I just finished watching DS9 Season 5 Episode 5 ‘The Assignment’ and as much as I loved it, I couldn’t believe the treatment they gave Keiko. It was a tense episode and I enjoyed seeing O’Brien getting psychologically tortured and I laughed at first at the treatment of Keiko but by the end of the episode I felt really bad about how she was portrayed.
The whole dragon lady dynamic is fun for a while but it gets old fast and you start feeling bad for the character.
I also loved the part in the episode where it’s O’Brien’s birthday and everyone instead sings ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ … it’s a whole musical rights issue where someone has to be paid for the performance of the song ‘Happy Birthday’ which is why they didn’t use it … yet another torturous addition to the life of O’Brien.
Their relationship dynamic doesn’t get enough credit. The married couple that isn’t Brady Bunch perfect, shown warts and all. Just too bad they weren’t very believable together.
I disagree, I found their relationship to be very realistic in the sense that they seemed like they were staying together just because they were always together.
Not every hero character gets the happy ending, sometimes there’s just a mildly unpleasant home life and a person who just lives for work.
