Ties of Blood and Water
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 14 April 1997
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 50712.5
- DIRECTED BY
- Avery Brooks
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 517
WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Robert Hewitt Wolfe; story by Edmund Newton & Robbin L. Slocum
The Cardassian dissident Tekeny Ghemor, a man Kira has come to think of as family, arrives on the station with a request that forces her to face her own past.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Tekeny Ghemor, a Cardassian dissident who regards Kira as a daughter, comes to Deep Space Nine gravely ill. He asks her to take part in the shri-tal, a Cardassian ritual in which the dying pass their secrets to their family, and Kira agrees. Gul Dukat, now working with the Dominion, arrives with the Vorta Weyoun to reclaim Ghemor, trying first promises and then revelations. Dukat tells Kira that Ghemor took part in a massacre of Bajorans during the Occupation, and she pulls away from him. Flashbacks recall the death of her own father, Taban. When she learns Ghemor was only nineteen at the time, Kira returns to his side and stays with him until he dies. Sisko refuses Dukat's demand for the body, and Kira buries Ghemor on Bajor beside her father.
- 01The episode establishes that the Vorta are cloned, which allowed Jeffrey Combs to return as Weyoun after the character's death in “To the Death”.
- 02Lawrence Pressman returns as Tekeny Ghemor, whom Kira first met in “Second Skin”.
- 03Robert Hewitt Wolfe drew on his own life experiences when writing the episode.