Broken Link (episode)
Odo is plagued by an unknown ailment that threatens to kill him. Meanwhile, the Federation and the Klingon Empire move closer to war. (Season finale)

Summary

Teaser 

Odo arrives at Elim Garak's shop, as requested by the Cardassian tailor. He believes Garak wishes to report a crime, but instead Garak attempts to introduce Odo to a Bajoran woman named Chalan Aroya, the owner of the newly opened Celestial Cafe on the Promenade. Uncomfortable with women, Odo neither accepts nor declines her invitation for dinner, noting that he doesn't eat. Garak expresses dissatisfaction in Odo's inability to act. Suddenly, Odo's shape destabilizes. As he vocalizes the pain, the destabilization continues. Eventually, he falls to the ground, unconscious. Garak contacts Dr. Bashir and requests an emergency medical team.

Act One 
In the infirmary, Bashir informs Odo that his mass and density are in a state of fluctuation, but is uncertain of the cause. The doctor insists that Odo remain in the infirmary, as movement may encourage the destabilization. Odo grudgingly agrees.

In the wardroom, Benjamin Sisko, Worf, Jadzia Dax, and Kira Nerys view a transmission from Klingon  Gowron. Gowron refuses to return captured Cardassian territories. He also demands that the United Federation of Planets withdraw from its starbases and military installations in the Archanis sector, despite its unimportance and previous relinquishment by the Klingon Empire. Dax states that several diplomats have informed her that several Federation colonies near the Klingon border are calling for a preemptive strike against the Klingons.

The senior staff is troubled by the growing prospect of war, but realizes there is little they can do, Archanis is a long way from the station. Suddenly, Kira bursts into a fit of sneezing. The sneezing is a result of her recent pregnancy. She is asked if Bashir can help, but states the doctor currently has his hands full with Odo's unknown illness. The crew agrees to leave Odo alone to rest, knowing that he values his privacy.

In the infirmary, Kira visits Odo. Odo doesn't want company, but is happy to receive that day's criminal activity report from Kira. Noticing something on the PADD, Odo leaves the infirmary for a docking port. He encounters a Boslic freighter Captain named Rionoj, whom he suspects of attempting to steal the Falangian diamond. Unfortunately, as Odo prepares to arrest Rionoj, he is struck by the illness again, this time becoming completely liquid.

Act Two 
Now back in the infirmary, Odo is in a near constant state of instability (primarily in the midsection) and admits to Bashir he is having difficulty maintaining humanoid shape. Bashir estimates that Odo will not be able to maintain solid form in one or two weeks. Bashir gives Odo the option of going to Bajor (to Doctor Mora Pol) or Starfleet Medical, but Odo insists that only the Founders can truly help his condition.

In his office, Sisko discusses the mission to take Odo to the Founders' new homeworld with the senior staff. They will enter the Gamma Quadrant uncloaked and transmit signals explaining their mission. Major Kira initially wants to go with them, but agrees to remain behind because of the pregnancy.

Now aboard the Defiant, Sisko grants a request made by Garak to come aboard. Garak explains to Sisko that he wishes to ask the Founders about the crew members of several Cardassian warships that went missing during the failed attack on the Founders. Sisko agrees to allow Garak on the mission so that Garak can distract Odo during the mission with a concoction of innuendo and half-truths regarding Garak's (alleged) past as a Cardassian spy.

On the way to the Defiant, Odo meets Quark, who predicts he will own the station by the time they get back (as well as a 60% increase in his smuggling profits due to Odo's absence); Odo warns Quark not to get too comfortable because he will be back. Odo then walks unaided across the Promenade as dozens of people watch his departure.

The Defiant leaves for the Gamma Quadrant. Garak occupies Odo's attention in the infirmary by telling him tales of his previous experiences, including his time as a gardener at the Cardassian embassy on Romulus during a period where several prominent Romulan officials died under suspicious circumstances. O'Brien tells the rest of the Defiants bridge crew how he feels outnumbered now that Kira has moved in with Keiko and him and wishes Bashir would move in to even the numbers. The Defiant then meets and is surrounded by dozens of Jem'Hadar fighters.

