Season Three's Dominion stories explore the connection between Odo and his people, and their conflicting attitudes toward "solid" sentient lifeforms. The "Defiant" enters the Gamma Quadrant on a peace mission to locate the Founders in "The Search", and it is discovered that the Founders are of the same race as Odo. Despite a burning desire to return to his home, he finds his people's philosophy – that which you can control cannot hurt you – abhorrent, and he asks to return to the Alpha Quadrant. The Founders, led by a character identified only as the "Female Changeling", acquiesce to Odo's request in the hope that he will ultimately rejoin them.