Not only is Duet one of the best Trek episodes of all time, but it is the Gold Standard of Trek Bottle Episodes. And while there is a lot of great things about this episode, the acting, writing etc. it is that scene that cements the whole thing. And you know, it is fascinating looking back on the series how Kira grew as a character. I remember when Netflix first got DS9 and rewatching the series for the first time, and being struck by how angry and generally aggressive against Cardassians Kira originally was. It seemed weird given where she'd be at the end of the series. But then you get this episode, Second Skin, involvement with the Anti-military Faction, her complex relationship with Dukat, and of course Dukat's daughter and you see how Kira changed with regards to the Cardassians. And it all began with a man she was ready to kill on the spot.

"You have no idea what it's like to be a coward" is such an amazing subtle backhanded compliment

What gets me most about this episode is that throughout the entire episode Kira only gets riled and emotive when she's talking about Cardiassians, the Occupation, Darheel's atrocities etc - in a lot of ways throughout this episode she personifies the hatred that many Bajorans feel for Cardassians , and yet the final scene shows her experiencing a completely different kind of pain and anger to anything we had seen her experience up until this point. The pivotal moment for Kira's character development isn't just that she learns that some Cardassians can be good and some Bajorans can be bad - she experiences true grief at the death of a Cardassian and that completely realigns her moral compass, basically ascending her from good-natured Bajoran terrorist to a true post-war leader.

He is the ultimate Cardasian patriot. Hoping his death will wash away the sins of his compatriots and allow them to evolve.

I kind of feel like you shouldn't have cut the audio of Kira's last line there. In response to "He's a Cardassian! That's reason enough!" was "No! It's not." I think that was a big sign of growth for her. Before her interactions with Maritsa, she probably would have agreed with that sentiment. She certainly would have while in the resistance. Maritsa helped her understand that Cardassians weren't merely hateful, murderous assholes by default. Some were, but some, probably most, were not.

Of all the episodes of Trek... this one hits me the hardest... The actor for Moritza did such a wonderful job that even with you staring and stopping to explain the scene.. It STILL brings me to tears. It's just that powerful on me.

Cardassia chose not to atone for its crimes. Cardassia choose the self-serving path of Gul Dukat. As Garak said: "You know, some may say that we've gotten just what we deserved. After all, we're not entirely innocent, are we? And I'm not just speaking of the Bajoran occupation. No, our whole history is one of arrogant aggression. We've collaborated with the Dominion, betrayed the entire Alpha Quadrant... Oh, oh, no no, there's no doubt about it - we're guilty as charged."

That scene where he broke down and cried, it moved me in such a way that I could feel his pain. That's brilliant acting on both characters. The Cardassians paid for their sins with their lives at the end of the Dominion War. I totally agree with your statement, "how can the Cardassians pay for their sins?" He was a hero.

What's great about this moment/episode too is it's the minute that Kira comes to understand not all Cardassians are evil. She was very, very anti-Cardassian until this point. Later on she'd accept a Cardassian as a straight up father figure and back to the dissident movement. Why I love DS9 bottle episodes; they rarely stay in the bottle.

I like the scene analyses

"He's a Cardassian! That's reason enough." "No....it's not." I'm honestly not a DS9 fan like most trekkies (at least not yet) But this episode is DAMN good. Worthy of Roddenberry.

I find these break downs of the writing and acting to be as important to the lore, as anything else. The real Trek series all dealt with very deep and serious issues, in equally deep and thoughtful ways. They used solid scripts, and quality acting/directing to establish the story. Not lens flare and special effects.

This is why we love Old Trek. This one episode has so many parallels with our past and present, it's genuinely saddening. "He's Black, that's reason enough" "He's Gay..." "He's White..." I wish I could look back on the darker episodes like this and say that we've evolved from this kind of thinking. That we're better, not able to make mistakes like this anymore.

this episode gets me every time.

I forgot how this scene made me cry. Especially since I bet I'd do the same thing as the clerk.

Dont apologize for "straying" away from ships and stuff, their isnt a lot to cover on that front that other's arent covering. Your analysis on scenes is great and much appreciated.

Honestly that actor should’ve been a main, not a guest. Love every episode he’s in.

