s. Because of that, this one has become a cult favorite in certain corners. I can't deny the charm of Rom pouring over theory and declaring “All you have to lose is your chains!”, or the fun of Miles declaring that his Allegheny ancestor was more than a hero, “He was a union man” with a wink, or the inspiration of Quark’s mistreated workers banding together to demand better from their boss.

But what I love most about this episode is that it is, at its core, an episode about Rom coming into his own, and about his relationship with a brother who often clipped his wings in the name of making sure he never fell too far. The strike adds flavor to the episode, and makes for a good means to draw out longstanding conflicts between Quark and Rom, and the show’s long-running thread of each bucking against Ferengi traditions in certain ways. But at the end of the day, I’m more invested in Quark taking a stand, any stand, and standing up to his older sibling, beyond what he’s taking a stand for.

Rom’s not the only one finding his place on the station though. “Bar Association” returns to what already feels like an old chestnut for DS9 at this point -- Worf adjusting to life on the station. I’ll admit, it seems like the show isn’t quite sure what to do with Worf just yet. His role in the season premiere was great and meaningful. But since then, either it’s telling the same types of stories about his relationship to Kingon culture you could have told on The Next Generation, or its the same kind of “Things are different aboard DS9, and I’m not comfortable with that!” B-stories.

It’s not bad though, just a little mild. Worf gets frustrated with Odo when a miscreant burgles his quarters, only for Odo to cheekily point out that they had nogoodniks get one over on Worf aboard the Enterprise too. There’s a solid conversation between him and O’Brien, freighted with meaning, about how the mix of technologies on the station means there’s always a problem for the engineer to solve, but a lack of order that irritates Worf. And there’s even an off-screen scuffle between the two over crossing the picket line.

The upshot of all of this is that Worf decides to live aboard the Defiant as a middle ground which, hey, fine. It’s a half-solution to a pretty nebulous problem of Worf feeling less than settled on the station. But mostly, it serves to show Dax understanding how he feels and trying to ease his transition. Their dynamic is one of the few parts of Worf’s launch into another series that the writers seemed to understand from the jump, and it’s bolstered here.

But the more compelling and fully-formed part of this one is Rom’s crusade. It’s a hoot how Rom takes a simple “theoretical” suggestion from Dr. Bashir to form a union, and uses it to not only organize his fellow employees into a collective force, but run an effective strike that brings his brother to the bargaining table through courage and persistence.

There’s all sots of fun, albeit cartoonish aspects of that. The union meetings are entertaining from the fellow Ferengi’s over-the-top concerns and Rom’s exuberance and devotion to the cause. The return of Liquidator Brunt and Jeffrey Combs is a treat as always, as he brings his Nausikan Pinkertons in an effort to break the strike. And Sisko exerting some leverage as a Quark’s landlord to make him listen to his brother’s demands is an amusing but cool scene as well.

What I like most about it, though, is the way Rom uses his brother’s admonitions against him. When Quark tries to use their sibling relationship to end the strike, Rom spits Quark’s own words back that in matters of business they’re just employer and employee. When Quark begs his brother to end the work stoppage to avoid the Nausikans from doing something drastic to Rom, Rom stands firm and says it would make Quark an only child like he’s always wanted. Rom even quotes the Rules of Acquisition Quark’s so fond of quoting to undermine his brother’s position.

“Bar Association” is about a political awakening, and has lots of fun on that measure. But it’s also about a personal awakening from Rom, about how his brother has been holding him back, penning him in, treating him as less capable and less talented than he is. In truth, I think Quark is at least partly well-intentioned in his belief that Rom needs a lot of handholding, but he’s also at his worst here, and not above blaming or outright exploiting Rom to suit his own needs. Rom figuring that out, and fighting back against a lifetime of marginalization from his sibling as much as he’s fighting for his fellow owkrer’s rights, makes this one engaging on multiple levels.

That's why I love the finish here. Rom wins! He gets Quark to cave, while finding a way to make it seem like he hasn’t, so that Brunt doesn’t sic the Nausikans on Quark again. He insists on Quark making the changes straight away, not letting his brother hoodwink him or stall yet again. And he even gets some affection and admiration from Leeta for his efforts, and while she’s mostly a trophy at this point, their connection here is an auspicious one. All this determination, all this bravery, all this guile leads Rom to success in achieving his goals.

At the end of the day, though, he quits the bar and starts working as a technician on the station. He fought for those improvements to working conditions in the bar because it was the right thing to do, and he wants them for his fellow workers. But the fight also made him realize what he can achieve apart from Quark, and how it might even improve their relationship to sever that employer/employee business in the way, so they can focus on just being brothers.

Suffice it to say, there’s other high points for Rom to come, but this may be the high water mark. When you’re a kid, it’s easy to chuckle at a bumbling character who cowers in the face of threats and gets the short end of the stick every time. But as an adult, you come to recognize how much intelligence, talent, and grace there is in corners of our communities where people refuse to look, or even actively suppress. Seeing someone rise above that, for that community, and find himself in the process, is an arc equal to or greater than all the moral choices and geopolitical snarls Deep Space Nine would cook up over the course of its seven years on the air.