Act Three 
A request is made for someone from the Dominion to meet on the Defiant to discuss the request that was being transmitted. Before arrangements could be made, the Female Changeling and three Jem'Hadar soldiers beam directly to the Defiants bridge. One of the Jem'Hadar soldiers attacks O'Brien by grabbing his chest until the Founder orders everyone to stop. 

The Female Changeling, representing the Founders, says she has come for Odo and that he must go with her to the Great Link. As she is reluctant to reveal the location of the , but respects Sisko's loyalty to Odo when he refuses to leave the Gamma Quadrant without him, one of the Jem'Hadar named Amat'igan will pilot the Defiant while a device is installed that will keep the navigation system from recording their destination.

The Female Changeling visits Odo in the infirmary. They join and Odo is visibly much better and more stable than before. She then insists that they speak alone. During the discussion, it is apparent that the Founders have been keeping Odo under surveillance and knew he was not well. She admits that they made him ill so that he would be forced to return to the Great Link to be judged.

Act Four 
The Female Changeling tells Odo that he is to join in the Great Link, open his thoughts so that they can judge him for killing another Changeling, the first time the Great Link has ever had to render such a judgment on a Changeling. She also admits that only the Great Link can truly heal him of his illness.

In a corridor, Garak and the Female Changeling discuss the possibility of Cardassian survivors from the earlier attack; she responds that the attackers, Garak, and all of Cardassia is dead for attacking the Founders and warns that retaliation is coming soon.

The crew discusses ways to maintain a transporter lock on Odo while he is in the Great Link, but, given his devotion to justice, he insists that the crew does not try to rescue him when he is being judged, despite O'Brien warning that the Dominion's idea of justice seems far different than Odo's.

Once at the Founder's homeworld, the Female Changeling, Odo, Sisko and Bashir transport down to a small rocky island that is completely surrounded by the Great Link. The Female Changeling walks into the "ocean" and, with a short glance and a smile back at Sisko and Bashir, Odo follows.

Act Five 
While waiting, Sisko stops Bashir from absentmindedly trying to skip a rock into the "ocean". 

Worf catches Garak in a junction of a Jefferies tube in an attempt to control the Defiants phasers and quantum torpedoes. His plan is to commit genocide by destroying the ; although the Defiant and its crew would not survive, Garak argues that it would be a small price to destroy the Dominion threat and save the Alpha Quadrant. Worf defeats Garak in hand-to-hand combat, commenting that he fights well… for a tailor.

Back on the planet surface, the Defiant crew sees Odo being ejected from the Great Link to the shore of the rocky island. He is not wearing any clothing. Bashir scans him and says he is getting strange readings – lungs, a heart, a digestive system… It's as if Odo were Human. The Female Changeling walks out of Great Link and says that Odo has been judged. She states that his punishment was to give him what he wanted: he has been made a solid. She then tells Sisko to take Odo and leave their home immediately.

Back aboard the Defiant, Bashir takes a blood sample (type O negative) from Odo. The only thing unchanged is his face, which Odo realizes is meant to perpetually remind him of what he has lost now that he has become a solid.

The Defiant returns to Deep Space 9. Odo is in Garak's shop and purchases a uniform similar in appearance to the one he adopted while able to change form, albeit slightly itchy from the Inkarian wool. Odo realizes that some of the rest of his unease is due to being hungry, yet another sensation he did not possess while a changeling. As he is about to escort Garak to be confined for six months for attempted sabotage and assaulting Worf, Chalan Aroya enters Garak's shop and offers to help Odo in any way now that he is a solid; Odo still doesn't ask for a date but does respond with a broader smile than when he was first introduced to Aroya.