I love how he breaks down mid maniacal monolog. Also this is major character episode of Kira as she learns and grows that not Cardassian are evil.

When the facade crumbles and he breaks down I get goose bumps every time

Really well acted. Amazing episode.

If the story had ended differently, the Way we thought it was going to would have still made this a moving episode. The as it ends as it's actually written makes it such a tragedy that it helps make the audience feel in some small way the tragedy of the Bajoran Occupation. The violence was senseless and after finding out Maritza's heroic intentions, to see him be killed by a vengeance filled bajoran knifes this point home. One of the best episodes of trek and one I will always put forward in example.

This was always one of my favorites simply because this begins the bridge between cardassia and Bajor. Then some radical bajoran comes up behind him and ends it all. If he’d lived it could’ve been a quicker end to Bajoran-Cardassian hostilities

This is a great scene, and a great breakdown. Side note, it does seem that every non-main character Kira connects with at all dies violently.

This was done. Another scene that I always remembered was when a Klingon General responded to a young officer who mocked him for giving an incoherent order brought on by his dementia as the entire bridge laughed at him. He turned to them and said, 'enjoy the fruit of your youth as much as you can, when you get old it turns extremely bitter'. His delivery and expression was perfect.

This was one of the best hours of Trek of all time and I still get choked up when I watch it. . They say you can judge the relative quality of a TV series by the strength of it's bottle episodes. If the bottle episodes are crap, the show is probably also crap. If the bottle episodes just give the writers time to explore some thing small in a detailed way, you might have a gem on your hands. .

One of the greatest episodes in the entire Star Trek franchise. Thank you for putting this together.

Duet is one of my favorite DS9 episodes, for many of the reasons you point out.

Please don't apologize for your art. I very much enjoy your work, and has opened new avenues of thinking for a franchise I've enjoyed and rewatched since I was 6.

Harris Yulin did such a excellent job in this role, his acting made the good writing incredible.

This episode is worth more than ST Picard and STD combined...

You don't know what you've missed till it's gone. Given the current era, I'm not sure we'll ever get another star trek episode with writing as good as this. Everything these days is just so two dimensional, there is no depth, only good or evil, and that those who stand on the sidelines or remain silent are equally guilty, must acknowledge their privelage and flagellate themselves to atone. If this show was written today, Michael Burman would've gladly put that man on trial and hail herself a hero for doing so.

This is great episode of deep space 9

Wanted to say that I absolutely love your scene analysis videos. I very much look forward to seeing more!

Amazing episode. His breakdown at the end is comparable to G'Kar's speech about freedom on Babylon 5 when his race was conquered by the Centari. Impeccable acting in an episode that doesn't get talked about enough.

Great breakdown, keep up the good work!

This is excellent. Please continue your incredible work

What an amazing episode. This is star trek at its best. Thanks for the video man.

I enjoy this on your channel, keep up the good work

And this ladies and gentlemen was DS9. Episodes like this made DS9 the best ST of all! *Brilliant, insightful, uncomfortable, timeless!* Star Trek at it's best. TV at it's best.

I came here for the lore analysis, but I love these scene breakdowns. I hope to see more of them in future, it makes for a nice bit of variety.

Thank you for going over this episode! I remember watching it when it came out, and in that moment it not only became my favorite episode of DS9, but made DS9 my favorite Star Trek series.

I like the scene analysis. You link an individual scene into the bigger themes of the series well.

So I was young when DS9 aired the first time, but this was one of the few that I saw that I remembered years later.

One of the best scenes and example of how to write and develop characters. Totally agree with the analysis of this scene. Nana Visitor is one of the top 5 actors on this series.

One of the best episodes I've seen. Hell, it goes beyond that, it's so....powerful!

I like the vid. Thank you Lore. Keep going.

Outstanding episode, love it.

Very good breakdown. It was a very important scene in the series, including the end part.

Thanks for making me cry just before work.....

The episode brought a tear to my eye when I watch it.

This is easily my favorite episode in all of Star Trek I think your analysis was spot-on

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I've actually come to enjoy these scene analysis videos more than your lore videos, I look forward to them way more. It might just be because it is a fresh way to look at Star Trek or its because they stand out in the sea that is lore videos on KZfaq (for any franchise).

Really glad you did this breakdown. DS9 has so many good scenes, this acting was top notch.

