SDS9 – S5E25: "In the Cards"

This episode was recorded on August 3, 2025.

We recap "In the Cards" and discuss how even the baddies have interior lives.

You can also listen to this episode directly from your favorite podcast player by following these instructions: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212055866-Subscribe-to-your-Audio-RSS-link-on-the-Patreon-app

(Note: Many phone plans come with Paramount+ for free. It can also come with your cable package, credit card, or in a bundle, so make sure to double-check. There are also other ways to watch DS9 that we're sure you internet space explorers can figure out. Otherwise, since Scott does such an excellent job with the play-by-play, you don't have to watch the episodes to enjoy our breakdowns.)

Transcript

[Note: Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain errors.]

This is Southpaw Deep Space Nine Season 5. We are your hosts, Scott and Sam. On this stardate, August 3rd, 2025, we are discussing In the Cards. Scott, can you tell us about this episode?

Of course I can. The crew and the ship are in a weird vibe as the possibility of a hot war with the Dominion gets hotter. Ben has a dinner with all of his people. He makes this beautiful feast and people are just not there physically and emotionally.

And Jake is just really worried about his dad and just wants him to feel better. And Quark tells Jake about an auction that he's having that he says is going to aid Bajoran kids with him noting that he will be taking something off topic. And he is no NGO, you know what I mean?

And there will be a mint condition Willie Mays working card, Willie Mays being a baseball player that everyone loves. We know that the Ciscos love baseball, and Jake figures that he'll try to buy it. And he says, how hard can that be? Gentle foreshadowing. Jake will need latinum,

which is the currency that most people that use currency use in the Star Trek universe, and he doesn't have any because of space utopian communism. So he asks his roommate and best friend, Nog, for some latinum. And they have this very interesting conversation about the capitalist ideal and whatever you call the federation ideal.

Again, I wouldn't call it space Marxism. That's a more complicated conversation. But the idea of a post-scarcity society that has no money versus a hyper-individualized capitalism. And Jake Gilt trips Nog to give him five bars of platinum. I do not know how much that is. But it seems to be a lot.

And that can sometimes be an issue. Anywho, Ben is playing his baseball. Kai Wynn comes through with Kira. She dismisses her in like a weird way, asks for a walk with Ben. Kai, as she often does, is playing games with Ben, and he says, get to the point.

And she says she's going to meet with a representative dominion to try to prevent a war. Ben promises that he wants to do whatever he takes it can take to stop him at war, and will do whatever he can do to help Bajor. Because remember, Bajor is pretty much next to the wormhole. So they would be

a very vulnerable target if the Dominion were to attack them. At Quarks, there's a bidding war for all these things, and the card is connected to some other items, and Jake and Og lose when another excitable person pays with 10 bars. It's because it's an Andorian chest with some Vulcan bracelets and a Bajor mandala, some translators,

some sort of science thing. So Naga asks Jake to drop it. Jake is determined. He's really hyper-focused on this kismet of baseball to help his dad. They talk to the man who says he has done nothing wrong and does not want to get involved with the soulless minions of orthodoxy and disappears. Weyoun,

who is the cloned person of the Dominion, who, you know, I forget which number Weyoun this is, but we've seen that Weyouns are clones. And he shows up and jokes and Ben says he does not care for him and does not care for the Dominion and doesn't want to do pleasantries. They will never be friends.

And Weyoun is like, we're going to see each other a lot, so we might as well be buddies. The person who has acquired the baseball card, we realize, is a man named Dr. Geiger, who asks to talk with Jake and Nog. They meet in his quarters, and he talks about conspiracies and, again, the orthodoxy thing,

and agrees that he will trade for the card for some very random, seemingly, supplies. Because he's creating a cellular regeneration and entertainment chamber. Because he's trying to keep cells from getting bored. Because he feels that bored people die soon. So if you're not bored, you can live forever.

Jake and Nog think that he sounds a little out of his depth. Not playing with a full deck of cards. Maybe having some trouble mentally. But they decided they're going to play along. And for every reason, they think the list of his demands are not threatening. Because, you know, whatever.

