Captain Sisko is a passenger aboard the Honshu, a ship transporting war criminal Gul Dukat. Sisko pays Dukat a visit and offers his condolences on the death of Ziyal. This ship doesn't make it's destined stop to starbase 6 because it is attacked by a convoy of Cardassian ships.
The crew on DS9 learn about the attack. A rescue mission, lead by Worf, takes the Defiant in search for survivors. Sisko has been badly injured from plasma burns and Dukat helped him escape in a pod. They land on a isolated planet and Dukat assures Sisko, after he regains consciousness, that he has managed to repair a distress beacon.
We quickly learn that Dukat isn't totally recovered from his breakdown as Wayoun "shows up" and taunts him about screaming every night in his sleep. He fires his phaser and destroys the apparition. A Cardassian officer "shows up" and tries to persuade Dukat to kill Sisko as a means of gaining favor once again with the Cardassian high council for killing the Emissary of the enemy. While this is taking place, Sisko discovers that the distress beacon isn't functioning and tests Dukat's sincerity by asking him to run a full diagnostic. Dukat assures him everything is functioning normally. "That's all I wanted to know" Sisko says.
Dukat fixes supper for Sisko and as they talk, Kira "shows up" and it's then that Sisko sees Dukat is still mentally unstable. The argument with the imaginary Kira reveals Dukat's true disdain for the Bajoran people, his resentment at their disloyalty during the occupation, and his anger at the lack of respect from others he feels he deserves. He totally loses it when he discovers Sisko was able to get the beacon working behind his back and attacks him and destroys the beacon. Sisko tells Dukat that he will no longer play his game or give him absolution for his past crimes.
"I should have turned their world into a graveyard of the likes of which the galaxy had never seen!" Dukat yells as he ponders his resentments. "I should have killed them all!"
Sisko manages to sneak up on the deluded Dukat and strike him on the head and knock him unconscious. "And that is why you're not an evil man" says Sisko.
The two struggle once again as Sisko attempts to get the shuttle off the ground. Dukat gets the upper hand and leaves the injured Sisko on the planet but sends out a distress signal that the nearby Defiant picks up. They rescue Sisko but the crazy Cardassian is long gone. Sisko vows to Dax that his number one priority now is to make sure Dukat doesn't carry out his plan to turn Bajor into a graveyard.
What I liked about this episode was how the writer used the character of Gul Dukat to outwardly express the justification for acts of violence and tyrannical control. He, like many true life occupiers, viewed himself as superior, offering something"better" culturally for their unwilling subjects of rule. Many conquerors don't view themselves as evil, but merely as friends who are ultimately unappreciated, leading to more conflict and bloodshed.
It was also like a great stage play witnessing one man watching the slow and harrowing decline of another. Very well acted by both Marc Alimo and Avery Brooks.
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