I like that you are varying what you are doing.

I don't watch many episodes from season 1 but I will rewatch this today.

When I introduced my wife to DS9, Kira became her favorite character, and this episode became her favorite one. I have to agree with her, the acting and writing is superb, demonstrating the overall quality of DS9 as a show.

I just started watching the series a month or so ago and this episode floored me. I miss the gold standard of what was Trek writing!

This is one of my most favorite episodes, it's just incredibly good

One of the greatest Trek episode ever

Yea its powerful. Good teaching moment. Another episode that I feel is powerful is far beyond the stars in season 6, I believe. I actually spoke to Avery Brooks about it twice at two different conventions years apart. I talked to him from a microphone out in the audience while he was on stage. I've done the same many times with other stars, but with him, that was one of my favorite episodes and DS9 my favorite series and I love the character, so it was pretty surreal talking to him.

One of the greatest episodes of Trek IMO. This is the one I show to people that think Trek is just sci-fi fluff. This is also the episode that let me know that DS9 was not going to be like TNG. It was a powerful episode when it aired but these days it really resonates. I can't watch it without tearing up.

My favoriye episode in a truly great series.

It's episodes like this that make DS9 my favorite Trek.

I rewatched DS9 this year and I also found this moving.

When my all time favorite episodes and scenes in the entire star trek series and saga

I'm not crying. I just got something in my eye!

Due to some traumatic events I endured as a kid later on in life I had nightmares in which I was placed in his situation, in equally horrendous circumstances to act out the guilt ridden powerless experience the trauma represented to me. Poor poor man. It also kind of reminds me of the end of Schindler’s List. Survival is a two edged sword as it might ultimately break you to an extent beyond what death ever could accomplish.

The Bajoran drunk/sociopath who stabs Marizza at the end says something which is an echo of something said by both Marizza and Kira in different contexts earlier in the episode. . Kira says, still holding on to anger and grief "Every Cardassian is guilty, as far as I'm concerned they all deserve to be punished." and later Dax points out to her that on some level she needs the prisoner to be Darheel, she needs him to be guilty because what she wants is vengeance. A sentiment Marizza also accuses her of while he's still in his Darheel guise. . Later, Marizza says "We all have to be punished!" in something akin to survivor's guilt, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. . He wants to die because did not stop the atrocities and is now wracked with guilt, but filtered through the lens of that genetic-level nationalism that all Cardassians seem to have, he thinks he is doing it because Cardassia can only survive if it atones, and he wants to sacrifice himself for the fatherland, not to save it, but to save its _soul._ . Garak was always a patriot too. He wanted to go home, but he was an exile and had to deal with that as best he could. . A great character study on Cardassians in general, but a great story arc for Kira. She goes into it believing all Cardassians are evil, and comes out of it realizing it's a bit more complicated than that. Some of the Bad Guys were not guilty, they were just part of a system that would have steamrollered over them had they tried to fix it. . She starts by saying "All Cardassians are guilty" out of pain anger and grief, but when she hears a suicidal man tortured by his memories say "All Cardassians are guilty", Dax's words suddenly come into sharp focus for her. .

One of my favorite episodes.

I loved when she had that side Bob hairstyle looked good on her

Powerful scene indeed!

Why is it that when Maritza gets stabbed, no one bothers to put up a call for a medical emergency that might have saved his life? It is understandable for dramatic effect in the plot, just seems strange that if someone is hurt almost any other time, they call Dr. Bashir right away, but here he is left to die in her arms on the promenade while questioning the stabber's motives.

This has always been one of my favorite DS9 episodes!

Outstanding episode. I still get misty-eyed when Maritza breaks down. Damn space onion-cutting ninjas. The only part I didn't like was the ending. It seemed like such a cop-out.

I like these videos, verity is the spice of life my friend

This scene Makes me tear up every time. Even during this breakdown

No matter how many times I see this episode, it makes me cry. I think it’s a powerful lesson to learn, especially in this day and age. Also I love what Dax tells Kira. “You know that if you punishing him without cause will mean nothing, and you know vengeance isn’t enough”. I think that’s a very important lesson that many of us have forgotten. Also I’d add to your sexist comment it also is a moment of culturally imposed toxic masculinity. That he feels ashamed of feeling emotion and feeling. This is a classic case of cultures telling men to toughen up, to be hard. That emotion is weakness

The more of these scene cuts that I see, the more I appreciate the writing and acting that went into the pre-JJ verse Trek. CBS would do well to watch these videos, and take some notes.