So Jake and Nog go to meet with Miles to ask for a Cardassian power trip. And Jake and Miles barter to do some work for Miles. So Miles can go to a hollow suite and hunt rabbits and just chill out in exchange for the power cell. The scavenger hunt begins.

For five liters of anaerobic metabolites suspended in a hydrosaline solution, they go to Dr. Bashir, who's been feeling pretty down because he was going out with Lita. Lita and him broke up. Lita's now with Rom. And Lita kept his kuluka, which was his teddy bear, and will trade the five liters for the bear. Nock?

you know, kind of creepy thing steals the bear from a sleeping leader. Again. Whatever. Kai Wen and Ben drink tea. Wei Yun agrees to sign a non-aggression contract, which Ben feels will tear Bezier further from the Federation. But remember, a few months ago, it was Ben that suggested that they don't join the Federation,

that they start doing this thing. However, they do have a contract, and the Federation has agreed to protect them. And Ben continues to promise protection, which Kaiwen feels is bigger. And again, as we mentioned earlier, Bajor's proximity to the Dominion makes them feel part of the hit list and actually asks Ben,

who is the emissary of the Prophets, which are the celestial beings that the Bajoran faith is based on, says that she will follow his lead. Ben says that she should buy time, play it cool, options open, and asks her to trust him. And she reads his puff and nods. Jake brings the doctor half of the things.

Again, Geiger is working on some strange stuff, and it's humming. And Weyoun happens to be right above there and is hearing it and is concerned. Jake then goes to his quarters where Nog is listening to opera, Klingon opera, to try to do some help for Worf. Again, they start fighting over this continuously large scavenger hunt.

Because Jake is writing Kira a speech. And they get all the supplies, they go to Geiger, and Geiger is gone. All of his stuff is gone. When they go to Odo, he says that there is no Geiger, and the soulless orthodoxy found him, which is a joke, and says that false reports could get them arrested.

And people are getting upset. Jake sees when talking to a Vedic that was also in on the bid for the card, and believes that maybe they wanted the Bajoran you know, artifacts that was in the lot and maybe sold a doctor. Weyoun meets with Wen again, but she tells him to wait.

She's going to report to the First Minister and make a decision about a non-aggression agreement. He tries to bond with her. She does not want to bond with him. She says they're nothing alike. She goes away. Jake and Nag try to corner her in the hall. and find out about her kidnapping a doctor.

Ben finds out and flips out. He's furious that his son and a cadet would accuse the religious leader of Bajor of kidnapping somebody. And then Jake says that they were drunk and that's why they were doing it. Ben just gets more upset and is worried that he would ever trust them. But

As Nog and Jake are arguing on the turbo lift, they get beamed into Wayne's ship. And Wayne asks Jake and Nog about Geiger. And Jake says that they were just after a baseball card, but Wayne is not buying it. Because he points out the weird recordings, the energy readings, meeting with senior officers, timing with Kai Wynn,

and the Jem'Hadar show up with Geiger and the box. Yep. It was Wayne that took them. Geiger sees them and says they were betrayers and soulless minions. So Wayne says, look, if you're honest, we can figure something out. But I don't feel like you're being honest right now. Why would you do all this for a baseball card?

So Jake tells a ridiculous story about hunting a time traveler named Willie Mays for Starfleet and being like secret agents and doing all this silly stuff. And that actually works. Weyoun believes him and is very interested in Geiger's immortality machine because Weyoun has a thing for immortality. So he's very curious and is asking Geiger questions.

And Weyoun lets him go, gives him a card. And the thing about Jake and Nog's scavenger hunt is that it actually had... a opposite wonderful effect. It worked out. Everyone's more chill. Miles is able to do his thing. Bashir gets kookalooka. Kira's speech works. Worf figures out his opera. And Wei Yun's talking immortality with Geiger.

And Ben gets his 1951 Willie Mays card. So everyone's happy and it adds a little chill to a very tense ship. not ship, space base, you know, station. And he gives his son a hug. He shakes Snog's hand. And we get a little calm before the storm, question mark. Mm-hmm.

So this episode, like the last episode, M-Pac-Nor was another episode of the week and another episode that followed formula. Except unlike M-Pac-Nor, I really enjoyed this episode and it wasn't even an episode all about the Ferengi. It was also the first episode where you got to see Jake's funny side. Nope.