Odo leaves his office and meets Sisko in the Promenade; when Sisko suggests Odo is rushing his recovery, Odo insists that he must work: when he was in the Great Link, he finally understood the Founders, their hostility and distrust of solids, everything. But as soon as he experienced it, it was snatched away from him, leaving his job the only thing that he has left in his life. On the Promenade, a message from Gowron is displayed. Gowron states that a Klingon task force is to be sent to the Archanis sector in ten days and warns that any Federation stations or ships remaining in that sector will be destroyed. Sisko places the station on combat alert and asks Major Kira to alert the Bajoran Militia. 

Suddenly Odo realizes something: during his time in the Link, the Founders were trying to hide certain things from him. One of those things was Gowron. This can only mean that Chancellor Gowron is in fact a Changeling.

Log entries 
 Captain's log, Deep Space 9, 2372

Memorable quotes 
"If Gowron is willing to go to war over the Archanis sector, then he has become even more dangerous than I thought."
 - Worf

"Two, three; I say she stops at seven."
"I say eight. Mr. Worf?"
(reluctantly) "Ten."
(finally stops sneezing after eight sneezes) "I hate being pregnant."
"I win."
 - Dax, Sisko, Worf, and Kira, while Kira sneezes

"Benjamin, somebody has requested permission to come on board."
"Who is it?"
"It's... Garak."
"Tell him the ship is off limits to Cardassian spies."
 - Dax, Sisko, and Worf

"Personally, I think Starfleet should allow their officers more latitude in accessorizing their uniforms, Hmm?  You'd be surprised what a nice scarf can do."
 - Elim Garak

"But where you offer kindness, I offer mystery. Where you offer sympathy, I offer intrigue. Just give me a seat next to Odo's bed and I'll conjure up enough innuendos, half-truths, and bald-faced lies about my so-called career in the Obsidian Order to keep the constable distracted for days - and if there's one thing Cardassians excel at, it's conversation!"
 - Elim Garak

"I think you did this to me. You caused my illness so that I'd be forced to come home."
"As I said, I wish the circumstances of this meeting were different. You killed a Changeling, Odo."
"He was trying to kill my friends. I had no choice."
"Of course you had a choice. And you chose to side with the solids. To protect them, you were willing to violate the most sacred law of our people."
"No Changeling has ever harmed another."
"Until you. That's why we forced you to return home... to enter the Great Link and be judged."
 - Odo and Female Changeling

"Doctor?"
"Oh... right."
 - Sisko and Bashir as the latter had forgotten what the Great Link was and was about to skip a rock in it

"And what of the captain and Odo and Dr. Bashir?"
"They'll die. And when the Jem'Hadar find out what we've done, so will we. But what of it, Worf?  What are our lives compared with the entire Alpha Quadrant?"
 - Worf and Garak

"Come now Mr. Worf, you're a Klingon, don't tell me you'd object to a little genocide in the name of self defense!"
 - Garak

"I am a warrior, not a murderer!"
"What you are is a great disappointment."
 - Worf and Garak

"You fight well... for a tailor."
 - Worf, to Garak after subduing him

"I don't think Gowron gives a damn about Archanis. He's just looking for an excuse to rattle his saber. The question is... why?"
 - Benjamin Sisko

"They're dead. You're dead. Cardassia is dead. Your people were doomed the moment they attacked us. I believe that answers your question."
"It was a pleasure meeting you."
 - Female Changeling and Garak, regarding survivors of the failed Obsidian Order/Tal Shiar assault on the Founders' first homeworld

"Oh, poor Odo. Perhaps we should have killed you. It would have been far less cruel." (to Captain Sisko) "He is yours. Take him and go."
 - Female Changeling

"You know I envy you, think of all the wonderful food you'll get to enjoy for the first time."
 - Garak to Odo, regarding Odo being hungry

"During the Link, I sensed that the other Changelings were trying to hide things from me. Faces, names. One of them was him."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that he's one of them! Gowron, the head of the Klingon Empire, is a Changeling!"
 - Odo and Kira