One of the best moments. in season 1. The growth of Kira in this scene far more than the rest of the of the season.

Excellent episode. very much a Greek tragedy.

Next to Hearthstone I think this is probably one of my favorite ones

I don't cry easily, but this scene always makes me tear up.

I do have one problem with the final scene. As the trio leaves Odo's office and starts walking down the promenade, they pass by Quark's bar when Mortiza is stabbed in the back by the Bajoran bigot. Isn't the infirmary directly across the promenade corridor from Quark's Bar?

They are good series of videos.

I love Duet. It's such a damn good episode. The best first season episode.

I refer to him as "The man who saved the Alpha Quadrant". He's the one who opened Kira's eyes to the idea that Cardassians were people too, people who might be worth saving. Without that insight, she never would have aided Damar. Without her help, the Cardassian Resistance would have been crushed by the Dominion. Without the Cardassians...the Dominion War would have been so much worse.

One of the "blink and you miss it" things about this episode is the line "you don't know what it's like to be a coward." He says that to Kira and for the most part he is right. Kira says that she first started fighting when she was 13. Maritza didn't when he was more than twice that. He knew everything he was involved with. The details of the Rape of Bajor. He knew it was evil. He wasn't culpable for any of it but did nothing to stop it. He didn't even resign in protest. Because he was afraid of what would happen to him.

This episode always gets the feels going, best acting, best story and really connects with us from x-Yugoslavia because of the '90s war we had for independance from which a lot of war crminals are still at large whilst hate is generalized and it should not be... Victims were on both sides and I honestly believe there' s people like Miritza that wanted to help but couldnt, they should not be accountable for other people's crimes

The absolute best episode of season one in Star Trek Deep Space Nine

As long as 1 person still holds hatred for another group of people for an event that happened long ago, there will be no peace. This is true in art as well as real life. When 1 person tells 10 other people about how a group or race of people are evil, each person of those 10 people will tell 10 more. This will never stop. I know how it works first hand. I told 10 people about how a store made fun of my friend, and that they were in the wrong. 1 year later that store closed due to rapidly declining sales. That store is now an empty lot

This episode is one of my favourites, it's made so well and deserves to be up there as one of the best of the series. But one thing that also made this episode stand out so much for me when compared to other episodes of equal calibre like Waltz, The Visitor, Pale Moonlight and all those, is that this was made relatively early in the series, when the characters were still being fully established. For me this is one of the key episodes in the development of Kira as a character, learning to see a "humane" side to those she hated so much, that would help with her interractions with other cardassians later on. I wonder, if this episode did happen, what would the Commander Kira that went to Cardassia to help the resistence ultimately be like? It even helped her to feel a little pitty in the end for someone that killed most of her resistence cell and tried to kill her in The Darkness and the Light...

Theae scene analysis r great and ahould become part of ur arsenal

It was an excellent show. It's a good educational tool also.

Duet is one of the best episodes of DS9, Harris Yulin ( I had to look that up lol) Does a hands down amazing job in this role. He goes from vile evil man to an emotional breakdown at the truth of who he really is and what must be done to attone. And its legitimately powerful to watch. not only that but it does a great of job of giving you emotion about the Occupation, and sets up the Cardassians as a far more complicated antagonist. Ds9 is one of those shows that does a good job of holding up well even by todays standards.

Series one of DS9 wasnt that great, then you get this episode which is staggeringly profound and amazing. I watch this ep a lot

THeres an Episode of Voyager that had the same premise, Nelix argue with an army Doctor who did evil science , it's a great episode too, it's in season 1

It shows what hatred when built up can release. It was one of my favorite episodes

It was a brilliant episode and a strong scene. I also believe the episodes dealing with Kira's adopted cadassian father, sorry can't remember his name, was wonderfully written especially his death episode

As a scene good as characterization well Kira often went up and down for her views on Cardassians however that may be a well drawn out concept. Kira is still learn herself how to deal with Bajor and being a Bajoran both pre and post occupation.