The formula for this episode was cute because it's a formula I'm used to in children's stories or kids shows where you do a series of favors or trades to get to the big trade, which was really appropriate because it's about a baseball card and trading baseball cards is a big part of the hobby.

The one trade or one thing they did that really made me uncomfortable was when they got that doll back for Bashir.

It was unforgivable.

Unfortunately, during the 70s, 80s, 90s, breaking into women's rooms while they're sleeping and basically naked was just a comedic trope, which I hope, I don't watch a lot of media, but I hope that trope has died. But a lot of movies back in that time were just based on that premise too. So that was a thing.

It has died down, but It's definitely a relic. And I highly recommend if you like the movie, like Revenge of the Nerds or whatever, it does not age well. A lot of the 80s stuff is way more misogynistic and our culture than you might remember.

Yeah. But this episode also worked as a slice of life episode, a teen adventure episode, a behind the scenes of how the station works episode, almost like a PBS episode, which we may no longer have. But they used to have these TV shows or kids shows where they just showed you how

stuff worked or how stuff was made. So the episode just worked for me. I also thought it was really clever with a lot of clever lines. Something else this episode did, which I appreciate, was that it humanized Kai Wen and Wei Yun.

And I don't mean humanize them as in made me like them, but human as in multidimensional. Yes, they are often baddies, but this episode showed that's not like their primary identity 24-7. They're not trying to be like, oh, what are all the things I could do to be a villain all day?

That's all I'm going to think about. They're not thinking about that. They're just being themselves. So here, they were just regular people with their own interests. Kai Wen is also a tired grown-up who had these kids be annoying to him. And also has serious, great problems that she also must contend with.

Wei Yun is also a curious nerd who's into novelty and weird tech. Through Jake and Nog, you got to see characters when they had their guards down. When they're not around other grownups. Where they have to be adults having to do their roles. This episode might not matter in the canon,

but everything that happened in the episode mattered to the story. And that's what you want as a writer. I even liked how Jake used time travel to talk about how silly time travel stories are. There wasn't necessarily a lot of political meat other than we did get to see the tense situation Kai Wen was in.

And yeah, she's not black or white in this one where she's not like, hey, in this situation, what's the worst thing to do here? No, she's torn and trying to do the right thing because even villains aren't like trying to make every decision to maximize harm or to benefit. In fact, she's much more complicated than that.

It also highlights that just as she's not just a cartoonish baddie, the Federation itself is also not a cartoonish good superhero. She wisely knows she can't trust the Federation either. And Sisko knows he's not offering Bajor anything either. Weyoun was there for the negotiation, but he too isn't 24-7 trying to maximize negotiations or thinking about the

Dominion 24-7. He also has regular moments like the rest of us and gets into niche interests and can also make friends. Everyone has a job and that can overlap with the person, but isn't necessarily the person. Cisco is all about the uniform, but that's not all he is.

He's also obsessed with baseball and that has nothing to do with the Federation. That's just his own thing. Much of this episode was about the people behind the uniform and roles. Everyone was discovering their inner child, inner hopes, inner worries, inner interests. The things they had before they had to become something other than human,

which is known as adults. Scott, what did you think about this episode?

So often penultimate episodes of seasons are chilled out to just sort of not overdo it. especially in 90s TV writing. In our current TV writing, sometimes they amp stuff up so much during the penultimate episode. But this episode is just sort of to foreshadow that things are bad

People are stressed out and a war is possibly on the horizon. But instead, it focuses on a funny, silly little side quest again that possibly pokes fun at the silly time travel tropes that happen. I liked it. It was a very good regular episode. I don't have a ton of insight about it. It was good.

I enjoyed it. I gave it three stars. And yeah, it was just like fun. It was a fun little episode. Kaiwen is always deliciously annoying. Weyoun is deliciously annoying. I really enjoyed it. This is some nerdy stuff. I really enjoyed Klingon opera.

It made me want to search Klingon opera because I don't remember it being actually done before.

Scott, can you tell us about the next episode?

It's the season finale, baby.

Ooh. Until then...