Background information

Story and script
"Broken Link" is unique for a Star Trek season finale as the story for the episode came from a freelance writer, George Brozak, rather than the writing team. The episode's first draft script, submitted on , was even written by him, though he eventually took credit for writing only the story, with the writing staff turning out the final script. (Information from Larry Nemecek) Robert Hewitt Wolfe elaborated, "We saved [the story idea] for months and then incorporated it with the Gowron revelation." The writers had first thought of Gowron being a Changeling when breaking the story for . Wolfe commented, "When we were talking about 'To the Death', we talked about twenty different missions the Jem'Hadar could go on with Starfleet. One of the missions we talked about is that they would have to go and kill Gowron because they find out he's a renegade shapeshifter. We played with that for a while and it didn't quite come together, so we went back to the original story. That idea – that Gowron was a shapeshifter – made a lot of sense to us, so we incorporated it into that ending to give the season ender a kick." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 121)
 The logic behind setting Gowron up as a Changeling only to subsequently reveal that the real infiltrator is Martok was to enable the writers to end the Klingon war. By having the Federation "save" the Klingons from the Changeling, the cordial relationship between the two powers could be renewed, and the writers could get back to where they were heading with their original conclusion for season 3. René Echevarria explained, "We wanted to close the chapter on the Klingon war, and get back to what the franchise had been, which was Cardassians and Bajorans." ()
 Chalan Aroya was originally written to be a recurring character. The producers wanted to give Odo a love interest while he was a Human and Aroya was supposed to return in the fifth season as that love interest. However, after watching this episode, the producers felt that she wasn't right for Odo, and so they abandoned the concept until the episode , where the character of Arissa was introduced as a one-show love interest. ()
Mary Kay Adams also auditioned for the role of Chalan Aroya. Adams commented: ""I really am a huge fan of Rene Auberjonois, so I was excited about that. I had gone in for the producers to read for this Bajoran character, but in that session I saw a lot of the guys I had known from my first time on the show, and they were all wonderful and said, 'We were actually thinking about bringing Grilka back.' And sure enough, the next season they brought me back". 

 The final draft script of this installment was issued on . 

Production
 This episode was filmed between 11 April and . (Information from Larry Nemecek)
 Odo's final pose on the rocky island is reminiscent of 's painting of Adam on the ceiling of the . Of this scene, actor Rene Auberjonois said, "I was trying to convey Odo's amazement. All these emotions that are going through him, what it must be like suddenly to have a body and feel things inside him and outside him, and all the senses, like smelling and tasting, which he's never had before. I was a newborn adult. It was wonderfully challenging, trying to communicate all these feelings. It was exhilarating for him, yet at the same time he was terrified, filled with a great sense of loss. He's lost something of himself, but he's gotten something else." ()
 Of Odo's walk to the , Rene Auberjonois explained, "The last thing he wants to do is show weakness in front of the people he's sworn to protect. My image for the walk was  in . That's what the scene was about to me. A person trying to hold himself together." ()

 Continuity 
 The comment Garak makes about Chalan Aroya's dress ("a thing of beauty is a joy forever") is from Book 1 of  by John Keats, who is also mentioned in .
 Returning for a third appearance, Leslie Bevis' character is finally named in the script (but still not onscreen) for this episode: Rionoj. Bevis previously appeared as the character in the season two opener  and in the season three episode .
 This episode is a sequel of sorts to the third season finale, , insofar as it is here that Odo receives his punishment for killing a fellow Changeling in that episode. He regains his shapeshifting ability in the fifth season episode .
 This episode sees Odo officially disgraced and rejected by his people, making him the fourth regular character alienated from his race as punishment at present, the other three being Worf (), Quark (), and Garak (prior to the start of the series).
 This is the first appearance of the Female Changeling since .
 Dialogue in this episode implies that it was the Great Link that caused Odo's ailment, not Section 31; the script for  reveals that Weyoun infected Odo with the virus that afflicted him here when he clapped Odo on the shoulder after he rejected Weyoun's invitation to rejoin the Founders, making his illness here different from the virus created by Section 31. This was not how the scene was filmed, however, as that point in the conversation was filmed with a tight focus on just Weyoun's face, leaving Odo's point of transmission unclear, as his only other physical contact with a member of the Dominion was the Odo-initiated handshake the  in .
 Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) does not appear in this episode. This is the only season finale in which he does not appear.

Reception
Ira Steven Behr commented, "I think [the episode] is a strong ending to a strong season. On a certain level it's a character piece. We were a little worried about that, whether we should go bigger.  became such a burden, to an extent, because we did have such a big budget for that, and the audience expected us to go out with a bang. Well, we did, but it was a different bang and, as I said, we wanted to do something that brought the season full circle. I think we did that and I'm glad we did." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 121)

Video and DVD releases 
UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.13, 
As part of the DS9 Season 4 DVD collection

Links and references

Guest stars 
 Salome Jens as the Female Changeling
 Robert O'Reilly as Gowron
 Jill Jacobson as Chalan Aroya
 Leslie Bevis as Rionoj

Special guest star 
 Andrew J. Robinson as "Garak"

Co-star 
 Andrew Hawkes as Amat'igan

Uncredited co-stars 
 Sam Alejan as sciences officer
 Faye Barge
 Patrick Barnitt
 Ivor Bartels as operations officer
 Patti Begley as Bajoran officer
 John Lendale Bennett
 Ivy Borg as Rita Tannenbaum
 Tory Christopher
 Brian Demonbreun as command officer
 Kathleen Demor
 Peggy Donaldson as civilian
 Jasmine Gagnier
 Terry Green as civilian
 Dorothy Hack as Bajoran woman
 Charlie-Olisa Kaine as 
 Mark Lentry
 David B. Levinson as Broik
 Dan Magee
 Angus McClellan
 James Minor
 Karlotta Nelson as Bajoran woman
 Stuart Nixon
 Chuck Shanks
 Steph Silvestri
 James Lee Stanley as Bajoran security deputy
 William Steinfeldt as Bajoran ops officer
 Unknown performers as 
 Bolian female
 Defiant security guard with Garak
 Rionoj's three crewmen
 Two Jem'Hadar guards
 Two Klingon guards

Stunt doubles 
 Unknown stunt performers as
 Stunt double for Michael Dorn
 Stunt double for Andrew Robinson

References 
2368; ability; Alpha Quadrant; Archanis IV; Archanis sector; assassination; bacterial infection; Bajor; Bajorans; Bajoran Militia; Bajoran sector; Bajoran wormhole; Battle of the Omarion Nebula; blood; Bolians; Boslics; Cardassia; Cardassian embassy; Cardassian Empire; Cardassian warships; career; Celestial Cafe; ; Constable; criminal activity report; ; Curzon's diplomatic corps friend; day; ; Defiant class decks; density; digestive system; Dominion; Dominion airspace; Edosian orchid (Edosians); embassy; Falangian diamond; Federation; Federation Council; Federation Diplomatic Corps; ; Founders; Founders' new homeworld; Gamma Quadrant; gardener; God; Great Link; headache; heart; holosuite; Human; humanoid; Inkarian wool; Jem'Hadar; Jem'Hadar attack ships (unnamed); Khitomer Accords; Klingon; Klingon Empire; lab rat; law enforcement officer; lung; : mating ritual; medical bay; medical console; medical scan; medical tricorder; menopause; Merrok; military installation; molecular structure; Mora Pol; morphogenic virus; murderer; nausea; navigator; O-negative; ; ; Obsidian Order; Pakleds; poison; preemptive strike; proconsul; Promenade; protoplasm; puberty; Quantum torpedo; radio-nuclides; Romulus; specific density; Shakaar Edon; subcommander; starbase; Starfleet Medical; status quo; task force; transporter; transporter accident; transporter bay; transporter buffer; transporter lock; transporter pad; transporter range; Ustard; virus; warrior; year

External links
 
 
 
 

de:Das Urteil (DS9)
es:Broken Link
fr:Broken Link (épisode)
nl:Broken Link
Broken Link